Interviews from the Dressing Room
By Tamara McHatton

Nervous, intimidated, and a bit shy, I walked into the dressing room of the Chippendales and for a second I could do nothing more than stand in awe. Here were these men, regular, all of them, yet held up to be gods in the eyes of their women admirers, and they just kind of hung around, talked amongst themselves, and generally seemed like your every day guy, that is, until they started getting ready for their show. Shirts came off, dances were gone over time and time again, costumes were checked for any nuance of resistance, and then…

...And then their pants came off.

Ladies, I just have this to say…oh my lord! Let me tell you this one simple fact…never before have I been privy to so many tight male cheeks clothed in nothing more than specially made T-backs. Oh, believe me…I am very familiar with that particular piece of male attire, being the photographer for SUITE magazine and the graphic artist for numerous publishing companies…but these men gave a whole new meaning to underwear. I pulled a tissue from my pant’s pocket and wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth before I did something to embarrass myself and the magazine I work for. It would do no good to show these young bucks that a woman my age, a grandmother for crying out loud, lusted after the taut, tanned buns they so willingly displayed. I was here to be non-judgmental and have an impartial outlook on the words they would soon utter.

Caught oogling, my partner prodded me in the ribs. Snapping my jaw shut, I meandered over to a shorter, black haired, Italian looking guy…

T: So what’s your name?
M: Mike
T: How long have you been doing this?
M: Fourteen years <giving me a mischievous grin>.
T: Fourteen years? Wow.
M: <throws me another grin that weakened my knees> Don’t let the eye cream fool ya.
T: <laughing> How did you get into it?
M: I started doing contests, like they have contests in bars, like stripper bars, like best buns, best chest, stuff like that. When I was a kid, like 18, 19 years old I got in a few contests and started winning a bunch of them. And one of the local guys had a group, a local touring group, which was at the club of ours where I did the contest at, and he approached me after the contest and asked if I’d like to go and tryout working for his group.
T: What was the name of the group?
M: Well back, this was back in like 90, “hunks” was the big word back then, so it was “The Incredible Hunks”.
T: <laughing> The Incredible Hunks?
M: Yeah. So I went back, sat down and talked to him for a little while, we exchanged numbers and I went to one of his shows, and made a bunch of money in like a two hour period and I was hooked after that so…    more >>