Why I take my clothes off for money!
“FIRST things first, I am straight,” the stripper said. I was halfway through a sip of coffee that nearly ended up sprayed over my notebook.
He didn’t even give me a chance to compose myself before he continued: “I was in catering, working silly hours, and got really down.
“I looked at stripping, but all the men were 18stone muscled Chippendales and I can’t do a backflip so I thought that door was closed.”
To look at Michael you would assume he was capable of backflips, but stripper-for-hire might not be the first profession that springs to mind if you were asked to hazard a guess.
Michael-Rae Formston, from Carmarthen, is 31, and he has been stripping for 10 years.
During the week he works as an actor, stunt man and personal trainer. He is incredibly frank, a combination of Welsh honesty and the fact he has seen and done it all in his decade of taking his clothes off for money.
“I went to an agency, and said I had been a stripper previously. They said fine, and asked me to send over some shots.
“I went ‘s***’ and ran over to the university photography department. I asked if any students needed to build their portfolio with fitness shots, and a few days later I had the pictures done and two weeks later I had my first job.
“This was a 40th birthday party, in a residential house, and everyone was raving. I started to s*** myself.
“I rang the woman, who came out and paid me, and handed my CD over and she said to wait outside until I heard the music and then to come in. Then the track came on and I thought ‘might as well’. The first song I stripped to was Outside by George Michael, dressed like a policeman.
“It was the most awful strip ever, but the crowd loved it, and when I finished my adrenaline was pumping and I went back and sat in my car and thought, ‘This I think I can do.’.
“The agency takes about half, so I make about £50 to £60 each job and have to take travel out of that.
But while Michael regards most of his experiences as good, harmless fun, there have been some that make him more uncomfortable.
On one job, he found himself in a property decorated with graphic pornography. Michael discovered he was the entertainment for an orgy.
“They wanted us to do quickfire shows, one after the other, and I was fourth. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
“I got out of there and did my routine, and the guys in the audience were good, they didn’t touch me or try anything, it was fine, but then I just wanted to leave.”
Michael says his friends and family are comfortable knowing about his work: “Everyone who knows me knows my work, but I don’t advertise it. Some of the guys post selfies or have it on their Facebook but I don’t. It’s not my life.”
Dating, however, can be a challenge when you are a stripper.
Michael has been single for about a year and said: “When it comes to dating, I tell the women about my job. The majority don’t like it, and the minority do, but that’s a bit weird because they normally like it a bit too much. I’m looking for someone in the middle, who isn’t bothered.
“I might get back in the saddle after Christmas and Valentine’s Day, save some money before I start seeing anyone.”
While Michael has plans for the future, as a child he knew being a stripper was an option: “I remember in school telling the careers adviser that if all else fails I’ll be a stripper, but I had zero intention or desire to be one, I was just being a smart a***.
“The original plan was to be an actor and it still sort of is.”
Michael hopes within the next few years he will have enough to start his own cafe: “I want to retire by the time I’m 35. The majority of the time I don’t enjoy it. I have to be careful not to get attacked or robbed.”