Angel on the Stage

"Hi, Angel. Jo wants to see you," was the greeting she received from Bambi, a slender brunette fellow T-girl and coworker.

Madame Josephine -- Jo to her employees and her many friends -- had a small office backstage. The door was ajar so Angel pushed it open and looked inside. "Hi, Jo. Did you want to see me?"

"Ah, Angel. Come in. Sit down. Shut the door." After doing all three, Angel waited to hear what Jo had to say. The wait was a very short one.

"My dear, as you may have noticed, we aren't exactly packing in the customers lately."

Angel had noticed, of course. Even on weekends, they had only about one third of their tables occupied. "Well, yeah, it could be better."

"It could be a lot better, and it has to be, if we're going to stay in business." Angel didn't have any disagreement with that so she said nothing.

Jo continued. "When you started here, you said you had done some singing and dancing, and that you were interested in being an entertainer. How would you feel about going on the stage here? Tomorrow night?"

"What about Michelle?"

"Michael? I'm going to fire him. I'll have to buy out his contract but it's worth it. Nobody comes here to see him or hear him anyhow. Every time I look, everybody in the house is ogling you and the other T-girls. Especially you."

"What would you want me to do?"

"Sing. Dance. And strip. Mostly strip. When I started here, my drag queens were a big hit, but that was a long time ago, and they've become old hat. What people want now is bare skin, and lots of it."

"How much skin? I mean, how far would you want me to go? How much would you want me to take off?"

"Well, topless at least. I wouldn't ask you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable but the more you take off, the better. In some of the clubs, the boys or girls strip naked, but you might want to take a while to build up to that."