1. First experiences and motivations

I: I remember my first time, um escorting.. to begin with we were so rushed off our feet we had like twenty minutes, literally twenty minutes to get ready-

E: Oh god..

I: It was not enough time, we literally just.. chucked some makeup on (e laughs) jumped in a taxi and went cause we were working for Ruby’s.. it was the quayside flat, which you said was really nice, you’d hyped it up a bit so when I got there I was a bit like… ok it’s a bit grim (laughs) It just stunk of fags..

.. but yeah my first job was with a guy called Dan, and.. he’s just so nice I just wasn’t nervous at all.. just.. like- I guess I was a bit nervous before I started cause.. but I can’t really remember, like I think I was more excited than nervous, cause obviously you’d already done it-

E: Yeah-

I: So I wasn’t worried about doing it, I was just like, this must be fine kind of thing..but, I just yeah, I didn’t have a clock either-cause the agency don’t tell you anything-

E: Yeah literally, pretty much my first day, because obviously you hadn’t done it before, and I didn’t know anyone that had, like the only thing I knew about it was from watching secret diary of a call girl, which isn’t-

I: Luckily that taxi, Bobby driver told you that you needed to bring-

E: Yeah the driver for the agency, um dropped me off, came and picked me up from my house and dropped me off where I was working, and yeah when we were driving along, he was just like oh do you have condoms? And I hadn’t even thought of it, like-

I: Imagine if you’d turned up without condoms…

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D: I can remember the first time, without a doubt. Erm, I was on holiday in Thailand, err it would be… 36 years ago. Um… I was kind of back packing, and there was a bath house as they were called, and I had no idea what it was so I went in and, it was only a few pence, it wasn’t a lot of money, and basically it was three Thai ladies and me, and we had a very soapy very bubbly bath. (Chuckles) I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

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E: I um, pretty much I was broke at uni, and…just yeah, it was either that or stripping.. that I could think of to make lots of money, very quickly. Stripping seemed like, long hours, for not much in return…

I just emailed…Well literally googled escort agencies Newcastle, the first agency that came up, I emailed them, the guy that runs the agency called me, the same day, organised to meet him in the local, went for an interview, and then a few days later I’d started. Pretty much its…

I: And yeah, then I came up and didn’t even have to have an interview, didn’t even have to meet them it was pretty much a you can start as well kind of jobby.

E: Yeah.. it was surprisingly easy to get into really

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D: I wasn’t really thinking anything, it was.. I kinda knew what was gonna happen but I didn’t really, it was just, it was a bit of fun a bit of excitement, I wasn’t, I mean I was single I was on my own in Thailand, it was just part of the adventure. There’s lots of that, even to this day there is. Kinda well known, what do you call it, sex tourism destination, Thailand. Its much more socially acceptable in Thailand than it is in the uk. Its erm, still not completely fine, its still frowned upon but its much more open and much more socially acceptable.

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E: I think.. if I hadn’t really needed the money, I don’t think I would have done it.. I don’t think it’s something I would have woken up one day if I was comfortable with my money situation, and been like oh do you know what, I’m gonna become an escort. But.. it just sorted my money problems out instantly, after one day of working I had the money that I needed for the rent that I’d been stressing about for months.

I: But it’s not all about having to have- to make the money cause I was living comfortably, I could have… lived with my mum, and- cause I’d finished uni I could have moved back home, and found a job at home, or equally used my savings to rent a place up here if I did wanna move up here out of my house. So for me it wasn’t about the money, like I didn’t need the money. I just thought, I can make money by doing this, its flexible, why not?

E: Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t desperate when I started it, it wasn’t like either I do this or I’m gonna be homeless, I could have had the money other ways, but I like the fact that it gave me financial independence from my parents… it was convenience more than anything.

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D: My motivations for using escorts have changed many times, um. it varies at different times in my life. Um, as a single man it, it was an easy physical relationship, with a young attractive girl, which you wouldn’t find in real life. When I’ve been married and been having, seeing escorts its been for the lack of inhibitions that escorts would have. Erm, my wife wouldn’t do this, if you like. Er, at times its been because I didn’t want an affair, and a physical relationship wasn’t possible with my partner, for medical reasons, for whatever reasons. I didn’t want an affair, I didn’t wanna be unfaithful.. but I need a physical relationship in my life. Erm.. I wouldn’t leave my partner.. and yet I needed a physical relationship, and that was – escorts were an easy way of providing that, a strings free way that didn’t threaten my marriage… or didn’t threaten my marriage so much. Not in the way that I might if I formed a relationship – another relationship.. that would lead to ‘do I leave my wife, do I leave my.. current partner’.. Sometimes its just ben a laugh on a quiet Friday night, nothing more. Its easy. Its available, and at different points in my life I haven’t used escorts for long periods of time because I haven’t felt the need to.