Backpacking across Australia and handstanding in pubs, skimpy Sophia Angelis loves her job

A backpacking, handstanding skimpy says the often frowned upon work has helped her discover more about herself as a person and also set herself up for a better future.

After leaving behind her corporate life in England to backpack across Australia, Sophia Angelis found herself picking up odd jobs here and there to help fund her travels.

From waitressing to farm work, Sophia said she was eager to try anything that was different to the accounting, business and hairdressing work she had left behind in England.

“I just wanted to branch out and find new parts of myself,” she said.

“I wasn’t unhappy with who I was, I just wanted to find out who else I was away from all of the pressures of society and having a job.

“And I really wanted to learn how to live with minimal possessions, so I bought a car, lived in my car, and learnt to live without.”

It was during a stay in Broome that she first came across the skimpy industry, and realised living without could also include working without being fully clothed.

A few days later, after a call to Nat O’Neill at Gold Class Girls and a quick trip to Kmart to buy lingerie, Sophia was working her first day as a skimpy.

With no skimpy bartenders in England, Sophia said she was not too sure what to expect, but as a naturally confident person she was keen to give it a try.

Quickly she found herself under a lot of pressure to compete with other skimpies and perhaps act a certain way, so she decided to find a way to make herself stand out.

“When you get to know the customers you realise how important it is to bring your own unique style,” she said.

“They want to get to know you as a person and I soon realised I could be myself and people would love that, and being able to be true to myself behind the bar is a lot easier.”

Sophia had already set herself a personal goal of being able to walk on her hands, but when she began working as a skimpy she tried even harder to master the skill as a way to make a name for herself.

“I’m 31 now, so I’m the far end of being an older skimpy, and I was never overtly sexy, I’m a bit of a tomboy naturally, so for me it was like ‘OK, how can I play to my strengths and make the job more enjoyable for me’,” she said.

“I was already semi-OK at handstands when I started, but I really wanted to have a party trick and I wanted to be able to entertain so when I was on the road I would spend ages on my hands learning to walk and how to do tricks upside down.

“Word got out pretty quick when people would start telling their friends about me — I was the handstand skimpy everywhere I went.”

Sophia said it was surprising how much some people would pay to see her do a handstand, with others betting even more that they could do a handstand longer than her.

“It made a huge difference to my tips, people just love it,” she said.

“It’s quite knackering, actually, so I should have picked something simpler. But I always go hard.”

Sophia said the best part of her job was being able to make people smile.

“There’s a lot of stigma that comes behind being a skimpy but once you’re in the bar you realise what it’s actually like,” she said.

“You get people that come into the bars that are away from their family, that live by themselves and maybe spend a lot of their time in the bar, and I’m the one that’s making them smile.

“I start at 6am, they come in for breakfast, they’ve been on night shifts, and I’m a morning person so they can come in and I make them happy, I’ll be walking around the bar on my hand and they’re so excited.

“We make friends and they leave with a smile on their face.

“It never feels seedy. It never feels wrong.

“You’re just pouring drinks and serving people who, more often than not, want to get to know you as a human.

“And you can choose whatever character you want, or be whoever you want to be. You can be the sexy one who comes in and does shows or you can be the one who comes in with some banter and makes people laugh.

“It’s nothing like I expected it to be.”

Her work as a skimpy helped fund a second lap across Australia, something she said she never would have been able to afford in other lines of work.

With her visa up in April, Sophia said she would continue working in Kalgoorlie-Boulder until at least the middle of February.

She said in just seven weeks of working as a skimpy, she had already saved her $30,000 goal which will help set her up when she gets back home.

“It’s been absolutely life-changing and means I won’t have that financial stress when I do go back home,” she said.