Visiting a strip club when you first come out can be a very liberating experience as it validates your desire to look at other men. For Craig Seymour, he was so fascinated by his experience at the strip club, he did his college thesis on the subject of stripping and interviewed many male dancers and their clients. He eventually felt that if he was really going to know what it’s like to be one of them he’ll have to take it all off and work the pole.
The seedy clubs where Craig worked were famous for full-on nude men and he would spend hours working the crowd in his birthday suit to get just the right angle for his thesis. Now that’s research!
Craig put it all in his book “All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C” and he’s here today to talk about his experiences as a stripper, a professor and journalist.
Listen as Craig chats with us about the escalating costs of higher education, the changing face of LGBT journalism and why digital media is making it harder for conservative closeted politicians to lead double lives.
Plus-
His relationship with the conservative blogger Matt Drudge and why Matt wears those awful hats.
And how Luther Vandross almost came out to Craig during an interview but never quite got there
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Craig Seymour – All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.: 
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5 Comments
Comments
What an asshole Fausto is to all his guests… no wonder there aren’t very many regulars on the show anymore – jeesh. He is so good at putting words in everyone’s mouth there really is no reason to have the guests on at all, as apparently he already knows exactly how they feel and what they are going to say.
Well thanks for the feedback! I honestly want to know what specific moment in the show where my actions upset you?
We spend HOURS photographing, editing, booking, researching our guests and I’m sure there was something said specifically to upset you. I’m curious to know what that was.
I actually read the book the guest wrote, and wanted to know why he was able to do his academic research as a stripper. I had a lot of resistance as a grad student myself, so I know what that experience is like. Was that it that upset you?
Regarding our “regulars” we have plenty of regular guests and new guests booked. Please for the respect of our Craig, lets keep this discussion on him and not anyone who chooses not to do media anymore for a huge variety of reasons.
If you want to connect with them, google them or look for them on Facebook. Please keep these comments about the show and our guest. Thanks.
Thanks sweetie.
Here’s a Xanax. Chew it.
DC_Jock as an actual regular guest on the show I can tell you that I have never felt like Fausto has ever put words into my mouth. He and Marc have always been delightful hosts and friends, and always made me feel welcome and at ease when recording a show. If I lived in Chicago I would be on the show more (assuming Marc and Fausto would have me of course).
4chan is that way —->
WOW. Tell em Fausto! And it was a good show, at least I thought so.
I disagree with DC_Jock’s comment, completely. Fausto is always very respectful of the guests, very upbeat, and clearly has background knowledge about the topic. What a joke!
Fausto and Marc are amazing. I love being on their show! Thank you for always being well educated and well researched, you are the best in the biz when it comes to that.
Tom Goss
I spoke to someone who has been a guest on the show and he said it was very enjoyable. He was a guest twice! Fausto and Mark spend much time preparing and maybe this is what DC Jock is complaining about.
Hey everybody – Hope you enjoyed listening to the interview as much as I enjoyed doing it. I didn’t feel that Fausto put words in my mouth. But, IMHO, there’s nothing wrong with people putting things in your mouth or vice versa.
…especially if it’s 7 inches long, 5 inches round, and attached to a Corbin Fisher model.
There are a lot of things I’d like to put in those Corbin Fisher guys : )
yum
Overall it was a fun and informative episode, but I for one agree that Fausto was quite rude to this guest. I think it’s fine for Fausto to say that he doesn’t automatically think of men with Craig’s body type when he thinks about strippers, but to be so argumentative and pretty much insult Craig was unnecessary. To make matters worse, he just wouldn’t stop being insulting even AFTER Craig said he struggled with body image issues!
As always, I was glad that Marc was there to bring reason into the conversation and explain to Fausto that there are, in fact, different types of strippers. I usually enjoy Fausto’s quirks and opinions, but he really missed the mark on this episode.
Hey – Thanks for sticking up for me. I really appreciate it. But I felt that Fausto was just saying stuff that he believed that other people might be thinking themselves. I get that everybody might not think that I look like a traditional stripper. I think the problem is that so many guys like myself feel that we have to look like strippers or porn stars in order to feel worthy. It’s the gay boy equivalent of a insecure teenage girl who wants to be a supermodel but instead does a “Girls Gone Wild” video in order to feel attractive. I realize that I will likely always struggle with body image issues to some degree. And my reaction to Fausto’s comments, none of which I felt were mean-spirited, was just another sign that I have a ways to go. Thanks again for your thoughts and support – Craig
I don’t agree that Fausto was putting words in the guys mouth, but he seemed to have something against the guest. I was wondering if Fausto didn’t believe some of the stuff in the book or if his pre interview was more interesting than he came across in the recorded interview.
There seemed to be someting annoying Fausto, but maybe he was just having a bad day.
Hey Peter – I don’t think Fausto has anything against me. He was just being playful and maybe that didn’t come through without seeing his facial expressions and stuff. But I felt that all three of us really had a fun time. Thanks – Craig
We had a great time with Craig and Fausto really did read and enjoy his book. And to be clear, Craig really wasn’t a stripper, he was a naked guy hanging out on the bar. He didn’t strip or dance, so Fausto was right.
HaHa. I was onstage and on the bars. I just didn’t take a long time to take my clothes off nor did I really dance much. I just walked around the stage and the bar letting people diddle with me. But that’s what was expected in the DC strip clubs at the time when I worked. It was more strip-touch than strip tease, a lot more like sex than dancing.
WOULD YOU WANT TO SEE THIS GUY NAKED?
So, I was going through some stuff and I found a photo of what I looked like when I was stripping. This was the picture that they used to put up to advertise my appearances at the porn theater, the Follies.
You are a cutie pie, but agian, you’re not naked!
Yeah, but do I look more like “a stripper?” That was the issue-LOL.
You look like a college student, a very cute college student. Why wasn’t this photo put in the book cover?
You have to admit you were an unlikely person to be doing this, I don’t think many gay college grad students were walking around in their undies and writing a paper on the experience at the time.
I showed it to the publisher, but they didn’t want to use it. And don’t start calling me cute now, Fausto, every listener knows that you think I’m fugly-LOL. Plus, I wasn’t walking around in my undies; I was full commando. : )
Fausto tryin to revise history like a Texas Textbook committee! You can’t tell him he’s cute now after doggin him repeatedly during the interview that he is clearly not qualified physically to be a stripper becasue he doesn’t look like Pavel Novotny. It’s too late baby.
Thanks for the support, Curtis : ) I hope everyone knows that I’m just joking around with Fausto, though.
The funny part of this whole debate is that, although I worked as a stripper for years, I’ve never taken part in any kind of stripping contest or underwear contest or anything like that, because I’ve always been too insecure to be judged in such a public way. So I think it’s hilarious that there’s now a whole comment thread about whether or not I’m cute. Life’s funny that way : )
Oh my… I’d have paid good money to “diddle” with you, Craig.
Thanks, Heath. But actually I was fairly cheap. You could get a pretty good feel for a buck-LOL.
Oh please Curtis! If Craig wanted to have this photo in the book, he would have put it there.
Craig has always been an attractive guy, but he doesn’t look like a stripper to me. I’ll bet if you stopped anyone in the street and ask them what does a stripper “look” like they wouldn’t describe Craig.
I’m sure Craig was a great stripper. Is everybody happy now?
Craig, is my question that unusual? Do people look at you and think “he looks like a stripper to me.”
Here is a picture of Bernie Barker, according to the Guiness Book of World Records at age 63 the world’s oldest stripper. HE looks like a stripper.
http://www.blurb.com/books/782300
Haha. I think I’m glad I don’t look like THAT! But, seriously, in mainstream publishing, you have no control over stuff like pictures. I didn’t have contractual cover approval and there are no pictures inside the book-that’s a budgetary issue. I gave Simon & Schuster the photo and they decided not to use it. There was only room for one photo of me, and they didn’t think that it made sense for that to be my author photo since it was so old. And, on that count, I agreed. I’d be glad to give you the email of my editor if you want to fact check this-LOL.
But I think the bigger issue is that you need to get out to more strip clubs. Or take a look at the guys in my photo book, AMERICAN BOYS: a strip club diary (http://www.blurb.com/books/782300), which has pictures from a lot of different strip clubs. Believe me, strippers come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and, I guess from your pictures, ages. : )
“HE looks like a stripper”
Lol, is it because he’s wearing a cash stuffed g-string? No? Maybe?
Put some clothes on him and he’d just look like a sleazy old man to me.
Whether or not people look at Craig and automatically think he’s not a stripper is besides the point. I don’t look at muscled guys on the street and think, “oh, he definitely looks like a stripper.” But I do think that belaboring the fact that he does not look like a conventional stripper ignores the point that there are plenty of people who enjoy strippers of many different shapes and sizes. For me, it’s all about the razzle dazzle, baby
If you give me a good show you can bet your bare ass I’ll be handing you the Washingtons.