Last year I attended the PDX Strippies for the first time—ostensibly I was one of the judges, but considering the fact that I was unable to attend any of the judging field trips, I was extraordinary unhelpful in this capacity. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the industry-catering event, which is is literally an awards show for strippers (male and female) who are judged in categories like “most sensual” and “best hair”—even cocktail servers have a category. Winners are determined based on a public voting process (closed for this year’s event, sorry) in combination with the judges’ rulings.
There was a time when I frequented the strip clubs of this city, but these days I’m pretty out of the loop, so I wasn’t familiar with most of the winners. But, the show is also broken up by performances, often given by the nominees, so it’s effectively a nice little sampler platter of what’s out there at the moment. I especially enjoyed the male performances—it’s not what you think, though. They were funny! (Intentionally.) Especially the set by Jon Dutch, who to be fair, is more of an acrobat than stripper. I was so impressed with his performance, which he began while wearing a panda suit, that I interviewed him for a profile on this very blog.
This year’s Strippies are set for December 3rd at the Star Theater, and look: They’ve made a mildly NSFW promotional video for it, featuring winners from last year: