Go-go boy Tim Cusack strips down and schools queers — on ancient Roman history?
By Brandon Voss
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in the East Village in a play about Rome, do it with gays, trannies and as little clothing as possible — especially when it’s I, Claudius Live!, a six-part parody of the epic 1976 BBC miniseries from Theatre Askew (2004’s award-winning Bald Diva!). The queer performance troupe was co-founded by director and star Tim Cusack, an NYU-educated dick-dancer from Scranton, Pennsylvania. But preconceived notions about go-go boys are so first century: When it comes to the downtown theater scene, Cusack’s raising the bar — not just dancing on top of it.
HX: Congratulations on the buzz that you and your theater company are getting. Is this the career trajectory you expected?
Tim Cusack: God, no. If they had told me on the day they gave me my diploma that it would take 15 years for anyone to start paying attention, I would’ve handed it right back and said, “No thank you, I’ll go back to the Business School and do this all over again!”
What’s Theatre Askew’s mission?
We’re interested in queer theater, but using “queer” as a metaphor for everyone who’s an outsider in this society. In I, Claudius, Claudius is a handicapped man in first-century Rome who has literally no place in society — he can’t be in politics, he can’t be in the military — he’s literally nothing. And yet he becomes emperor. That’s a wonderful metaphor for us gay boys who were made to feel like we were nothing growing up but who turned into emperors and queens of New York! We fooled everybody.
Explain the bold choice to spread out I, Claudius over six nights.
If we had condensed it any more, we would have lost a lot of the flavor that attracted us to it in the first place — it would’ve just become this campy, silly thing. Hopefully the audience will come for the whole journey, or they can just come for a part of it. And there’s a spiritual dimension to it. You know those Buddhist monks who make mandalas and then demolish them? To me, each episode is like a mandala: It happens once and then it’s gone — you either experienced it or you didn’t. There’s something really beautiful about that. It’s taking the ephemeral nature of theater to the extreme.
How did you start go-go dancing?
I’ve lived in the East Village for 15 years. In the late ’90s, a neighbor and I went to IC Guys, which was really small and fun. There was a sign on the chalkboard that said, “If you take your clothes off, you’ll get a free drink.” So I’m like, What the fuck, nobody’s here, who cares? So I stripped — which I always wanted to do anyway. When I was done, the bartender said, “You want a job?” And that’s how it started. I’d do all sorts of wacky, crazy things like be naked except for a rubber chicken. Or I’d hand out markers and you could draw on me. My favorite was when I did an homage to Yoko Ono: I had this Puerto Rican prom dress on and a pair of scissors, and if you tipped me, you could cut off a piece of my dress! It was very daring. Then I got into a relationship, so I gave it up for a while.
But it has a way of sucking you back in, doesn’t it?
Almost two years ago, I was feeling so invisible. I thought, Nothing’s happening in my career or my life; I want to be a go-go boy again. So I did. I knew Daniel Nardicio through the off-off-Broadway scene, so I told him I’d love to dance at his Triple-X parties. I’m actually dancing for Daniel this weekend.
Do you mind the go-go boy stigma following you as you make your foray into legitimate theater?
It’s funny, because I was a director and a producer long before I was a go-go boy, but nobody cared back then. I like the idea that there’s this other party boy part of me, and I get to let that out when I go-go.
What’s next for Theatre Askew?
A Seagull with very interesting casting. We want to expand what queer theater can be. It’s not just about rich gay men in their vacation homes having their little crises. Every time you come back to one of our shows, it’s going to be completely different from what you saw before. It’s important that we constantly try new things.
Well, I’ll try to stop by and see you, uh, unleash your party boy side this weekend — for journalistic purposes, of course.
Be sure to come up and shake my — well, whatever appendage is available! [Laughs.]
Go-Gos Gone Good
• Before he was Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, Jason Sellards was cutting up at IC Guys and The Cock.
• Not having found his purpose dancing at The Slide and The Rambles at The Park, Jeff Whitty won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for Avenue Q.
• It was while baring his wares at Splash that Tony-winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell got the idea for his Broadway Bares benefit.
• A hirsute hunk who has commanded attention at Boysroom, Splash, and The Rambles at The Park, Erik Sniedze produced and directed the off-off-Broadway successes The Plank Project and Sex*But.
• The ubiquitous, HX Award-winning legend Matt Bell stepped down from his go-go throne to become Pop Editor of Genre magazine.
• An aspiring singer, Spunk’d superstar Jay makes his (legitimate) performance debut this Wednesday at Splash. Break a third leg, buddy!
HX, January 2006.