Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Friday, July 27, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Working at a strip club is one job Crystal Dowbush never talked about with her guidance counsellor.

"I assumed a lot of things about people working at a strip club," she said, "you'd have to be a certain type of person, have a thick skin and roll with the punches."

But after five years of watching dancers peeling off clothes at Harley's Hard Rock Saloon, Dowbush said working at the club is pretty much like any other bartending job: just with a little more skin and daily pole cleaning duties.

Dowbush's advice for cleaning the pole is not to use anything too oily.

"You don't want anything that's greasy on the floor because the girls have to dance and they're already walking on stilts," she said.

With weekday shows Wednesdays and Fridays, Dowbush has seen a lot of strippers come through the doors. She said she can't really characterize what kind of women get into stripping.

"There are so many different reasons they'll give you," she said. "It's like anybody making a career choice."

She has met many strippers who are smart about managing their money - about a third of them discussing investments and savings.

The customers who make their way down the steps to Harley's are just as diverse.

"Not everyone will admit it, but if they're bar-goers pretty much everyone comes down here," she said.

Dowbush said one regular theme is strange stag parties. She has seen many people dragged down the stairs on blow-up dolls, she said.

While she has to put up with the occasional comment like, "When are you going on stage," generally the clientele treat her well, she said.

But what do her parents think of her career choice?

"They're pretty open minded. They're just like, 'Yeah, that's Crystal for you.'"