MY BLOG HAS OFFICIALLY MOVED

Hey internet friends, please go to amateurhighdive.com to keep up with the blog.

And in the immediate future, please join me April 8-9th at Highways Peformance Space in Santa Monica, CA for a run of my one-man show, Debbie Does My Dad.

Love,
Bobby

Guest Review on 38thnotes.com

Hey all,

Check Out a guest review I did for my friend Cool Hand Luke's 38thnotes.com of Lyric's Born's new album As U Were.
Read the Review

Debbie Does My Dad in San Francisco This Saturday!

 

It's a milestone homecoming. I'll be Performing Debbie Does My Dad at the Center for Sex and Culture this weekend on Sat Nov. 20th at 8:30 pm. And...I'll be sharing the bill with my Dad who'll follow up my show with his own side of the story!!! If you're in the Bay Area it would be amazing to have you join me and my dad!

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/138178

Bobby Gordon in Debbie Does My Dad (a one-man play about growing up with a dad who was once a porn star) AND special appearance by his dad: Howie Gordon, AKA the Ghost of Richard Pacheco!

At the Center for Sex & Culture 1519 Mission near 11th St., SF

$15 -- space is limited, 18+ only

Debbie Does My Dad by performance artist Bobby Gordon uses spoken word theater to tell the bawdy and beautiful story of his experiences growing up as the son of a former adult film star. Gordon's father, Howie Gordon (Stage Name Richard Pacheco) won Playgirl Man of the Year Honors in 1979 and appeared in over 100 pornographic titles.

Nothing is what you'd expect in this show where the words "sensitive" and "male porn star" go together as easily as "masturbation" and "inevitably getting walked in on by your parents." Gordon offers an intimate window into his journey to come to grips his father's former career, and create a world where a man can be an emotional and a sexual being; a world where fucking and feelings can co-exist.

2 Scenes from Debbie Does My Dad

Here are two scenes from the work in progress showing of Debbie Does My Dad at the Drama For Life Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa this month. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
-Bobby

It's a wrap for Debbie in South Africa!

     We finished off the run of Debbie Does My Dad yesterday with a matinee at the Spaceframe Theater at the Wits Education Campus.  It was quite the difficult task to do the last show at an entirely new venue with under an hour to set the stage, lights, and sound.  HUGE thanks to Chanel and Desi who worked absolute magic to get the show ready to go in time to open the doors.
     We had a good crowd and again got a great response.  This opportunity to travel across the globe to present the art that I love to do filled me such a sense of gratefulness. Getting to share my work, see others, and engage in amazing conversations with artists from all different walks was such a rich experience. I am so thankful for people that value art. I am becoming more and more of a convert every day. *(I'll be posting video excerpts from the show when I return to the U.S.)
     With this festival I began a new focusing ritual before performing.  I walk around the stage and look at every seat, and I thank the person that I imagine will be sitting in it.  The person who may give me the gift of their time, energy, and attention. It makes me present and also feel the strong responsibility, that if they are going to give me their valuable time, I had better make good use of it.
     Shortly after finishing the run, I was a judge at the National Poetry Slam. Hectic. Damn.  The poetry was incredible, none of us judges could agree. AT ALL.  I love slam and I hate slam. It birthed me as a writer.  But I watched a lot of young poets leave the slam feeling nowhere near as proud as I think they should of.  I want to say LOUDLY that all of the poets I saw perform in Jo'burg last night were incredible. Please keep writing, and please let me keep enjoying it. Much love and respect.
      As I get ready to go to a game park for my last day in South Africa, a lot of thank yous are in order.  Thank you to MAKE ART/STOPAIDS for sending me here and to Drama For Life for taking me in.  Thank you to my Director George Watsky for giving the piece so much attention and care. Thank you to Steve for being the most gracious host I could ever dream of.  To Cathy for being my singing partner at every meal, and in between. Ok, just always. To Hanni for everything, and also for making a really delicious dinner. To Levinia and Lonwabo, and Eliana for the amazing organizing. You guys held it all together and us performers owe you so much. To Ntombi for organizing all of the poetry events and giving me the opportunity to lead a workshop. To all of the other performers/directors at the festival for moving and inspiring me. And finally, to all of the people who blessed me with their presence, energy, and beautiful noise at my shows, thank you so much. The warm response you gave me touched me so deeply.
     South Africa I hope to see you soon!

Keynote Lecture about Through Positive Eyes

      Putting yourself in the shoes of someone living with HIV and seeing the world through their eyes.  Doing this can help an HIV-negative overcome their stigma of HIV and HIV testing, and it can help an person living with HIV know that they are not alone, and can have a long happy life ahead of them.  This is the purpose of the international photography project Through Positive Eyes.
     It was also the topic of Dr. David Gere's keynote lecture at the second day of the Drama For Life Conference.  Dr. Gere is the co-director of the project with South African born and London based photographer Gideon Mendel. Dr. Gere spoke about encouraging empathy for people living with HIV around the world (the project has been done in Mexico City, Rio De Janeiro, and most recently Johannesburg.)  This empathy is reached by offering first person interactions with the HIV-positive participant photographers who share how they see through the world through images and first-person narrative.

CIDA from Through Positive Eyes on Vimeo.
      Sitting in the audience, listening to Dr. Gere's lecture, right next to Hanni Ress, was quite the full circle moment. Dr. Gere is the director of MAKE ART/STOP AIDS where I now work, and where Hanni used to work. My first interactions with HIV activism happened when I was a student working on a project in Los Angeles with Dr. Gere and Mendel that would later give birth to the modern form of Through Positive Eyes. It was coordinated by Ress and called HIV Positive in LA: 12 Stories.  Sitting together three years later at Wits University in Johannesburg, and having a moment to reflect on where the project has come was really remarkable.

    

Debbie Does the Festival a Second Time!

Post show reading with my production team Desi (left) and Chanel (right).

Wow. Another great show tonight for Debbie Does Dallas at The Nunnery.  On such a high from the Drama For Life Festival.  A second full house and a second standing O for the show, including my hosts Steve and Cathy, has me so utterly grateful.

Nomsa and I after the show

Also in the audience was my great friend Nomsa from the Through Positive Eyes project that I helped work on here in Jo'burg in March to fight HIV stigma. Check out Through Positive Eyes
 
On another note entirely, I saw My Brother's Bones today while I was on campus before my show.  It is a play created and directed by the Director of the Drama For Life Festival Warren Nebe.  Oh my god, it was incredible.  The piece tells the story of two brothers trying to bury their older brother and it brings up so many issues of inequality, politics, and family responsibility.  The two brothers struggle and struggle to find a burial place for their brother since they do not have any money.  They end up walking the streets of the city with the coffin causing a widespread controversy. I was moved. Deeply.