3:18pm Wednesday 19th November 2008
By Sarah Jones
After waving goodbye to teaching, a Hampshire mum has set up a cheeky new business a world away from the classroom.
She speaks to SARAH JONES about her unusual life as the female boss of a naked butler agency.
SNEAKING a look at her watch, Gill Vigus could barely contain her excitement. The drinks had been poured, the night was young and Gill was determined to make her son’s fiancée’s hen night one to remember.
Exchanging a knowing glance with her grinning daughter, they knew the hen would love the extra special surprise they had arranged.
With looks to die for and muscles to make a grown woman weep, a naked butler had been booked and paid for.
Dressed in only a bow tie, collar, cuffs and a pinny to cover his crown jewels, the charming specimen would wait on the women hand and foot.
Any moment now, the crucial knock at the door would come and the party would really get started.
As the minutes ticked by, they waited and waited, but their knight with a shining torso never turned up. There was no explanation or apology – nothing.
Feeling thoroughly let down, infant schoolteacher Gill rang the agency the next day. After some investigation, they discovered that the butler’s no-show was down to the fact that he’d simply had too far to travel.
Seeing as Hampshire-based Gill and her daughter had struggled to find him in the first place, and none had been available locally – there was only one thing for it.
There was a serious shortage of buff butlers in the south and something needed to be done about it.
And so the mum-of-two hit upon an idea that would change life as she knew it forever.
She would abandon her 13- year teaching career and set up her very own naked butler agency.
“My colleagues at school thought it was a scream,”
smiles Gill. “I think they probably thought they are coming to take her away!
“It’s totally bananas to give up a well-paid job to take on a company that might not make it, especially given the current economic climate.
But I had to do what I felt was right.”
The 48-year-old turned her back on teaching in January this year, set up Butlers 2 Go and has barely looked back since.
Birthdays, hen nights, dinner parties, private functions – you name it, Gill has sent naked butlers to them all.
For admirers of the male form, the Greek gods give any party a definite wow factor.
And there’s more to them than just being great eye candy. As Gill’s boys have to be the perfect hosts, their talents include meeting and greeting guests, serving drinks and canapés and mixing cocktails.
There are 20 hunks currently on her books, with their day jobs including car sales, modelling, ex-forces and heating engineering.
They mainly live in the south-east, and Gill – thought to be the only female buff butler boss in the UK – has recruited a number of students from Southampton Solent University in the past.
Some are single, some are married, and they range in age from their late teens to early 30s. A strict selection process is vital, as Gill’s boys must be able to charm the birds from the trees and also dare to bare not only their chests but their bums, too.
“Out of every 20 that get in contact, I will take one or two on,” she says.
“I know it sounds harsh but people pay good money and they expect quality. They can’t be too timid or too skinny.
They have to be well-built and charming, very fit and toned, and fairly smooth all over.”
Despite her website making this very clear, Gill still gets some “unusual” applications.
“I have had some very, very weird ones,” she laughs. “One guy was in his 50s, everything was heading south, and he sent me a selection of pictures of him totally sprayed silver in a variety of poses.
“Another guy of a similar age said he would work for free cleaning or washing, but he would have to be totally naked.
“I always try to let people down gently and say, ‘Thank you very much for your application but you don’t quite have the look we’re after’.
“Some of them can’t take a gentle let-down though and say, ‘What do you mean, I haven’t got the look you’re after?’”
Aiming for the higher end of the market, Gill, who lives in Havant, is keen to stress that her butlers are definitely not sleazy.
“Probably about five per cent of bookings say, ‘What can we expect?
Will he take his apron off? I always say, ‘Our guys are definitely not strippers and no matter how nicely you ask, he won’t take his apron off!”
In fact, for more formal occasions, the butlers will happily cover up and wear trousers upon request.
A recent booking for several butlers at a Christian church “ladies day” saw them asked to wear boxer shorts.
With buff butlers available for parties across Hampshire, Gill is helping legions of women plan a party no guest will ever forget – for all the right reasons.
And the boys don’t do too badly out of it, either.
“Generally, the guys always say it’s like having a paid social life,” says Gill.
“All those women adoring you. They go in there and it’s like being a celebrity for the night. Their egos must take such a boost!”
● To find out more about booking a buff butler or if you want to apply to become one, visit butlers2go.com
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/trade_directory/