Cid Brunet is a former stripper and emerging writer who spent a decade working in clubs across Canada under the name Michelle. This Is My Real Name: A Stripper's Memoir is a candid, searing memoir of working 10 years in the sex trade, a personal guide of the strip club circuit by someone who knows it well. Brunet’s crisp dialogue puts you in the dressing room, the VIP lounge, on the pole, or in the middle of a mental collapse. It describes a subculture of humanity, at once a gladiators’ pit, a hypnotic and intimate sexual emporium, the set of the movie Norma Rae, or an episode of Cheers. We spoke to Brunet from their home in Montreal.
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