Connecticut- From www.newhavenadvocate.com- They were earning six figures, and now some have lost their shirts — literally.

When Wall Street went bust, certain white-collar professionals who had been making top pay in the financial services industries ditched their pride and found work in strip clubs, phone sex companies and other salacious enterprises in order to maintain their standard of living.

In a New York Post account, a number of former financial wheeler-dealers reported they are stripping and pole dancing in clubs for as much as $1,500 a night. A rep from a Manhattan strip joint stated his office had recently received 40 job applications over a one-month period.

And it’s not just women who have taken a dodgy detour off the professional high road.

“We have noticed an increase in guys calling in for jobs that don’t normally work in our line of business,” says Tommy (last name withheld), who calls himself the “head hunk” at the Manhattan male strip club Hunkmania, located on West 21st Street. “We recently hired a guy from Fairfield County who had lost his job on Wall Street.”

One former investment banker with a corporation that was bailed out last year joined the Internet-based “Live Answer Community” Keen (www.keen.com). The site provides phone time with experts willing to dispense everything from professional advice to spiritual guidance to socializing. Its “flirting” category may include talking dirty.

“I do sex fantasies,” says a 40-something Fairfield resident calling herself Frankie, who claims clients pay between $1 to $5 bucks a minute for pillow talk. She gets 62 percent of the total. “I need the money to pay current bills, and it also adds comfort to my lifestyle. I have reservations about doing it — but not moral ones, really. I just don’t want to be found out in the business world.”

Frankie earned a degree in graphic art, but entered the financial world because she thought it would provide a more stable career with higher earning potential, which was the case for nearly two decades during the extended economic bubble. She was able to purchase a two-bedroom condo, lease a luxury car, dine out with friends in expensive restaurants and spend lots of dough on “spiritual readings.”

“I don’t do phone sex. It’s more in the form of advice,” says Frankie. “We talk about fetishes, bondage — all legal forms of sex. People can tell me things they have never dared tell anyone before. I’m there to listen. I help them embrace their sexuality, with no judgment.”

Clients who contact the Web site leave a phone number and wait for a callback. They can either state how long they are willing to wait for a call or request an appointment.

Frankie’s years of travel while an investment banker opened up her mind to alternative lifestyles. She admits to having considered becoming a professional mistress/domina, but she didn’t want to “have problems with the law.” According to Frankie, dominas can earn up to $500 per session — legal when no actual sexual exchange occurs, but some tend to “break the rules for favored clients.” She adds that professional submissives can earn even more than dominas — up to $600 a client if it’s taken all the way.

She thinks offering these types of services provides much-needed therapy for people who are starved for it in their lives.

“Most people need a little more than they get from their relationships at home or as seen in daylight,” Frankie explains. “Some men and women have fetishes or kinks they never talk about. Feet, bondage, BDSM … But as they mature and don’t have an outlet, this seems to be a safe way of being accepted without dealing with discrimination they might face in the vanilla world. It can be quite healing in nature for them when they let go of the control they have in their daily lives.”

Frankie also believes sexual business enterprises thrive even during a depressed economy because it feeds an addiction.

“In terms of sexuality, people who need this kind of conversation tend to be repeat customers,” Frankie says. “Even in the dungeons in NYC, it’s mostly repeat customers who need this in their lives just like an alcoholic needs a drink.”

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Pole dancing has also proven to be a lucrative way to earn a living during down economic times. But because most people aren’t born with this skill, it’s taught at one area school of pole dancing by a prize-winning pro.

“Lela” [pictured] runs Pole Control Studios on Pratt Street in Hartford, with three full-time employees. She began dancing “secretly” with a friend during college, on weekends after football games at various gold clubs, and she even won the coveted Miss New York Pole Dancer competition. She says it’s good exercise, too — burning about 400 calories per hour.

“I incorporated Pilates into the core base of pole dancing to create workout routines and taught my friends and family classes privately in my apartment with a retractable Carmen Electra pole kit I bought from Spencer’s gifts in the mall,” Lela says.

Her studio teaches the fundamentals of Pilates and pole dancing, combined with strength training and other fitness regimens — exercise “with a sensual twist,” she says. Classes begin with the basics but, along with two other expert instructors, Lela teaches advanced classes to professionals from all walks of life as well as to domestic goddesses. She also does parties.

“Depending on personality, skill and employer, women can earn between $100 and $1,000 or more a night as pole dancers,” Lela says.

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A former stockbroker at one of the government-bailed-out brokerage houses, claims she earns up to $1,000 a night in tips alone after less than a year in her new gig.

“I had an empty bank account last year, and so when I was offered a job at a strip club in Manhattan I thought, ‘What can I lose?,'” asks the 30-ish Megan (last name withheld). At the time, Megan was already struggling to pay off more than $20,000 in college loans while subsidizing a lifestyle that included a one-bedroom Greenwich condo, a gym membership, regular spa treatments and lots of nights out clubbing — which is how she met a gentlemen’s club manager who liked the way Megan danced and asked her if she would ever consider doing it professionally.

“Before I started the job in New York, I did a few drive-bys at strip clubs in this area” — Bridgeport and New Haven — “but they all looked so sleazy,” Megan says. “The Manhattan club I work in is high-end, and it’s kind of a kick to be dancing for guys who I might have done business with in my former life. It makes me feel powerful, and so does driving the new Beamer I paid for in cash.”

Megan works at a club on the Upper East Side that boasts an upscale décor, a champagne lounge, a restaurant with an executive chef, a President’s Club and multiple VIP packages — some including a limo. There are celebrities, too, according to Megan, who claims she once gave a private lap dance to a well-known comedian.

“There’s no touching allowed by patrons, but if you want to make good tips you have to give them a good show,” says Megan, who dances several times per week to maintain the standard of living she nearly lost when Wall Street went bust.

Frankie, who at one time was working up to 90 hours per week, welcomes the more relaxed pace of working at home. But she admits that this type of work is not for everyone.

“It’s generally a person’s own sexual nature which draws them to these kinds of jobs in the first place,” concludes Frankie.