Stripping At Sexpo Melbourne 2005 - Saturday
Saturday night was similar: giving out freebies, strutting around, and having a blast. I was wearing a brightly coloured red skirt and top which worked together really well. By coincidence, they set off the the lipstick and hair beautifully. Or perhaps I should claim credit for foresight :) I started out with white thigh high boots, but they hurt after a while because they were half a size too small (my feet weren't fully recovered from the night before) so I soon switched to stiletto heels.
At around 9:30pm, I went to get ready for the Amateur Strip show. As I was queueing up with the other girls, the organiser came up to me and said "We actually have a problem with you .... we can't have you with the other girls". A discussion ensued, with the result that I entered into the male category (in girl form). Their entry criteria for the female category was the absence of a particular body part, which I think is pure bullshit anyway, but I didn't press the point. I wanted to participate, and this was the easiest way to compromise. I was entirely comfortable with the notion of competing against males anyway, and perversely, I knew that I was sure to attract even more attention this way.
Attention is good. I was in that sort of mood.
Cassie competing in a strip show against males? They didn't stand a chance. I was right, but I didn't win. I'll explain later.
The other guys must have been initially wondering what I was doing in their circle, but it would have dawned on them all pretty soon. To their credit, they all took it very well.
In the pre-show briefing, we received our instructions, and all the guys were given g-strings to change into. They were all really shy about exposing their parts while changing. I didn't have to do anything since I had hipsters on. The guys were actually given female g-strings, so their genitals weren't really packed in, but the organisers just waved their protests away. I kept quiet about it.
We all went up on stage. The place was packed - ten thousand people. Wow! That was amazing. There I was: To all appearances, a striking female in a line of 9 other males, ready to do a strip show. The MC began interviewing us one by one. While he was doing the others, I just kept my poise and had my smile fixed at the crowd. I saw my friend Erin in the audience with my camera and trained my pose in that direction.
Strangly enough, I wasn't nervous. I think it's because I didn't have a routine worked out. It was going to be all spontaneous, so I didn't have to worry about forgetting or mistiming something. That was a nice change from usual.
When it was my interview period, I was asked some random introductory questions and then "Does your girlfriend know you crossdress?" I answered "She met me this way". If anyone in the crowd wasn't sure before, that should clear up the confusion.
Then we started the amateur strip show. The other guys were doing silly things like running around, waving their arms. I was the only one doing anything remotely strip-py, and doing a good job of it: all sensual and flirty at the same time, running my hands up and down my legs and stomach and shaking my bum. A lot of people were looking at me, I could feel it. I could see the photographer sighting me quite a bit as well.
Erin told me that when I took off my bra and my breast forms, she heard a guy say in shock "I thought that was a girl!" How cool is that! I stripped down to my brief, the other guys were in their not-quite-adequate g-strings.
When the music finished, one of the guys had a problem with his string falling off. He turned around, headed to the rear of the stage and tried to put it back but couldn't work out which way was up. The MC tried to help him too, but also got nowhere. Meanwhile, the audience were enjoying themselves poking fun at them.
After a few seconds, I picked my moment and went to help them with the errant g-string. *Obviously* I knew what I was doing, unlike them. The audience cheered this loudly.
Then it was time for the crowd response to determine a winner. The guy with the fallen g-string and I were given the loudest applauses, so it came down to us two. The MC asked the crowd again, and this time, the crowd cheered louder for the other guy. Bummer. He won, and I came runner-up.
It was a bit unlucky. I believe the audience only cheered for him because they had fun laughing at his expense. So, yes, I was the better at stripping by far, but I didn't win. Oh well, I wasn't too disappointed. Not having any preconceived expectations helped. It was still a really great experience, and I loved being fabulous on stage in front of all those people and pushing everyone's boundaries at the same time.
As we were getting dressed back up offstage, the organisers complimented "You were great up there". One of the other guys even said "Damn, why couldn't you be a woman?". I felt like being cheeky and saying "You can still date me, can't you?", but I decided against it.
Anyway, that was the strip show. Talk about outing myself in front of ten thousand people!
So, I returned back to handing out promotional material.
All throughout the night, men and women were coming up to me and saying to me "you were great up there", "you were wonderful", "well done", and even "Did you practise that? You made that up? Wow, that's amazing. Do you dance anywhere?" All in all, it was a winning effort even though I didn't win.
That was the highlight of the night and of the whole weekend.
The night ended up soon after, and it was time to head home. I had a great conversation with my supervisor and another staff member as we walked back to our cars. It was a satisfying way to wind down from a pretty big night. Even though it was still early (before 1am), I contemplated kicking on to a club but decided I was too emotionally tired for it to be sensible. So I went home. Except I didn't go to sleep straight away. Instead, I checked out the couple of toys I had purchased, and christened one of them that night.
*grins*
Then I fell asleep.
In hindsight, Sexpo Melbourne 2005 was a beautiful experience. If I knew it was going to be this much fun, I would have gone last year as well.
Thanks to my wonderful friend Erin for taking my onstage photos, and for being a sublime dancing role model for me to aspire to. I learn a lot from her.