While the world continues to look for ways to combat boredom, some of Instagram’s most notable names are providing some much-needed relief by bringing virtual strip clubs right to your phone. And for many dancers who make a living off of working in gentleman clubs, these live streams have been a means of survival than a form of entertainment.
“I don’t know what I would have done or how I would have paid my bills or gotten food in my house,” revealed Sasha, an exotic dancer who has been featured on the pop-up shows.
Popular names such as P. Diddy’s 26-year-old son Justin Dior Combs and 28-year-old former pro-basketball player Justin LaBoy have been keeping followers entertained by hosting the racy virtual pop-up strip club together on their Instagram Live feeds. Rapper Tory Lanez also hosts his now-infamous “Quarantine Radio” on IG, which usually features plenty of twerking.
“It’s become larger than life. It started out as us going to live together, and it turned into this crazy thing. People ask me every night if the Live is going on.” Justin Combs of his show with Justin LaBoy.
LaBoy’s and Combs’s live feed has also drawn a notable amount of viewers, as well as some famous guests including the Weeknd, Meek Mill, YG, and Shaquille O’Neal, amongst others.
The “Respectfully Justin Show,” as LaBoy’s IG live stream is now called, was birthed when he decided to recreate a club type atmosphere during a bored night of social media live streaming.
“I was like, man, I need a demon to call up,” Mr. LaBoy recalls. “I said, ‘Where my demons at?’”
Immediately, women began to request to be guests on his stream. As he accepted the women’s requests, he then started pinning the dancers Cash App user names to the top of the feed, so that his followers could send them money, as the women bared all.
Now, LaBoy markets the show across his social media platforms, using the now-signature hashtag, #respectfully. Since Instagram prohibits explicit content, even recently disabling Tory Lanez account for nudity, LaBoy is sure to create a new Instagram handle for each event. He then uses Twitter to announce the page’s new name, along with the date and time of the virtual peep show.
“I was like, hold up, we can’t be doing this for free,” LaBoy said. “Some girls were dancing, twerking, taking it all off.”
LaBoy is then joined by Justin Combs, before kicking back and beginning the stream as he enjoys a glass of red wine, which has sparked memes across social media.
“I’ve never seen a page get 30,000 followers in an hour,” Justin Combs said. He’s “doing stuff that I haven’t seen anyone do.”
Since most bars and strip clubs were forced to close due to the coronavirus outbreak, thousands of bottle service girls, dancers, and bartenders have been left without a job. Women who have participated have earned thousands of dollars from Cash App tips, says Alexis, a dancer from Atlanta who says she has made about $18,000 total from dancing on Instagram Live.
“Justin makes sure the girls make a substantial amount of money,” she explained of her new “boss.” As a bonus, he also plugs his own Cash App handle, distributing whatever funds that come directly to him to the dancers.
“If I’m in the club, I’m there for eight hours,” Alexis goes on to say. “On Instagram Live, it’s five minutes. Five minutes compared to eight hours of work.”
In fact, Alexis has seen so much success that she started a secondary Instagram account to host her own Instagram Lives, after virtual partygoers sent her messages with an offer.
“People ask me to send them a voice note saying their name for $500. They’ll go on my page and send the eyes or a red heart like, ‘Where you at? Where you from?’ They’re very active during this quarantine season.” She revealed of her generous suitors.
Most of the women who perform don’t share their faces nor their identities aside from their Instagram usernames, as many of them are mothers and recently laid off workers.
“The other women, one is a mom, we all had jobs that were taken away,” Sasha said. “We all have problems, which is why we’re doing this. We’re all trying to keep our identity private while gaining fans and trying to make money.”
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