Mouse's Ear was owned by the Browning family while I worked there. They had much of the same contract language, lawyers, and business model as the Deja Vu corporation. That is-- ignore misclassification issues, do what you want, fire whoever you want, assume you don't get sued. Most dancers who got fired didn't sue Mouse's Ear, so it worked out economically for them to misclassify. Keeping the show going draws in more customers, and to keep the show going, one wants employees to boss around.

Tennessee is a one-party consent audio recording state, so I had ample opportunity to record, document, organize, and submit all of their misclassification rules to the NLRB, as well as to my private attorney. Mouse's Ear also had certain written rules posted in the dressing room. I made sure to photograph those and submit them as evidence. I was a bit amazed at how sloppy the Brownings were at concealing their crimes. If you're interested in having any of my photos of rules or copies of the recordings, feel free to ask and I will dig those out of my mountains of files.

I recently read a transcript of one of the conferences from The Expo in Las Vegas, where strip club owners gather to discuss business matters. They referred to litigants such as myself as “bloodsuckers,” the irony being they they suck so much money and energy from exploited workers. Well anyway, if I am a bloodsucker, Mouse’s Ear was ripe for the picking. Maybe they should’ve just followed the fucking labor laws, respected their worker’s rights, and all of this could’ve been avoided. Who am I not to hold them accountable?

With no further adieu, here is an INCOMPLETE list of the ways in which Mouse's Ear misclassified me. I can’t find my affidavit and don’t feel like searching; otherwise it would be a much more comprehensive list:

Mouse's Ear was a juice bar which relied on the dancers as their business.
It was mandatory to wear high heels at all times while on the show floor.
It was mandatory to participate in a stage rotation, with set lengths according to the DJ's discretion.
It was mandatory to get fully nude on stage.
It was mandatory to be in the club by a certain time in the evening.
It was mandatory to work an entire eight hour shift.
It was mandatory to work a certain number of nights per week, 3-4 if I recall correctly, unless otherwise approved by the Brownings.
It was mandatory to fill out vacation absence forms if one was going out of town and couldn't make a shift.
DJs expected something like 10% of a dancer's nightly earnings, after she paid the club their cut of dances, and after her house fee. Harassment would ensue if DJs were not paid as much as they calculated and believed they deserved.
Staff expected a few bucks per night from each dancer. Harassment would ensue if staff was not paid. They called this “tipping.”
It was mandatory to pay a house fee each night, something like $30.
It was mandatory to pay the club a cut of each dance sold. $40 dances were cut $30 to the dancer and $10 to the club.
It was mandatory to participate in a checkout procedure at the end of the night, if one's shift went until the end of the night. This checkout procedure included the dancers staying in the dressing room until the DJ told us we could come out, then lining up at the juice bar on the show floor, to pay out what the club told us we owed them.
It was mandatory to accept a non-alcoholic drink, which a waitress asked a customer if he wanted to buy for us, if a customer agreed to buy one.
It was mandatory to drink at least a little bit of the non-alcoholic drink that the customer purchased for us, in order to show him that his money was well spent.
It was mandatory to stay sitting with a customer until most of the juice drink was sipped, in order to show him that his money was well spent.
It was mandatory to sell dances at 2-for-1 prices during certain times of the night.
It was mandatory to sell dances at otherwise specified prices during normal times of the night, depending on the location in the club where the dance took place.
It was mandatory to participate in a “feature” every half an hour or so, which included the DJ calling all of the dancers up to the stage at once, while we stood around angrily, until everyone was up there. Then, we'd walk off the stage in a line one-by-one.
Certain dancers were not allowed to be on the show floor without their makeup on. I was never reprimanded for not wearing makeup, but hilarity did ensue when certain atrocious bitches were sent back to the dressing room and told to stay put until cosmetics were applied.
Mouse’s Ear was an air dance, no contact club. I loved that, because I hate touching customers most of the time. Dancers were also not allowed to provocatively touch one another while on stage together, or while dancing for a customer, which I greatly appreciated, because I fucking hate seeing those gross dances where strippers dry hump on stage. None of that was tolerated at Mouse’s Ear. The no touching rules were more strictly enforced than any strip club I have ever worked at in all my years. It was fucking fantastic. I’d like to give a special thanks to the crazy East Tennessee evangelical political figures who made the Brownings enforce that one.