A Sneak Peek at Mr. Gay International

January 14, 2008

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We talked with John Michael Beck, an associate producer of the Mr. Gay Competition, about the genesis of the event, their goals for the future of it and why they think it’s more than just a beauty pageant. If you live in LA, tickets are on sale now for $20. Not much for a chance to ogle some attractive yet cerebral studs.

Outzone: Tell us a bit about the background and structure of the competition.

John Michael: The background of it is that we started it about 3 years ago. Don Spradlin was a big party promoter in San Francisco. I was doing a lot of theatre work there. We ended up both moving to LA at same time. In 2004, Don threw this event called the Cutie in the Castro contest. And that was sort of the genesis of the Mr. Gay Competition. It worked like a test model. So our first Mr. Gay was in 2005 and I came aboard as stage director and associate producer.

The way we did it those first two years is that we were looking for the winner for the next year. This year we’re actually going to name a champion on the spot for the first time. So the first year was in Palm Springs. There were 12 contestants and 5 US contestants. There were two acts. The first act is the US finals and then there’s an intermission and the US winner competes in the International finals. In 2006, 40 guys competed. The US competition was on a Friday night, International on a Saturday. This year we’ve broken it up into three separate weekends. In October, they had the US finals. So it’s the international competition that’s coming up on the 20th at the Music Box in Hollywood.

Don started it because he was troubled by the way gays are represented in the media. Gays are always represented as the most risqué and over the top. And so it was this idea that “Gay is not the stereotype,” that he wanted to put into it. So the guys we’re looking for are more boy next door types. They’re more well rounded, not always at the bar and the gym. But the goal is to move the gay community forward by being inclusive to the larger society while still retaining our individuality as a community.

OZ: That’s a pretty fine line to walk.

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