The economy’s gone bust, and so have they.
Scores of professional New York women stripped of their six-figure jobs are now working as “gentlemen’s club entertainers” at upscale Manhattan jiggle joints. Former Wall Streeters, fashion executives and real-estate agents are pole dancing and stripping for as much as $1,500 a night — but also because they like the flexible hours.
Randi Newton used to work at Morgan Stanley before the crash but is now an “independent contractor,” pole dancing at Rick’s Cabaret in Murray Hill three or four nights a week. She says she makes “$160,000 a year on tips alone.”.
She said: “I went with friends to a strip club and the manager offered me a job as a dancer. I thought it was different. And fun.”
Peter Feinstein, owner of the Sapphire Club on East 60th Street, which opened in January, said, “I am receiving a lot of applications from women who recently lost their jobs — in particular New York City real-estate agents.”
Katie Haverton, 27, is one of them. She worked as a broker for a large real-estate company for three years until January, when she says she hadn’t made a sale in six months and had $2 left in her bank account. She now performs at Flash Dancers in Midtown.
“With real estate, you can work 10 hours a day showing people apartments and you never know when the next sale will be,” said Haverton, who lives on the Upper East Side. “But with dancing, the money is instant. Now that I make better money as a stripper than as a real-estate agent, I’m going to buy my own apartment.”
Becky, 24, who lives in the East Village, was a pastry chef before becoming a “massage girl” recently at Rick’s.
“I couldn’t find anything after I got laid off because it’s hard to land a chef job these days,” said Becky, who asked that her last name be withheld.
Jiggle-joint owners say they are hiring more “talent” than ever right now, due to a surge in business. A rep for Flash Dancers said it receives 40 applications a month to fill just five positions, while 50 candidates a week vie for positions at Rick’s, said its president, Eric Langdan.
“These places give men hope,” Langdan said.
“Even in the worst of times, for us it’s the breast of times.”