BearPress - Interview with Alan Reade

- Hi Alan. How did show go?

Hi. Fine. Last night was the first night we had go-go dancers, and it went over really well! Before the dancers, I was changing on stage with a strobe-light... which was not as exciting.

- How long have you been performing?

Since 1986 or so. I started off reading my poems at this little café in Pacific Grove, California, called Portofino. And I went, 'Hmm...this is a little boring. Maybe I can liven it up'. And so I would bring little keyboards and props to the shows and, for lack of a better word, perform.

- Have you been doing Bear shows for a long time now?
- What type of feedback do you get?

This is my first real 'Bear show'. I suppose the show I did in New York, 'Unspeakable Love Acts', could be considered a semi-Bear show. No, wait, it was an Otter show! That's it! Because I had some twink pornography in it. That show was about people placing personal ads and wanting sex but just getting dissatisfaction. But 'Bear-A-Go-Go' is the first show in which I've talked about Bears head-on. So far, the feedback has been tremendous. We've had full houses both nights.

- How do you see the Bear community: as a whole or as
- fragmented?

Well, my theory is that as a lot of the first batch of 'out' gay clones from the 70's grew up, they realized, 'Hey, we're not 25 anymore. Look, we've got body fat!' And it was inevitable that a sort of 'community' would form around that, because in a way it had been there for a while already, just in thinner, younger form. I liken it to a group of 9th graders going through puberty together: except this was about facing middle age as a group. The 'Bear community' I think had its roots in simple biology, in getting older, in wanting to redefine what being sexy meant to include others besides, you know, gym bunnies.

- Which is a good thing...

Yes, definitely. But what's considered a 'Bear' has become more complicated in the last decade. I guess 'Bear' now includes guys of all ages who are hairy and/or big, fat, what have you. And while I've certainly found Bears in general to be more accepting and cool about stuff like body image, I've also heard a lot of discussion about who's an 'A-Bear', 'D-Bear', 'Muscle-Bear', 'Papa-Bear', whatever. And that's where I think it gets kind of divisive. I mean, if I'm a thin guy who gains 50 pounds for two years, joins 'Beardom', then goes back to being thin, am I still a Bear? Body type seems a nebulous thing to base a whole community on! Because the body can change. So I try to address these issues in my show in some ways: how humans often label each other and then live up to those labels.

- Where do you plan to take your performing skills?

Wherever they'll have me! Seriously, I'm more of a multimedia artist. This is the very first time I've done a show like this, character-driven. And it's been terrifying.

- Terrifying?

When I started this show, I didn't have a script! All I had were bullet points about each character. I had very little time from when I received the Jon Sims Center residency until I had to perform the first show. So I just kind of did improv with a lot of the characters. I'll have the script done after the last show. But I've never worked this way. It's like being on a trapeze without a net.

- How long have you considered yourself a Bear?

I was really thin until about, oh, 1991, and then I gained just a little weight. And one night, some guy at the Seattle YMCA picked me up and I said, 'Why me?' and he said, 'Your fur!', and it was the first time I'd thought of myself as 'furry'.

Then I ballooned when I got together with my ex in 1992 and ate nothing but fried food and pork for a year or two. He's Filipino. And I realized I liked being bigger than I had been. I felt healthier, actually! Since then, though, I've really tried to eat better. But I've always retained my big gay self.

- Are you in a relationship now?

Yep! I've been dating someone for about eight months now, and he's fabulous. A six-year relationship ended for me last year, which is a big reason I moved from New York to San Francisco.

Derrick is terrific. He's been a big supporter of the show, as well as filling in for one of the go-go dancers when he didn't show up the other night! It was a lot of fun for Derrick, because John Caldera, who had been Mr. International Bear at one point, is the other go-go guy, and he's a great dancer. It was fun. They did a lot of lap dancing and at one point tore off each other's tank-tops! But of course I went home with Derrick after the show and proceeded to rip off everything else.

I want to thank Alan Reade for sharing some info with us.

Here is Alan's webpage. You can also email Alan.