The table dance club boom in the UK has resulted in the growth of a number of Strip Strip agency, one of the largest and most successful is Strip agency Promises which is based in the South East and has been run by Susi Harris since 1997. I talked to Susi about her experiences and how she sees the industry now.
Tyke What was your background, how did you get to run an agency and when did you start ?
Susie My background is very conservative in that I trained as a nurse then went back to university to do a BA hons in English Literature and Computing with a view to teaching following an MA. Promises Agency started officially in June 1997 although we had booked out shows for several months previously (just to make sure that it was viable business).
I used to drink, socially, in The Prince of Wales in Rickmansworth and got to know quite a few of the girls dancing there, at the same time my ex-husband wanted to book dancers for a bike show. He went thru’ a friend of a friend and ended up paying a lot of money for dancers that, to put politely, weren’t attractive. At that point I had my one and only “light bulb” moment, questioning how anyone could book dancers.
Tyke How did you go about growing the business up from scratch ?
Susie To start Promises Strip agency we paid for databases of addresses for pubs, rugby & football clubs, working men’s clubs, sports and social clubs and the like and posted out about 7k flyers advertising our services. At that point we were mainly booking out traditional Stag Shows of 2 girls and a comic or Hen Nights of 2 guys and a drag. It was a huge learning curve and I worked 20 hour days as I had young children and would also attend nearly every show in person. After a few months of booking stags we started to book dancers daily into pubs, then a couple of years later the lap dancing industry suddenly boomed and we were in the right place at the right time with numerous dancers on our books. We haven’t advertised for new dancers in over a decade as all dancers know each other and point newcomers in our direction.
Tyke You also have a lot of male strippers on your books, how does that side differ from female strippers?
Susie The male strippers differ from the female strippers mainly because the guys are more interested in their ego whereas the girls are more into what money can be earned. Also the audiences differ greatly; we always put on more security for Hen Nights as a crowd of drunken women are far more frightening then a Stag Show audience of bashful men.
Tyke You have been around since before the Table Dance club boom, how are things different now. You still do a couple of pubs , how do these differ from an agency point of view?
Susie Supplying dancers to clubs is far easier for us as an agency as when there’s a team of girls if one 
cancels it is not noticeable however with a 2 girl pub shift when one cancels at the last minute she has to be replaced and we sometimes have to make over a hundred phone calls to get someone else. We certainly earn our money where pubs are concerned.
Tyke How do you think TD clubs are managed in the UK?
Susie In my opinion the smaller TD clubs {like Tiffany’s left in Aldershot} are, on the whole, run well but I predict a steady increase in fees in line with Scotland, Ireland and Europe whereby dancers will eventually pay 50% of their earnings back to the club.
Tyke How do you recruit the various dancers?
Susie Now we are established it’s nearly all word of mouth though we still have a comprehensive web site www.promises-agency.co.uk where new dancers can contact us .
Tyke Have you ever supplied girls outside the UK?
Susie We don’t send dancers abroad as our one experience of sending girls to Greece was a bad one (the Russian mafia immediately tried to pimp out the dancers). We have enough business in the UK not to need the stress, we frequently turn away new clubs in this country looking to hire our services as we immediately know if we can help them (usually they want a too high payment from the dancers).
Tyke What are your views about the new “sex encounter” laws and has it affected your customers yet ?
Susie I actively campaigned against the new legislation and am still bitterly opposed to the title of “Sex Encounter” licenses. I guess that we’re all now playing the ‘wait and see’ game with the new laws. So far none of my venues have had any problems but we’re all on tenterhooks waiting for the first test case. From what I’ve heard I think my venues are outside the main ‘clean up’ area which is Hackney/Shoreditch but it remains to be seen if it stays that way.
Author: Saxon
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