Chippendales Dancer Karl Stevens
How Chris Farley Routine Started One Man on his Path to Dancing Fame
Jan 13, 2009
The date was October 27, 1990, when Karl Stevens tuned for Saturday Night Live on WDTN for an episode hosted by actor Patrick Swayze, who was fresh off a series of hit movies including Ghost, Dirty Dancing and Road House, and included a now legendary skit featuring Swayze and comedian Chris Farley. The svelte actor and the rotund comic played a pair of men auditioning for the world famous Chippendales male dance troupe. It was not Swayze's chiseled features but Farley's exaggerated performance, with his large belly flapping almost hypnotically, that made the biggest impression on Stevens.
"That was the first time I'd ever heard of the Chippendales," he said. "I thought that skit was hilarious when I first saw it."
But 18 years later, Stevens has the last laugh as he finds himself in his rookie year as a member of the Chippendales' East Coast touring team. The competition for that roster spot is much stiffer than Farley, but Stevens said the hard work is worth it.
"Being a Chippendale is tough, I won't lie about that," he said. "It will either make you or break you. It's not for everybody. However, in retrospect I would have to say it's one of the greatest things to ever happen to me."
Getting Started as a Chippendales Male Dancer
Like most of the Chippendales, Stevens started off with smaller male dance troupes and agencies that hired him out for bachelorette parties before he caught a break and befriended another member of the Chippendales, Sergio Thomas. With Thomas' recommendation, Stevens made his debut for the Chippendales in Indianapolis last January in front of 1,200 screaming women, who came to forget their stress and problems. But while they all come for the same reason, Stevens has learned that every fan in the audience is unique.
"The fans vary, its anywhere from ages 18 to 85," Stevens said. "You have your nice ones, your mean ones, but all in all, we love every one of them. Like all entertainers, we wouldn't be able to do what we do without them. So I have no choice but to be eternally grateful for them."
While entertaining women was not new to Stevens, the guitar afficinado knew that there is a difference between playing in even the best local rock bands and taking the stage with Metallica. "I joined the group because quite simply they're the best, its as good as it gets for male dancing," he said.
Life as a Chippendale Dancer: On The Road and Beyond
Born and raised in Troy, Ohio, Stevens earned an associates degree in business at Edison State Community College before joining the Chippendales. He said that his family has been in support of his career choice from day one. "My parents love what I'm doing because they know it makes me happy," he said. "My teammates are also my family. We're a really tight unit and help each other through everything. I've only been in the group for a short time, but I feel closer to them then a lot of people that I've known my whole life."
Part of that bond is forged through the team's travels, which take them to approximately 200 shows per year in an area of the country that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River and often means shows on consecutive days two or three states, or even countries, apart. Stevens and the team just finished a two-day tour of Caesar's Indiana casino, where they performed for shows in just over 28 hours.
While Stevens knows that he is fortunate to have the opportunity to see so much of the world and be the object of every woman's fantasies, the travel itself adds a degree of difficulty for his job. "The toughest part for me is being constantly on the go, bouncing from place to place with very little in between time," he said. "It makes it very trying."
In the precious time off he gets between travel, Stevens prefers quiet time with his family. Among his other down-time pursuits are working out, playing his guitar and trying his luck at some video games. "That's about it," he said. "Pretty dull."
But when showtime comes, the boredom disappears and morphs into excitement and enthusiasm for Stevens, who said he is determined to help make every Chippendales performance not only a show, but an experience of a lifetime for every fan.
"The best part of the job for me is creating the harmonic connection between living beings," he said. "Creating a temporary escape for the audience and taking them to a level of euphoria that they never knew existed is our standard. Well, it's not always that dramatic, but that's what I shoot for, at least."
