Is anybody the least bit nostalgic for "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?" Even if the surprise breakout cable series about five superqueers performing reparative therapy on the images of less-than-fabulous hetero mortals wasn't your idea of must-see TV, it did, during a five-year run on the cable channel Bravo, pique our curiosity about what might be gained by inverting cliches and stereotypes about queer icons. A new series on here!TV, John Roecker's Everything You Wanted to Know About Gay Porn Stars *but were afraid to ask , is an intimate, brave and frequently witty exploration inside the heads of 16 male erotic video performers, many with well-known nom de porns: Johnny Hazzard, Brad Benton, Nick Capra and Jason Ridge.
Fans of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's 2000 doc "101 Rent Boys", which explored the back-stories of a random group of LA male hustlers, will immediately clue into the format. Each guy is interviewed in an informal, partially-clad pose. But while "101 Rent Boys" sticks to wild-side professional prostitutes, Roecker's series skittles way up the food chain to feature young men who are porn superstars.
I previewed three shows, from a series of six 30-minute episodes, culminating in a one-hour special, running through December on here!TV. Each begins with funny, found footage (like an excerpt from a 1950s "educational video" warning kids from falling into the clutches of roaming homosexuals), then launches into tightly edited segments focused on hot-button topics like unprotected sex, depression, drawbacks to dating other porn performers or trying to date "civilians" (one of the actors quips, "I wouldn't date me,") plus the lingering stigma attached to working in the erotic-film industry.
Some of the guys reveal harrowing accounts of family rejection. For me, one of the most upsetting yet riveting moments came when a boyish performer with the screen name Jeremy Jordon matter-of-factly describes a brutal gay-bashing he experienced at the hands of several thugs from his high school.
I spent an hour chatting by phone with the series creator, John Roecker, whose dad was a TV sports producer, and who happily recalls his own roots in the punk scene. Joining us was one of his stars, a veteran erotic performer known by his screen name, Nick Capra. Capra, who jumped off a treadmill to come to the phone, describes how his career has blossomed thanks in part to a 12-step program, and his decision to take an active role in deciding the sorts of videos he will and won't appear in.
Q: What would you say is the average career length of a gay porn actor in today's industry?
John Roecker: It's five years, and then you're out.
Nick Capra: Five years! That's pushing it. I would say two years if you look at how long it takes the average porn star to go up, plateau, then be written off. I don't know many porn stars who have been around for five years.
Roecker: You have.
Capra: I'm in a rare percentage. If you look at the people who become huge stars, their descent into drugs and the drug culture, and into self-destructive things is what they transition to. I don't think a whole lot of them transition into a masters degree.
"This is a fantasy character that we're creating. Nick Capra is a facet of me, but it's not really who I am. "
Q: One of your subjects describes aspiring to be an actor, and that in some ways by agreeing to become a porn star he was ironically fulfilling that dream but sabotaging it at the same time - that once you've done a porn, you're stigmatized from ever being taken seriously as a "legitimate" actor.
Roecker: That was Jason Ridge. A lot of the times with porn, it's instant fame. The only thing I can compare it to is being a child actor. You get it fast, then there's a shelf-life for it. With mainstream films, you've got to go to acting classes, you've really got to hustle, there's so much competition, but with these [porn] guys, if you're good-looking with a great body, you're in like Flynn. Right, Nick?
Capra: I'd have to agree.
Q: I remembered when I talked with former child star Macaulay Culkin that a lot of critics didn't take him seriously when he tried to make a comeback as a grownup movie performer, due to the baggage attached to his career as a child star in the "Home Alone" movies. Yet he's actually a very talented comic actor.
Roecker: That's why I'm showing the real essence of these men. They're not just flesh puppets, they're not just these people who have sex for a living. It's really remarkable how Nick Capra discusses his drug addiction and recovery. Someone seeing the series can say, I, too, can lick addiction. The problems these guys discuss involve the whole gay community.
Q: Describe why you use their screen "porn names."
Roecker: A lot of these guys don't want to use their real names. Doug, can you describe the whole thing about how you're "Nick Capra" but you're also "Doug," and how much of Doug is left in you.
Capra: This is a fantasy character that we're creating. Nick Capra is a facet of me, but it's not really who I am. These things that happen on porn sets, what people forget is that they are all in a controlled environment. I don't spend a lot of my real life going to bathhouses, or sex clubs, putting guys into slings. I get to live out a fantasy in a controlled environment. When you go to a [real] sex club, you're not in a controlled environment, so anything can happen.
You get to protect your anonymity. My mom doesn't need to know who Nick Capra is, and certain people in my private life, when they see that name, don't need to know that it's connected to me.
Roecker: There are some people who use their real names.
Capra: Very few, very few!