What would happen if you got more than 100 strippers in the same room and started blasting hip-hop jams? Probably the same sort of wild scene that ensued last night at Stratus during the casting call for reality show Strip Search.
Dozens of ecdysiasts and exotic dancers from a variety of Valley strip clubs shook their bikini-clad booties, pulled off aerial moves on stripper poles, and made like they were extras in a Lil' Jon music video all evening at the West Phoenix rave venue. Check out our slideshow of the stripper shenanigans right here and read the rundown of the night after the jump ...
While Strip Search producers were busy in a side room interviewing potential castmembers for the reality show (which will be shopped around to networks over the summer in the hopes of being aired sometime in the next year), dancers were engaging in a major rager in the main room.
They participated in an evening-long pole-dancing contest or strutted their stuff for cameras from local television stations while a hip-hop DJ spun old school hits and urban jams on the turntables.
Some strippers came to the casting call because it sounded like a fun opportunity, while other adventurous types did it for kicks, or as a chance to further their dancing careers.
One dancer who goes by the stage name Kimber says that she'd love to star on a reality television program.
"I think a lot of the people on reality shows right now are really stupid," says Kimber, who performs at Xplicit Show Club in Glendale. "I think if I was on TV it would be a fucking blast. Everyone would keep watching to see what I'd do next."
Veronica Earl, an adventurous 23-year-old who works at Skin Cabaret, says that when she leapt at the opportunity after hearing about the casting call.
"I thought, 'Why not?' It sounded like fun," Earl says. "I don't want to live, die, and pay taxes on my tombstone, hence the fact I'm a stripper. So, fuck it. Its what I do for a living. I'm 23, I have the body to do it, and I make a shit-ton of money."
She feels like a reality show about strippers would be a hit, considering all the drama that takes place backstage at local clubs.
"Girls in the dressing room are always talking about how there needed to be a reality show on strippers and since it's happening, I wanted to be a part of it," Earl says.
She also feels that the show could provide a more in-depth look at women who strip.
"There's more to us than what you see onstage," she says. "Personally, I'm a badass bitch. I'm also fun and cool and intelligent, all the ingredients that make an awesome human being."
Casey Jones, who appears at Jaguar's Gold Club, also hopes that they show could change people's perceptions of strippers if she's cast and the show makes it to the television airwaves. The 20-year-old Valley resident, who has a background in ballet and hopes to earn enough money from dancing to buy a house and go back to school, says that not every woman working a stripper pole is some cracked-out crazy type.
"People seem to think that all strippers are drug addicts, sluts, or just have sex for money. Truthfully, there are girls out there like that, but they're in the minority, there's barely any out there," Jones says. "I want to teach people that stripping actually is hard work, its not just shaking your ass and getting money. People should have more respect for it."
Strippers who auditioned for the reality show were grilled on their backgrounds, why they got into dancing, and what sort of people they often conflict with. Applicants gushed about their life stories and even confessed some of their deepest, darkest secrets to producers.
Michael Nielsen, one of the executive producers of Strip Search, says that show will be a reality competition program (a la Top Chef or America's Next Top Model) and will offer an unspecified prize to the ultimate winner.
The producers will eventually whittle down the list of dancers who applied to only 12 and will shoot footage of the girls living together at a CenPho home in the next few weeks for a "sizzle reel" of interesting footage to show to network executives.
He's confident they'll land a network deal in the coming months. Despite the title of the show and the fact it will star exotic dancers, Nielsen says it won't feature nudity or focus on sex.
"We'll be showcasing people with interesting stories and interesting backgrounds, because this show is about digging into what the reality is like with being a stripper," Nielsen says.
