Adelaide adult entertainers reveal their day jobs and tell what it’s really like working in the industry
They earn up to $3000 a night, but often these adult entertainers still have day jobs – from real estate agent to children’s party superhero. Adelaide’s top performers reveal what the industry is really like.
Entertainment
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**WARNING** Some of the images and themes described here are of an adult nature.
From a real estate agent, personal trainer to a children’s party entertainer, Adelaide’s adult entertainers work regular jobs by day with an added bonus by night.
But whether they’re strippers, topless waiters, dancers, or nude art models, adult entertainers battle the seedy stigma of their industry every day at work.
For men, Alpha Men Australia’s manager Daniel McDonald said it’s the expectations women place on his male entertainers that can provide the biggest challenges.
“A lot of people can take advantage of the young guys when they come along, they can be easily led, and coerced into doing escorting,” he said.
“It’s business, not pleasure – you’re not taking the girls home.
“The problem is once you build that sort of a reputation, women will think that they’re going to get more than you think they can pay you, that they own you, and that they can buy you, and that's what we want to push away from.”
For women, it’s ensuring boundaries they have set are followed by clients while on jobs, and battling stigmas when people find out what they do for work.
“People assume it’s sex work, they might think you’re doing all sorts of things that you’re not, when my agency is very strict – there’s none of that allowed at all, there’s not even allowed touching,” topless waitress and dancer Cheyenne Donaghey said.
“They’ll look down on us but they really shouldn’t unless they’ve been in the industry themselves.”
Alpha Men Australia recently ran a male stripping competition open to Adelaide blokes to bolster its troupe, awarding three winners $10,000 worth of training to get them ready for regular work in the industry.
So who are some of the people making a name for themselves as adult entertainers in Adelaide?
We asked a five men and women what they love about working in the industry, and how they juggle it with their regular day jobs.
BEAU ‘BJ’ JUSTIN
Being an amputee has never stopped Beau ‘BJ’ Justin from trying new things.
“I don't look at something and think ‘I can’t do that because I've got one leg’. I’ll think ‘let’s give it a fair crack and see what I can do,” Beau said.
The Andrews Farm personal trainer saw an advertisement for Alpha Men’s stripping competition a few months ago.
“Before I saw the competition I never really thought about it (stripping), I’ve got a mate that does it but I’ve just never thought about it,” he said.
“My mate said ‘why don't you try this out’ so I said, ‘oh yeah, why not, let’s give it a whirl’.”
The competition ran over a month, with 32-year-old Beau announced as winner in November.
His win provided him with free training to become an adult entertainer – valued at $10,000.
“I think the biggest reason I did this was I wanted to learn a bit more about myself, and who I am,” he said.
“I’m a dad, and I lost my leg back in 2007 in a car crash, so I wanted to learn a bit more about myself, work out who I am and what I enjoy, and step outside my comfort zone and build a bit of confidence in myself.”
The single father of three also works more than 20 hours a week as a personal trainer at The Station Gymnasium in Gawler.
His training with Alpha Men will teach him valuable skills in his new work as an adult entertainer, including chair performance work, pole dancing, hip hop and acrobatics.
CHEYENNE DONAGHEY
Cheyenne Donaghey’s favourite part about her job as an adult entertainer is the friends she’s made.
The topless waitress and dancer started working for Risque Entertainment at age 21, with a background in hospitality work and beauty.
“It all kind of tied in, I knew how to make drinks, I knew how to do nice makeup,” she said.
Cheyenne, who goes by Kendal at work, said toxic relationships in her past led her to trying something new.
“I thought I might give it a go, just because I was a little bit lost in life,” the 24-year-old said.
“But then I realised how amazing it is, so I’m still doing it almost three years on.
“I’ve made amazing friends, I’ve made some amazing money that I never would’ve never imagined having at my age.”
Only attending events with another girl for safety reasons, she said her work takes her to unimaginable locations.
“I don't work solo, because I feel like you put yourself a bit more a risk by doing that. So we can have each other’s back if something does go wrong, which is rare,” she said.
“I get to work in the most amazing places, I get to work in mansions all over Adelaide, on house boats … it’s really empowering.
“And I also find I just love the girls, that’s my main thing, I’ve made some amazing friends that we’ll be friends forever.”
With the potential to make $3000 in a single evening, Cheyenne said her work fluctuates around busy periods.
Along with battling stigmas about her work from strangers, those close to her took some convincing about the industry too.
“Even my own family was really worried when they found out my new job … but now my family are pretty cool about it.”
DANIEL MCDONALD
As a multifaceted entertainer, Daniel McDonald juggles children’s parties with adult parties -sometimes on the same day.
“I’ll go from doing a kids party, dressed as Spider-Man or Batman, to an 80th (birthday) fifteen minutes up the road as a fireman, taking my shirt off dancing around, it’s very diverse,” the 38-year-old said.
As manager for Alpha Men male entertainers, Daniel also juggles work as a personal trainer, an asbestos removalist, and a traffic controller alongside his entertainment roles.
He started stripping as a “late bloomer” in his 30s, after the Holden plant at Elizabeth closed.
He established Alpha Men at the start of the pandemic in 2020 as a training base, responding to a lack of structure in the industry.
“I realised there’s … no guidelines, there’s no training and development,” he said.
“With my boys, we keep them in line, and tell them what they are going to go through, what they are going to experience the first time they’re getting attention from women,” he said.
The company offers private stripping, weekly group stage performance shows, nude art classes and a topless waiting service from $100 per hour.
He said most people in the industry just work Saturday nights.
“If you can make $1000 on a Saturday night, you’re doing well,” he said.
LEVI PROUDE
When Levi Proude isn’t selling houses, he’s serving drinks with half his clothes on.
The 25-year-old Turner Real Estate agent has been topless waiting since he was 18, working freelance as well as through adult entertainment agencies.
“I’ve had a few people I’ve sold some houses for who love the fact that I do that on the side,” he said.
“I had one lady saying I should’ve sold a property topless, I would’ve got her more money.”
A self-confessed workaholic, Levi works whenever he can attend gigs between his full-time day job, and only recently quit working in the early hours of the morning as a service station attendant.
“You can never have enough money in this world, mortgages will never stop, so I guess as long as I’m fit enough to do it, I’ll keep doing it (topless waiting),” Levi said.
But it’s not all fun and games: He admits some jobs are more uncomfortable than others.
“It really depends on the group, there are some really awkward gigs … a lot of the times though it is very fun, the girls are very likeable and inviting, and happy to have conversations,” he said.
“But there are some gigs where you wish you weren’t there – I suppose that’s with any job, you get your good and your bad.”
He said there is a common stigma for people who work in the industry – some even drinking excessively, but he treats gigs for what they are – work.
“There are a lot of entertainers who give us a bad name … but there are a handful of us who actually go there to do our job,” he said.
RUBY VALENTINE
Sick of working painfully long weeks for little reward, Ruby Valentine hung up her hospitality apron and took up a career in adult entertainment.
“I was working about 80 hours a week, sometimes more, managing a venue for someone else, and I think I was on about $50,000 a year,” Ruby said.
“I was just sick of working that many hours, being that exhausted, and pouring that much energy into someone else’s business. So I decided to quit and become a stripper,” she said.
Ruby, aged in her 30s, starting work in a mystery Adelaide strip club but now works just one night a week at a different city club.
Most of her money is made through freelance work, or work with adult entertainment agencies across Adelaide where she attends private events for stripping, dancing and topless waitressing.
“Quite often you only have a couple of nights you’ll make your money in this industry, there’s sort of this misconception that it’s highly paid five days a week, that’s not the case,” she said.
The work is seasonal, she said, with some days longer than others.
“It’s not a normal job … it’s not a 9-5 job,” she said.
“I’m very introverted, so I’ll have a couple of big days and then I need to have a few days off and recharge.”
She finds multiple challenges in her work, but said working in the industry has given her the confidence to stand up for herself, and tell people when they have violated her boundaries.
“I think challenges would be a general misunderstanding of the fact that it’s work, this is my job, so I charge for my time,” she said.
“I know that my time is worth what I charge, and I know that people will pay that because that’s what I do for my job.”
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