A male stripper has claimed he has ‘never been busier’ in response to reports that brides-to-be have turned away from seedy hen parties.
Mike Stratton, aka ‘The Hustler’, from Wigan near Manchester, even says that people’s demands are ‘wilder than ever’ and that they love it when he strips completely naked – and will boo him if he doesn’t.
Described as Britain’s ‘oldest male stripper’ in his mid-50s, Mike started taking off his clothes for money as an unemployed teenager in 1986 before traveling the world.
His comments come after a stag party organizer said not a single male stripper had been booked for a bridal party in the past year.
They said butlers in the buff had fallen by almost 70 per cent – with people finding stripping in real life ‘overwhelming’ and opting for quieter parties such as mini golf.
But after 40 years in the industry, Mike said demand for him to do the Full Monty is stronger than ever, and is particularly popular with ‘grandmas’ who will try to ‘take his clothes off’.
When asked if the comics industry is “tamer” these days, he told FEMAIL: “Not at all. The ladies’ nights are as raucous as they ever were.
‘They want more now. When you do butler work, you used to just stand there and have your picture taken with the girls.
Mike Stratton, Britain’s ‘oldest male stripper’, says he is more popular than ever
‘Maybe you walk around filling people’s glasses or giving them canapés, or sit at the door and give glasses of champagne to the girls.
‘Nowadays they want you to do all that, plus play games with the girls. Then at the end they always say, “Oh, you couldn’t quickly strip for her because it’s her birthday?” So they expect a lot for the price of a butler.’
Games include passing a balloon between two rows of girls without touching it with their hands. Others involve teams coming up with as many sexual positions as possible.
In fact, the father-of-three is particularly popular with older women and even went to someone’s 80th birthday party.
He said he is especially fond of organizing events for retirees because they do not hold back in their demands.
Mike continued, “When you put it like that, they’re not shy. You think you’re going to get some grandma and you think she’s doing fine, and then she tries to take your clothes off!
‘The young people can be a bit shy. But if they’re in a wheelchair, even better!
‘When I get someone from the audience I always try to get a pensioner because that’s so much funnier than a pretty girl. When you wake up a grandma, it’s always fun to laugh.’
Mike Stratton, 55, from Wigan, Manchester, started taking off clothes for money in 1986 as an unemployed teenager. Pictured in 2008, at a social club in Manchester
Mike said demand for him to do the Full Monty is stronger than ever, and is especially popular with ‘grandmas’
He said that since the release of the 1997 Full Monty film, there has been a huge demand for him to strip completely naked – and even finds it ’embarrassing’ if he doesn’t.
Mike said: ‘Before the Full Monty came out, we were never used to that [strip fully naked] but once that came out, you’d be booed if you didn’t, and that’s embarrassing.
‘I prefer it – I like to go out with a bang, if you know what I mean! It’s like the grand finale of the show.
‘If you can’t do it, you feel like you’re being limited. The women get a little disappointed and say, ‘Boo, take them off.’
Mike says he always asks how old the women are and how far they want him to go.
“When they say, ‘We don’t want you to take your dick out,’ I ask, ‘Are you sure!’” he said.
He was once recruited for a 40th party and showed only ‘a bit of a bum’. Mike said, “You should have heard the cheering!”
He said he will strip for anyone between the ages of 18 and 80, but usually his clients are over 25.
Mike started stripping when he was looking for a job right out of school and has been doing it for 40 years
While he may be as popular as ever, Mike admitted that the industry has changed.
These days he mostly does solo work instead of big group parties because people “don’t pay that much.”
He said Covid had temporarily killed the industry and that 18 months without events had led to many strippers retiring or finding other jobs.
Also popular lately are life drawing classes at bachelor parties or birthday parties, for which Mike is a model.
“You go in there, stand there, motherfucker, and they’ll make you laugh. You were standing there naked in the middle of the day with about fifteen girls all drawing your pieces,” he explained.
Mike charges £100 for a butler job, rising to £150 including stripping. The actual comic is 15 minutes long and consists of four issues.
“There’s nothing like the stage,” the artist, who now runs his own stripper agency, previously said. “I think that’s what kept me young.”
“I call adrenaline a ‘youth drug,’” the star – whose solo stage name is “The Hustler” – added.
He especially likes events for retirees, because they do not hold back with their demanding things – next to a woman’s coffin – in 2006
But the stripper, who is now a father of three, admitted he does have limits when it comes to the ages of his clients.
“Nowadays, when my agent calls me and says, ‘Do you want to do this birthday program?’ I’ll ask, “How old is she?” he explained.
“If they’re under 25, I say, ‘Listen, that’s a little young for me.’ But I’m completely done with the pensioners. They love me. I’m like catnip to anyone over fifty.’
Mike first started stripping when he was looking for a job right out of school.
He came across an ad asking for male ‘kiss-o-gram’ models and landed the role after impressing his ‘shady looking’ first boss at the age of 18.
The young artist then spent nine months as a party rep in Ibiza in the late 1980s before returning to Britain and joining the legendary Dreamboys group in London.
Ten years later he had formed his own group, called The X-men, with crazy women breaking away from the boys as they toured Britain and Europe.
Mike recalled a specific incident in South Wales where a clingy fan even bit him on the bottom and drew blood.
In one of his more intense jobs, he even met with the Russian mafia for a job in St. Petersburg in 1996.
Mike is pictured (far right) on the set of the Fear Factor TV quiz show in Argentina in 2004
“I always said I wanted to be in Take That, but I ended up with the Dreamboys,” he joked.
‘In the early days, when we were one of the few groups in the country doing this, we had to be rescued several times by doormen and taken out through the back exit.
‘I was once standing there while a photo was being taken and suddenly I had this crazy pain in my ass. Turned around and there was a girl on her knees. She bit my ass.
“She took blood and I had to get a tetanus shot.”
In fact, Mike still has scars on his back where he was scratched.
“I don’t know what it is about women,” he added. “But it looks like they want a piece of you.”
In his most bizarre booking, the stripper and company performed a Full Monty dance routine to Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff in 2006 – next to a woman’s coffin.
They were asked to fulfill the woman’s dying wish – to reenact the cult classic’s iconic queuing routine for 250 stunned mourners – and after a bit of applause, he said, the raunchy dancers left the church. and drove home in silence.
In the past he has pocketed tens of thousands of pounds in cash and prizes after taking part in 18 TV quizzes including Bullseye, Decimate and Fear Factor.
Mike appears on an episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
“At church I said to her son, ‘So everyone knows this is happening?’ He said, “Oh no, there’s only a few of us who know.” I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Mike revealed.
‘People were crying and saying she was a wonderful person. Then her son stood up and said, “She had a great sense of humor, as you’re about to find out.”
He says people were “stunned.”
“Normally, when we’re done with a show, we’re all busy talking about it,” Mike said. “But we all sat in silence on the highway, driving home traumatized.”
In one of his more intense jobs, he even met with the Russian mafia for a job in St. Petersburg in 1996.
“We didn’t know, we just got a gig from an agent in this country,” the artist revealed.
‘We did Friday and Saturday evenings – it was a ‘ladies’ weekend’ kind of thing.
‘The first night we were backstage and spied through the curtain. All these women came in dressed in 1950s Audrey Hepburn-style ball gowns.
“I thought, what’s going on here?” We did the show. It was a little weird, but okay. But it turns out all the girls were working for the mafia.”
“They were ‘ladies of the night,’” Mike revealed. ‘We were there as a treat. When we got back, we sent the cop away because he had us working for the mafia without our knowledge.”
And the happily married stripper says his wife, Donna, 52, even has a special trick to help the company rake in tips.
When Mike went on The Weakest Link, he made it to the final two players
“Sometimes my wife would come to a gig and I’d say, OK, if I do this part of the show, put your hand up with £5,” he explained.
“She did that and we all jumped on her and did a lot of things. And then they all had their fives in the air.
“It was like a shield bidder at a market auction, where the first bid prompts other people to bid. It was a bit of a cheeky way to make extra money.”
In addition to his comic career, Mike has also incredibly managed to earn £70,000 from appearing on dozens of TV game shows – from The Weakest Link to Bullseye – and has written a book about this experience, entitled How To Get on Game Shows and Win £1000’s: Confessions of a Game Show Addict.
He is also writing a new book, My Life As A Male Stripper, which will be published in late 2025.
The biography will feature “funny stories” from his time in the entertainment industry and, of course, plenty of X-rated details.