As multi-tasking goes, pouring drinks, serving canapés and coping with raucous laughter while dressed in only an apron is already good going.
But the Pink Butlers have an extra talent — raising money for charity.
The firm of butlers in the buff gives 10 per cent of all its takings to Breakthrough Breast Cancer, with revellers encouraged to donate separately too.
James Bailey set up the company four years ago, after a close friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. He said: “When I started the Pink Butlers it wasn’t about me getting rich or becoming a millionaire, that’s not the point.
“I needed to do something and start a business, so thought why not try and raise money at the same time. It’s about injecting some fun into a subject that can be really gloomy and sad.
“We’re not saying that we’re going to be able to cure cancer but what little we can do to help, we will.”
The 27-year-old, who used to be a butler for a different firm, said: “There are a thousand different naked butler companies.
“Obviously the fact that we fundraise makes us different but I’m also keener on the boys’ personalities than anything else.
“I’d rather have someone who looked like the hunchback of Notre Dame but had a cracking personality than a really good-looking guy who can’t have a laugh or be professional.”
The butlers say raising money makes them happier with their jobs. Louis Cardona, 26, who is also an actor, said: “It does make it feel sort of cleaner, I guess. It’s a really good cause so it makes our job easier.”
But Mr Bailey said it can be hard to explain what the butlers do.
Speaking from Aquum in Clapham, where he has catered for events in the past, he said: “Having disapproving girlfriends or partners is a problem. We have lost a few guys because of that.”
Alex West, a 25-year-old accountant who works for the Pink Butlers at the weekends, said: “At first I tend not to tell girls about it, not straight away.
“Most of them don’t love it. But then again it’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re not seedy or sleazy.”
Prices start at £75 per butler per hour. Book at thepinkbutlers.com.
