The Seville Series: Two Dweeb DJs

This orange-toned douche is Steven Jaye:

Steven Jaye was the head DJ at Seville during my employment. When I first met him, he asked me to stay in the DJ booth with him as he queued up a computer screen with a long list of rules for the stage rotation. He described the details of each rule on the list. During litigation, Seville never admitted that this list exists in digital form or that the rules are real. With arbitration, there was no subpoena.

Among Seville and Steven Jaye's rules were that song length, number of songs and type of music were all selected by him. Dancers had to remove their tops by the end of the first song. If the side stage was open, dancers had to migrate over to it for a second set after their front stage set was complete. Dancers were not to leave the side stage or the front stage until their replacement arrived. All of these rules were real while I worked there, which legally classified me as an employee, but Seville didn't admit to any of that.

Clubs that don't want to get sued will instruct their staff to state sentences such as, "It's up to you" or "It's your choice to go up." There were no such choices or clarifications at Seville.

Steven Jaye informed me that the “minimum” tip out to the DJs was $20, while it was $50 to be taken off stage completely. I grilled him on the minimum tip out and got him to admit that I didn't actually have to give him $20 per night. It bothered me that he would even propose such a minimum. I usually gave him $5 per night or less, although he didn't even deserve that. There was once a DJ in Colorado who I hated so much that I spitefully tipped him with packets of Quaker oatmeal. I really regret not doing that to Steven Jaye. Sometimes younger dancers would complain to me that Steven Jaye was harassing them for more than $20 per night if they made a lot of money, and it saddened me so. I tried to encourage as many dancers as I could to not tip him, but many still did out of fear and intimidation. Sometimes Steven Jaye would get drunk in the DJ booth and ramble slurred nonsense on the microphone late into the night and wee hours of the morning.

I hated going on stage at Seville and only did so because it was mandatory. There is no pole to do tricks on, and the customer base was often unpleasant. Sometimes when I got to the side stage, I would just rest and wait for time to pass. If Steven Jaye saw me doing this, he would come up to me and twirl his hand, in a gesture that was signaling me to dance. Managers regularly walked around to enforce these rules as well.

Chris Black is this cross-eyed dufus who DJs at Seville during the slow nights:

His industry name is “DJ Beasey," and he lends his musical services to no-name rappers who celebrate date rape and misogyny in their albums. I can't find any history of him DJing at other strip clubs before Seville, but perhaps it is nowhere on the internet. It wouldn't surprise me if Seville was his first strip club, because he was sweet and normal at first. Chris Black was nice in the beginning, and I would go so far as to tip him $20 out of kindness, even as it went against my beliefs. Chris Black also took song suggestions, unlike Steven Jaye. However, Chris Black is a beta male who hung out with manipulative, misogynist alpha male DJs, who instructed him to be mean to strippers.

As I was about to head out the door after one of my last shifts had ended, a manager ordered me to go back to the DJ booth, because Chris Black wanted to speak with me. He had radioed to a manager that I needed to come back to the DJ booth. When I got inside the DJ booth, Chris Black was angrily yelling at me for only tipping him $9 on a night when he thought I made more money than usual. He was flailing his hands around in his booth, telling me that the minimum was $20. He lectured me that I needed to give him more money if I did well. I think he expected me to give him more of my money at that very moment, but instead I was like, “oh,” and didn't give him any more. He then stated that if I didn't give him more money, he wouldn't “look out for” me. I asked him if he was threatening me. He said no, it wasn't a threat, just that if I didn't give him more money, he wouldn't “look out for” me. I told him that it sounded like a threat. He said it was “just some food for thought,” while I was recording it all. In the strip club world, when a DJ does not "look out for" a dancer, it means that he will do everything in his power to make her uncomfortable, unpopular and ultimately unemployed. It is a tactic utilized by DJs who lack the wiles and charm needed to enchant a stripper into tipping him voluntarily.

During a subsequent shift, which was my last shift, I told DJ Steven Jaye about the Chris Black conversation. I suggested to Steven Jaye that if the DJs want to have more money, they should organize a labor union and force their employers to pay them a better living wage. This is a suggestion that I have made to DJs for many years, long before I ever sued a club. Steven Jaye informed me that he is in a DJ group called PANDA, and that unionizing has been discussed among DJs in the past. Steven Jaye informed me that while he would join a DJ union if it was created, it's not important enough for him to dedicate his life to. It didn't surprise me that Steven Jaye wouldn't dedicate his life to DJ union activism. It is easier for DJs to just bully young women into giving them their money, rather than stand up to the older men who own strip clubs.

Both Steven Jaye and Chris Black are tremendous scumbags, yet neither of them were the most vile DJs at Seville. There was a third, but that's for another time.