Will Clark World

Friends, Fans, Colleagues - Advice Would Be Appreciated (more than just clickbait!)

Happy Saturday all - I'm off in a few minutes to help my local park replenish sand in the park's sandboxes. It's probably going to rain, it might snow, the group that's organizing this doesn't seem to be very organized but hey, it's better than dicking around my apartment for the next three hours and posting things on Facebook. :)

Anyway, wanted to drop a note to you all to ask your advice - while I was searching for pics of Blue Blake for the blog post the other day, I encountered a lot of great photos that I took during my years in the porn industry - some, for example, from the Bad Boys parties that were, at one time, behind a pay wall (and which helped me afford to throw them- and allowed more money from the actual event to go to the charity) and some that are just random party shots that I took at one point or another and/or shots from my Cocktails with the Stars event (1999- 2002).

I'd kind of like to share them but, as with all of you, but it's a lot of material and would take a lot of time to scan and post etc. I don't want to do another pay wall here on this blog (I find them to be a kind of pain in the ass to manage, to be honest, and I wasn't really impressed with the companies that I worked with in the past). Also: I don't want to just post pics out of context, I'd like to do some sort of blog stuff with them.

So, I'm putting this out to all of you as to thoughts that you might have. Maybe it's regular/chronological blog posts incorporating pics - and having some sort of advertising along the sides to help pay for my time in putting it together ??? or maybe it's a Kickstarter type thing (although I'm at a loss to know what I could offer as incentives). I don't want to just post them on Facebook because, well, as I understand it, technically Facebook then 'owns' that content ... and frankly, some of it (not very much but some) is NSFW according to FB's guidelines (which I support by the way).

I'm not looking for a get rich quick scheme or anything like that but given the response to blogs where I've told stories of my history in relation to porn celebs (for example, the posts where I eulogize friends from the industry), it seems that there is an audience for this.... and I've had more than one request over time to do more of that type of storytelling.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts,comments - you can leave them here (below) in the comment section or on FB. Not really looking for "who the fuck cares about your stories?" nasty ass comments so if that's your reaction, please feel free to keep that shit to yourself. :)

Always yours,

Will Clark

P*rno Bingo 2008 Gallery Now Posted on Pinterest - the Evolution of An Event

As I was posting the 2008 Bingo posters on Pinterest tonight I remembered the struggle that I had to create posters for the event once I figured that it would be just as easy for me to do it myself as it was to send all the materials to others. I'd had an awesome designer do the posters for a couple years but of course he needed to eventually move on. For the first half of 2008, my then boyfriend (who went by the name "Muffin Taco" as his Porno Bingo designer-name) put the posters together each week but as he had other pressing projects, I felt that it was time that I figured out how to do it myself.

Bit by bit I learned and started to manage it on my own. Muffin eased out of it but by the end of the year. I even  took a one day intensive Photoshop class at the School for Visual Arts (even if it didn't feel like the 'beginners' class it was advertised as) .

That wasn't the only transition - no, one of the biggest transitions in Porno Bingo history happened in 2008 - when the 9th Ave. Bistro closed.

Their lease had come up for renewal and the landlord wanted to raise the rent from $8,000/month to $24,000 a month. When Bingo started, Ninth Ave. had already begun to change - new restaurants and some serious gentrifying- by 2008 it was well on it's way to becoming the big draw it is now. As has happened all over Manhattan in the past decade, institutions that have been around for decades have closed as their rents have skyrocketed.

For the Bistro, the cost of doing business was simply too high and so, with a week's notice, we did our last show. I was heartbroken. We had worked hard over the years to build the show up to fit the Bistro and now, we weren't even sure that we'd have a show when the Bistro closed. A big queer music night became our last night at the Bistro. By the end of the night I was in tears as the show lasted well into the late night hours and had raised $800 for singer Terry Christopher's Braking the Cycle ride. I was nearly inconsolable. When I walked out the door, I could not look back, I could not even go back for their final party a few days later, I knew it would be just wreck me too much.

On that last night, our bartender Manny (whom even these many years later, I miss working with VERY much) gifted me a stack of about 50 letters from beneficiaries. When we'd started, the owner, Gary, had insisted that we figure a way to insure that his patrons know that the money they're donating actually went to the cause of the week. This is why I insist that charities show up for a fundraiser that benefits them. And it's why, at the Bistro, I asked all the beneficiaries to write letters acknowledging the support of the bar and mentioning the amount raised. All those letters, over the years, had been rotated in and out of frames in the back room where the pool table lived. And at the end, a stack of them was all I had as tangible proof that we'd made a difference in our own small way.

After an exhaustive search, Muffin and I pitched the show to Pieces and they graciously accepted us as a new event to the bar. It ended up feeling like a step up (wow, two mics and a little stage! it was like we'd gone to Broadway!) and we ended up only missing two weeks, picking back up on Wed September 10th. The first minutes there were pretty much that same queasy, "how can it ever be the same" feeling that you got the first time you attended a new school as a kid. That never really went away (but by January 2009 the Bistro was a Dunkin Donuts so no, we can never go back because there is no 'there' to go back to) but it was helped by the appearance of several Bingo regulars who showed up on that first night. I nearly broke into tears again.

The last four months of 2008 was simply about us getting settled again in the new digs and adjusting to a different way of doing the show. A late in the year highlight was sitting on stage with Mimi Imfurst and having her unexpectedly recite word for word Dixie Carter's 'Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia" speech from the first episode of "Designing Women". 

2008 was also the first appearance of singer Molly Pope - who has been such an incredible friend these past few years as well as the first appearances of both Frank DeCaro, go go guy Torez and Studio 54 legend Dame Rollerena who are all just awesome. (Just as a side note, as you can see by the gallery, Rollerena is one of the few non porn stars to get the 'large picture' treatment)

Staff-wise, AB stayed on with me as our photographer, Amanda Takehometomother joined us as a 'monthly visitor' and bartender Chris soon became a very welcome part of Porno Bingo history.

Finally, the posters from January of 2008 were lost in a February 2008 computer crash. A reminder to all of you - backup your work on an external harddrive!! Enjoy the posters by clicking here to the Pinterest gallery.

 

Related articles

P*rno Bingo 2005 Gallery Now Posted on Pinterest

P*rno Bingo 2006 Gallery Now Posted on Pinterest - the Evolution of An Event

P*rno Bingo 2007 Gallery Now Posted on Pinterest - the Evolution of An Event

WOW!! $2,000+ Raised At The Will Clark Show feat. P*rno Bingo for the Ali Forney Center! @MrJakeDeckard @WittiRepartee @TheFckingWorld @AliForneyCenter @RitzBarLounge

P*rno Bingo 2006 Gallery Now Posted on Pinterest - the Evolution of An Event

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).

 

From the WCW Vault: The GayVNs March 2009

A couple years ago I revisted the gay porn industry with a trip to San Francisco for the gay porn awards, the annual GayVNs held at the Castro Theatre. Typically these things are really fun if you're involved in some way (i.e.. a working member of the industry) but are kinda dull if you're not.

As I do the Bingo night featuring some xxx stars and xxx giveaways, I still have some interest, but it wasn't enough to really pull me in. Still, I had a great time seeing some old friends and going to the show with my friend Matt. And of course the hosts were hilarious.

Thought you might enjoy this little recap of GayVNs 2009....

 

 

NAMING NAMES AND THE NAMING NAMES WHO NAME THEM

March 2009

Well, if your name wasn't Brent Corrigan, Ricky Sinz or you didn't have anyting (and I do mean ANYTHING) to do with the movie TO THE LAST MAN, you probably didn't have much to do at last night's GayVNs held here in San Francisco. Co host Janice Dickinson solved that problem by getting drunk and stumbling about (followed by a trashy time in her VIP lounge which my friends and I totally crashed - and I am waiting for one of my friends to send me the pic as proof) but we've decided that Janice is officially Patsy from AbFab (not that there's anything wrong with that but does her sponsor know what she's up to??).

Margaret Cho stole the show by singing a song she wrote for Sinz called "Your Dick" which she played on guitar (Margaret: "I just picked it up recently. I figured, Madonna can do it, how hard can it be?") and Alex Mapa showed us how sucking dick looks like someone saying "wow". Fabulous. Mapa also called everyone to 'go forth and fuck" (or something like that) which my friend Matt took literally welcoming a recent arrival to the bay area he met at the afterparty. Go Matt!

The show's official theme was 'in the game" and opened with a performance not only by the super cute San Francisco CHEER team, but also the obligatory SF Freedom Band which started playing the 20th Century Fox theme in the hallway prior to their entrance. One hottie got tossed around on stage and then, hopefully had his choice who tossed him around for the rest of the night. Certainly he was the focus of a team of faux football player "performance art" sequence that was short but went on entirely too long. (Alex Mapa couldn't resist mentioning how it's "Magic!" bringing tears to his eyes).

The show's unofficial theme was "eyeliner" as a surprising number of people showed up as Robert Smith (of the Cure) lookalikes.. and speaking of which, Billy Masters, dude, did you ask the Pussycat Dolls if you could borrow their outfits (and maybe wearing ALL of their outfits at the same time wasn't the best idea) LOL

It's still gorgeous here in San Fran and although nursing a hangover (in more ways than one) I'm heading down to the Eagle's Sunday beer bust to meet up with friends. If you're not sufficiently messed up yet, drop by .. it's a much cheaper thrill than the award show and if you run into a guy wearing a football uniform, chances are there'll be nothing 'faux" about him.

More later!

From the WCW Vault: Will Clark's Excellent Montreal Adventure November 2008

As I'm taking a few days out of town, I thought you might enjoy reading a little blast from the past - in this entry, I describe my first trip to Montreal a couple years ago and what happened when I wanted to relax in the hotel hot tub. Enjoy this sensual tale... - Will

 

 

WHAT TO DO WHEN TWO GUYS ARE SCREWING IN THE HOTEL HOT TUB

Nov. 2008

So there have been some parts of this year that have been incredible, wonderful, amazing. I’ve never laughed as hard or as long as I have this year.

But there’s also this other part to this past year that I would delicately describe as a prolonged ‘shit storm’. Family, web, Bingo, day job stuff has made me on edge and although I think I’ve been handling it OK (maybe not brilliantly but definitely OK) I realized a few days ago that I could go no further in addressing and solving the crisises without a vacation. A real vacation. The kind where, you know, you loaf around. And then you loaf around some more. And then, whoops, I’m sorry I can’t talk right now, I’m too busy loafing. That kind of vacation.

So I chose this weekend to go Montreal. I’ve heard how great it is for years but never had the time and money at the same time.. but Thanksgiving weekend created a perfect storm and so here I am.

I discovered one of the better gay b and b’s through some online research, made the reservations over the phone on the train on the way up and arrived in Montreal a half hour earlier than expected. Wow, that never happens!

Upon arrival I discovered a promoter friend from New York was also staying here by complete coincidence. After some walking St. Catherines (the big gay street here) for a bit and scoping out the area, I returned to the hotel to grab a little sleep.

The promoter friend and I went out later last night to the dance club Parking and found it to be a rather good crowd. I was surprised that the downstairs bar, Tunnel, has a back room. Have those returned everywhere but in the States? Not that they hold my interest … a lot of furtive groping and zero light.. that’s a turn on for some but for me, I’d rather know whose hoo hah I’m holding on to.

I eventually left to check out the Black Eagle, the local leather bar and made friends with the bartender and closed down the joint finding companionship in a piece of halfway but not completely decent pizza. I ended the evening sitting naked in the hotel’s hot tub incredibly relaxed and happy to feel the stress unload from my body. Or at least start to.

Today I spent the day loping around the city taking pictures and falling for this place. I love the old world architecture, the ultra modern clothes, the scruffy look of the people (even the women!) and the geniality that pervades the city.

But as fun as criss crossing the city all day today was, by the time I got back about a half hour ago I just wanted to sit in the hot tub for a few minutes before I took a nap in preparation for tonight’s club adventures (part 2).

Well, you can imagine my surprise when I approached the hot tub room and heard some grunting. There’s a weight room down the hall (which, incidentally has a big picture window open to the street) and I thought the sounds much be coming from there. But nope, there were two guys just about to start screwing while straddling the hot tub.

This is not a family hotel.

Now at this moment there’s a little pop up window that appeared in front of me in mid air that said “you have a couple different choices here, what do you want to do?”

Do you A. simply walk away and come back later (but uhm maybe not until the hot tub has regenerated itself a couple times) or I could B. enter and be all nerdy “Hi Guys, What are you doing!? How was your day?” This would be lots of fun because I think people who have sex in public rely on other people to be shocked and just go away rather than say something. Tapping them on the shoulder and asking in my most Midwestern twang “hey, I’m not interrupting you or anything AM I??” But I’m not that much of a dick. Really. (But it does sound pretty fun, doesn’t it?)

Option C. was to simply walk in and sit on the bench next to the hot tub and watch or, if I was really brazen simply choose option D. and get into the other end of the hot tub and pretend as if nothing is happening. Both of which could also be fun.

Naturally the final option, E., is to simply join in and hope that I’m interested in them and they’re interested in me. This last option happens all the time in the Porn Universe but doesn’t really happen all that often back here on Planet Earth.

After weighing the options, I ended up going down the hall to work out a little. I know it’s a dull choice but I knew if I went in and tried to join in, the bad porn music would be playing in my head and I wouldn’t be able to stop laughing. This is one of the many by products of being in and reviewing a lot of gay porn. Sexual situations like these tend to suddenly become ironic.

As I did a few chest presses, the fucking-grunting commenced and I found that I was getting turned on, at least a little.

Because my corneas were burnt out when I opened the door to see the sight that I saw, but I didn’t really get a good look at the guys and now, with the grunting and huffing and puffing, I got curious who they were, what they looked like... it sounded like the bottom was getting pounded but good and I wanted to walk in and say "I'll have what he's having"...

I pushed open the door ever so slightly and found that they had shifted positions: bigger of the two guys was draped face front over the side of the hot tub and his buddy, lover, husband, guy he picked up on the street 20 minutes ago (?) was fucking him royally from behind standing in the hot tub.

The top was a wiry guy of about 50 who noticed me staring and grinned and for some odd reason I can only chalk up to some buried down deep button that has to always react to uncomfortable things in a humorous way,  I simply gave him a big toothy smile and two thumbs up. I guess that’s the non verbal version of the nerdy inquiry that I had thought of doing before.

The door closed, the grunting resumed, I came up to my room and realized that not only did I get a good laugh out of it thus reducing my stress, but I now have a new masterbation scene to play in my head. Who needs porn??