YNOT — As we learned in Part One of this interview, Kylea Killeen is a Kansas-born dancer whose accomplishments are as stunning as she is. They include winning the titles of:In Part Two, Kylea will tell us why she left stripping, why she came … and what the life of a stripper is really like. (Remember to check out her website at www.kyleakilleen.com.)

YNOT.com: How did get you get into the business?

Kylea: I grew up in Colorado, but my family is originally from Kansas. I would venture to say that most of Colorado is liberal, so I am pretty open-minded. I think that’s why I even considered working in the gentlemen’s clubs.

I’ve always loved dancing and began taking traditional dance classes when I was about three. I wanted to be a professional dancer, but when I started having health problems in high school I could no longer keep up with the intense choreography.

I began dancing in a gentlemen’s club right after high school. I was pretty naive back then and co-signed on something that I shouldn’t have. When the primary signer failed to pay the debt owed I sued, but knew I would never see the money. I’ve always been pretty responsible though and I had a very respectable full time job then. So I wasn’t about to let my credit go down the drain.

I decided to pay off the debt myself, which is when I began stripping. I really thought that I would only strip for about three to six months. I ended up loving it though, paid off thousands of dollars of debt in a month and a half, and realized that I could put myself through college by dancing. That’s when I moved to San Francisco to start college. What you have to understand about that though is that college was my backup plan … I felt like I had to go through college because all my friends were and because I thought I couldn’t dance professionally. For some reason it didn’t dawn on me for a while that I was dancing professionally and could continue to do so. In my mind I didn’t see stripping a professional dancing because it wasn’t ballet, jazz, lyrical, etc.

I think I had it stuck in my mind that stripping couldn’t be a long-term career, it was only for young people … I was wrong. I went to college, worked during the day, and danced a few nights a week.

YNOT.com: Why did you quit?

Kylea: My boyfriend at the time was back in Colorado, so I eventually moved back when things with him got pretty serious and he didn’t want me dancing. That’s when I stopped for a while.

Things between us didn’t work out though and pretty soon I was jittery to go back to dancing. Colorado had changed a lot though and by the time I started back to dancing in the clubs I was teaching private lessons, and then classes. What I soon realized is that what I really wanted was to feature, but I am a very cautious person so I didn’t want to just jump into it. I can be very impulsive at times, like when I moved to San Francisco to go to college… but it’s usually when I see it as being a low risk.

Anyhow, I finally quit my day job and soon after went on the road dancing in different clubs across the United States. Being on the road taught me a lot about traveling as an entertainer including what to pack, how to pack, safety precautions, and about dealing with clubs and agents. It’s been a very important learning experience for me, and I’ve met some wonderful people and really good friends. I’ve also had a few bad experiences though, but I still learned from them, which was the whole point.

One of the best things for me is that I now see the longevity of this business. I see dancers still working up into their late 50s or early 60s. A lot of the features in the industry are into their late 30s or early 40s, so being on the road has given me a lot more confidence that I have plenty of time. On top of that when I decide to retire from the stage I now know that there are plenty of other areas where I’ll be able to continue working including: teaching, becoming an agent, club management, and so forth.

I will say that I am really happy with where I am in terms of my career choice; I don’t think I could have done any better. I hated sitting behind a computer all day, and dancing allows me to move around a lot, get exercise and talk to people. I think if I had actually ended up in the ballet I probably would have been miserable too… it’s very intense and you constantly have people drilling you to do better. Right now all I have to do is make people happy and entertain them… and that’s the way I like it.

YNOT.com: What is the actual life of a dancer really like?

Kylea: Typically when I am working that is pretty much all I am doing. These days most of the time I am on the road, so I don’t have a vehicle or friends where I am at.

Dancing is a very demanding job in that it is very physical and sometimes can be emotionally draining, so I try to get lots of sleep. Normally when I get off of work at 2 or 3 am I will go back to wherever I am staying, count my earnings and record them in my log book, jump in the shower to wash out the smell of the club from my hair, check my e-mail and networking pages, then go to bed.

I sleep in until at least noon or 1 pm, then I get up and eat, jump back in the shower to shave and put on my make-up and do my hair. Getting ready takes me about three hours, so I don’t have a lot of free time on the days that I work. If I am lucky there might be another dancer on the road from the same agency, which gives me someone to talk to. Before I head to the club I’ll grab some more to eat. Generally the club sends someone to pick me up, and depending on the club I go into work between 4 pm and 9 pm.

When I am house dancing, once I get to the club I change into my costume and lock my bag. I use a roller bag with a small lock instead of a locker since I travel so much. Once I am ready I will go out and get myself onto the rotation list. I always feel like I need to go on stage once before I start talking to customers, sort of like a visual introduction. Then throughout the night I am bouncing from place to place meeting mostly new faces, and selling dances and champagne rooms. It’s actually a perfect job for me and I’m very lucky to have found it. Most of the time I don’t feel like I’m working… and I still earn good money.

YNOT.com: How do you deal with negative experiences in the clubs?

Kylea: What people may not realize though is that no matter who you are or what you look like, there will always be people that don’t like you. I was recently told by a club that they were going to pass on hiring me for occasional work because I was just a “little bit too heavy” … but the next week I won the title for Miss Nude United States Hottest Body. So everyone has an opinion but the next person won’t always agree… you have to love this industry for that.

With featuring, things are bit different. Normally the clubs put features up at a nicer hotel, and pick them up later in the evening. Featuring is normally only for two to four days at a time, and you go on stage at set times about three or four times through the night. The thing with featuring though is that the costumes and props tend to be more elaborate… and a lot of the times they wrinkle! If you are lucky you can iron or steam out all the wrinkles when you are at your hotel, but normally you don’t have time. So what ends up happening is once you get to the club you separate out all your costumes and props for your shows into pop-up hampers, and iron or steam out any wrinkles in the clothes.

Once you go on stage you do a twenty-minute show, then come off and change so that you can go back out to sign autographs for customers, take pictures, and give lap dances if the clubs allows that from the features. The other big difference with featuring is that often your contract will state that you have to do a radio interview or some other type of publicity work in the city where the club is to draw in a crowd on the nights of your performances.

The shows are really the fun part, though. A great feature knows how to bring energy into the crowd, so the customers, staff, and entertainers all have a good time. Most of the time the feature sets are themed.

YNOT.com: So what themes do you use?

Kylea: When I first started dancing I always told the DJs that I loved 80’s music and inevitably they would play “Cherry Pie” by Warrant for me… which seems like a very classic stripper song. I decided that one of my first costumes needed to involve that song, and I now have a cherry pie costume and a full themed set around cherry pie. Of course, we all know what cherry pie refers to, so when I do my messy show for that set I have to include whipped cream and cherries.

(Mr. Berton fell off his chair, then got up. Kylea continued.)

Kylea: My favorite show right now is my schoolgirl set. Ever since I started dancing I have done schoolgirl sets and secretary sets. I think the school girl set works really well for me though because I’ve had so much practice at it, and I know that I look a lot more young and innocent than I am. I do some really old school jazz and 80’s for the schoolgirl set, and have a good variety of props. I can’t give away the show here but let’s just say there’s a banana and milk involved. First you’ll laugh… then you’ll scream with anticipation.

(Mr. Berton received CPR at this point, resumed breathing, and then the interview continued.)

Kylea: It’s a great show that the crowd loves! If I can find them I try to do something related to banana cream as a giveaway at the end of the show. I’ve also got a very classic burlesque set related to money, the secretary show, a gold digger set, a cat set and a variety of others. Right now I’m trying to travel pretty light since most of the big props require a trailer.