"Steady Bad Luckers" makes The Balboa Theater's line up a whole lot queer-er
...Or, the joyous dark humor in a counter-counter narrative
*And now a brief foray into SF culture and life in the here and now that I’ve been enamored with and think you all should know about.*
In the cultural arenas of podcasting and documentary mini-series, redemption stories are everywhere. Steady Bad Luckers is a comedic and compelling counterpoint to that trend. The multi-hyphenates, comedian-stripper and porn historian Woody Shticks and producer Alex Steed, also co-host with Sarah Marshall of the popular podcast You Are Good, took San Francisco’s Balboa Theater’s stage on March 19th with stories from some of history’s loveably complex bad luckers.
Steed’s energy marries the warmth of Mister Rogers with the edge Henry Rollins. In an interview before the show, Steed told BAS, “We have this whole era of revitalizing and reexamining people to redeem them. And I love redemption. But I also find fascinating people who are messier than traditional redemption arcs allow for.”
Steed and Shticks met covering quintessential 90s pre-teen angst film, Harriet the Spy on You Are Good. Shticks, whose spiritual vibe bridges Pee-Wee Herman with aerobics star Richard Simmons, hinted their story would be connected to gay porn history. Steed stated, “I was a little nervous about my bad-lucker because of some of the levels of tragedy in their life. But it's all inflicted by their straightness, by their commitment to their doubling and tripling down on their straightness."
The “Bad luckers” were two men, one I wasn’t familiar with and one I had had passing familiarity with. Steed shared a well researched and entertaining profile of the late Animal entertainer and, almost avant garde, musician Joe Savage. Shtick’s portrait of openly gay actor Robert La Tourneaux (or as Shticks lovingly referred to him throughout the evening, BLT) known for playing Cowboy in the original play and film The Boys in the Band. It was at turns funny, touching, juicy gossip, and a rich historical rexamination of the intertwining of sex work and professional acting.
Both BLT and Savage were the meat of the show and showcased both Steed and Shtick’s onstage co-host chemistry and game storytelling abilities. They dipped between wry commentary, deadpan delivery, and rife political observations and levity for the darker sides of each figures personal histories. Steed and Shticks played to their strengths and there was not a dull moment or missed beat. As a queer historian, I was particularly impressed by Shtick’s interweaving of history and never boring recounting of it. Steed’s portrait of Savage was so well constructed it felt like a rich longform profile-I hope that both stories make it to audio or some other medium made readily available for audiences. It was truly impressive.
The bond between these two performers lies in their love of live theater. "The pandemic really taught us that live theater is such a precious, liminal, fragile thing,” Shticks said. The show is an opportunity to engage with a different kind of storytelling, Shticks echoed Steed’s desire for messier stories. Shticks said, “I'm interested in people who are outside of redemption narratives. That they're not actually interested in being redeemed in any way. I think that that's really compelling. The only way we know how to absorb American stories is as a hero's journey.” But what makes losers lovable?
For Steed, “Sometimes there are some people, and I have been this person, that just in the face of it keep going for some inexplicable reason, and getting more shit all over themselves as they do it. Sometimes they keep walking further into the fire, and there's no tidy explanation.” Shticks added, “As I get older, I don't know fucking shit about how people work or like what they want or do other than these very base impulses that I think we all share. It's a trap to say, 'This is why a certain kind of person would do a certain kind of thing.' Because we don't know why, really. Even though we fancy ourselves very logical, we aren't.”
Chloe Ginnever, Balboa’s former Director of Operations, is a fan of You Are Good and reached out to Steed. Steed proposed SBL and Ginnever thought it was an excellent addition to theater’s growing roster of live performances intermixed with its screenings. “We definitely have been branching out post pandemic and trying other things. We've been doing like a lot of drag shows that people are really into,” said Ginnever.
SBL’s losers, as well as Steed and Shticks’ cultural points of reference, dovetail nicely with The Balboa’s ongoing collaborations with drag performance troupe, Media Meltdown. This collaboration started with Twin Peaks fest in 2021 and took off with recent monthly Drag screenings of Twilight.
These new opportunities were exciting for Balboa audiences and Ginnever. “It's cool because it's mostly Gen Z crowd for the Twilight movies. I think this is kind of their first introduction into drag.” As The Castro Theater decreases its availability of affordable live performances and double feature movies, spaces like The Balboa are filling that gap.
The Balboa is bringing queerness to The Richmond. Making this all the more important as drag performances are increasingly under attack via legislation and physical violence. SBL is much aligned with the irreverance and cutting edge of drag's vast queer past. Shticks feels this connection within their own performances, “I just feel like I was born with the souls of a million homosexuals inside of me, you know, and not just in terms of horniness, but also a cosmic scope.” When it comes to fighting back, Shticks said, “Assimilation will not save us.”
This performance and Balboa Theater’s growing roster of live shows is an exciting reminder that live queer performance is still happening in The City. Steady Bad Luckers will undoubtedly teach audiences, to quote Elizabeth Bishop, that the art of losing isn’t hard to master, especially while laughing.
Earlier in March, CinemaSF put out an urgent call to raise money to save the struggling small movie houses. With The Castro’s calendar and future constantly in flux, it is fortunate they successfully met their fundraising goal. Hopefully, this means more dynamic and compelling programming like Steady Bad Luckers can visit our city again and bring to our attention another round of losers.