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BERNIE BARKER: My name's Bernie Barker. I'm sixty-two years old. In December, Guinness recognized me as the world's oldest male stripper.

HOST: Bernie Barker, a retired nuclear engineer, launched his new career -- dancing for women -- after entering a male strip contest at a club near his home in Hollywood, Florida, two years ago.

BARKER: To my horror, when I walked in the door everybody there was twenty-five, twenty-two, and they all looked like Charles Atlas used to look. I said, "You know, I'm just going to walk out on that stage." And I just walked out there with a smile -- and very little else on.

I've won forty-two male strip contests. I pretty much win two out of three. I have a sixty-two-year-old body that may pass for forty-five. And a nineteen-year-old brain. It's very unusual. So that gets everybody's attention. I wear very outrageous G-strings. They're special made; they 're very colorful. This is red, white, and blue. It's got sequins on it. It's a G-string, and you can get an interesting reaction.

These are black lights. (Click) You can already see what's happening. Look at my white socks; look what happens: they glow! Even my hair kind of glows under these lights. And your teeth will also, incidentally.

The music changes me. I sometimes dance to "Sexual" by Amber, "She-Bang," Ricky Martin. I have a special feeling about a song, "The Lady in Red." I don't know if you've ever heard of that one.

(Music: "Lady In Red.")

BARKER: I can't be twenty-five. I don't look twenty-five, but I try to come across as more genuine, more friendly. I try to smile a lot, or I'll spin around maybe and end up on a knee in front of one of them and just kind of look at them. And they like that. You're dancing for ladies, so you have to be . . . soft.

(Music: "Night Train.")

I guess I'm a dreamer of sorts. I get an idea and I try to become whatever it is I'm thinking about. It's kind of mind boggling, actually.

HOST: Bernie Barker's story was Produced by Matt Ozug at Sound Portraits Productions in New York.

Producers: Matt Ozug and Dave Isay / Photograph by Colby Katz. Special thanks to Colby Katz.

"Bernie Barker, Oldest Male Stripper" premiered July 2, 2003, on Morning Edition. Copyright © 2003 Sound Portraits Productions. All Rights Reserved.

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		intro
		transcript

		Update from Bernie Barker [posted Apr 04, 2005]
		Photographs of Bernie Barker
		Excerpt from Barker's unpublished autobiography

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