Lap Dance for your Life: The Development of Go-Go Dancing in Mainstream Media

During my “discrete” journey of self-discovery, back in the early '00s, my only insight into the magical world of gay pride was buried in the volumes of libraries or video rental stores. The “Special Interest” department was basically a catch-all for professional wrestling documentaries, foreign imports, the independent/experimental, and all genres of queer film/television. The gay stuff was just normal Drama, Action, Horror, Comedy… but gay. The selection was minimal: all drama selections were about gay death and despair, all comedies were about sexual antics and nightlife, set in sunny West Hollywood, with a cast full of gay pornstars and underwear models. Even the award-winning and widely praised 2005 travel narrative TransAmerica ended with a pornstar fuckfest Los Angelino happily-ever-after. Sex work and underwear models were an integral part of my queer awakening.

I would rent cassette tapes of Queer as Folk episodes and marvel at how exciting the Pittsburgh nightlife seemed to be. The fictional Pittsburgh super-club, Babylon, was complete with a hall of glory holes and a dance floor stocked with go-go dancers on risers. Heaven does exist—somewhere in Pittsburgh. The depiction of men in their underwear as the backdrop of a TV drama seemed alarming at the time. Well, not anymore. Since discovering the heartbeat of nightlife, I’ve spent my entire adulthood working as a male exotic dancer in every capacity that one could imagine, including film and television. Since I am currently appearing on a new competition reality television show on OutTV called “Go-Go for the Gold,” I figured that it would be appropriate to acknowledge the go-gos who graced the silver screen before we had our very own RuPaul’s Drag Race knock-off and a chance at true stardom! 

The first undisputed fact of gay nightlife is that go-go dancers and drag queens are evergreen mascots. The community expects them. They’re booked together. As a professional go-go dancer, most photos from my adulthood are with drag performers. The two artforms have historically been married to one another. 

Although the origins of our field can be traced back much further, the 1975 Musical Comedy, Rocky Horror Picture Show features a non-verbal golden panty-clad eye candy, Rocky. The optics of a heavily made-up gender fluid Frank N Furter, leading around the non-verbal, dancing nude man seems like a regular Saturday night to me, especially during “I Can Make You a Man”. Go-go boys are often asked to play the role of the “himbo” and assistant to drag performers, playing a hyper masculine role, or serve as a “drag puppy.” Rocky lumbered and gyrated so we could twerk and tumble. 

The tradition of including hot male bodies in tiny underwear was carried on with the inclusion of the “Pit Crew” in RuPaul’s Drag Race. The “Pit Crew” is a pair of underwear models who act as on-camera assistants to the show’s host as well as model whichever sponsored product the show is promoting for the week. They’re basically the Rockys of the whole production, silent bodies that serve as moving parts to keep the show moving along. The “Pit Crew” has remained integral to the show’s format since its inception back in 2009. They are a part of the show and not played for laughs. The conception of the “Pit Crew” gave rise to many other on-camera opportunities for go-go boys and underwear models to be cast in drag competition reality programming that follows a similar format.

Since I am unsure as to the release date of this article, I will wait until a later date to discuss my more recent contributions to the tradition of go-go boys in mainstream media. To offer up some professional perspective on the artform, I’d like to discuss my experience working as a lap dancer on the queer pop culture talk show Hey Qween, available on Netflix, YouTube, OutTV, Amazon Prime Video, and lap dancing a mile high in the friendly skies with Air Canada, providing your in-flight entertainment!

Hey Qween showcases queer celebrities with a companion gossip and tabloid after-show called Look at Huh built into the show’s format. My involvement with the show was during the climax of the interview. Jonny McGovern, the host of Hey Qween, would summon me to reward the guest with a trophy and a lap dance for appearing on the show. My segments were short for each episode (under a minute), but the goal was to make an impact and punctuate the interview with a fun and wacky celebration.

I have appeared in so many episodes that I have lost count (which is quite an honor for me to be able to say, being a fan of the show since their very first season). I would fly myself out and pick up nightclub appearances to pay for my flight and get a room at a hostel or AirBnB. I have a great relationship with Los Angeles now and have streamlined the commute. Believe me, I’ve enjoyed a return-on-investment for all of those flights out West. Hey Qween opened up so many doors for me that I never think twice about hopping on a plane once I am summoned to appear.

I opted to keep things fresh and always arrive with different options. If I was given any time to prepare, I’d do a little research into the guest to see what sort of energy would be appropriate. I would plan the shtick for my lap dances in a similar manner to my method of planning my one-man strip shows. There always needed to be a sense of humor to the moment. It needed to be fun and shocking. I wanted to make people laugh at the spectacle alone. Any gags associated with their public persona was always a great idea because, at the end of the day, it was still a talk show and needed to be entertaining for more than the voyeurism of watching a drag star enjoy a lap dance from some naked man on camera, from three different angles. I once built a giant candy cane blunt that “burned” on the end when you’d “take a hit” for the Laganja Estranja Christmas Special. We even dressed a puppet up like me so we could do a double puppet lap dance for drag puppeteer, Jaymes Mansfield. The folks at Hey Qween trusted me to bring the fun and I did not disappoint.

As RuPaul’s Drag Race began to embrace their younger fans, I became aware that I was now performing for a younger and younger audience. I would often joke that it was “Disney Stripping” because it was such a sanitized performance, but still needed to function as the uncomfortable, fun, celebration that folks had come to expect from the show.  

I understand that male nudity is alarming to audiences outside the audiences of queer media. We pray that the world will catch up soon. In the meantime, I don’t care how people enjoy my performance (whether they’re laughing with me or at me) as long as the check clears. Go-go boys are entertainers. I’m there to make people smile. Go-go boys handle every degree of familiarity and discomfort every night they perform in a nightclub. The term “go-go” comes from the French “à gogo”, meaning “happiness.” We’re employed to be happy and bring excitement into the room. Folks are always looking for a naked body to liven up their get-togethers, so the demand is always there.

With expansion of opportunities for go-go boys, porn stars, and underwear models in mainstream media, it has become entirely possible for men to become the Pamela Anderson of gay America. One could argue that the Andrew Christian “Trophy Boys” were doing a Victoria’s Secret Angels thing—sex symbols to the fans of mainstream queer media. Even I have referred to myself as the Tawney Kitaen of drag on several occasions because of the sheer amount of drag queen music videos that I’ve appeared in. I’m proud to say that I was a video vixen in my younger days. The queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race had found a way to make a living as touring artists and have always been incredibly generous, following the tradition of including go-go boys and porn stars in their own artforms. Drag queens have opened so many doors to us that it’s hard to imagine go-go boys without them. But we are about to find out!

Laila McQueen is a fun time.

The Hey Qween TV production house has curated a group of contestants for their newest OutTV competition reality program titled Go-Go for the Gold. Twelve go-go dancers enter the arena, one will reign victorious. Go-Go for the Gold depicts go-go dancers as the fabulous party animals that they really are. They even allowed us to wear jockstraps—that means ASS OUT. If the show turns out as insane as it seemed during the filming, it’s going to be really fun to watch. 

In my next article, I will detail the experience of filming a reality television show as a go-go dancer. I believe that the show will be a few episodes deep into the release schedule by that point. All I can say is that I’m super excited to have the limitations lifted on what I can/can’t do on screen. The contestants do not know what the future holds for go-go dancers. We haven’t ever seen a show of this scale focused specifically on go-go dancers before. For now, we can only cross our fingers, wish, hope, and pray, that Go-Go for the Gold is the dawn of a new mainstream career field for “Professional Go-Go Dancers” as the show continues to grow, season after season.

Although, most go-go boys don’t spend their time establishing acts and clamoring for acting gigs. Most go-go boys are just there to make their money and go home—maybe get laid. Those guys keep our industry afloat while the rest of us parade around like show ponies, accepting paid-partnership snake-oil scams on Instagram to appear more grandiose, and begging our followers to purchase overpriced t-shirts with our faces on them—don’t forget the replica dildos (we sell those too). Nevermind, we’re all insane narcissists, but it’s all honest work, trust me.

Kimora Blac.

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