#Dark kabaret how to

“The first time that I walked into the ball, there were about 800 people on the floor just going at it, full-on,” Paul Nathan remembers. But that would mean higher costs and a relaxing of the “everyone in costumes” ethic, which changed the culture of the event. The event needed a new venue, and organizers wanted to make a splash. (Gavin Newsom would issue a similar proclamation in 2007, only to rescind it.)īy this point, even the 6,800-person capacity of the Concourse was too small for the ball’s swelling, costumed crowds. The event gained such notoriety that then-mayor Willie Brown honored the event by proclaiming an “Exotic Erotic Ball Day” in 1999. The 90s would see acts like Grace Jones and Motorhead headlining at the ball. She complains there was “lots of display, but massive amounts of drunken groping, though adds “I’m sure you'll find lots of stories of attendees having the time of their lives.” When civilians who have not done a lot of personal work on their desires, fears, prejudices, etc., get together incognito and then get high and drunk, shit happens.” “People like putting on costumes and feeling free. “Many people had massive amounts of fun at the Ball,” Hartley remembers. “I got the gig as hostess some time in the 90s, which paid money and kept me backstage where the groping didn't happen,” Hartley said. Nina Hartley would return to host stage shows when the event grew even larger and changed location to the Concourse Exhibition Center. Larger Events at the Concourse Exhibition Center (1990s) He responded, as I had his hand in mine, ‘It wasn't me!’”Īn airbrush artist paints a performer's body during the Exotic Erotic Ball on Septemin Los Angeles, California. “I grabbed the hand, bent the wrist and looked the guy in the face. “I felt a hand grabbing my vulva from behind,” she remembers. My then-partner was a nervous wreck trying to protect me.” “It was not a fun experience as the suburban boys were very handsy, to say the least. “I had gone one time in the late 1980's,” Hartley told SFist. A judge dismissed that lawsuit.Īdult film legend Nina Hartley recounts her experience of attending during the 80s. The UPI reported a $10 million lawsuit against Penthouse magazine in 1983 by a plaintiff who had been photographed scantily clad at the event, and didn’t know her photos would end up in Penthouse. Still, that wasn’t without risk during this era. The ball served was a meeting point, a place to learn.” They knew there were sex positive parties and events but had no entry into that world.

#Dark kabaret how to

“Many folks had heard about alternative lifestyles like poly, swinger, bi, trans but they had no idea how to access them. “Before the internet there were people who wanted to learn more about sexuality,” Nathan told SFist. That notion was seconded by Paul Nathan, creator of Dark Kabaret and host, emcee, and entertainment director of the Exotic Erotic Ball for more than 20 years. “Mardi Gras in New Orleans was one of the only big sexy, creative masquerade events in the U.S.,” said Ev, a stage manager and talent producer with the Ball from 1998 to 2002.

Still, it wasn’t easy being kinky in Ronald Reagan’s America of the early 1980s. “It was black-tie optional, so people showed up with black ties and that was it,” attendee Susan O’Neil said.

There aren’t many accounts of that 1979 party, but the Chronicle did find one woman who was there and quoted her in a 2004 article. The event was a fundraiser for Mann’s business partner Louis Abolafia to run for president in 1980 as a Nudist Party candidate. Between 800 and 900 guests showed up and paid $10 a pop for admission (about the same price you would have paid to see The Clash that month). Sensing success, he booked a Turk Street venue called the California Hall (now an Academy Of Art University building) for the first Exotic Erotic Ball in 1979. Mann first held a 1978 private party in his Tenderloin apartment called the Nudist’s Ball, and was encouraged when hundreds showed up to get naked with him. A tradition in San Francisco and newly launched in New York, the Ball draws those interested in role play. January 2002 Playmate Joanie Laurer dominates a member of the audience at the Exotic Erotic Ball at Webster Hall Novemin New York City.