My Time At The Titty Bar

For the past few months I have been working at a strip pub/topless bar (bartending fully clothed mind you) I found myself starting work at one of the dirtiest bogen establishments in Melbourne with sticky floors, drunken men and a strip show on the hour. Many of you may be thinking why the hell I ended up in a place like that. And I must say cash in hand and the fact that I didn't have another job at the time was a big part of it, but if I'm honest, I am an experience junkie and I knew it would certainly be one for the belt and a story to tell the grandkids haha. Although admittedly it is a slightly warped environment to be working in, I really believe there is a lesson to be learnt everywhere you go - so this ladies and gents, is what I've gotten from my time at the titty bar.

For one, I realised very quickly that men are sex crazed perverts who enjoy a challenge and would much rather harrass the innocent looking girl who's wearing all her clothes than the bad ass naked lady shaking her vagina in their faces. I also learnt that with alcohol, men can go from being VERY charming to VERY sleazy in a VERY short space of time - But most of that is pretty obvious. On a deeper level , what I came to really figure out was we all have differents masks and behaviors, and in order to properly function in our society we must chop and change these parts of ourselves to suite our environment. There is absolutely no fucking way I could have enjoyed myself working in that bar if I had walked in like some hippy, vipassana meditator and started trying to talk about remaining equanimous and the impermenance of the life with the patrons. Actually, I did tell one guy that I just gotten back from ten days of silence and his response was "Wow you must be really horny" Yes, I learnt very very quickly that the majority of the men were there to watch the cricket, get pissed and see some pussy; so pour them their beer, have a laugh and get over it. What it knocked into me was there is a time and place for everything and I will have a much happier and stress-free life if I realise that as long as I know who I am, like REALLY know who I am, even if it's just a vague notion of that very core of me - then no person or experience can take that away. As soon as we start clinging to ideas about our identity and who we think we are and aren't, what our scene is and what isn't, we miss out on so many unexpected opportunities to grow, learn and experience. So forget who you think YOU ARE - just take opportunities that come your way and embrace them for what THEY ARE.

Yep, I wiped down bars while naked chicks gyrated in front of me, poured beers with an ex stripper from Vegas called Ginger and kissed a bikie man on the cheek for 4 dollars - and you know what?

I had fun :)


.