Oregon Public Broadcasting

A warning: some might find the subject matter in this next story offensive.  Forget everything you think you know about strippers. 

Yes, the woman you’re about to meet peels off her clothes for strangers.  But she was not forced into the business by anybody, and – to hear her tell it – she has not been exploited. 

Viva Las Vegas is the Midwestern daughter of a preacher father and a teacher mother.  She has a degree in Anthropology from a prestigious Northeastern college.  But she strips, and she loves it. 

She’s written a new memoir about her life and work called “Magic Gardens”. 

That’s the name of strip club in Portland’s Chinatown.  She tells me why she was drawn there.

Viva Las Vegas is the stage- and pen-name of Liv Østhus.  She’s the author of the memoir “Magic Gardens”.