Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009
lisa kirby: spicing up the strand
Photo by Scott Smallin
Lisa Kirby at her home in Myrtle Beach.
This weekend, Lisa Kirby plans on attending her 25th high school reunion. "I went to Socastee High School and was the head cheerleader there," she enthuses. But her roots run deeper than that, having been a part of the fabric of the Grand Strand since 1970, when the U.S. Air Force transferred her father here from the Philippines. She was born on the Air Force base in Warner Robins, Ga.
Kirby spent more than 20 years on the front lines of the service industry as a bartender, and through the years has honed her interpersonal skills with laser-like precision. She displays an easygoing and disarming conversational style, far from what could ever be mistaken for reserved. Add to this the fact that dance has been an integral part of her life since childhood and that she owned two local dance studios, and one can easily see those components dovetail into her current business situation.
"I am a romance specialist for a company called Party Gals out of Las Vegas," she says, adding that the company has been around for 16 years and is a major player in the adult toy and novelty business. "We like to call it lotions, potions and things that excite (or even buzz) in the night." Party Gals [www.partygals.biz/playful_pleasures] is a home-based business featuring in-house parties to display its wares and to recruit potential distributors. Think Pampered Chef or Tupperware parties with a playfully naughty twist.
Kirby signed on with the company in late 2008 and had her first party early this year. She asserts that she is already one of the top 25 distributors in the nation and is now No. 1 in South Carolina. "The corporate office goes by total sales, so I have already sold that much to take that spot." Party Gals corporate trainer and sales manager Dawn Farrell was quick to verify those numbers for us, adding that Kirby has done so well that she recently won an all-expense-paid trip to Las Vegas.
A longtime single parent, Kirby closed the last of her dance studios, The Dancin' Room in Surfside Beach, three years ago for financial reasons and was looking for something to supplant bartending in order to spend more quality time with her children. "I was invited to my first toy party," she says. "I thought it was fun and interesting and at the same time that I could do this. Working behind a bar for 22 years and having to talk made it a lot simpler. After a bit more research, I signed up, had my first party and it took off from there."
But just what goes on at these parties?
"We play games - we eat and drink, and we talk about sex, of course. But you can have a lot of fun with your partner when you get these products home." Kirby says both men and women are welcome at these parties, and that Party Gals is one of the few companies that encourage this. "We do any kind of themed party that you can think of - divorce, bachelorette - couples parties are my favorite." She regularly recruits both sexes into the business opportunity.
She says Party Gals products have been known to jazz up some couples' otherwise flagging sex life. "I was talking to a woman the other day and she told me that sex with her partner had gone downhill. I was like, 'all you have to do is buy a little bottle of lickable lotion or a toy and go into the laundry room.'" Kirby cites a product called Love Motion #9. "It's a product that enhances sensitivity in certain parts for men and women."
In addition to bartending at places such as the Island Bar and Grill, Damon's Oceanfront, Borgata and a stint as bar manager at Hoof-N-Finz, much of her time was devoted to dance. "I taught tap, jazz, ballet, Hip-Hop, Hawaiian, belly dancing - all of it. But I couldn't get a lot of the parents to pay. That brings you down not only financially but mentally, but I miss it." At one time she taught exotic dance to what she calls everyday women, in an effort to help them spice up their marriages or other intimate relationships.
These days, Kirby's idea of fun is spending time with her children, Tiger (14) and Logan Anne (13). "I worked so hard and so long that it's important that I am able to stay home and be with them. But now they are teenagers and they don't want to spend much time at home anymore." She hasn't hit up many nightspots since she gave up bartending. "Once you are out of that loop, you just don't go back into it sometimes."
Kirby says she will remain on the Grand Strand, although you probably won't find her on the beach. "I'm more of a culture person. If we had more culture here, oh my Lord, I'd be all up in it." She plans to continue growing her business with Party Gals. "Sex is where the money is," she chuckles. "Let's talk about sex, ba-by."