Hey it's Zach, before we get started, just want to let you know that we're covering some adult topics in this episode.

If you're listening with kids, you might want to skip this one.

All right, on with the show. Everyone has their like all-time greatest night.

My all-time greatest night was 10k. I think most strippers who've danced at a big city club have one night that's just crazy and they make a lot of money.

That's Lela. She's a stripper in New York City. Before that, she worked in Texas, which is where her all-time and greatest night took place.

It was me and three other girls in one guy. We had an after hours BYUOB club that could stay open.

We took the guy there and we were there probably until like, I want to say nine or ten in the morning and so we just

ran that guy up. That night was an outlier for Lela, but the possibility of that kind of

windfall is part of the allure for women who go into exotic dancing.

And although $10,000 nights are rare, strippers can still do pretty well on a regular

basis. I would say the average night when things are good I think

for me is around 800 to a thousand. An average that I aim for is 500. If I make $500, I'm happy.

Performers like Lela are almost always independent contractors.

In a lot of ways, stripping is like any other form of self-employment. There are overhead costs,

seasonal trends, sales tactics, and a constant adjustment to what the market demands. This is actually, I feel like the greatest danger to the future of strip clubs.

The demographic that is becoming middle-aged wants something different.

For the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is the economics of everyday things.

I'm Zachary Krakett.

Today, strippers.

Like many of her colleagues,

Lela started dancing in college.

She was 21 years old at the time. She had friends who were already

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