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Interview with Stephan

Dancer at La Cage Aux Follies

o your name is Stephen?

(Looking over my shoulder at the computer screen) Sure, close enough, it's an "AN", not "EN."

"Stephan." OK so let me set the scene here. We're in the front lobby of the Cage Aux Follies, between dance sets for you. I just took a photo of you hiding your nuts behind the nuts dispenser. You're wearing nothing on top, blue jeans, plaid flannel boxer shorts sticking out over the top of those jeans, and (looking at his tennis shoes)....

Chuck's brand "fishheads." Converse. They've been around for thousands of years.

ou told me while you were dancing that your father was a nudist.

(Parodying a documentary voice) I was born in a little log cabin in Kentucky -- in 1504 -- (he laughs)...

(Back to the question.) Yeah. Me and my two older brothers (and my father) used to go to Hippie Hollow (the nude beach at a lake near Austin, Texas) back when I was 15. (Documentary voice again) Back then I had to bleach my hair by the side of the river -- just like the pioneer women...

My older brother Jamie looks like Christopher Atkins, my older brother Ricky looks like Huey Lewis, and my father looks like George Kennedy.

hat about your mother?

Stephanie Powers, but she wasn't with us when we took those trips. Me and my dad would work 6 months and then take 6 months off and stay at a biker camp across from Hippie Hollow.

hat did your father like about Hippie Hollow?

I think he's a pervert. He'd take binoculars. He got fishing licenses for all of us and I decided to "lose" mine and be on my own. Hippie Hollow has a gay side and a straight side, and to get to the gay side you have to follow the "goat paths" and I would sneak over to the gay part and then sneak back.

Dad would be fishing (naked? Uh huh) and I'd get an invitation for dinner from the gay side, and my admirers would follow me from the gay site to the straight side. Once one of them even offered my dad $50 for action with me! They'd whack off looking at me and my brothers, they were really obvious about it. One guy I remember had a branch up his ass.

All this was when you were 14?

Yeah 14, 15, something like that.

ow old were you when you left home?

14. I used to hitchhike cross country.

Why did you leave home? How did you survive?

I didn't like being poor. I'm the kind of person who goes where he wants to go, and if I don't find a queen, a queen will find me. So I made do.

nything you hated about Hippie Hollow?

The Port-o-lets (portable toilets) -- made you wish you were dead. Hey, man, it's Texas, during the summertime!!

[At this point, Stephan has to go dance. Half an hour later, he returns.]

ith the binoculars, who did your father look at?

Well, I guess it was women, but I don't understand why because women all look alike anyway. (Pauses for laughter)

You know, (outside of a nudist area) tits you can see anywhere, but you can't see dicks. Softcore porn? You get tits, tits, tits. But dicks? Bupkis [nothing, never]!!

id you see "Boogie Nights"? You see a dick in that movie.

Yeah, but it wasn't a real one.

But you're right. There's a lot more tits than dicks in that movie.

hen you ran away, at 14, hitchhiking, where'd you stay?

I slept on the sides of the road, or people would look out for me. Here in DC I stayed at a priest's hostel, wherever they live while they're going to seminary. I didn't trust anybody, because someone was always out to call the authorities and send me back home. While I was there, I'd say all 9 priests stuck their heads in and made sure to take a good look at me.

And why did they do that?

I guess because I was 14 and a pretty good-looking kid.

hat did you do between 14 and 18?

I had lots of fun. I depended upon the kindness of strangers.

(Of course, I think I know what he's driving at here, but I play dumb.) For example?

Hustled. I was like crack -- it sells itself. Not like a bunch of encyclopedias!

How old were you when you stopped hustling, if ever?

(He pauses, as if sizing me up, and smiles.) Let's go with 20, Alex.

At this point his friend chimes in, sarcastically, with "Twenty-what?"

hen did you come to DC? And how did you find out about La Cage?

Last year. All my friends were dancing here. I've been dancing here about a year and three months. (Suddenly his documentary parody voice reappears.) When Barbara Walters asked this I cried!

hat do you like the most about your job here?

(Looks surprised, or as if I had just asked the stupidest question in the world.) Oh well, let's see, you work half an hour, you rest half an hour (and so on all night), you can drink at a discount... It's like they were thinking of me when they invented this job. The teamsters couldn't get me a better one!

What do you dislike the most about the job?

They expect you to take showers (laughs; he knew I had watched him in the restroom, after his first set of dances, as he washed his underarms). There's not much I don't like.

hat's the scariest thing that ever happened between you and a customer?

I did have a guy who used to follow me and sit on my car waiting for me to get off work. Then there was a fellow who would swing by my house like ALL the time.

What's the sweetest thing that ever happened?

There was this florist who used to come to where I was working and bring me flowers all the time.

(Teasing) The ones he had left over at the end of the day, that no one else would buy?

Yeah, well, that's life!

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