Mary Taylor:
Changing careers but staying centre stage...

At only nineteen years of age, Mary Taylor was a divorced single mother who needed a better way to provide for herself and her child than her low-paying part-time job as a medical receptionist. But nothing in her traditional Catholic, Italian-immigrant background prepared her for the career she was soon to adopt. A chance encounter brought her to the office of veteran stripper Lori Lane, who soon persuaded Mary that her youthful beauty could more than quadruple her current earnings. The adrenaline high of that first striptease and the standing ovation from a room full of enthusiastic men got her hooked, and a lucrative new career was born.

Throughout the seventies and eighties, the exotic dancing industry was changing rapidly, and the glamour and excitement that first drew her in was disappearing. Feature dancers like Mary were the last reminders of a colourful burlesque past, and they had to travel further and further from home to earn a living. Table dancing, and later lap dancing, had changed exotic dancing from stage play to little more than foreplay. Finally, after twenty-one years, Mary got out.

Faced with the same challenge she faced as a nineteen-year-old single mother, Mary searched for a new career path. But what do twenty-one years as a stripper prepare you to do?

Teach others to strip, that’s what! The women Mary was meeting in her post-dancer life were fascinated with her past and wanted to learn the techniques professional dancers use to entice men. Perhaps they sought the fearless self-confidence Mary displayed, or sought to unleash their hidden seductive powers. Not one to miss an opportunity, Mary created her fun and instructional “Peel and Play” workshops, home parties and “Stagettes” in early 1999. Since then, Mary has helped thousands of women overcome their fears and gain self-confidence as they practice moves such as “stirring the pot,” “the queen’s wave” and, with the steadfast assistance of Bob the Dummy, the popular “boobs on Bob.”

Mary’s video The Art of Seduction and CD Sounds of Seduction have brought her lessons to a wider audience. Now her new book Bedroom Games – Stripteases, Seductions and Other Surprises to Keep Your Partner Coming Back for More, makes her inspirational message and easy-to-learn, sure-fire seductive techniques available to every woman in North America. Our love lives will never be the same!

Mary has never forgotten the frequently miserable working conditions strippers endure, and the difficulty they face in adjusting to life after dancing. As founder of the Exotic Dancers’ Association of Canada, Mary advocates for the rights of exotic dancers. She has worked with the Peel Regional Health Dept., University of Windsor, and the Toronto Public Health Dept. to raise the profile of dancers, educate the public and change policy.

Mary’s two areas of expertise, the stripping business and the seductive arts, have kept her constantly in the public eye. Her new book Bedroom Games has only increased the attention from the media in recent months, including media in the U.S.A. Since 2001, Mary has appeared on NBC’s To Tell The Truth, CTV’s W-5, CTV’s Open Mike with Mike Bullard, CTV’s Balance TV with Marla Shapiro, Global TV’s Body and Health with Samantha Schatzky, TLN’s Viva Domenica with Daniela Botto, Erin Davis on Rogers TV, WTN’s Jane Hawtin Live, and others. She has appeared as an expert in numerous documentaries about the exotic entertainment industry.

On radio, Mary has been heard from coast to coast on both sides of the boarder. Shows include CFRB 1010 with John Oakley (Toronto), KZOZ The Jazz McKay Show (California), CKTB with Larry Fedoruk (St. Catherines), KDKA with Elizabeth Day, (Pittsburg), CFUN Buzunis and Hadley (Vancouver), CJAD Dr. Laurie Batito (Montreal) many more.

Every newspaper in Toronto has done at least one story on Mary in the past few years prompting Betsy Powell of the Toronto Star to remark “Taylor has in less than a year turned her expertise in stripping into a marketable commodity.” And a popular one too. Flare gave a highly enthusiastic review of Bedroom Games in their February issue in a story on reinvigorating your love life. Women’s Own excerpted parts of the book for a similar article in their December 2003 issue. The April issue of Playgirl will offer insightful tips from the book as well. Mary contributed a number of tips on how to perform the ultimate striptease for a first-time GIRLS 101 section on Playboy.com. If you’ve missed all those, check out Mary’s regular column in Eye of The Future, a Toronto-based magazine.
Mary inspires audiences at public speaking engagements. She has informed and entertained audiences as varied as the nearly all male Rotary Clubs, the women-only Voluptuous Women’s Network, students at York University, Sheridan College and Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, and mothers at Metro Mothers Network, to mention a few. Mary teaches regularly at the Learning Annex.

The future for Mary looks busier than the present. A second book is in the works. It promises to take a behind-the-curtain look at what goes on in the exotic entertainment business and answer the question in many women’s minds “why do men go to strip clubs and how do I keep him at home?” Mary has a TV show proposal she is currently shopping around. It will put her seductive advice on the small screen for the first time.

“You can take the girl from the strip but not the strip from the girl.” Mary has never lost her love for the costumes, comedy, music and bawdy good times that made burlesque popular years ago, and contribute to its current revival. Look for a stage show in the future that will combine all these elements along with a historical look at exotic dancing and burlesque.

Mary lives in the countryside with her German Sheppard one hour from Toronto, Ontario. Learn more about Mary and her business Live Girl Productions Inc. at www.peelandplay.com