When you're out of a job, your dignity often dries up quicker than your bank account. But the dispiriting aspects of unemployment can create an unexpected opportunity to reinvent yourself--because when you hit bottom, after all, you might be closer to hitting pay dirt. Joblessness can also offer a chance to see what you're really made of. In Z100's latest contest, six out-of-work (and out-of-shape) guys showed 500 squealing women exactly what they were made of, in remarkable detail. Inspired by the cheeky hit movie The Full Monty--in which a half-dozen unemployed British steelworkers create an all-male strip show promising full-frontal nudity--Z100 decided to cash in on the craze and give the money to some down-on-their-luck guys who really needed it. On Oct. 2, the Z100 "Morning Zoo" crew started looking for unemployed men willing to dance in front of 500 women while wearing nothing but a G-string and a smile. The winner (based on audience applause) would receive the accumulated door charge, which at $5 a head was a tidy sum to take home. After a careful screening process, the six finalists aired their wares last Thursday, Oct. 9, at the Refectory (1618 NE 122nd Ave.). According to Z100 marketing director Kellie Shipp, hormonal chaos ensued. "It was absolutely crazy," she says. "We had a 65-year-old woman shoving dollar bills in one guy's Brazilian-backed G-string with her teeth!" The victor of this low-rent Chippendale revue was Joseph Liberty, who--though he has lost an arm to cancer--moved "like you wouldn't believe" to nab $2,000. His five competitors raked in $150 to $200 each in tips. "Most of the men up there should not have been dancing, by any means," Shipp says of the brood's crude moves, "but it was a very emotional night. Joseph's mother was there, and was so excited that he had the courage to go up and dance in front of all those women!" But did Liberty and Co. have the guts to actually go "the full monty"? "That's not what the law allows," Shipp says, with a trace of
disappointment. --Dale E. Basye |
