Even in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, Billy Cross has found a strategy to give people what they wanted – chiseled Australians who jump and crush on stage.
The driving force behind the powerful male striptease shows the smiles of Manpower and Thunder from Down Under: “This can make you laugh, but the guys danced in thongs and [surgical] Hood.
“Then we introduced transparent masks so you possibly can still see them smiling behind the mask.
“Many of our performances involve displaying these wonderful, endearing smiles. So we found a strategy to make it work.”
Cross’s brazen response to COVID is just the latest example of the attitude that has allowed him to amass a multimillion-dollar empire and produce stripping out of the shadows to the highlight.
Due to Cross, over 10 million people have seen Thunder with Adonises Down Under in their 31 years in Las Vegas.
![Queensland strippers from Manpower.LR: Bill Cross, Mark Dihm, Shane Herbert, Jamie Durie.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-1080623770.jpg?w=1024)
“Thirty years ago, our programs were mostly watched by women,” she says.
“It just was. The fellows would never go. But the world is changing, and in case you were in Vegas today, our audience is 30 percent guys. Now they feel comfortable.”
The undressing itself also went with the times. When Cross began dancing in the Eighties, the guys often maintained their looks with steroids and tanning beds. As an alternative, today’s dancers depend on spray tanning and “a bit of styling” to look their best.
Similarly, in the aftermath of #metoo, the entertainment industry is evolving with an increasing emphasis on the well-being of performers working in sexually charged environments. In movies and TV shows, this meant instructing intimacy coaches to choreograph sex scenes.
“We’re not at that level yet, but will we get there? Probably yes, says the 58-year-old married father-of-two, before adding that Thunder from Down Under will not be your typical seedy strip show.
![Billy Cross found a way to give people what they wanted during COVID.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/Screen-Shot-2023-06-19-at-122701-PM.jpg?w=1024)
“Yes, ladies and boys [in the audience] get excited, but to not the point where we now have to place measures in place [to protect the dancers].
“It never gets to the next level, and that is because of the environment. In case you’re at a nightclub, you most likely have more guys and girls getting out of control, but whenever you’re at a theater or a casino or a good venue, it’s really just more cheeky, “Hey don’t touch there” [to get people to calm down]”.
Definitely, movies like Magic Mike starring Channing Tatum brought striptease into mainstream popular culture, making shows like Thunder from Down Under a Hollywood A-list destination.
“We recently had Britney Spears, Demi Moore and Shania Twain,” he says.
![Billy Cross worked as a stripper for many years.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/67256235_2405725882803666_3827313703280181248_n.png?w=643)
“Just two weeks ago we had Sting and his wife [Trudie Styler] amongst the audience. Without dropping the name, I could go on and on like this. They feel good here.
“Emerging in America is all the time the dream of any artist, actor or band, and we now have the keys to Las Vegas and you might have it after 21 years on the set.
“Have a look at the other individuals who have it, it’s Elvis, it’s Frank Sinatra, it’s Siegfried and Roy. It’s huge.”
After greater than three many years in Vegas, during which Cross retired from performing to deal with managing the troupe, he was able to open a recent show in Nashville – America’s recent hen party destination – when COVID hit.
![The workforce has become global.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-529811390.jpg?w=1024)
“After which, boom, the taps turned off,” he shrugs.
The business reopened in 2021, continues Cross, with some changes.
“The show was limited to 50 people [from the usual capacity of 450]and we had a barrier so the guys couldn’t get in the crowd. So we limited our shows, but we made it.
“Our boys stayed in America and didn’t work for 10 months in 2020, so we needed to support them in this. Now we’re back in the game and we have regained momentum. “
Cross is bound to return back with a bang. Surgical masks are gone and – in addition to opening in Nashville – Cross plans to expand into Asia and Europe.
Imagine it or not, the general direction of the routine translates across most cultures and languages. It was in America itself that Cross needed to make the biggest modifications.
“In the Midwest or Southern states, they do not allow them to dance in thongs – or what they call them in America, thongs – in order that they need to wear little shorts,” she says with a chuckle.
“The Asian countries we visit are very liberal. In fact, the host could have a number of lines in the local language, which works rather well. The standard and professionalism of our show works in different places, so we haven’t got to make many changes apart from covering the buttocks [in more conservative parts of America]”.
![Thanks to Cross, over 10 million people have seen Thunder with Adonises Down Under in their 31 years in Las Vegas.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-529811404.jpg?w=1024)
Cross also signed a television show deal. It’s called Flip The Strip and showcases the trading skills of the guys from Thunder. Like Cross himself and his 90s Manpower sidekick turned TV landscape designer Jamie Durie in the 90s, many of them are real Australian staff – which he believes gives them a novel charm.
“So the boys go in and renovate the houses during the day, and take off their clothes on stage at night,” she says.
“It’s amazing … so many elements of this business are taken to a recent level.”
All of these recent moves mean adding more dancers to his core crew of 28 muscular Australians. And Cross trusts his wife Jackie to assist him resolve who will make the cut.
“Times have modified from say 20 or 30 years ago whenever you needed to be big and muscular [to be a stripper],” He says.
“People need to see athletic bodies as of late, so you wish guys who’re athletic, not muscular. I understand it sounds weird, but additionally they need a very good personality.
“You may think, what does that need to do with what you do on stage? But someone’s personality really comes out in the performance, and nobody desires to see a selfish guy on stage who thinks he’s a present from God.”
![Billy Cross says Manpower attracts celebrities like Britney Spears.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/GettyImages-945519468.jpg?w=680)
Cross believes that one of the things viewers love most about Thunder from Down Under is that they are usually not “skilled dancers, models and actors”.
“They’re just normal, regular guys,” he says.
“So we now have traditions, we now have a former lawyer and teachers.”
Sam Cross was working in construction when he began undressing on the side. Even in those early years, he saw the potential for his sideline to turn out to be a worldwide phenomenon.
The son of Greek immigrants, Cross details his extraordinary journey from a Liverpool housing estate, across the Gold Coast (and an overnight stay in a Canadian prison cell), to becoming a worldwide entertainment, music festival and real estate impresario, in the first episode of the recent Sky documentary series Secrets of my success.
![Demi Moore](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/1475182577.jpg?w=683)
Hosted by Ross Greenwood, each episode features an Aussie who “did it”, resulting in some wildly different success stories. For what it’s value, Cross believes his own height may be attributed to 1 thing.
“I never take heed to knockers,” he marvels. “Even in the Eighties, people said to me, ‘Are you kidding me? It can never work. You are only a bunch of male strippers.
“When you might have a vision, motivation and a dream, you possibly can’t take heed to the haters.
“You have got to have haste and perseverance. I feel I still have an extended strategy to go.”
Secrets of my success, 8pm AEST, Sunday, Sky News Australia
Originally published as A brazen effort that helped Manpower deliver during COVID.