" Pure Talent" which won Exotic Dancer Publication's coveted best agency of the year award along with Continental is owned and operated by Anne Marie and Jim Hayek, who I had become good friends with at Exotic Dancer's Expo six years ago. Arriving at the Lamplighter Inn at six p.m. I found that Regina's, which is part of a chain of 12 Regina's clubs was just sixty feet from the motel, sharing the same parking lot. Tonight would be "The Meet and Greet" at the club. Jim Hayek had advised me that although the features wouldn't begin showcasing their talent until the next night, I should be at the Meet and Greet" to get acquainted with everyone.

On my way to the Meet and Greet at the club, I encountered a slender attractive brunette carrying her luggage to a room four doors down from mine. "You must be one of the feature entertainers?" I asked her.

"I'm Heather Monroe," the woman replied.

She was all smiles and told me where she was from and a few other things as I introduced myself as Pure Talent's photographer for the outing. I liked her self confident yet completely unpretentious attitude from the start.

At Regina's I spent an hour introducing myself to the managers, bartenders and waitresses as I munched on chicken wings while watching the house dancers perform. Two caught my eye, a cute blonde and a tall brunette who seemed to float on the pole. "They know how to dance in this place," I thought as I waited for the owners of Pure Talent and the features to arrive.

One of my responsibilities as the Pure Talent Agency's photographer is to take pictures in the topless club's dressing room. My work begins at a meeting the next day at 3 p.m. in the features' dressing room which is a large room on the first floor of the motel close to a side entrance that is only a few yards from the club's front entrance. Anne Marie and Jim are seated at a large round table in the center of the room going through paperwork with the features. When most of it is finished, Anne Marie tells the features where to be and when. Most of the features have radio station appearances, some in the afternoon. Other features have special shows at the club in the afternoon. Everyone of the twelve features is to perform at the club for ten to fifteen minutes each night, Thursday through Saturday.  Then Jim Hayak takes over. "All of you who have afternoon radio station appearances, just remember that the stations might want you to stay late. Don't let them make you late. You will need to be in the club at 7:45and you should be in the dressing room around 6:15 to 6:30. You will need to have your makeup all done by the time you get to the club." Jim has a resonant voice that's meant for radio. No wonder he used to be Exotic Dancer's M.C. for its seminars at its Las Vegas conventions. Anne Marie and Jim complement each other perfectly, both very professional, as one picks up where the other leaves off.

My turn now. I address the features as I pass out the Xtreme releases: "You will definitely be in Exotic Dancer's Bulletin. Pure Talent and Exotic Dancer have already worked that out but I'd love to get all of you in Xtreme in front of 200,000 additional readers." Everyone of the features signs the release. Then I notice that they are from all over the U.S: K.C. Cannons–Texas, Raven Rains–North Carolina, Heather Monroe–California, Chrissy Lynn Peaks–Illinois , Alexxx Love-- New Jersey, Aspen Reign–Illinois, April Lane–Florida, Natasha Stone–Indiana, Nikki Diamond–New Orleans, Mandi Melons–Indiana,, and Kristina Marie–Illinois.

Each feature has to pay her own travel expenses, meals, and motel bill. Each girl shakes the dice, parting with hundreds of dollars, hoping to line up profitable gigs with the club owners they will be meeting and performing for. There's also the publicity from radio station appearances and everyone they will be meeting not to mention the credits which they can use on their promos, web sites, etc. Here at Regina's, there will be at least fifteen club owners and general managers. Since most of the clubs are chains, it is possible for a girl to line up several weeks work with the same organization.

Thursday night I watch the features perform for the first time. Some of them use eye catching props and special effects. Although she wears some nice outfits, Heather Monroe electrifies the audience by raw dancing ability alone. Much of the time she's down on the platform, on her back, then switching to a belly down position, as she twists and turns to the music. She winds it up doing pushups for the crowd. She doesn't do much on the pole but there's no doubt in my mind that she's damn good on it. Since I'm practically living with the features at the motel I already know that Heather doesn't smoke and is a physical fitness fanatic.

I'm constantly running into Heather at the motel. When I'm online at one of the two computers near the front desk, she's often on the other one replying to e-mails from her fans, typing at what must be close to 600 miles an hour. As exciting as Heather is on the stage some of the others are just as spectacular. Sabrina Scott should be teaching acrobatics in the sky to the 101st Airborne. A national gymnastics competitor, Sabrina was a ballroom dancing instructor, became a house dancer for three years, and started featuring only a few months ago. She does somersault after somersault and walks from one end of the stage to the other upside down with her feet and hands touching the platform simultaneously.

I find something to rib each feature about by the end of the five days. Problem is, Heather Monroe and Nikki Diamond keep dishing it back. April Lane is one of the few exceptions. I am very impressed by the ladylike qualities of this group of features, but April's the epitome of the consummate lady–and incredibly photogenic. Her face a myriad of expressions, she keeps pouring out one good performance after the other.

I like everyone of them. Each offers something a little different. Raven Raines keeps buying packs of cigarettes from me in the dressing room or over a 3 a.m. group dinner in the motel's restaurant

Mandy Melons is the quietest of the features. When a whole group of us winds up sharing a large table I notice her off at the other end of the restaurant eating alone and ask Sabrina Scott to invite her to our table. When Mandy leaves the group someone swipes my check when I stand up from the table to wish her goodnight. The culprit is Alexxx Love who insists on paying for my dinner. 

One of the prettiest features is Natasha Stone. There's two photographers in the club besides me. Michael Dunn shoots a lot for "Score" and other magazines. The second is Trace Grundstrom, the official photographer for Deja Vu's "Showgirls" Magazine and Exotic Dancer's photographer of the year. One night Mike does a special photo shoot of the features. The girls are talking and cutting up as they wait their turns on the stage. But not Natasha, who spends a half hour peering into a mirror getting her makeup just right. When her turn comes, Mike has Natasha climb the pole where she seems to hang forever by one foot (no, that's impossible). But I've got her where I want her now and wind up kidding her for the rest of the week about how much she enjoys making love to the mirror. In the middle of the photo shoot Nikki Diamond's boyfriend and I take turns shooting each other's pictures doing the pole.

I can take 450 pictures with my Canon digital camera without having to download a single picture to my laptop. But I prefer shooting 100 to 150 pictures at a time and downloading them to my laptop so I can show them off to everyone. The first night my table is close to the stage where a couple of features have joined me. The second night Jim Hayek asks me to move to a tall bar table so four or five club owners can sit together close to the stage. Anne Marie brings a man over to my new table who she introduces as Scott Lindsay, General Manager at Godfather's II in Louisville, Kentucky. The next several hours are spent working feverishly between taking hundreds of pictures and downloading them on the laptop as Scott and I study the latest images together. Scott invites me to visit his Louisville club so it looks like a Kentucky adventure's in store for me and my camera.

The last two nights the club is packed. It is hard keeping the customers out of the pictures. Two features perform one after the other. Then it's the house dancers' turn. I'm taking pictures of the features like crazy with the other two photographers shooting close by. From most positions the club's mirrors play havoc with the flashes on our cameras.

Waitresses are constantly moving around bringing drinks to the customers. And at the wrong times customers are jumping up to cheer their favorite performers. So everyone's getting in each other's way but everyone is polite about it. New club owners come in and either Anne Marie or Jim ask me to take their pictures. By this time a few house dancers are asking for pictures and one of the customers offers to pay me well if I take pictures of him with his friends. I'm like a machine...shooting two features, one after the other, then working on their pictures with the laptop as the house dancers perform, barely finishing in time for the next two features.

I have never been around a finer group of women than the twelve Pure Talent women who performed at Regina's. Every club visiting the showcase winds up booking at least one feature. And you couldn't ask for better hosts than the Regina's crew. Particularly Paul Eubanks, the general manager of all twelve Regina's clubs, who stayed at our motel. The man was everywhere-- in the dressing room explaining the club rules, in a room talking quietly with several features, or performing as the club's DJ. Pure Talent? There's none better. You can bank on them.