Will Clark World

Journal: Yolanda Makes Merry (or is that "Mary!"?) at Duplex #yolanda #theduplex

Lately it seems as though many of my pals are facing their careers head-on and I couldn't be happier. Whether it's that my friend Kylie Edmond's Rock and Rawhide is now an official non-profit or that Molly Pope is making numerous appearances all over town, it's great when my artist friends are making it happen for themselves!

Add to this list the amazing n awesome Roger Yolanda Mapes (my last guest on The Will Clark Show before we moved to The Rtiz) -- he has put together the first installment of his newest creation, a drag gospel show! And it's playing one more night - Sunday June 3rd at 6:30pm at the Duplex.

The past two Sunday's Roger has been knocking it out of the park with a tune filled show featuring real gospel numbers Roger sings himself while accompianied by guitar, cello and two awesome backup singers as well as the incredible Kenneth Gartman on piano - this is two parts gospel, two parts cabaret mixed together for a delightful evening's aural confection.

Plus, there are short/bite-sized homilies on getting a better life - a product of Roger's own ministry - he  graduated recently from the One Spirit Institute here in New York.

Delightfully drected by Rev. Shawn Moniger, it's a testament to the sincerity of Roger's performance that songs focusing on God don't feel campy just because Roger is dressed up in drag (and quite fabulously I might add). Plus, hey Lucie Arnaz was in the audience to give the evening a bit more fabulousness than it already had. :)

Cost is $20 plus a two drink minimum (click here for reservations) and the profits from the June 3rd show will go to benefit Sanctuary and Rev. Jane Galloway will be Roger's musical guest.

Will Clark's Journal: First Night at The Ritz April 19th, 2012 #theritz #dallasdubois #justinlukenyc #willclark

First off I want to thank drag queen extraordinaire Dallas DuBois and author Justin Luke (who's book, Gulliver Takes Manhattan, is out now) for being my guinea pigs, er my first brave guests at the new location on Thursday April 19th. And thanks too to our first beneficiary - the incredible Cheer New York crew who always bring a sense of occasion with them.

Truth to tell, it hardly seems as though that was nearly six weeks ago now as I write this on a rainy Monday.... Time seemed to sort of slow down and speed up simultaneously as soon as the move to The Ritz got underway in earnest and there were a couple weeks in there where it seemed as though only two or three hours elapsed between shows..... thankfully it's all evening out now and I can go back to the gym and back to eating a full meal or two a day... (knock on wood)

Yes, I will readily admit that the move was a tad more complicated and involved than I expected but after a few weeks, we're doing well and it allows us a lot of room to expand. We're still looking how to make the most of the room.... but we're getting there.

You can click here to see the free gallery of images from our first night - thanks to AB and Chauncey for coming along for the ride in the new space... we've had a lot of changes these past couple months but we're hanging in there and throwing a weekly party that you are invited to!  (and thanks to AB for continuing to take pretty awesome pics for us!) :)

Good Monday Peeps - Best of Times on Fire Island #fireisland #willclark

I'm not going to go into great depth of what I was doing walking through the Pines this past Sunday morning at 6:15AM, but you can probably make an educated guess. I was clothed and I wasn't alone if that helps. :)

Anyway, for those Fire Islanders who are, like me, in love with the island the most when the sun is rising and all the little ones have let their heads land softly on the pillow (as well as those whose heads are on the pillow but they ain't exactly sleeping), it is an opportunity to enjoy, admire, drink in, the natural beauty of the place at a time when there is little other kinds of beauty to distract from it.

The stillness of the air around the blossoming complex, even on a windy day, washed over me refreshing my soul with the promise of new adventures to come. I could relate. My life, like the Pavilion complex, had sort of burned down and was in the middle of a fresh, hard won reconstruction.

I hoped, for my own sake, that the new complex would both improve on the clunky rebuilt pavilion of the recent past (I always felt it lacked any kind of character at all - you could be on any dance floor in the world  - and that's fine for an Arby's but not so much for the Pine's party focal point) and the Pavilion that everyone remembers from the past few decades (maybe without the feeling as though the entire enterprise might collapse with one strong wind). I sure hoped so. If I'm feeling a sort of sudden kinship with the new building, I want the finished product to be the best of all possible worlds (with apologies to Candide). :)

As we moved past the site, the morning sun streamed in through the wooden beams creating a sort of halo effect. The building bathed in the glorious spring. I wanted to enjoy it as long as I could. I had seen the construction site on my way in on Saturday afternoon (the pic above) but the morning light gave it a life it had lacked before.

The boardwalk reflected the morning sun with dazzling patches of orange creating a sort of road of light leading back to the house where I was staying, visiting a friend who was celebrating his 55th birthday at a big blowout party the night before.

The party itself had been the best kind of Fire Island event - music, lights, great looking men, great food and free flowing liquor. The night had been cool, but what better incentive to find someone nice to curl up with?

After a kind of morning nap, I turned to more drinks and a walk on the beach picking up seashells (the left pic), a perfect, contemplative end to a 'go with the flow' kind of experience.

You see, this is, I think, when Fire Island is at it's best. When it's not about high tea or low tea and all that "showing off" crap that, for me, gets old real fast.

For me, it's best when it's about hanging out with friends and meeting fun, new, interesting people. When everyone pitches in and cleans up the party house the next morning while sipping cocktails and dancing to high energy music. When even mopping the floor and tearing up boxes for recycling is fun because of the company enjoyed.

And of course Fire Island is also at it's best when one is walking home at 6:15AM. <G>But maybe that's just me. :)

 

Will Clark's Journal: On April 11th, We Said Goodbye to Pieces #willclark #yolanda #thewillclarkshow

It's a couple weeks later and I'm sitting here at home on W. 102nd Street looking at the clock. It's just after 2amEST Thursday morning as I write this and I realize that last night was Wednesday night and I didn't head downtown to do the show at Pieces tonight.

Yeah, I sort of felt this way last Wednesday but I had too many butterflies in my stomach over the first Thursday show to really be able to reflect in the right way.... and I don't know if I was ready to completely let go.

You know how it is, right? You do something long enough - and three and a half years at one venue is a lifetime in New York's gay nightlife world - and you never really realize that you've become family until someone says it on your way out the door. We didn't sing "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" but there was a moment when I knew that although I was doing the right thing, it was still somewhat melancholy and I would miss some things about the place - the back room where our stars would occasionally get dressed, getting constantly tangled in the streamers along the back of the stage and of course doing an ongoing show on Christopher Street - the most historic street for the LGBTQ community this side of Castro Street.

The night was full of special moments - I had invited Roger "Yolanda" Mapes to be the sole guest weeks before I knew that it would be the final night there and, in retrospect, it was fitting. Roger has been a good friend to me ever since I did the weekly talk show at View Bar (RIP) back in 2004. We've both seen our share of changes, peaks and valleys and twists and turns. And, fittingly, he sang "We Are Angels", not only one of my all time favorite songs, but also one that Roger wrote.

But he didn't just perform it, no, Roger, sat on stage with me and took my hand and sang it to me as a beautiful serenade. I literally couldn't have been happier. The world sort of vanished for those couple minutes. The best part is that I can relive it anytime I want, as AB got video of it (and it's posted below). BTW you can check out Yolanda's newest show, a Drag Gospel Hour at the Duplex on May 13th and 20th. Will post info closer to the date. :)

Speaking of AB, I took the opportunity to celebrate his birthday - you know, the one that happens in January every year. I totally dropped the ball four months ago mainly because I was not well for a couple weeks but couldn't not do the event .. so I owed him a birthday celebration. I brought cupcakes and tapped singer Terry Christopher to sing happy birthday to him.

Now it's significant that Terry joined us impromptu-like for the final night at Pieces as he was one of the first guests at Pieces when we moved there in September 2008 - and his ride for Braking the Cycle was our last beneficiary at the old 9th Ave Bistro. So Terry has a little bit of history with the show and I was really thrilled that he could join us and have some fun with us especially so soon after he had done such a bang up job a few weeks ago at the birthday bingo. :)

Naturally the night was also a benefit for the Bear Den, and we raised funds for their meeting space at the Queens Pride House. :)

Later, after the end of the game, a few of us did what we did for nearly every week for the past couple  years - go get bar food over at Julius' and rehash the show - the good, the bad, the hilarious (intentional and otherwise). I always wanted to do an Oprah-like "After the Show" show. That would've been kind of fun. :)

Anyway, I will also miss the Julius staff - they were consistently great to us whenever we'd come in and the chicken fingers never failed to satisfy the late night munchies.

Farewell 8 Christopher Street  - thank you for three and a half great years!

Click here for the gallery from this fabulous night (photos by AB)

Catch The Will Clark Show every Thursday from 7pm to 9pm at The Ritz located at 369 W. 46th Street near Ninth Ave on Restaurant Row.

Catch Yolanda's Gospel Hour at the Duplex May 13th and 20th. Deets at http://www.yolanda.net

 

 

 

Will Clark's Journal: Horror Icons Raise Big Bux for BTC #willclark #bingo #joezaso

Indie horror icons Joe Zaso and Raine Brown (the 'scream queen' who proved that she can churn out one blood curdling scream!) joined us for a night at Pieces on Wednesday April 4th to benefit our friends at Braking the Cycle - the ride now benefits Housing Works - and as we have a few riders scheduled for the summer, I'll be revisiting info on the group in the coming weeks.

Also featured, new friend and singer DiSanto who sexed up the already pent up crowd and gave us good music - and an incredible sexy smile. :) In all, we raised over $500 for the ride and, as usual, had a great time with good friends!

Click here to see the gallery of hot shots of all our guests and talent! Photos by AB

Will Clark's Journal: The Torez Tango #torez #willclark #biancaleigh

As a producer (talk show host? emcee? what am I today?) booking my friends on the big show is of course a lot of fun. I know what's going on with them and so the interview is easy.

And the March 28th show was just like that - talking to Bianca about her one woman show at the Laurie Beechman or talking to Torez about him going back to high school so that he can move on to higher education.

Plus, we raised funds for Brainpower, a new org that helps LGBT homeless kids get the skills and experience to work in the comic book industry.

Thanks to our friends Jase, Heriberto, Brian, David and many others who joined us for a really awesome evening!! Click here to see the gallery of pics (Photos by AB).

Will Clark's Journal: Pete Finland Scores Big for the Tom of Finland Foundation #petefinland #willclark

You know, it's never the weeks when you have the time for everything to be crazy that things do indeed get crazy.. it's always the weeks that are already off the hook that somehow magnetize even more craziness ... but you know, that's how the world works and at one point you just have to give in to it and accept that ones evening is just going to go off the rails. March 21st was kind of like that.

I originally had booked Pete Finland for the night and then CB Kirby (my sometimes partner in Bingo who was on board representing the Tom of Finland Foundation who are based in Los Angeles) booked ventriloquist April Brucker for the evening. Somewhere along the line AB suggested that I book Lailah Lancing and since it'd been ages since we'd all seen her, I thought "why not?".

It was at this point in the planning process when DJ Chris Padilla announced that March 14th would be his last night as he needed to devote the rest of his month to packing and moving. Understandable. And then out of the blue DJ Chauncey Dandridge dropped into our lives (courtesy of AB btw, thanks AB!) which really saved the Pieces staff from having to dash back and forth to and from the DJ booth during the evening.

Then, my best friend Matthew (who lives in San Fran and comes to call a round when he comes to visit New York) announced he would be arriving directly from the airport to our show! And yes then there was Christopher from the Saint at Large who joined us for the fourth and final week selling the final round of fortune cookies to benefit Braking the Cycle. And oh yeah, AB announced before the start of the show that it would officially be Chauncey's birthday at midnight... but that he had it covered. Plus, we had a new waiter who was in his second week and the previous waiter, Josh, was now our bartender.

See? At one point I just had to give in to the madness and accept that it was going to be one of Those shows where it all kind of happened and everyone had a good time but I couldnt really tell you what order everything happened because it became a bit of a mash. Surely there should be an ap for this.

Along the way Lailah sang happy birthday to Chauncey while AB had cupcakes, the new waiter, Peter, stripped Pete who later sold his jockstrap to one of our patrons, while another patron was super generous and matched funds with the bidding of the jockstrap.. so a $200 jock became a $400 jock. And that's not even including the rest of the money that was raised from Bingo cards... so that is some serious awesomeness right there. :)

By the end, we weren't exhausted at all but energized by the fun we'd had and the money we'd raised. As we do nearly every night after Bingo, we stopped off at Julius' afterwards for more drinks and cheap grub (I have always thought it would have been fun to do an "After The Will Clark Show" show there).

Click here to see some seriously sexy pics of Pete and enjoy pics from the rest of the evening! Photos by AB

Will Clark's Journal: Gay Geeks Go Wild at Bingo! #geeksout #willclark

March 14th was a night when the GeeksOut group came out to play with us at Bingo - and we featured Marvel Comics editor Daniel Ketchum (what a cutie!) and drag superstar of New York, Peppermint! I indulged in some super geeky conversation with Daniel about comics (so rare when I get to have a conversation like that :( ) and then got a chance to talk with Peppermint about her recent community event at XL (some people spend their birthday raising money at a bingo event, Peppermint spent hers emceeing a town forum type of event). And yeah, the picture here pretty much sums up the great mood of the night! LOL

It was also DJ Chris Padilla's final night with us. Originally scheduled to be with us for three months back towards the end of 2010, Chris enjoyed the show so much that he stayed on for nearly a year and a half until he decided to leave our fair city for Florida where he has new opportunities awaiting for him. I am grateful for all the great sounds he gave us over the time he spent with us. Best to you, Chris!

You can click here to see the gallery from the night. Photos by AB

Will Clark's Journal: Celebrating the Big 48 at the Will Clark Show #willclark #bingo #kylieedmond #justinluke

I have a habit of celebrating my birthday not just for a long weekend but sometimes for weeks - and one memorable year I celebrated for two months solid - from the first dinner to the last party.. it was quite an extravaganza. This year it was a little more sedate which means that I celebrated like normal people do - just on the day and maybe a little bit extra.

The party on Wednesday March 7th at The Will Clark Show was the "little extra". And boy was it a blast!

I don't think I could have packed more into the night if I had tried - four guests - Amanda Takehometomother visiting from LA on her way to a week-long nudist event, Justin Luke who joined us with the very first advance copy of the just published GULLIVER TAKES MANHATTAN (formerlly titled GULLIVER TRAVELS), the incredible Kylie Edmond who has been having an amazing year after founding Rock and Rawhide and traveling to Australia (where she had a run in with a kangaroo) and our beneficiary, singer Terry Christopher who, this year, is riding in the Wisconsin AIDS ride which is kind of neat since I'm originally from Wisconsin. :) Plus, Christopher from the Black Party was back selling fortune cookies to benefit the New York ride, Braking the Cycle!

Plus Bingo friend CB Kirby dropped by to present me with a certificate of appreciation.. which is a pretty awesome thing.

But the biggest thank you for the success of the night goes to my cohort AB who arranged for the guests to bring special items (like Amanda brought handi-wipes given my advanced age! LOL) and arranged for DJ Chris Padilla to play some of my favorite tunes and, best of all, arranged to bring cupcakes with happy birthday candles.

Most of all, thank you AB for not bringing 48 of them. We would have burned the place down! Seriously, I'm glad that I don't have to face the good times or the challenging times without my pal, AB... and that's a fact.

And you know, I am one of those entertainers who couldn't care less if you know my real age.. I've never shied away from it ... especially when many people in our community didn't get to have many of the birthdays I've been enjoying (and hope to enjoy in the future). You and I owe it to all those that have died because of AIDS or hate crime violence to lead full, amazing, fun lives. You and I owe it to them to live as long and as healthfully as possible. You and I owe it to them to treat life like a banquet. RIGHT?

On that note, enjoy the pics by clicking here .. and thanks AB for taking so many GREAT pics!!

 

 

Happy Easter Peeps

My Easter Bunny came early last night as I left a wedding at the Eventi Hotel downtown (an incredible place to have a wedding btw) on the 1 train leaving from W. 23rd Street at about 11pm.... as I sat down, two drag queens got on board and started singing an a capella version of "It's Raining Men".

Now usually I can be quite the grumpy old man about performers (and wow in some cases do I use that term loosely) on the subway. If I'm not anxious about getting somewhere, I'm usually beat after having had a full day of job interviews, the gym and/or going to various events... so the last thing I'm up for is an impromptu concert by a mediocre singer.

But the drag queens had decent voices and were at least trying to make people laugh - one attempted to do a pole dance. The fact that 'she' was a tall and husky man kind of made it that much funnier (which was no doubt the intent). I was of course sort of stunned by the whole thing and it wasnt until they'd moved to the next car that I remembered that I had my camera with me.. whoops! Next time (I have a feeling they are going to be riding the rails again soon).

The people on the car were appreciative and were laughing - not in a nervous "I hope that the performer doesn't kill me if I don't give them a dollar" kind of way, but in a genuinely appreciative kind of way. 

As the bigger/taller of the two left, she turned to the car and said "You won't get THAT from Jennifer Lopez on the 6 train". Now I didn't know that Jenny from the block played the east side and one friend (Tim!) said when I posted this on Facebook  -  "Jenny only plays the 7. She doesn't like to admit it, but she's a mid town girl."

I adore my friends. :)

So it's Easter and I'm enjoying this holiday and this incredibly gorgeous day by spending the day listening to Time Warner's dance music channel (604 for those who want to know what's rattling my apartment) and catching up on TONS of work -- you know, like posting Will Clark Show pics from (blush) the past couple months!

For those who have been following my story the past few months, know that I am slowly finding oasis' of joy these days and in a much better place than I have been in quite some time. Your private comments meant the world to me and helped in ways that you can not probably imagine.

I guess that's not a bad place to be on Easter, huh? :)

Have a great day everyone and keep your eyes out for more pics posted throughout the day (Pete Finland coming up later on...) :)