At the end of the four day competition there would be three winners, although others would get titles. Feature entertainers everywhere should take note that all three top contestants broke the rules and pulled out all the stops, each girl in her own right showing an innovative flair whose performances would be a radical departure from those of other features. As to the club, as Leah Layne, a well known feature entertainer who would not compete this time put it: "I'll say this--Club Maximus puts on a fair contest." The contest ran for four nights and each night a different group of judges were chosen to minimize the chance of favoritism for one contestant over the others. At the end of the contest the scores would be totaled. Unlike many contests audience applause would not be a factor. The local girl bringing the largest fan club would have little advantage here in Texas. The winner would win a free trip to Exotic Dancer's Expo 2003 to represent the state of Texas in the finals for the Exotic Dancer's Entertainer of the Year and $1200 cash. The adult entertainment industry should study what was achieved here--how the club ran its contest and why the top entertainers scored as well as they did.

"Food---everyone likes food all over the entertainer's body," one dancer keeps telling me. "That's what sells." I tried to tell her to do what the audience does not expect, but no......you can't tell this girl anything. At a time when the current rage in today's club contests is "Let's see who can slop more ice cream, cake, and chocolate pudding all over our bodies, whipping cream and oils and the endless parade of "Little girl acts, Little Miss Red Riding Hood appearances, and fire shows (called pyro), the performances of the three top contestants here at Maximus proved to be a refreshing departure from what "everybody else is doing." Sure, they did a little of what others do but each girl proved to be a rebel in her own right, and each girl's willingness to go way beyond the accepted norm proved to pay rich dividends and hopefully set a new standard for this industry.  

The three top contestants and how they lined up

Paige (First runner up)
by Jack Corbett

Like the other Club Maximus house dancer in the Pageant, XXXstacy, Paige first broke the rules by competing in the first place. How could two house dancers dare to compete head to head against feature entertainers. These are professionals after all, and this is their career, a career they are committed to and work hard for whatever success they get. The second rule that Paige broke was competing so successfully. She came within a hair of winning all the marbles and was so far ahead of the pack in points that her ultimate victory seemed to be assured.

She was never boring. As I stood in front of the stage taking picture after picture my pulse quickened. Her music was choreographed perfectly and her perfectly coordinated form was always in synck with it.

Instead of stripping Paige came onto the stage practically naked after which she proceeded to slowly put on clothes over her the three songs of her act. Instead of playing a little girl or one of the many other roles most entertainers copy from each other, Paige played the gangster with a pistol in a shoulder holster and her hat pulled down over her eyes.

Which doesn't do much for her very obvious sexual appeal. But no matter, she had already done enough of that, having previously shown off her sensuous body in a shower scene, partially wearing a towel and at other times. What mattered is she played the role of the gangster to the hilt, thus giving her audience something new, something they had never seen before.

It is rare to see a house dancer compete on this level. I will have to confess to having a natural tendency to favor Montana, who I was around the most. But as much as I like Montana and respect her, Paige was so damn good, so intriguing on the stage and so entertaining that I could never have wished her to lose. Paige has it in her to be a star. It is time for her to take the next step, to learn from the best, to measure herself against the top features in this game, and to devote herself to working extremely hard at realizing her potential. If she can do that, the adult entertainment industry will have become that much more than what it is today.

Victoria Daniels  (now featuring as Lollitopps)--Second Runner up

Vicki's off the record comments about the contest and how she viewed herself against the other competitors will forever mark her in my mind at least as the essence of great sportsmanship. Although I found her to be a caring person when it comes to other people, in some ways I don't think she really gave a tinkers damn about what other feature entertainers do on that stage to successfully compete in these contests. She was obviously well prepared. She had obviously worked very hard in getting ready for this contest. Yet in some ways Vicki was the oddball of this crowd. She was going to do it her way and damn the torpedos.

Constantly in motion, Vicki seems to get into every position a man could ever want to photograph. This gal is not DULL. Not for one moment.

She's young and she seems to be much wiser than most women her age. Who knows...Maybe one day she will be teaching other feature entertainers, women with far bigger names than hers and women with a lot more credits about what it really means to be an entertainer. From what I've seen of her off the stage she's a neat gal and the quintessential lady.

Miss Texas 2002--Montana Steele

Any questions? Take just one look. This is a star. One night she had aced Paige by just one point, but by the end of the first three nights of the competition, the club's general manager had informed her that although she could still win, the chances were slight considering how many points Paige was ahead. Yet in one sense Montana Steele had already won. Night after night she took gorgeous pictures, one after the other. After spending many hours comparing hundreds of pictures, the reason why Montana Steele ultimately became the Club Maximus Miss Texas 2002 winner became very clear. Montana is very charismatic. By the end of the fourth night both the judges and the audience were hers. She had become one with them. She could feel and sense their very presence. Her chest would expand on that stage. Her smile, her very presence was contagious.

Now I'm going to let you in on a few Montana Steele secrets. First off, she was for years a service manager for a car dealership. She's been a favorite model for Budweiser. It's only recently that she's turned her attention to feature entertaining and anyone who follows this business knows that it takes years to become recognized as one of the top features in the country. But Montana's got the people skills, the raw intelligence, the courage and heart, and the hard work ethic to be successful at anything she undertakes. She even competes on the rodeo circuit.

But there's another side of Montana. It's one of complete modesty. It's that unwillingness to view herself as anything all that special. She's as comfortable to be around as a favorite pair of sandals. Paradoxically she really is all that special. She's got her own mind, knows it, and listens to it. She's not about to do anything someone else is pressuring her to do. So in a sense it's going to be Montana's way, but here's the key difference. She listens. And she learns from other points of view. She's not domineering or at least not from what I've seen of her. There's a lack of arrogance in her, yet there's this quiet strength and belief in herself.

I suppose that is part of what makes her a star. She has an uncommon ability to relate to other people, both male and female. She puts people at ease and makes them wish her the best, and after that I suppose she just thinks she's just going to win the big one, both for them and for herself.