Queer Thinking

Last night I was a guest on the Blow Hard podcast, a series of live-recorded podcasts started & hosted by Malcom Ingram and Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith is a filmmaker popularly noted for his work as Silent Bob (Clerks, Dogma, Mall Rats, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and he directed Zack and Miri Make a Porno – one of my favorite comedies of late!). Blow Hard airs parallel to the podcasts Kevin Smith creates, though originally Malcom and Kevin hosted the one show together. My visit to the Smodcast black box theatre on Theatre Row in Hollywood was on an evening co-hosted by Marja Lewis Ryan, the writer and star of The Four-Faced Liar the film. It recently became available on Amazon.com.  Malcom Ingram is a documentarian from Toronto noted for creating Small Town Gay Bar and Bear Nation.  Blow Hard heralds 80,000 listeners strong and it isn’t difficult to see how or why. Malcom strategically chooses and incorporates different cohosts and guests each week to be included in the program. It’s known for it’s raunchy language and topics, surprise!

The whole experience was very enjoyable. However, would you believe me if I admitted walking away from a situation in which talking about myself for nearly an hour always makes me feel more than a bit self absorbed?  These days, it’s a mad dash to cram all the many valid, interesting points of my journey into one interview or one hour.  And then at the end I feel so unsatisfied like I’ve gorged myself on a super sized meal from McDonald’s (all that food, all those calories, and little to no nutritional value to speak of!) While I have absolutely no problem with graphic language or content; people are often amazed at how candidly modest I am about my sexuality.  I’ve always let my actions on camera speak for my sexuality, I believe. You know, in contrast to letting my mouth do the illustrating. Umm . . . Ha. I’m sure you can decipher what I’m trying to say here!

Interestingly, Fleshjack sponsors Blow Hard. Malcom Ingram wants to have me back in December when the launch of my new toy line is available. When that date rolls around, I’ll surely give you a heads up so you can try and make it in to the taping.  The atmosphere is casual and fun and I think my southern California followers/fans would really enjoy attending a little event outside of the adult realm of how I normally appear (in a noisy, obnoxious, alcohol fueled club, for example).  It’s a great time hinging on comedy and all the filthy things we think but can’t normally say. I didn’t advertise last night’s event ahead of time because I wasn’t sure what to expect. But now that I know, I am confident it’s a good time for many a homo and his hag.

Your Friend & Lover
Brent

The sun is out, our world is heating up and if you’re totally queer you know exactly what that means.

Pride Season is upon is. And thank the Universe it is!

On a whim Papi and I made a lineal decision to hit Los Angeles Pride afterall, despite some intense doubt.  The truth is, in previous years, I’ve always had a fairly lukewarm good time when attending Pride events. Until Los Angeles Pride 2010 I honestly had no inkling of what it means to enjoy oneself and have true Pride.

Pride isn’t about the hitting the biggest, best parties. It’s not about getting so fucked up you can’t even see straight and your boyfriend has to haul your ass back to the hotel room over his shoulder.  Hell, Pride isn’t even about how many dicks you can cram into your mouth over a three day period (Although if you guessed that one, you might come in a close second, but no). Pride is about new friends and great company. Gay Pride is about coming together as a community at the one festival, the one real blowout that celebrates the prismatic colors we are as a people – the ones that reflect light and refract into the world. Each and every one of us is welcome, to share good times and make fond memories.

Pride is about swimming in a sea of sexy men of all shapes, sizes, ages and colors – bumping bodies and smiling at each other.  We enjoy good music, drink a cocktail or too many and try to stomach fair food we normally wouldn’t consider remotely edible (I made a poor call and missed a Sunday cam show because Saturday my tummy got a hold of something that didn’t sit well! Sorry!). In too many other societies this phenomenon is simply just impossible (Not the food, but the overwhelming love and acceptance in one great, big place like that!).  But as men who love each other, we’re capable of coming together and putting all the other shit aside.

Am I really telling YOU what Pride is all about? I’m merely sharing what Pride has become for me as an individual. This is what I’ve discovered leaves me reflecting and loving life. Being surrounded by people, friends, who truly care about me as a person – who want to get to know me, the things that we can share together, enjoy together. Not just treating me like a pair of amply proportioned buttcheeks. Which is why this time I steered completely clear of the adult tents and booths at Los Angeles Pride.

Catch my drift?

In the past, I was so concerned with hitting the hottest party or feeling the coolest on the block. And it never happened. I was so busy worrying about how to enjoy myself that I missed so many opportunities. But you know, this past LA Pride, I hit the festival, slipped into a few random parties and even opened the weekend with a night at a regular ‘ole night club.

I found it’s not what you’re doing but what you’re making of it.  I do realize how trivial my account of a Pride Festival is coming off right about now, but are we really trying to pretend a Homospecific Festival is worth more than it’s face value to it’s average patron or attendant?  Historically these events have been about raising money for philanthropic organizations – and even if that is still so today – the masses are hardly cognizant of it.

True, I am left wondering, what is the broader theme here? Beyond a good time and the sickeningly ample possibilities to get laid once, twice and for many – several times each day – at a Pride Festival – why? What does Pride mean for you? Do you go to Pride?  What is your favorite part of it? Your fondest memory? The best friend you ever made at a Pride Festival? I wanna know!

You’re Friend and Lover,
Brent Corrigan

Jim Carrey is a comedic virtuoso. For years now he has proved himself a box office draw. Systematically raking in the cash – not only for himself but for almost any studio or picture he is involved in – if anyone can afford a good gamble bets have good odds with Carrey.

Yet, not even Jim Carrey can convince Hollywood that being gay really isn’t that big of a deal, afterall.  The debate stems from the release, or non-release, delayed release, maybe-never US release of Jim Carrey’s forthcoming film I love you Philip Morris.  The movie is about a married con man (Carrey) who’s also a devout Christian and an organ player (Not that kind! See, that’s exactly the kind of thought that got us into this kind of situation in the first place!). His life is turned upside down when he lands in jail and falls in love with his cell-mate Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor.

The film debuted at Sundance Film Festival LAST YEAR to an overwhelmingly positive response from festival-goers.  It opened in the U.K. in March to decent reviews and good business, and it’s also out in Europe and Taiwan and has reportedly made more than $10 million worldwide — enough to pay the cost of production in full. Even though the film’s more the sexually oriented scenes between Carrey & McGregor have been exiled to the cutting room floor it has not managed a domestic release as of yet.

An April 9th ScreenCrave article wrote that the distributors of the film, Consolidated Pictures Group, had indefinitely postponed the release of the film. A few short days later (3 days!) Variety came back and reported that Consolidated at backpedaled and made an appointment for a July 30th release. The hope is that Consolidated was seeing how narrow minded and homophobic the continued delay of releasing a fun-loving film like this to the American Public was making them appear.

In an interview with Out Magazine in February, Ewan McGregor was quoted saying this of the delay in US distribution: “There was talk that Disney fended off the release [of Morris] until after A Christmas Carol came out. They didn’t want kids thinking [Carrey's] Ebenezer Scrooge was a bender.”

As a gay man aspiring to work in mainstream threatre and film, I watch a lot of what goes on in the main vein of entertainment. I’ve seen first hand what happens to films when their stars are deterred from being themselves and advised to walk away from good, paying work to avoid the stigma of gay roles. At the heart of Consolidated Pictures Groups’ hesitation to release this film domestically is a debate, a realization, that as people with journeys and stories to tell we are quite clearly still not even fit for public digestion.

If Jim Carrey and Ewen McGregor can’t pull off a truly mainstream, widespread comedic theatrical release, where does that leave the rest of us?  I think Consolidated isn’t giving the American public enough credit.

Instead of rewriting all of the many puissant & valid points Jeremy Helligar from True/Slant has made in a recent article, please do take a jog on over there and read it for yourself. Helligar accounts an almost play-by-play of mainstream, A-List celebrities and their gay roles over the decades.

Playing Gay Is In So Why Is Hollywood So Afraid Of I Love You Phillip Morris?

“Perhaps when Hollywood stops treating homosexuality as a malady, a plot point, or a source of fear, society finally will begin to understand that gay men are just like everybody else, only with different rules of attraction.