CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Cleo counts out crumpled dollars, straightening the bills as she stacks them neatly on her bare leg.
“Twenty-two dollars,” the 23-year-old exclaims. “Not too bad!”
All around her, more than a dozen nearly naked women are dancing on the stage and swinging from a brass pole as music thumps and customers shower the dancers with money. It’s like any other night at this rural strip club on the Colorado-Wyoming border, with one notable exception: While the dancers are all wearing barely-there outfits, every one of them is wearing a mask.
Some are bandannas. Some are surgical masks. One looks as if it was swiped from a construction site. They’re a seemingly odd accessory for women wearing a mix of g-strings, bikinis and lingerie.