STRIP MAGAZINE
INTERVIEW WITH SUSIE HARRIS

The table dance club boom in the UK has resulted in the growth of a number of agencies, one of the largest and most successful is Promises which is based in the South East and has been run by Susie Harris since 1997. I talked to Susie about her experiences and how she sees the industry now.

Tyke What was your background, how did you get to run an agency and when did you start ?

Susie My background is very conservative in that I trained as a nurse then went back to university to do a BA hons in English Literature and Computing with a view to teaching following an MA. Promises Agency started officially in June 1997 although we had booked out shows for several months previously (just to make sure that it was viable business).

I used to drink, socially, in The Prince of Wales in Rickmansworth and got to know quite a few of the girls dancing there, at the same time my ex-husband wanted to book dancers for a bike show. He went thru’ a friend of a friend and ended up paying a lot of money for dancers that, to put politely, weren’t attractive. At that point I had my one and only “light bulb” moment, questioning how anyone could book dancers.

Tyke How did you go about growing the business up from scratch ?

Susie To start Promises we paid for databases of addresses for pubs, rugby & football clubs, working men’s clubs, sports and social clubs and the like and posted out about 7k flyers advertising our services. At that point we were mainly booking out traditional Stag Shows of 2 girls and a comic or Hen Nights of 2 guys and a drag. It was a huge learning curve and I worked 20 hour days as I had young children and would also attend nearly every show in person.

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www.promises-agency.co.uk