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Category: Life
Hey, I'm Tom Orr, an award-winning lyricist-playwright-singer-dancer-actor-emcee-comedian-choreographer-director-producer & "musical comedy cabaret porn star." I work hard and try to be a good person. Luckily, my job is making people smile and laugh, so life is pretty good to me in return.
Since 1997, I've been entertaining Bay Area audiences with my parodies, i.e. "Dirty Little Showtunes!", a critic- and crowd-pleasing cult hit revue that has had successful runs in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Houston & 2006 Minneapolis Fringe Festival.
I've been called "the Lenny Bruce of musical parody" and "the love child of Dorothy Parker and Al Parker," and am fairly well known for baring all (or nearly all) in bawdy burlesque turns: in my recent solo show, "iTom_shuffle"; plus "Dirty Little Showtunes!"; "Howard Crabtree's Whoop-Dee-Doo!"; my previous solo acts, "Sweet Parody!" and "Of ME I Sing, Baby!"; and for a year I stopped the show as "The Perky Little Porn Star" in "Naked Boys Singing!" at Theatre Rhinoceros (SF - Aug./Dec. 2000) and The Crown & Anchor Inn (Provincetown, MA - Summer 2001).
My more legit stage career of late has been noted for quirky quick-change character work in G-rated fare such as "Mack & Mabel", "Li'l Abner", "Pardon My English", "Plain & Fancy," the "Moon About Town" 2007 Gala and "One Touch of Venus" for 42nd Street Moon (coming up next spring: "The Student Gypsy"); the Men's Swing (both parts) in Morrie Bobrow's "Shopping! The Musical"; my directorial debut (with my friend & co-director Tom Segal) "Simply Sondheim: A 75th Birthday Salute" (2-disk original cast recording available at www.amazon.com); "Trog!" at Rhino with Mike Finn, Matthew Martin & Heklina; and earlier this summer, I made a splash in the locker room scene of the hit baseball play "Take Me Out" at New Conservatory Theatre Center.
In my more Eagle Scout-esque moments, I can often be found singing showtunes for the elderly and infirm. It's like jukebox therapy when the music starts and their eyes light up and they are suddenly alive again. It may sound cliched, but it kinda keeps me humble. As humble as one can be on a MySpace page that is pure self-promotion ...
In my more "illegit" career, let's say I've dabbled in adult cinema, from blink-and-you'll-miss-'em cameos to working crew & holding the crotchlight to my two features directed by Joe Gage, one of which got me nominated for a 2007 GayVN Award (the industry's Oscars, and Kathy Griffin was the emcee!). I believe that once you have done anything in life, you can't NOT have done it, so might as well embrace it and own it. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed about it -- in modern gay life, our only real celebrities are deejays, drag queens and porn stars ... I'm somewhere in between all 3 -- and I got to enact one of my fantasies in order to hopefully be someone else's as they watch me.
Of course, not everyone is of like mind, so if you're an old acquaintance or friend from school or family member who stumbled upon this profile when you Googled me, please don't judge me or act all shocked. I'm much more discreet than my reputation may let on, despite my chronic compulsive confessional recovering ex-Catholicism. It's only one part of my strange and amusing life as an adult entertainer, so don't tell the kids or my mother.
Besides, in San Francisco, doing porn is like jury duty. EVERYONE has done porn here.
And, lastly, for the record, when my brother asked me if I'd done porn and I said, "No," at the time I hadn't been in front of the camera yet. I may be a pervert but I'm honest.
That's my professional stuff (and sorry if this sounds like a press release, but I'm busy promoting the various shows I'm performing in and brand new to MySpace, so pardon me while my worlds collide and I brace myself to finally enter the new millennium).
Too Much Information?
Let's start over. I'm Tom. Tommy, to friends and family. Thomas Andrew to my mom when I'm in trouble. Thomas Andrew Orr by birth. 15 letters. 3 names. Initials: TAO.
When I'm not onstage, I'm a 37-year-old born-again San Franciscan finally getting my act together (quite literally). After years of being a starving artist and living in self-imposed poverty, I've realized I'm too old -- and too talented -- to be this poor, and I can't advance in my life until I come to terms with my own fears of money and success.
However, I am the best lyricist you've never heard of and a damn fine entertainer.
I have ten years' worth of material already written and new ideas come every day. In "Dirty Little Showtunes!", I'd break the 4th wall every night and work the crowd like Carol Burnett to get suggestions for a showtune, a sex act and a location to inspire a new "Mystery Song" which I then wrote during Intermission and sang at the top of Act Two, with no rehearsal. It kept each show fresh & new for me, kept me on my toes and kept folks coming back several times to play "stump the Showqueen." Point is, I'm fast. Someday soon, I'll be in a hotel in New Haven, fixing a Broadway show out of town. I'm very ambitious and have everything I need except money. But that will come eventually.
I digress ...
Recently, I moved to a new apartment that is really nice and things are finally clicking into place as I "upgrade" to a grown-up or "big boy" lifestyle. I have a boyfriend named Christopher who treats me like gold and we're coming up on 2 years together 11/11.
I have a fat lapcat named Sam: very "at one" with his catness, he's my zen buddha guru. My new favorite thing is to stay in & watch TV curled on the sofa with my two boys.
I had a housing crisis back in March and had to find a new place to live with no money. Rather than panic, I rented out Theater Rhinoceros on a Monday night and threw a benefit for myself, with a raffle and silent auction and guest stars Trauma Flintstone, Katya Ludmilla Smirnoff;Skyy, Kim Larsen & Ben Keim. It was a big success, made some money, got me thru the crisis, reaffirmed that friends and fans love and support me & my work. It also inspired "iTom_shuffle," the work-in-progress cabaret act I just did at The Garage in San Francisco, which I now plan to take on the road.
I also lost almost four good years of my life to crystal meth. I quit cold turkey nearly three years ago and am completely tina-free now. Part of my recovery has been to write songs about addiction and recovery based on my experiences and explicit "research". They make up a large portion of my show and I'm hoping to expand it into a complete cabaret act that can tour and hopefully be filmed as public service announcements for websites and video bars, maybe with grant money from the health dept.? Film at 11.
What else? I love to cook, live for the beach (but barely gotten there this year) and worry very deeply about the state of the world today (i.e. WWIII) and what can be done. I've been quoted in The New Yorker, have been seen on "30 Days" and "Oprah," I've touched Pope John Paul II on the hand and kissed Stephen Sondheim on the lips. Twice. He's a very good kisser, actually.
I'm new to most technology due to the aforementioned poverty thing, but it is time for me to learn dammit and catch up with what the whippersnappers are doing. I've got lots of footage that I will be posting on YouTube as soon as I get my video transferred.
My songs do no one any good in a filing cabinet. Stay tuned.
7:42 PM
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