All about events and happenings at the Big Gay Frat House in San Francisco's oh-so-gay Castro District, as well as our various adventures out and about in San Francisco.
The images we use are all original and are not lifted from the Internet, except when provided by promoters about their events. Our photos are uploaded to Flickr and linked back to here. Many of these images are restricted on Flickr due to showing some nudity or other adult contest. To see full-size thumbnails or any restricted images in slideshows, you must create an account on Flickr, log in, and turn off SafeSearch in your account settings. This allows Flickr to prevent minors and those not interested in the content from accidentally seeing it.
In our ongoing campaign to promote gay nightlife in San Francisco, especially ones that come up with innovative and/or risque elements to push their creativity, we want to promote a new event in San Francisco: naked karaoke! Or more specifically, as the event promoters have named in, Nekked Karaoke.
Nekked Karaoke occurs on the first Thursday of every month at Deco Lounge (510 Larkin Street). It can be a challenge sometimes to get motivated to leave the Castro, and something special to get me to the Tenderloin, and if karaoke is involved it had better be damn amazing. Naked karaoke? I had to check it out.
The poster had already warned me that it wasn't exactly completely naked singing. Essentially, guys who sang while being stripped down to their undies (including shirtless) would get a drink ticket and would be eligible to win a $100 prize at the end of the night. I wasn't able to stay to the end of the night, so I'm not sure if anyone actually pushed the envelope (and the undies), but there were definitely some cuties in their briefs singing their hearts out.
This guy was my favorite, and I hear he won, too:
Here's a slideshow of some additional photos. For the full set, you'll have to check out my Flickr gallery (but be sure to log in and turn off SafeSearch to see the restricted ones).
Nekked Karaoke is currently advertised as being on the first Thursday of every month. Of course, since it's Deco, I wouldn't be surprised if folks dropped their pants even during regular karaoke (which I believe is every Tuesday and Thursday).
Speaking of risque charity fundraisers, we would be completely remiss in overlooking the grand-daddy of all queer charity fundraisers with stripping and near-nudity: Broadway Bares, which has just relaunched their website in anticipation of their 20th anniversary in June 2010.
In October 1987, the Council of Actors' Equity Association founded Equity Fights AIDS, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing direct medical services support to uninsured members of the entertainment industry. Four months later, in February 1988, The Producers' Group founded Broadway Cares to do fundraising for different AIDS service organizations, including Equity Fights AIDS. The organizations merged in May 1992 to become Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Since its inception just over 20 years ago, the organization has raised over $160 million. They hold a number of entertaining fundraisers throughout the year, ranging from actors collecting small charge donations from audiences after every Broadway and theatrical touring productions to holding large-scale fundraisers of their own. But without a doubt, the most amazing one of all is Broadway Bares, holding two performances in New York City every June on the Sunday before the beginning of Pride Week.
Broadway Bares was founded by Jerry Mitchell, a chorus boy turned choreographer and director, who rounded up fellow cast members of The Will Rogers Follies in 1991 to perform a go-go fundraiser at Splash Bar New York, where they raised $8,000 just from go-go dancing. The event later grew to a full-scale theatrical evening of choreographed performances -- with stripping! -- following the year's theme. Some past themes have included:
2001: A Strip Odyssey (a sci-fi themed show in 2001)
A Comic Strip (comic book themed, from super heroes to Archie, in 2002)
Now Showing (a look at Hollywood movies, in 2004)
Rxxx (medically-themed naughty nurses and dirty doctors, in 2005)
New York Strip! (an homage to the best of New York City, 2006)
Myth Behavior (Greek mythology, 2007)
Wonderland (as in "Alice in...," 2008)
Click It! (all things Internet-related, 2009)
In June 2005, Kevin happened to be in New York for a week on business. His stay ended the weekend of Broadway Bares, so he extended his stay through the weekend in order to catch the show. And since it was a random opportunity (what are the odds his work happened to be paying him to be in New York at just the right time?), he splurged and spent $600 for a special VIP seat (boxed seats, near-naked boys serving free drinks donated by Absolut vodka).
In addition to the army of dancers, singers, choreographers, directors, make-up artists, and everyone else who puts on the stage show, the event is also staffed by a million other volunteers who make the evening run smoothly -- including (a brilliant idea!) scantily clad men and women with money bags of rolled-up dollar bills whose job is simply to exchange a roll of twenty $1 bills for a $20 bill, making it easier for audience members to tip the performers in the "rotation" set at the end of each show. Making it easier to tip? Brilliant!
Broadway Bares 19's theme was "Click It," with performances relating to things about the Internet (everything from Internet shopping, a play on Kelly's "Shoes," to fantasy football, pictured on the right). It raised a near-record $808,819 (the previous year raised $874,372), including $174,284 before the evening from 261 performers competing in an online "strip-a-thon."
Oddly enough, though Broadway Bares' new website has an online store, they do not sell actual videos of past performances, though they are available through Broadway Beat.
The next year will be Broadway Bares' 20th anniversary, and I bet it will be epic. If there's anything I can do to be there, I'll do it.
This is exactly the kind of fundraisers that the Big Gay Frat House loves. We aren't performers ourselves, nor choreographers, but we got lots of ideas and we know how to handle all of the other logistical details to produce events. So if there are talented entertainers in the San Francisco Bay Area who aren't afraid to show a little skin, we would love, love, love to work with you to create something that, if it was even only 1% as brilliant as Broadway Bares, would be absolutely thrilling to work on.
To inspire you (or at least titillate), we leave you with a montage from the Fantasy Football sequence from Broadway Bares 19:
One of the more interesting and inovative changes to the Castro's gay nightlife scene is the introduction of aerolist rope performers at Trigger.
On Friday and Saturday nights around 11:30 pm (and possibly Thursdays and Sundays, we're not entirely sure), a trained performer will suspend from a rope from the ceiling and perform acrobatic tricks. Sometimes the performer is a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes a pair. Sometimes they wear almost as little as a go-go boy, though generally a bit more. Using a rope, or sometimes drapes from the ceiling or a suspended hoop, the performers fly through the air while engaging in Cirque du Soleil-like acrobatic moves.
Rope dancers can be found elsewhere in San Francisco, including Supperclub, but at the moment, Trigger is the only Castro bar experimenting with this new form of performance art. The Cafe's indoor patio is probably the only other place with a high enough ceiling to do it, but so far there's no indication that they intend to install a rope as well.
Check out some of the nearly 200 photos we've taken over the last few months. (Note: many of these photos are marked "restricted." To see the full set, create a few account on Flickr and then turn off SafeSearch in your account settings. If you then return to this blog in the same browser while still logged in, you'll be able to see the full set.)
Longtime followers of the Big Gay Frat House's antics will know that we have long been fans of Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, the Russian opera diva gracing cabaret and theater stages throughout San Francisco. We first saw her perform at Trauma Flinstone's monthly show Bijou, held on the second Sunday of every month at Martuni's, and then at her own Martuni's show on the third Sunday. Kevin interviewed her for gay.com right before her own Martuni's show debuted.
For those who haven't experienced her, Katya is a drag queen who sings live. A trained opera singer who sings pop songs. As operas. With a Russian accent.
Since then we've seen her at countless shows throughout town and numerous charity fundraisers. She co-starred as Sylvia Fowler in the revival of "Jungle Red" that we helped produce. And she has performed at five charity fundraisers that the BGFH produced. We also saw her first productions at the New Conservatory Theatre.
But her current show at NewCon, Katya: What Becomes a Legend Most, is truly her best to date. There's a scripted continuity that keeps the show on a logical, even flow, but her inate sense of timing and humor allows her to ad lib without distrupting the show. Brilliant! Longtime fans will be delighted to hear that this show has many, many new songs. For those of you not on the wagon, there's a vodka cran shot at the end ... and for those of you who fall off the wagon, welcome back.
You can buy tickets through the New Conservatory Theatre box office, or check Goldstar for the potential availability of discounted tickets.
The show runs Thursdays through Saturdays through June 27th.
Last April we hosted a charity fundraiser called Flop House for SF Boylesque, San Francisco's only mostly-male burlesque troupe. It was an extraordinary event, one of our favorites. You can check out photos on the BGFH website and Kevin's Flickr gallery.
SF Boylesque had a somewhat nomadic first fews years, but we're delighted to report that they now have a monthly show called Das Kabarett at Mama Calizo's (1519 Mission Street, site of the former Jon Simms Centre). Kevin went to the first one in Jannuary and it was absolutely delightful.
The next show, entitled Das Kabarett: Wicked - 7 Deadly Sins Unveiled, will be held tomorrow night at 8:00 pm. Check out the description from their ticketing site:
"Something's a bit off over at the local Catholic school. The headmaster's monitoring the post-PE showers. Nuns are chain-smoking inside the confessional. Strip poker's being played in the detention hall, and Satan himself is wondering the hallways. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when things started to stray, though by now, the problems are obviously endemic.
Strict disciplinarian Father Barnaby and the delightfully deluded, Sister Scrumptious educate six uniformed schoolboys on the most heinous elements of the human condition: PRIDE, ENVY, GLUTTONY, SLOTH, ANGER, GREED and LUST. [sic]
An odyssey of song and dance, this irreverent, fast-paced comedy, weaves circus and variety acts into their 80-minute long, stripped-down, neo-burlesque spectacular.
Featuring 14 of your favorite performers answering your most burning questions:
-Which of the six naughty school boys will receive a bare bottom spanking?
-Who's the new guy, no not that one, the nearly naked, sinewy deity slinking across the stage?
-What indulgences does it take to seduce Truly Scrumptious from her habit?
-Will an audience member really crack a child's head open onstage?
This show is so jazz-hot, Satan himself couldn't stay away.
ENORMVS sizzles in our sexiest strip routine yet!
JASPER will melt your heart with his accordion ways!
SVEN's comedic strip will literally take your breathe away!
CHEEKMASTERS circus skills dazzle in the penultimate act!
TRULY SCRUMPTIOUS crosses over to the darkside!
The BOHEMIAN BRETHREN take a gamble and lose their clothes!
Yes. "Strip poker's being played in the detention hall" and "The BOHEMIAN BRETHREN take a gamble and lose their clothes!" You know that if there's a strip poker reference, Kevin just has to be there. I mean, he has taken 945 pictures of guys playing strip poker over the last few years. (Note: Flickr requires that they be restricted, so be sure to create a few Flickr account and turn off SafeSearch in your account settings.)
So check out some photos from January's event and then buy a ticket while they still last!
It's December 26th at Frank's house, and that means he's returned to work, allowing Top Shelf (his bisque porcelain oldest doll) to conduct orientation day for the new dolls in Frank's collection.
Thus begins Dolls, actor/playwright Michael Phillis' newest one-man play at the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. The newest dolls are instructed in the rules for being a doll:
Never let them see you move.
Never let them hear you speak.
Always end up where they left you.
Even if you don't like the game, you still have to play.
With the simplest of sets and costuming, Phillis successfully portrays an array of dolls in Frank's carefully arranged collection. On the top shelf: the fragile porcelain dolls that rule the collection. On the second, the action figures where the good guys and bad guys have forged a truce now that Frank is all grown up and doesn't play "war" any longer. Which doesn't mean that peace reigns among the shelves: on the third, war rages between the brand name snobs (like Barb--- oh, can't say her name) and the off-brand knock-offs (like the surfer boy Ben dolls, with a B). And on the fourth, the mish-mash collection of chotchkes, fast food and cereal give-aways, and now-worthless mass-produced "limited edition" furbies and the like.
Without changing costume, Phillis' voice and animated style easily convey which doll is speaking. Though the premise has been touched upon before (Toy Story, most notably), Phillis (who also wrote the play) gives new life and substance by making Frank an aging, lonely gay man. The end is somewhat ambiguous, sparking debate amongst our group -- but really, the hallmark of any good show is one that provokes discussion and analysis.
See more about the show in Phillis' teaser trailer for it:
Michael Phillis is a long friend of the BGFH. Kevin interviewed him for Gay.com almost three years ago about his play D*Face, then playing at the New Conservatory. And in August 2006, he performed at our Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser with this delightful number:
Dolls continues at the New Conservatory Theatre through February 22, 2009, Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm.
As the year comes to a close and we look to new adventures in 2009, we wanted to take a moment to look back at the fun we had in 2008 and thank everyone who made it possible.
It was a bit of a different year for us, with fewer parties in our own home, a few fundraisers hosted externally, sponsoring more community events, and the first for us: producing the revival of a favorite drag musical. But though the house itself was a bit quieter, we have still raised a net total of $30,000 for charity in just two years.
We including links to some of Kevin's Flickr photos so you can see more. To see the best ones, be sure to create a free Flickr account and then turn off SafeSearch in your account settings. Some of them are a bit racy and needed to be marked "restricted."
Our first event in 2008 -- and the last large fundraiser in our home -- was Flop House, a charity fundraiser in April for SF Boylesque, San Francisco's only male burlesque troupe. The event featured raffles, bachelor date auctions, face painting, our usual open bar, stilts-walkers, and some of the most innovative performances ever at the BGFH: male burlesque choreographed strip teases, jugglers, contortionists, and the strongest man in the world (we had to veto the fire breathing). A videographer was also on hand taking footage for a documentary about the BGFH (more about that later). Check out more photos from the event here, here, and here.
The very first fundraiser in our home was the Balls Out Ball, a 2006 fundraiser for the SF Fog rugby team headlined by Varla Jean Merman. One special highlight that helped set expectations for future BGFH events: we enticed a number of boys from the team to perform a choreographed stripping routine in which they did the full monty and got totally buck naked. It's a rugby tradition. In 2007, the Balls Out Ball 2007 was moved to another venue but the BGFH was a major sponsor. In 2008, we stepped back and watched them produce the best Balls Out Ball ever -- and yes, they got hot guys to once again get totally naked! We have more pictures here, and the Lavender Lounge even got video footage of their full monty strip routine.
Not every fundraiser needs to be big and splashy. In May, we turned over the use of our garage to the SF Fog for ... a garage sale! Over a thousand dollars was raised for the team from the sale of items donated by team members, and the remaining unsold items were donated to charity. It was a surprisingly low-effort way of helping out.
In June, right before Pride, we hosted our first event outside of the BGFH. Brent Corrigan (who emceed our Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser in 2006) approached us about hosting a fundraiser at the LookOut. The event tied in with the film festival screening of Another Gay Sequel in which Brent plays Stan the Merman. It raised $2,500 for Community United Against Violence. More photos are available here and here.
In 2007, we sponsored the Miss Trannyshack Pageant by purchasing the winner's crown. In 2008, Heklina decided to bring the weekly club to a close (but there will eventually be special monthly events). The finale was an all-star Kiss-Off Party at the Regency Center, and we sponsored the Jungle Red Lounge, the dance club in the basement with eight go-go boys and music by DJ Earworm. More photos of the event can be found here.
In September, we undertook our most ambitious project ever: producing the revival of Artfull Circle Theatre's Jungle Red, a musical drag parody of Claire Booth Luce's classic play The Women. The production, held at the Victoria Theatre, was directed by Donna Drake and starred Varla Jean Merman. Other cast members included Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, Birdie-Bob Watt, Trauma Flintstone, Henna Rintz, Marqi de Sade, CoCo Royale, and Ethel Merman. Some cast photos are available here, here, here, here and here.
Last year (April 2007) we held a competition to see who would be crowned our Miss August 2008, the page we were sponsoring for the AIDS Housing Alliance's Desperate Divas calendar, and Artemis Chase won. For the 2009 calendar, we appointed the writer of Jungle Red and one of its stars, someone who has performed at more BGFH events than anyone else: Ethel Merman! You can get your copy here.
Our very last public event of 2008 was our sponsorship of Lord Martine's Gloss Sundays on December 21st. The event is Lord Martine's weekly Sunday afternoon/evening party at the LookOut with resident DJs Joseph Lee and Pornstar, along with other special guest deejays every week. It was our second event at the LookOut, which is rapidly becoming one of our favorite places. This time the event was a simple canned food and toy drive to help the less fortunate during the holidays. One of our friends brought a Wonder Woman statue that was coveted by the deejays and bar staff alike! A small handful of photos are available here.
One final exciting thing that happened in 2008: our friend Sean Chapin directed and produced a 30-minute documentary about us called My Big Gay Frat House. It is currently being shopped around to various LGBT film festivals for 2009, but in the meantime you can watch the teaser trailer here:
As 2008 comes to a close, we want to thank everyone who has performed in our home, worked with us on events, and above all, came out to support the charitable causes and community events we've participated in. It's been another amazing year!
We don't know what 2009 will bring, but no doubt there will be something different and new to surprise you. In the meantime, from all of us fratbois, have a fun and safe New Year's, and bring blessings for a wonderful 2009.
"Jungle Red" opened last week, and it's a terrific production!
The BGFH is so proud to be producing Artfull Circle Theatre's hit play. The show is a musical parody of the 1939 classic film (and stage play) "The Women." Our cast stars Varla Jean Merman ("Girls Will Be Girls," "Project Runway") as Crystal Allen (the Joan Crawford role) with Katya Smirnoff-Skyy as Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell), Trauma Flintstone as Edith Potter and others, Birdie Bob Watt as Mary Haines (Norma Shearer), Henna Rintz in numerous character roles, Marqi de Sade as Miriam Ahrens and others (Paulette Goddard), CoCo Royale as Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine), and Ethel Merman as the Countess du Lage and others. The production is directed by Donna Drake.
It's playing at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th Street in San Francisco, on Wednedays through Saturdays until October 4th when it absolutely must close, no extensions. Tickets are available online now!
The Big Gay Frat House is excited to announce a new venture for us: we are producing the revival of "JUNGLE RED," a musical parody that will be at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco this September. It stars Varla Jean Merman, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy, Trauma Flintstone, and Mark Sargent (Ethel Merman Experience).
The play will be performed primarily by men in drag who will be singing live. There are four roles yet to be cast, and we are excited to announce open auditions to fill those roles. Auditions will be held on JULY 20th starting at 6:00pm. To sign up for an audition slot, please email us at fratboys @ biggayfrathouse.comand include:
Your full name
Telephone number
Email address
Photo(s), ideally including at least one photo in drag
Please note that an appointment slot is required. Drop-in auditions will not be permitted without an appointment. Be sure to bring sheet music or CD to accompany you to the audition.
We're so excited to announce that we are partnering with our friend Brent Corrigan to produce Another Gay Fundraiser.
Thursday, June 26th 9pm until ....?
LookOut Bar 3600 Market Street @ 16th
The event is a benefit for Community United Against Violence, who was the beneficiary of our Midsummer Night's Dream fundraiser that Brent hosted at our house two years ago.
The event will feature:
Porn raffles
Jello shots sold by porn stars
Limited edition auction of art prints by Ismael Alvaraz for "Another Gay Sequel"
Tickets to the world premiere of "Another Gay Sequel" at the Castro Theatre on June 28th
Performances by Katya Smirnoff-Skyy
Live performances by Brent Corrigan and his boys
No cover charge! But bring your cash for the Jello shots, auctions, and raffles. All money raised goes directly to CUAV.
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