Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number
This topic has come up a few times over the last 2 weeks with some friends outside of the industry, so thought I’d write my thoughts on the elephant in the room, so to speak. My friend says, “So, how much longer are you going to do this for? What’s the length a girl can dance for? You can’t do this forever.” I burst out laughing, “WHYYYY NOT?! I can be the vintage stripper on the stage doing walker tricks and popping wheelies in my wheelchair when I’m 102!! My energy, my sparkle and my titties will always be fabulous! 😀
Then I proceed with my more serious tone, “I am the wrong person to ask that question to. Here I STILL am and going strong. Just when I think I’m ready to wind things down, settle my roots…my career gains more momentum and reaches even greater heights that I didn’t know were capable, like getting a US work visa and a solid touring schedule for 3 years. Plus, I’m still having a blast! I love performing and creating my new shows. I am still so passionate, I’m not over it, yet. I have had a loooong, very fulfilling and fruitful career that I am grateful for. I have everything I want, I am firmly established, so I’m good to hang up the stilletos at any point. This for me, is now the gravy train. When it’s time to move into fitness full time, I’m ready, but why would I when I am having so much consistent success and at a point where I am turning work away, not the other way around? Winning contests and titles, touring internationally, booked to headline events, high in demand, etc. This is my first week off in a year! And I am booked until the end of this year! I dance because I can and I love it, not because I need to.
And now that we are here, in this discussion, let’s open this can of worms right up! LOL Fuck the misogynist perception that a woman loses her sex appeal, sexuality and beauty once she hits 25 or 30. Screw that patriarchal and old way of thinking. From my experience, a woman’s sex appeal and sexuality only enhances with age…I know mine has!! Being tuned in, turned on and confident within yourself. Women should be celebrated in every phase of life and I am a leading example of that. Other OG features are following my lead and also killing it within the industry. One of my feature friends even came out of retirement! I am a feminine, athletic energy. I am waaay better now, in all areas, than I was when I was 20. 10-15 years ago, agents would put a dancer out to pasture once she moved beyond the 25-27 year old mark lol but back then girls would party a lot, do drugs and drink, not really take care of themselves. You can have longevity and sustainability if you take care of yourself from the inside-out. Even in some recent fitness competitions women who were masters (+35) were taking top placings in the open category against girls half their age! YES!!! Sex appeal is ageless and women of all shapes and sizes are sexy and beautiful. Good bye to the era that had women shamed for age, body type, ethnicity. This is a new era where women celebrate themselves and each other…..and men, too! Build each other up, not tear each other down. EmpowHer!!! As long as my audiences are coming out and enjoying my shows, I am not going anywhere until another venture sparks my soul.
I was working with these 2 dancers, who were upset because I was the feature and getting paid a much higher showprice than them. They would make age comments in the changeroom, to try and make me feel insecure, such a typical thing to do. At one point of the dancers came off stage and said, “Those guys weren’t tipping because they said I was old enough to be their mother. I don’t know how they’ll be with you.”
Well, I did lol I went on stage and they made it raaiiiinnn!! She made $6 I made $430. After my show, I came into the changerrom and she was SO angry! She yelled, “I don’t get it! I’m younger than you!”
That’s when I said, “YES..you ARE younger than me…but that’s it. Younger DOESN’T mean better. It only means, younger. It doesn’t mean: more talented, more beautiful, more sexy, more appealing, more fit….it ONLY means, younger. And if ‘Younger,’ is the only card you’ve got, you’ll be annihilated, because most of us OG features are playing with a full fucking deck. So, I suggest that instead of taking shots, you should be taking notes.”
And as fabulous karma would have it, that entertainer had to follow my shows all week LOL I’m the feature for a reason, people are coming in to see me and my shows. This was my audience. I will say, that I did work with these two entertainers again a few weeks later and they both apologized for their behavior. I personally, have never been hung up on age. It’s not something that I’ve ever been bothered by or worried about. I concern myself with being a great performer and maintaining total health and well being.
Baby Janine aka Wild Orchid lmao to current Janine Jericho
The Show Did Not Go On
During one of my bookings in Australia, I was scheduled to do a show at a pub that was out in the middle of nowhere, literally, you drive down the hwy 45 mins from the city and if you blinked, you’d miss the pub that was at the side of the road. It felt like the real outback. Upon arrival I was met with the 2 gentlemen that were running the show and they were both very sweet and accommodating. I had performed there the week before and my Darth Vader show was a huge hit with these outback Aussies. They were very interactive playing along with my light saber slashes and my Star Wars theatrics!
This time around they had asked me to do more crowd interaction and to dance on the tables. Of course I’m game! I don’t mind playing around and interacting with audience more, bring it on! So I step out to do my show, as my intro begins I walk over to a full table of enthusiastic customers and two men reach out to grab my hands to help me step up onto their table. Between the momentum of them lifting me up and my 5 inch stilettos, I ended up bumping my head. I was like, “Oh well…I bumped my head, no big deal, on with the show.” 
As I crouch down to do a little tittie ra- ra, shimmying from the left to the right, I notice that the guy right in front of me looked like he had seen a ghost. In my mind I was thinking, this is not how a man looks when he is being tittalized lol. As I look down, I see blood on the table. I check my head with my hand and blood was on my hand. So I proceed to wipe my head with my cape, thinking I must’ve scratched myself and would just need to wipe the blood off but after taking the cape off my head it was soaked in blood, then the blood started rushing down my face. The guy sitting in front of me stands up and tells me he’s going to help me off the table, lifting me down onto the ground.
As I start to head back to the office where us girls get ready for the shows, the MC says, “And where is she going now?” I look over to him with blood gushing down my face and he immediately says, “She is going to the change-room! The next show will be in 10 mins!” As I walk into the change-room, the two other dancers and a bar owner look at me in horror and start racing around looking for a first aid kit. I was pretty calm and collected but with how anxious everyone else was I could tell I must’ve looked bad. Cass took the reigns and started to clean the gash and the blood that was everywhere. Heidi got ready and went onstage in my place. Everyone just moved into survivor mode. After placing pressure on the wound for a while, it stopped bleeding-yaaay, no stitches required! I really, really did not want to go to the hospital. Once Heidi came back from her show she mentioned that the fans were on and that’s what hit my head. I dodged a serious bullet on that one! It could’ve been way worse but I was fortunate enough to walk away with a small cut on my head.
The best part was when I was all cleaned up, one of 
the guys who worked there looked at me and asked if I’d be ready to go back onstage in 5 mins…. and of course, me being a true blue #albertastrong super trooper who just soldiers on said yes, if you want me to, I can go on. Cass raises her voice, shocked at the suggestion and said, “There is no way Janine is going on! She lost a lot of blood! Me and Heidi will go back on stage and do a show!”
I just laughed at the craziness of the whole situation. Only twice in my loooong career did the show not go on. And it as was a full moon taboot! The manager asked if I could come back the following week, they were disappointed I couldn’t perform and did so well the week before, that they were excited to have me there. I appreciated that, considering I just had a blood bath on their table and it wasn’t Halloween! Funny enough, I was wearing my Devil costume 😛
It was an unfortunate accident that happened but everyone was SO good to me, especially Cass and her sexy nursing abilities lol The pub, owners, staff and customers were all extremely attentive and I hope to one day go back there and redeem myself…with my vampire show! bahahaha naaaa, maybe I’ll keep it simple and just stay on the stage.
Follow Me!