26-01-2025
UK's oldest stripper rubbishes claims hen dos don't want men doing Full Monty
Britain's oldest male stripper says claims hen dos don't want men doing the Full Monty are nonsense, insisting "there's no way it's going to die out".
Mike Stratton, 56, has been wowing crowds with his striptease routine since he was a teenager and says he's 'never been so busy' as he has in recent years.
His comments come after it was reported that brides-to-be have turned away from raunchy hen dos in favour of more more wholesome activities, such as escape rooms and axe throwing.
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But Mike, of Wigan, says even though options are widening, there will always be a place for the male stripper.
He said: "Things are just developing - people who run agencies are coming up with more ideas to make money with life drawing models and things like that, but stripping is still popular. It's just people trying to think of the next thing.
"I'm quieting down a little bit – I'm getting too old for it to be honest - but there's no way it's going to die out. People have been saying it will since the 90s - it's just not true.
"Back in the day before the Full Monty came out, we never used to strip fully naked, but once that came out, if you didn't you would get booed."
Mike began taking his kit off for money as a jobless teenager in 1986.
Over the years, he's performed a Full Monty dance routine at a woman's funeral, had to have a tetanus jab after being bitten on the bum and was even once booked by the Russian Mafia.
Mike, who now runs his own stripper agency, added: 'You can't beat going on stage. The adrenaline buzz you get is incredible. I think that's kept me young.
'I call adrenaline a 'youth drug'. If you met and talked to me, you wouldn't think I was a 55-year-old man. In my head, I'm still 25 and I'll do my best to act it.
'These days, when my agent phones me up and says 'Do you want to do this birthday gram?' I'll ask 'How old is she?'
"If they're under 25, I'll say 'Listen, that's a bit young for me.' But I'm all over the pensioners. They love me. To anybody over 50, I'm like catnip.'
Mike said he'd got into stripping while searching for work just after leaving school after coming across an advert asking for male 'kiss-o-gram' models.
And he bagged the role after impressing his 'seedy looking' first boss when he was just 18.
He then spent nine months as an Ibiza party rep in the late 1980s before returning to the UK and going on to join the legendary Dreamboys troupe in London.
During the late 1990s, he founded his own group called The X-men, with frenzied women going wild for the lads as they toured the UK and Europe.
Besides his career in stripping, Mike has also incredibly managed to make £70,000 by going on dozens of TV game shows – from The Weakest Link to Bullseye.
