New favorite thing alert

Obviously, a documentary from 1986 that follows strippers on their trek to Vegas to compete for the Golden G-String Award sounds like the best thing that could ever possibly exist. And so Stripper pretty much is. You owe it to yourself to watch the video above, in which I put together some of the interview portions of the film. I'm obsessed with it, Wildwood-style. "I began to get into wild clothing and, uh...wild...catalogs," is this week's "I mean, yes, I go through a monthly period, and PMS and period, just like every biological woman does, including Tiffany, but..." Love, love, love these women.

Love, love, love this movie, too. Obviously, the bits above are the funniest, but Stripper also has a heart. It's the stripper with the heart of gold of sex-industry documentaries. Like Wildwood, NJ, just the fact that anyone cared enough at all to listen to and release these women's stories (which are often very sad: fraught with past abuse and an uncertain future as they've elected a career with an expiration date) is meaningful, especially since it happened over 20 years ago, when we probably had less appreciation for, you know, humanity in general.

Also, like Wildwood, NJ, it is hilarious despite itself. Just a few more points on this hidden gem:

There are many scenes that take place in strip clubs (obviously!), and even though the dancing is uniformly wonderful and interpretive...

 

 

...inevitably, the best moments come from when the cameras are turned on the onlooking guys, who are at times...

 

...just as interpretive. A sampling:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This dude is such a fan of one of the girls that he risks falling over to express his frustration on her decision to leave Canada for the Vegas competition:

 

Obviously, the routines are amazing and if I started gif-ing them, I'd have so much work to do, I wouldn't be able to post this till next week. Just know that they're beautiful and that some require extremely elaborate costumes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The songs the women dance to are literal to the point of absurdity: "Good Girl Gone Bad," "The Girl Next Door" and "Savior Faire" are just a few. "Don't Touch the Merchandise" is the first one we hear, and the routine is edited to go with the song, at times, line by line. For example, on of the lines is, "She rides a pony!"

 

...And so she does. (Another line is "I'll show you mine..." and the gif above of the dude pointing to his own tit is what coincides onscreen. Ingenious.)

There are also lots of wonderful random moments, some of them fakey, like multiple scenes of the girls' bosses getting all huffy about them missing work for this convention. I thought the advantage of stripping (besides the shitloads of money you make) is the flexibility of the schedule! That's why so many of them are able to take off for a month to film a reality show (no really, that's why...).

Also, there is this:

And there's a great scene when one of the competitors is teaching young girls dance (her night job during daytime hours?)...

 

The instruction here is, "Sway! Really, come on! Let your shoulders do something!" She works with children about as well as Paula Abdul.

There's a great scene before a dance number, in which an arriving club patron asks the door woman, "Are there any Jewish girls who work here?" She blinks at him and then says, "I have no idea who's Jewish."

We see the girls giggle a lopsided scrotum seen in a Playgirl. One, at at one point, uses the phrase "turkey feathers out the butt." I hope now you understand that this movie is entirely delightful. And, at times, artful:

 

It's also poignant. The credits place pictures of the profiled strippers as children next to their names:

 

Incidentally, here's what Kimberly Holcomb has been up to recently. Still getting her face out there, still undoubtedly loving attention.

Comments

[MB]

This is great - post Flashdance fascination with exotic dancing, but pre pole dancing for your man classes.

Oh and those men are so totally like the beginning of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! "Go Baby GO!"

Thanks for sharing it!

[lisa_n]

I remember this, I think it was on HBO. My favorite line was "remember when all we had to do was take our clothes off?" and the stripper explaining to her daughter about the contest- complete with magical thinking.

[Eliot]

Uh, is one of those ladies Ramona from Real Housewives (the one who says she's "not an actress")? Because that would make 100% sense.

[Kristi]

Thank you, Rich.

[sairentohiru]

The first elaborate costume is disturbing because it looks like she's being gangbanged by a horde of Hamburger Helper mascots.

The second costume will show up on Lady Gaga's tour any day now.

[slightly]

Another documentary about stripping that's both funny and powerful (you know, I've never started a sentence that way before) is Live Nude Girls Unite, which you can stream off of Netflix. It's about the first unionized strip club in the US, and it's awesome.

[rustyspigot]

A+! I'm enamored with the stripper life. Unless some bitch pulls a blade.

[Ben]

Does the first girl who appears in the video remind ANYONE else of ANTM's Jenah? From cycle 9? The girl with the ratty ass blonde hair and the giant chompers who refused to spew rainbows incessantly and was therefore eliminated? Yea, her, that one.

Really hope I'm not going crazy/blind. Does anyone else see that?

[k]

the straight-haired brunette in the video is totally rock of love's teya, yes/yes? would make a hell of a lot of sense.

[Gojira]

These ladies have excellent diction. Are they all Canadian?

[Tashina S.]

Where do you find these movies? I would love to watch them!

[gem]

where can this video possibly be found?

you find the most extraordinary things, rich!

[Vanessa M]

Oh man oh man. I love this movie. And of course, you would. It makes total sense. I saw it was running again on HBO or something a few years ago and I taped it. Even better, Roger Ebert gave it a good review when it came out.

I really liked the lady with the red hair but that final costume she wore with the metal helmet was so fug. The end was so melancholy. Much deeper than you'd expect. I think this flick is part of why I had to buy Showgirls and Striptease on DVD. Sorry, that's the rules.

[Jesi]

Oh my god, I think I just saw Princess Di! No, not as a stripper but as a patron, the one in the blue shirt with white collar! hahhahaha! Love the hair!

[Tanya Cheex]

I think the one with many hands is Gio from New Orleans who also does burlesque.

[H]

Most of them look so stoned! haha

[H]

I so want to watch this documentary right now, btw! Looks like such a good time!

[Sara]

k I totally agreee! First thing I thought when I saw that was that she looked and sounded exactly like Taya from Rock of Love!

[Sue Ellen]

The Jenah thing about the wild catalogs girl is 100% right.

[Kay]

Hory crapu! I loved this movie! I watched it over and over on HBO way back in the day. And it is so hard to find now. I love that you found it. I actually got to see the dark-haired dancer (the one with the glove on her head) in New Orleans in, wow, '89, I think? She was working the door, trying to get people to go in. I regret not paying the cover charge and two-drink minimum to see her.

[mode]

80's old school haircuts looks great !
thanks for the review, I'll try to watch it.

[Clenbuterol]

Who can't develop their brains, develop other parts of the body.

[Jen]

Where can I get this movie?

[power strips]

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[extension cords]

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