Flashing back to 2011, it was sort of the best of times, the worst of times - we had amazing guests and great crowds, there was DJ Chris Padilla who spun for us - he was supposed to come in for a few weeks to bridge a gap after DJ Baker left and he ended up staying for nearly a year and a half. That's total dedication to our great causes.
It was also during this year that I broke up with my then boyfriend of several years. Pieces was also being threatened with eviction when the lease was up and trying to find a new location was proving difficult. And then there was a huge argument that I had with a close friend and to this day we are still on the outs. (I'm sure I was factually correct, but I didn't handle it all that great... but then I was sort of at the point in my life where I'd realized that I needed to take care of myself a little better than I had been - and that sort of manifested itself in me having wafer thin patience for a lot of the bullshit that I had previously been able to swallow).
Sigh.
Anyway, on a happier note, we had some AMAZING first time guests including Colton Ford, Inaya Day, Athena Reich, Joe Zaso, Lance Navarro, Lailah Lancing, Wendy Ho, Skye Woods, Kennedy Carter, Flotilla, author Justin Luke (who would become one of my favorite guests - always had great stories!), Johnny Hazzard, Justin Utley, Candy Samples and various Cockyboys models. And, perhaps most importantly, Witti Repartee. Who, as you know from previous blog posts has become very important in my life and will be my last guest at Final Bingo this Wednesday, February 26.
Plus, after booking Ilene Kristen in 2010 I lobbied hard to get Florencia Lozano on the show. At the time she was on "One Life to Live" as it was in it's final few months. Her character, Tea, had been on the show for a long time, left and then returned. At one point she inadvertantly pushed another character out of a second story window and gave a blood curdling scream. So, being the pushy guy that I can be, I goaded her into doing it for us by recreating the scene by miming falling off the stage. She did it and we laughed and then talked story (basically admitting the writers had no idea what they were doing with the still at that time under wraps return of the real Todd Manning) and through a tangled conversation offering to be her evil twin if they ever bring one on the show for her. So now I am Florencia Lozano's Eeeeevil Twin.
I also booked Another World star Colleen Zenk on the show. It was a leather group raising money for a food bank in New Jersey... and to be honest, I was nervous at the pairing, what could a soap star have to say to leathermen and leatherwomen? But the date worked for everyone and I kind of took a big chance.. and what happened was a kind of miracle.. it turned out that when the rep from the leather group started talking about the liquid nutrition supplies that the bank needed, Colleen chimed in that when she'd been battling oral cancer, she had had to depend on that same liquid nutrition supply. It was a kind of beautiful moment as the lightbulb went on for both the leatherfolk and Colleen. And I did a little look up and said "how about that?"
My favorite part of that was then how the leather guys presented Colleen with a title: Ms. Leather Soap. So awesome! :)
The February 20th show was our 8th anniversary gala and although we are
new to Charlies, we had a great crowd and some longtime friends come on out to help us
celebrate on and off the mic - the night featured singer Athena Reich,
XXX stud Collin Stone and author Justin Luke who never fails to have
some news about his latest book developments (the sequel GULLIVER TAKES
FIVE is the sequel to his hugely successful GULLIVER TRAVELS book, now
titled GULLIVER TAKES MANHATTAN). Plus, we had month long memberships provided by our pals over at Naked Sword to use as prizes!
Plus, Doug and Bryan from The Big Gay
Ice Cream shop joined us with some delicious dairified treats - for
those of you who loved the truck at Union Square, it's now not only a
brick n mortar shop in the East Village, but a new brick n mortar shop
in the West Village as well).
My pal, and Bingo buddy, singer Terry
Christopher joined us to raise funds for his Wisconsin AIDS Ride this
summer. ) Thanks to all who joined us and here's to 8
more (OK, not really!)
Well, this sucks. Lucas Entertainment hottie Morgan Black is going to be a guest on my own show tomorrow night, Thursday December 10th and I won't be there because I'm down enjoying sun n sand n drinks on a cruise in the Caribbean ... damn!
So you, yes you will have to go and enjoy him without me - but make sure you take pictures!
And if you want to see Morgan in action, my guest host Witti Repartee will have some of his latest Lucas Entertainment DVDs to give away - THE WETTER THE BETTER.
Let's hope he wears his Butt Wrap underwear so that you can auction it off of him and overnight it to me.. er.. I mean...... <blush>
It’s
Yo Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Belvedere as Will Clark leaves for a 12 day
vacation on Sunday January 6th on board a Norwegian cruise to the Caribbean.
It’s Will’s first real actual vacation in over 6 years. So tonight, we’re
throwing a Bon Voyage party and you’re invited to a little something we’re
calling - “Butt Pirates of the
Caribbean”
There’s
no Captain Jack, although there will certainly be at least a bottle of Jack
Daniels consumed.
Featuring
the incomparable Farrah Moans along with Lucas Entertainment model Tyler Wolf
and a special appearance by comedian Lori Sommer.
We’ll
be raising big bucks for Trinity Place through the sale of Bingo cards and our
patented jockstrap auction. Of course there’ll also be erotic prizes from Lucas
Entertainment and cheapo happy hour drinks throughout the night.
Our
mission is to help homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ*)
youth and young adults in New York City to safely transition out of the shelter
system and grow into independent, positive, and productive adults.
About
Lori Sommer
A
showbiz triple threat--Dancer, actress, stand-up comedian
Lori
Sommer took an unlikely path to stand-up comedy that started with her being a
hip hop dancer on shows like Club MTV and Soul Train. It brought her all the way to the bright lights of NYC where
she traded her tap shoes for punchlines.
Lori
never lost her dancing sensibilities as her comedy is rhythmic, majestic and
prone to unexpected moves.
How
exactly did an Italian girl from Long Island go from dancing on stage with DMX
to performing on stage with a two drink minimum?
Come
to a show and find out!
About The Will Clark Show
Will Clark produces and hosts a weekly fundraising event benefiting New
York based non profits with four rounds of Bingo, celebrity guest callers and
fabulous prizes! Part game show,
part talk show and all fundraiser!
Now in it’s 8th year, The Will Clark Show featuring P*rno Bingo has
raised over $210,000 for New York LGBT charities.
The Will Clark Show feat. P*rno Bingo runs from 7pm to 9pm at The Ritz
and is New York City’s only happy hour show!
The
Ritz is located at 369 W. 46th Street near Ninth Ave on Restaurant
Row.
When I started posting these posters, I thought I'd maybe do the first couple years - I mean, who cares about 8 years worth of photos? And to validate that, there doesn't seem to have been much 'heat' about the postings on Facebook and the traffic for the pages hasn't exactly set land speed records.. lol but to a degree, who gives a fuck? I did it because I needed to reconnect with the past 400 weeks and this was a pretty good way to do it. (You can click here to go to the 2012 gallery)
As you know, 2012 has not been a banner year for me personally (things like my mom passing away will kind of bring you down) and professionally it's also been kind of up and down. I've had some intense busy periods where I've been cramming weddings (officiating and planning), readings and emceeing gigs into tiny bits of time and then I've had some other times when I worry that I'll never work again - such is the life of a creative person devoting themself to creative pursuits... but it's easy to let it get you completely freaked the fuck out. :)
This past January I looked ahead at the year and with all the uncertainly surrounding Pieces' future and given a period towards the end of 2011 when I felt "what's next?" for the event, I felt that I needed a new challenge. And that challenge appeared in the form of an offer to move Porno Bingo to the Ritz. Not only was it going to be a location change (both venue and part of town) but it was also going to be a different day and an earlier time (and a time when no other shows exist because no one goes out that early). As they say on HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, challenge accepted.
But I really bit off a lot and the team is still embracing the change and figuring out how best to use the location, day, time to our advantage. It does feel sometimes like I've decided to make an igloo but decided to make it in the desert, but I'm pretty clear that the challenge is not really about The Ritz or those external factors but in my attitude towards it all.
You see, I sometimes let it get to me when stars cancel at the last minute or beneficiaries show up without a group of friends and fans. I let it get to me when people sneer and tell me "it's not a real show" (whatever that means). And I let the world outside of Bingo affect me - which is ironic because these types of shows are the one place that one can go to escape ones life, even if just for a couple hours.
I have forgotten how to have fun at my event and just let it be. OK so I'm not really that "free to be you and me/Up With People" kind of person -but I've definitely not always taken full opportunity to play with my guests, those of you who join us as audience, our beneficiary and the bar and Will Clark Show staff.
And I apologize. Not just to you all, but to myself as well. (You can't see this but I've rolled up a newspaper and am hitting myself on the nose with it..bad Will, baaad!) :)
Anyway, in March DJChris Padilla moved to Florida and I hired DJ Chauncey Dandridge as our new music master. Despite coming in at the tail end of the Pieces era, Chauncey caught on to the show quickly and when we moved, he moved with us. AB of course has stayed with the show and I've had the fun of bringing on friends while the three of us create our new home.
Thanks to Witti Repartee who probably in just one year has hit the record for most appearances in one year at our event. Gusty's been helping out a lot too and I appreciate it. Thanks to Terry, Kylie, Yolanda, Dallas, Vito, Justin, Jay, Jamie, Candy... and everyone else that made appearances this past year - especially to those who joined us mutliple times. I hope that I get to see more of Tawny Heatherton, TJ Kelly, Sam Colt, Margarita Pracatan, Molly Dykeman and many of the other guests who joined us for the first or second time. :)
Thanks too to Cockyboys and Lucas Entertainment for being incredibly generous with talent and product. We gave away a lot of Damron Guides this past year as well as soaps and shaving cream from Nancy Boy (in San Francisco). A special thanks to those at ID Lube especially as they also went through a major transition this year.
I also have to especially thank CB Kirby who arranged all the Braking the Cycle nights in 2011 and this past year. And of course the Ritz staff who have worked to fit us into their schedule and their way of doing things.
And knowing that the NEXT staff is a full supporter of this fundraising enterprise, makes it just that much easier to make the week to week thing happen. :)
So if you're interested, check out the other blog posts about how the event started and how it evolved along the way. There are links in each post to the Pinterest gallery - or you can simply go to Pinterest and find me and check out the galleries.
I'll see you this Thursday night from 7pm to 9pm at the Ritz for our 400th show! :)
It's been a really awesome experience going over all the posters from the 8 year run of Porno Bingo - and putting together three whole years of galleries in just one day has been a kind of head spin.. but it's been really neat to see the show evolve and remind me just how much fun it can be - when I'm not stressed with a multitude of life problems, when I don't get thrown by celebrities canceling at hte last minute or when a beneficiary shows up without bringing co-workers or volunteers or when whatever other problems are happening at one time with the venue we're in.
As anyone who has ever read this blog knows, during the summer of 2011, the owner of Pieces was looking to move the bar to another location in the West Village. The lease on the current location was going to expire in 2012 and so there were plans to simply move down the street. I got involved in the fight (I did have a vested interest!) and what a fight it was - unreasonable neighbors on W. 8th Street proved to be oddly homophobic - I still remember vividly a neighbor getting up and claiming that the used condoms she found on her doorstep were directly from Pieces. I kind of wondered how she came to that conclusion since there are about a half dozen other gay bars in spitting distance and of course since there have typically been tons of gay men - both resident and tourist - wandering around the West Village .. and by the way she lived on Gay Street. I'm sure it's someone's fantasy to go have sex on Gay Street in New York. In fact, I'd bet that it's a lot of people's fantasy.
Anyway, Pieces eventually won the right to move to the new space but then at the 11th hour the landlord reneged on the lease, leaving the bar seemingly homeless. It gets confusing from there... there was a sudden extension of the lease, there was a new space and then suddenly Pieces wasn't moving and they'd have an uptown location that they didn't want anyone to refer to as "Pieces 2" (I kept insisting that they name it "Clark Bar" but they would have none of that LOL! My only request was that I would let them use my name if I could drink there free for life. Oh well, I tried).
In any event, amidst all this confusion we spent the summer of 2011 raising funds for Braking the Cycle and, in total, with the Bad Boys on the Hudson, raised over $23,000 in just three months for them. One of my favorite nights from that summer was the pre Pride night that a rider raised $1000.. the next week's rider raised $1500... and the $1000 rider gave his money to the $1500 rider, which gave her then $2500... and she had a corporate matching fund program, so she instantly had $5000. It was kind of awesome to realize that. See? Math CAN be fun!
I met Molly "Equality" Dykeman in 2011 as well as had on as first time guests, stripper/go go boy Jay Roth, singer Vincent Wolfe, xxx stud Kennedy Carter, singer Deni Bonet, The A List's TJ Kelly, Colton Ford, the Kiki Twins, Inaya Day, author Justin Luke, drag queen Candy Samples and Andy and Brian from Camp Blood... I renewed a relationship with Witti Repartee (who would in 2012 be crowned Empress of the Imperial Court for a year) and has lots of fun with Emily McNamara, Torez, Kylie Edmond, Molly Pope, horror icon Joe Zaso, Flotilla, Frank DeCaro... and way too many more to list. Alessio Romero and Antonio Biaggi were frequent guests - every time they'd come to New York, they'd offer to do the show (thanks guys!) :)
Two of my favorite weeks were not coincidentally soap nights. In association with the site We Love Soaps, I brought Colleen Zenk ("As The World Turns") and Florencia Lozano from "One Life to Live". Colleen bonded with NJ Leatherman when talking about her throat cancer, and I have become Flo's evil twin. Those two are lots of fun and incredibly awesome! :)
DJ Chris Padilla stuck with us throughout the year but would soon leave New York for warmer climes. As 2012 approached, it was clear it would be a challenging year - and that it was. Yikes!
As a die hard soap fan from way back, I love it when the genre gets some lampooning (like with SOAP) but nothing makes me happier than when real life approximates soap opera's version of reality. In this
clip from THE COLBERT REPORT from Thursday night, Stephen Colbert shows us just why the Patreaus scandal should be renamed "General's Hospital".
And as a side note, for those of you who are watching the real GENERAL HOSPITAL, isn't this the show has been since the mid 90s? The mob is finally being phased out and there are actors of all ages (even people who are over "50"). Heather Webber, Anna Devane, Robert Scorpio, Duke Lavery, Faison and AJ Quartermaine all all back on canvas and actually directing the story. (And Lucy Coe is back starting on December 14th) If you loved "Cartini's" run on OLTL, you will really love what they are doing on GH. Less dark and much funnier than it's been in a decade. I even love the character was injected with massive amounts of LSD and now is psychic. That is one nutty hospital. :)
Good afternoon all - as we near the 400th show (in December) I've been looking back on how the show has grown and evolved over the years. You can click on the gallery in Pinterest here.
Naturally, given the title of the event, Porno Bingo, I wanted to include porn stars as often as possible.. and in 2006 I welcomed many of my friends (like regulars Jason Dean and Kyle Douglas) and made some new ones - Gus Mattox, Mario Ortiz, Michael Lucas, Pete Ross (who would join us many times over a couple year period before vanishing completely), Blu Kennedy, Jay Black, Tony Serrano (who would also join us many times over the years), Duke Rivers (also a staple of the Bad Boys on the Hudson up until recently), Jake Deckard (who will be returning to Bingo on November 29th for the first time in years), Spencer Quest, Scott Spears and Rich Merritt who wrote the excellent SECRETS OF A GAY MARINE PORN STAR.
But, as you can imagine, relying solely on porn stars can be a bit rough -now there are a few more (thank you Cockyboys) - but then I relied on guys traveling to New York and making time out of a busy schedule to donate a couple hours of their time when they could be working. Also, some of the charities would grouse about the name of the event AND it was a constant battle to market it within the LGBT community - some gay listings would not include the event because they felt it was too dirty for them (and yes, these same listings would include far raunchier events ... but they didn't have the word 'porno' in the title). Sigh. What's a promoter to do?
Well, I decided to re-brand the show. It would be the first of two times that I would do it. After some consultation with various friends, I settled on "Planet Bingo". Yeah, I thought it kind of bland too but no one was really coming up with anything better and it felt sort of all encompassing.
And while I LOVED the graphics that new Bingo poster artist Michael Broderick came up with, there was a lot of confusion as to if this was the same event or not. Attendence tumbled and suddenly I had to make the decision - stick with it and persevere or ditch it like the Coke people dumped New Coke.
Although one positive thing the re-branding allowed me to do was bring on guests that were out of the porn realm - like singers Brian Kent, Josh Zuckerman, personalities like Randy Jones and Scotty the Blue Bunny, Poppi Kramer and Empress Gefil Tefish. But my favorite from this period was actor Richard Skipper who came in character as Carol Channing. We were forbidden to do any corn jokes (although I had wanted to include a form of corn in each bag - an ear, a can, medicine from the drug store to reduce corns, etc and wanted to re-brand the night "Corno Bingo" but it's probably better not to have done that I suppose LOL) :)
Alas, in December, just four months after "Planet Bingo" started, I reverted back to Porno Bingo with our annual "XXXMas with the XXX Stars" (I had been doing a regular holiday event under that name at Faultline in Los Angeles years before). It was packed and I got confirmation on my answer - that while some charities and listings were skittish (and in some cases almost aggressively put off) about the word "porno", this is what sold the event. And so it's stayed throughout the rest of the run of the event (although I would re-brand later on but this time keep Porno Bingo as part of the title. This worked much better).
AB, Manny and I continued to do the event and said goodbye to first year regulars singer Kris Landherr and his delightful boyfriend Troy aka Chamaigne Pussy as they moved to Texas. I also took two weeks off of the show at the end of the summer on an actual real vacation (I sequestered myself in Cherry Grove surrounded by beer, chips and DVDs of the first season of SOAP. This turned out to be a great choice since it rained nearly the entire time I was there. I did not care).
My "evil twin" and friend, actress and playwright Florencia Lozano - who now plays her ONE LIFE TO LIVE character Tea Delgado on GENERAL HOSPITAL - can currently be seen through Sunday October 14th in New
York Theatre Workshops RED DOG HOWLS playing opposite the magnificent Kathleen Chalfant and Alfredo Narciso.
As regular Will Clark Show go-ers know, Lozano joined us for a fun night of fundraising about a year and a half ago at our old location. Here's hoping we can the honor of seeing her at the Ritz sometime soon!
What started out as an ordinary day soon became the start to one long heat wave here in New York - oh sure, they say it's been three or four separate heat waves but, for me, it's been one long hot day since Thursday June 14th.. and that was the day I welcome actress Tonja Walker- Davidson to the Will Clark Show as the latest in my line of soap star appearances (before her - Ilene Kristen, Colleen Zenk and Florencia Lozano).
On this day Tonja I swam through the heat and train schedules where we both ended up at the Ritz a little worse for wear, but a quick splash of water and a drink and both of us were as good as new and ready to talk soaps.
The biggest revelation that came out of the night (at least as a die-hard One Life to LIve fan turned General Hospital afficianado now that One LIfe to Live actors/characters are on the show) is that there MIGHT be a plan afoot to bring her characters to Port Charles. Characters? Did I mis-type? No, Tonja hinted that she's in talks with the producers of GH to link both her GH character, Olivia Jerome (who died on the show) and her OLTL Alex Olanov character. It's definitely possible - GH is well known for it's mob connections (Olivia was a mobster's wife) and Alex has been known to cavort with super criminals (like Carlo Hesser played by the sensational Thom Christopher) and has of course done some pretty awful things over time herself.
And, One Life never did explore the relationship between her on-show son played by Josh Kelly (GH would definitely benefit from his grifter hotness as part of the landscape.. he'd have to beat a murder rap but hey, everything is possible on soaps including faking ones own death so getting out of prison is nothing). (Hey Ron, if you're reading this, her fans would love this to happen!)
As you can tell, I'm chock full of soap geekiness and useless information - but I love the art form (and despite nay-sayers, it IS an art form) and so having Ms. Davidson as my guest was a real treat. :)
Naturally the talk turned to charity and the great work that GMHC does as well as the programs that Tonja is involved with herself - U Know Kids, Project Love and Purple America.
Afterwards I rented a car and drove her back to her car parked at a train station up in Westport. We chatted all the way and I waited until she'd gotten into her car and driven away before I started out myself. But whoops, despite the fact that I've been to Westport like a hundred times over the past five years (my ex boyfriend's parents live there and I have been working there throughout the spring as a personal organizer for an author who had just published her latest book - and her office was a disaster! LOL) I quickly realized that I had no idea how to get anywhere actually behind the wheel. I've always taken the train or been a passenger. It was.. uhm fun to find my way out but thankfully there were a couple angels who helped me find my way along the way.
I was pretty exhausted by the time I returned the car and made my way home, but what a fun experience and will look forward to having her back in the future!
Will Clark produces and hosts a weekly fundraising event benefiting New York based non profits with four rounds of Bingo, celebrity guest callers and fabulous prizes! Part game show, part talk show and all fundraiser!
Now in it¹s 8th year, The Will Clark Show featuring P*rno Bingo has raised over $200,000 for New York LGBT charities.
The Will Clark Show feat. P*rno Bingo runs from 7pm to 9pm at The Ritz and is New York City’s only happy hour show!
The Ritz is located at 369 W. 46th Street near Ninth Ave on Restaurant Row.
Will Clark has been involved with the erotic entertainment industry for 25 years. He has appeared in 48 XXX films, produced 10 Bad Boys Pool Partys and 10 Bad Boys on the Hudson events, 144 nights of "Cocktails with the Stars", 470 editions of "The Will Clark Show feat. P*rno Bingo" (raising a quarter of a million dollars for NY/NJ non-profits), 40 "P*rn Idol" events, as well as hundreds of other events raising funds for LGBT charities. He still emcees, officiates at weddings and makes appearances at bris's and the openings of shopping malls. He is currently in semi-retirement, waiting/looking for the right project to come along.
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