Hello … My name is Ray Gunn … I am a burlesque performer … I was … I’m the 2013 King of Burlesque … I’m a producer … I produce a show called The Vertical Sideshow … I’m just … an all-around circus freak (laughter) … So … I was raised in Lincoln Illinois … which is three and a half hours south of Chicago … It’s in the center of the state … and it’s a pretty … all … like … well … it’s an all white town … and pretty much all farm community … I grew up on a farm … and until I was in junior high … I was the “black guy” … That was … not fun … yeah (laughter) So … I’m the youngest in my family and I come from a big family … so it kind of … because there’s a pretty big gap … so it was kind of like being an only child … because of that … I spent a lot of time alone … with my imagination and things like that … so I think that from an early age … being creative was just part of it … I think some of it kept me out of a lot of trouble … and kept me entertained … As I got older … I don’t think … was it … I didn’t really start to … artistry and things like that weren’t necessarily … I … I was a super hyper kid … so I was more into physical things … I got into gymnastics when I was really young … and … we eventually moved into town … and the neighborhood we moved into was all boys … We were all super physical … and we all wanted to be stunt men … We watched the Fall Guy and The Great American Hero … The A team … So … I was more a physical child then a brainy kid … It wasn’t until high school that I started investigating more into the arts … which was also when I was outed … when I was fourteen … by the first person that I had ever done anything sexual with … well … yes … lets just leave it at that (laughter) … That was a really hard time in my life … It was a time where … so I had made the mistake of … when … someone had asked me if I was gay … and I didn’t really know what was going on … so I didn’t say no … I said I don’t know … and in a place like that … it’s … like … one or the other … It was hard enough being the black kid … but being the black gay kid … Um … I think that … sadly enough … in some way what kind of saved me … was … sports … because my family … we’re all athletes … and they all played sports … because I had the name I was automatically … Oh … That’s little McCray … he’s going to play in this and he’s going to do this … In some ways … that somewhat helped … but … I was in fights pretty much every day … with people that … I knew since I was six … and people who … like … one of my best friends when I was a kid … One of my fondest childhood memories was … I got the chicken pox on Halloween … and I got them really really badly … I had them on the bottoms of my feet so I couldn’t get out of bed … it was terrible … so … my friends took a Polaroid picture of me in my costume and took that with them when they went trick or treating … and these were the people … that in high school … I was fighting with every day … like they didn’t know who I was … After high school … I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go to school … so I went to the junior college in my home town … first … just to get the credits and get the gen ed stuff out of the way … I wanted to do something physical … and I didn’t want to play … I didn’t want to wrestle anymore … because I didn’t want to cut weight … I knew that track wasn’t going to happen … I knew that football wasn’t going to happen … So … somebody said … why don’t you take a dance class … you know it’s easy … it’s a blowoff class … So I took the class … and at the end of the semester … we got to see a professional dance company … It was David Parsons out of New York … and they do this piece called Caught … and the entire act is … its individual dancers … and they’re doing really simple things like jumping in the air … and they’re getting caught by a strobe light and it looks like they’re floating … by the time the piece was over and I walked out of the theater … I was … this is what I want to do for the rest of my life … It was this kind of odd collision of all the things I was starting to become interested in … That’s how I found dance … So … I took as many dance classes as I could and then started researching other universities … and then ended up in a dance conservatory in upstate New York … at SUNY Purchase … My next move … out of college … was to take over the universe (laughter) … I was going to be the next big … oh … I don’t know … whatever … So … I moved to New York … I moved into an apartment in Hells Kitchen with four other people … It was a two bedroom … It was terrible … This was in 1999 … this was … yeah … I had to … And I didn’t even make it a full year in New York … I was there for about six months before I was … this is … I can’t do this … At that point in time there were some companies that were starting to do some things in Minneapolis … The dance scene in Minneapolis was starting to flourish … So … I moved to Minneapolis … and … just … Minneapolis  wasn’t a good fit either … Then I moved to Chicago … because Chicago was close enough to home … but it was far enough … that I wouldn’t get those surprises weekend visits … I think my big problem at the very beginning was … now looking back … it wasn’t the places where I was … I was cocky … and I was arrogant … cause I was just out of college and I knew that I had some skill … that I had some talent … It kind of got me in trouble … well … and I had a little bit of a mouth too (laughter) … When you’re in college they don’t prepare you for … ok … so let’s say … this dance company … they’re having an audition for one male dancer … they’re replacing one male dancer … and you have 300 people that show up … being cut … seeing 75 people cut within the first hour … it’s deflating … even if you make it further in … it’s just … you start to feel just like an object … So I think that was my big problem with New York … Also … right out of college … surrounding myself with dancers … I was surrounded by it all the time … so I was hearing about so and so’s having an audition … are you going? … and then hearing after the audition … how did you do? … There weren’t a lot of people saying … Hey … I’m working on this … and doing this with this company … It was just a lot of … we were just … There wasn’t anything … unique about myself there … I was just another dancer … and I didn’t want to be just another dancer … So … when I got to Chicago … I did some work with a couple of companies here … then I ran into a guy I went to college with who was starting a company …  and he asked me if I would be in their next show … So I did the next show … and when the show was over he asked me if I would be interested in taking over as artistic director of the company … So then I was running a company … this was exactly what I wanted to do … but … I was a young kid … I wasn’t really prepared to be doing this … so suddenly … I went from my only responsibilities were making sure I stayed limber … and that I could still do my splits … and my feet were still good … Now I had to worry about this company of performers … and … this particular … when it started … they all weren’t dancers … there were three actual trained dancers … there were some stage combatants … a couple of wrestlers … a couple of capoeiristas … and some breakdancers … and that was what the company consisted of … I’m like … so now … make this into a company … It was tough at first … I did a lot of learning … really really quickly in that first year … I made a lot of mistakes … a lot of mistakes … and slowly started to figure it out … My approach was to learn the language of the different movement aesthetics … first identifying them as completely … and then … to learn enough of them so I could speak it … to the performers …  and then … kind of find the relationships between them … From that I slowly found the similarities and I used that to create a movement aesthetic that everybody was somewhat familiar with … and it seemed to be the direction the company was going in … So after four years … I moved on and started my own company … which lasted for about three years and then the economy tanked … Good old George W (laughter) … After … that … I was just struggling to find something to do … So … there was a man that was doing a show called Chicago Takes Off … It was a benefit show for a test positive awareness network … so he asked me to choreograph for it … and afterwards he asked me if I would be interested in doing some side work for him … I was like … I could keep dancing … at that time the company had officially disbanded … but I was still trying to hold on to keeping it going … I was taking these gigs as a way of … like … I’ll take this … and I can use this … and I can get this piece … put it in this show … and I’ll be able to pay this … and … that lasted for a little while … but … it was like … I have to eat too … It stings even more … when … the people that you’re trying so hard … having them in mind … and making sure that they’re taken care of … and then something doesn’t go right or the way they want … and then seeing them kind of … all of the sudden you’re all of this  … you’re trying so much … It kind of became a little bit deflating … I pulled away from the company … and then Toddy himself started … he was getting into burlesque … more himself … and in 2009 he was crowned King of Burlesque … and he came back … and he was like … hey … I want to start an all male burlesque group … he sent out a mass text … and three of us answered … He started this group called The Stage Door Johnnies … it went from … we just thought … oh we’re just going to show up and maybe do a thing here and there … every now and again … but he was … ok … I have you a weekly show … come up with your personas … and there you go … So … I was thrown into burlesque … and I had only seen one show ever in my entire life … I knew nothing about the industry … I was like ok … here we go … this was around 2010 … Doing burlesque … Actually … I was performing a lot more then I was even then when I had my own company … It was exciting … At first I was … oh yeah … I’ll just do it until … you know … just for a little while and we’ll see what happens … and it’s been almost ten years now … So … at the very beginning we started off at Spin … That’s where the weekly show started … and then we moved it to Hydrate … So we had a weekly show at Hydrate for about a year and a half … Which … that was really great … After that … we were doing a lot more performance stuff … and more traveling … We did our first … I said we … in the … the group I was with … The Stage Door Johnnies … there were three of us … so thats what I mean when I say we  … it was three of us … So we did our first major burlesque festival … and after that it was like we blew up … it was crazy … we went from … a couple of people who were familiar with some of the stuff we had done in Chicago … to suddenly … producers in Australia asking us to come and do tours … because … at that time we were a novelty because we were three trained male dancers that were doing striptease … After that we traveled … Australia … New Zealand … Europe … Edinburgh … Italy … Germany … We were just all over the place … we did a show at the Fringe festival in Edinburgh called Dixie … The concept of the show was … it was all male burlesque performers … and then they brought in female performers to do the strong act … so it was this reverse … like role reversal … and it did ok … I think we kind of got a little screwed in the pooch … because … the year prior … there was a show called Briefs … which … is … it’s kind of more burlesque then drag … was just there … and people were … oh yeah … it seems it’s a lot like Briefs … and we were no no no … we’re nothing like that … I mean I love those guys … Briefs … but I’m also like … you fuckers stole my thunder (laughter) …As far as my personal style … a lot of stuff I tend to have has a Steam Punk edge to it … I tend to like to blur the fashions … to wear things that don’t really have a gender … I like challenging the audience  with what I do … Challenging  audiences to see and be ok with seeing … looking at me being sexy on stage … and kind of unapologetically so … a lot of times … especially at the very beginning you would see … when … you’d see guys … they would do acts … but it was very comedic … or very … Oh … You don’t want to see this … And I wasn’t trying to do that … I would get up there … and I would be like … sex … and being ok with it … being a masculine man on stage … being a sexual being … The response I get is all over the place … sometimes I get … like … I was in St Louis and a woman came up to me and she was … I want you to know … you have an unofficial fan club … and it consists of all lesbians … and the name of it is Straight for Ray … So … I get things like that … or sometimes … at some places I get … oh that’s kind of vulgar … its always the gamut … But I mean … I kind of know that … and I know that as long as there is a reaction … and there’s conversation … then I’m doing my job … In the present social climate … just from speaking from what I’ve seen … within my field … there's a kind of need to … I’m not sure exactly how to put it … There’s this need to make sure that everybody gets a turn … everybody's feelings are taken into account … I feel it started off really well … but it’s gotten to a point where … it’s almost … they’ve become the thing they were trying to prevent … and so you hear and you see artists now that are afraid to … they’re afraid to do art … they’re afraid to push any boundaries because … it’s not … all it takes is one person to … be offended … and blast you on social media … and that can be your career … From here … I think we’re just at the beginning of darker times with this … I feel that … it hasn’t … I don’t think it’s  gotten to the point where people see how ridiculous it is yet … I don’t think that things will change until it’s at that point … because now it’s still … very much in the … it can be explained as … Oh … I’m protecting these people … or I’m calling this out for those who aren’t calling things out … but … what happens once we get to the point that everything that needs to be called out has been called out … but you’re still picking at these things … I don’t think until we get to that point much will change … I know that doesn’t  sound very great … but I just think that we’ve got further to go with it … For me … there was a situation … but it was very very minor … I was teaching a class and … I was using a term … to describe … this type of act that I was talking about in class … and was called out … Oh … you can’t use that term … because thats this and this and this … like … you’re being very derogatory right now … I think it was less the … saying it to me … and more of the … the need to feel … oh … I need to call you out on this right now … it was just kind of … ok … you know what I mean … I think about … when I was … at my cockiest … I don’t think that I would have ever … with a professor … I may say something after class … and have a conversation … because I’m all for that … any classes that I teach now … I even say to my students … I don’t believe what I’m saying is the only correct thing … and I’m not … my word is not … law … by any means … I learn from … when people contest these things in class … I encourage it … Now … where I teach … I’ve created a series of classes … and it’s act creation … It’s a series that I go through … and identify the important parts of an act and give you … a series of questions to ask yourself … so … it’s all act building … blah … blah … blah (laughter) … There’s a series of classes and it’s all with creating … within burlesque … and it’s usually when I go to different festivals … different cities … Burlesque studios will say … hey … do you want to teach? … and I’ll come in and … and I’ve taught at different places … all over … So … the first week in June there’s the annual burlesque hall of fame … it started … and had very meager beginnings … it started on a goat ranch … it was a gathering for burlesque performers … it was kind of a reunion type thing … and it got bigger and bigger … and the competition got bigger … So … every year … they compete … and you compete for a tittle … King and Queen of burlesque … It used to be Mr. and Mrs. Exotic World … and actually … one thing I do want to … it kind of has a bit of a sting to it … within burlesque … male burlesque tends to be referred to as Boylesque … and … I don’t like that … I don’t like that term at all … When I started … I was very much … I studied those who came before … I respect that this is a … female art form … and I’m coming into this … not coming into it … just being a man … or anything like that … So I studied … I got as naked as the women did … I take it as serious as they do … I’m not asking for … I’m not asking to be different … I’m just asking for my place at the table … so I don’t understand why what I do has to be called something completely different … I just want it to be the same … and then when … in winning the title … at the Burlesque Hall of Fame … The title is not actually King of Burlesque … It’s Best Boylesque … I have to say … as a Black man … living in the U.S. … being called a boy … is a really kind of … different … it hits the ear wrong (laughter) And to think … coming into this Industry and getting myself to the highest honors … and the highest honors within this industry that I’m a part of … is to be … kind of degraded … It’s not at the goat farm anymore … Now it’s held at the old Vegas strip … It’s at The Orleans … in the big showroom … Every year … first of June … off to Vegas … It’s officially four days … but it’s usually six … I enjoy doing it … I’ve been doing it for ten years … Other places … actually last year I went to Berlin … I was in Berlin for the first time … I love Berlin … and I performed there … and in fact … during one of the performances … I was … on a chair … and I went to step back … and missed the stage and fell back into this woman’s lap … and she and two other people literally pushed me back onto the stage … I was … that would never happen in the U.S. (laughter) … these are some strong women there … I’ve not been to Amsterdam … I’ve performed in Helsinki … Helsinki was really cool … I’ve been to Italy … wasn’t … that … fond of Italy … I really loved Rimini … I have to say that because if I don’t say that Freaky Candy will kill me … I really loved Rimini … We did Rome … Milan … Venice was really cool … we didn’t perform there … it was just … being there … I felt like Venice was exactly what I expected Venice to be … we were at one other place but I can’t think of it … I cant think of the name of it … So … it’s not for me … it’s just on a different wavelength … so … yeah … From there we went to Munich … and from Munich we went to Berlin … and then on to the Czech Republic … to Prague … it’s a really beautiful city … I’ve been to London … As far as social media … I use Facebook … mostly for industry stuff … just kind of keeping up with what’s going on … I do a lot of bookings through Facebook … as far as being contacted … I’m personally more a fan of Instagram … Just because … you’re just looking at pictures … It’s more visual … sometimes your on Facebook … I’m sitting there and I feel like I have to write a post … nervous about it … I have to write it … then have to proofread it and read it to somebody else … it’s … Oh … this is my random thought of the day (laughter) … I don’t understand twitter … so … I don’t even try … So … my Instagram account is … I am Ray Gunn … and it’s Gunn with two n’s … Also … the show that I produce … The Vertical Sideshow … also has one … which is … it’s just … The Vertical Sideshow … As much as I complain about social media … it’s allowed me to … network with people from other countries … and also for them to see my work … So I’ve gotten a lot of bookings … from other places … through social media … Future plans … I’ve started producing more and performing less … I think the I’ve found that sweet spot between what I was doing with my company … like my dance … and what I’m doing now … within burlesque … kind of exploring that more … I miss having a company … I’m kind of walking back into that direction … and … yeah … I think that’s where I’m going … performing less and producing shows … and producing bigger spectacles … which … truth be told … when in college … when I decided this is what I want to do … It was never … never truly to be a dancer … I never wanted to really be a performer … but I had to know that side of it … to be a choreographer … I’ve always wanted to be the person that created the spectacle … never the person that starred in it …