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Alan Pratt
Nightlife, Naughty and Nirvana!
With
each of his yoga-toned extremities firmly planted in nightlife, the
naughty and even nirvana itself, Alan Pratt is truly a Renaissance man!
As the proprietor of Grand Space, a 6,000-square foot event venue in
Brooklyn, he oversees the bookings of everything from yoga classes to
all-night dance parties. He also produces numerous events that lean in
a kinky direction, blending fetishism, massage, music and
self-expression. Add to all this the fact that he brings a spirituality
and love of community to everything he does and you know that when you
hang with Alan you’ll be experiencing nightlife on an entirely
different psychic plane. ErosZine had an enlightening conversation with
this about his vision for a warm, welcoming world of sensual
socializing and being “a big, kinky perv”!
ErosZine: So, tell me how you got involved with all these different events?
Alan Pratt: I used to be a customer at the Foot Friends
parties. I was petrified the first time I went to a foot fetish party -
full of shame. I was a popular go-go dancer in the gay club scene and
accustomed to strutting my stuff in a jock strap in front of thousands
of people. Yet the idea of walking into a bar where there were other
men with a foot fetish filled me with dread. This was the early '90s,
before I knew how to use a computer, before the Internet gave us a
safe, anonymous public forum to talk about our secret desires. The
camaraderie I experienced at the parties surpassed my self-loathing and
it felt good to know I was not the only foot freak on the planet, which
was a feeling I had grown up with. In '96, the promoters of the Foot
Friends parties moved to San Francisco and passed the parties on to me.
I've expanded the parties over the years to include other cities and
other fetishes, and we now have a pay site and video division.
EZ: You produce foot fetish events, massage parties, you enjoy bondage
and underwear fetish. Are these all personal interests of yours?
AP: Feet turn me on more than anything in the world. All people deserve
greater access to giving and receiving massage; let's teach basic
massage techniques in our public school system. I’m not a bona fide
bondage master, but one of my favorite scenes is to tie a guy down and
tickle "torture" him from head to toes. Underwear in and of itself does
nothing for me, but I'm all for nudity and full body contact, so if
getting in our underwear gets us closer to that, then I'm all for it.
When we had the penthouse on Wall St., we called our gatherings
"Underwear Parties" to make them sound inviting and innocent and
playful, since the word "SEX" freaks people out.
EZ: So, guys in hot underwear, getting their feet tied up. Is there a
huge audience for that? Or is it a combination of all your fetishes?
AP: I'm getting all tingly in my naughty bits...I'm sorry, what was the
question? Yes, I'm blending my fetishes, and it's working! We're
already getting 150-200 men every Monday night for The Massage Parlor,
and as the weather gets warmer, it's gonna rock even bigger. 2i's (our
club at 248 W.14th St. in Manhattan) has given us the green light to
duplicate The Massage Parlor for women on Tuesday nights. We're
interviewing powerhouse women promoters and will have those parties
rockin' by May. We've already picked a club in LA, and we're just
waiting for a night to open up.
EZ: You have foot parties in five cities? How does that work?
AP: We network with fetish party promoters in London, San Francisco,
Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles. It's a loosely structured franchise.
We also tour occasionally. Last year we hit Austin, Dallas, Houston and
Chicago.
EZ: Do you run the Foot Friends web site?
AP: I used to work with the photo/video shoots, everything from casting
to tickling to editing. My business partner, Chip Strong, does it all
now, and he's darned good at it.
EZ: Your web sites make it look like you're very busy being a bit of a
pervert. Are you a big pervert? Or do you just enjoy catering to them?
AP: The words "pervert" and "kinky" have negative connotations, and
yes, I'm a big kinky perv! If I had not turned my sexy obsessions into
a business, I'd probably go to recovery meetings for sex addicts. But
since I serve the community and make a living at it, I can justify the
amount of time I spend thinking about—and acting out—my fantasies.
EZ: How did you wind up here? Where'd you grow up?
AP: I was born in Buffalo, grew up in Charlottesville, Louisville, and
mostly West Palm Beach, Florida. Went to Florida State in Tallahassee
for acting, was an apprentice at the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater, came
to New York in '83, and been here ever since.
EZ: Tell us your nightlife history? What was your first gay bar or club experience?
AP: It was the summer of '78 in Lake Worth, Florida, right after I
graduated from high school. My father was working as a UFO investigator
for the National Enquirer, and he and my mom had taken my dad's boss
and his wife to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I knew they would be
out until at least 2am, so I went to a little bar that I had only seen
men go in and out of. As soon as I walked in, my high school drama
teacher's catty hairdresser saw me, and the next day all my friends
knew I was queer.
EZ: What is your involvement with Grand Space?
AP: Grand Space is my baby. I did a 21-day green juice fast while we
were living in the penthouse, and a fasting expert told me to make a
wish on the 10th day and that it would come true on the 21st day of the
fast. When it came time to make the wish, I said, "Whatever the
universe gives me is perfect." The next day, we were served with an
eviction notice, ostensibly because of our underwear parties. What was
really going on was that the landlords realized everyone was moving
back to ground zero and they could get a lot more rent than we were
paying for a duplex penthouse with terraces. We showed the eviction
notice to our lawyer, openly gay New York State Assemblyman Danny
O'Donnell, who laughed gleefully and said, "Wanna take 'em to court?
They've broken the lease, there's homophobic discriminatory text in the
document. You don't have to leave your home." We thought, "Maybe this
is a sign from the universe," so we went shopping for a big loft. On
the 21st day, within hours of completing the fast, we read a listing
for what is now Grand Space. We were the first people to see it—from a
Village Voice listing!—and the owner immediately offered me first
rights on the whole building with long leases.
We work with reputable channels, who bring forth the wisdom of
brilliant spirits. I visited with one right after we moved in, said
nothing about our move, and the voice said, "Spirit has brought you to
this building. There is a powerful vortex of energy beneath the
building. This building will be known around the world as a healing
center." The combination of people who have come here in less than
three years is amazing: shamans, healers, wild tribal dancers, sex
parties, world famous nutritionists and authors, the last living
Maharaja from India (one of Gandhi's regional freedom leaders), and
even a day when 20,000 bees descended on the building and spent the
afternoon, drawing police, EMS, helicopters, national news, and a lot
of good bee energy. But that's another story!
EZ: You seem to be everywhere...fetish world, nightlife, both the spiritual and the Burning Man cultures.
AP: Om!
EZ: You’re also engaged in many spiritual endeavors.
AP: Spirituality is more a feeling or an awareness than an action, and
beautiful sex can bring me as close to God as meditating in front of my
altar. In '86 my partner died of AIDS, and his passing led me to a
world of practices we call "spiritual": healing circles, meditation and
prayer, chanting and singing to God, reiki, crystals, transformational
workshops. I also practiced a 100% raw vegan diet for five years, and
have done a lot of fasting and cleansing, up to 33 days at a time.
These practices raise my conscious awareness of the path of my spirit
through this incarnation, but they don't make me any more spiritual
than the guy who's eating pizza and watching the ball game. We're all
on our path, and it would be arrogant for me to assume I'm doing it
right, or that I'm further along the path than anyone else.
EZ: What’s all this about the shamanistic?
AP: Before I moved into Grand Space, I didn't know what the word
"shaman" meant. Now we've welcomed shamans from Brazil, Peru, Russia
and Israel, as well as Native American and African American shamans,
employing a broad range of practices involving rituals, trance dance,
herbs, plants and sacred power objects, hands on and energetic healing
and deep meditation. I don't understand a lot of it, and I don't need
to; I can see and feel the healing happening for myself and many others
who come here.
EZ: How did you originally become involved with shamans?
AP: I was practicing a raw vegan diet, which led me to the Body Temple
dance extravaganzas, where I met Parashakti (www.parashakti.org), who I
call the "spirit dance queen of NYC." Parashakti moved into Grand
Space, through her came the first shamans, and they are still streaming
in.
EZ: You appear to be interested in creating a warm, welcoming world for
people. What are your thoughts about being inclusive as opposed to
exclusive?
AP: I'm damaged goods, honey! It was hard enough to face being a gay
boy, but then to realize that what makes my dick hard is sucking and
tickling another boy's feet—talk about feeling left out! I'm not just
weird, I’m extreeemely weird. I think we all feel left out at different
times and to varying degrees. So if my projects can reach out to as
many people as possible, and discriminate as little as possible, that
makes me feel good. I have an ongoing project called "The Moment of
Sound" where we get thousands of people to sing together in public for
unity and healing. There are no right words or notes; just open your
mouth and sing "Ah." There's no message, anyone can do it and you can't
do it wrong. We've done it with up to 20,000 people (the '97 LGBT Pride
march) and the last time we did it was at ground zero on the first
anniversary of 9/11. We've proposed it to several Olympic Committees,
and we're thinking about Times Square on New Year's Eve one minute
before midnight—a million people singing together for peace and
harmony. Ultimately, I really do want to get the whole world to sing
together.
EZ: Tell me about this Mega-Sex-Love party. What's it gonna be like? Where did the idea come from? What's the "vision."
AP: Welcome to the "Palace of Love"! It's all about love and healing
and full self-expression. Sex will be a big part of the party, and
there will also be a lot of socializing, hugging and massage. Our
species is ashamed of sex and that's not healthy. We create rich and
beautiful spaces to gather together as a community - to eat food, dance
and drink, display and view art, sport and performance, conduct
business and educate ourselves, all as a community. Why do we not
make beautiful places to make love and sex as a community? Who says
it's wrong to do it in a group? Why is sex relegated to dark and
private spaces, all "hush-hush" and "no-no"? Why is it illegal for
money to be transacted for sex? Boxing is a big money business; people
pay a lot to watch men beat each other bloody. But if we want to bring
men together to make love as a community, we cannot advertise it openly
or charge money; that's illegal. This is the culture we live in, so
this is what we deal with.
Since Grand Space is our home, we're inviting hundreds of men to our
house for a private lovemaking party. We are not charging at the door;
we only accept donations. We don't sell alcohol. People are welcome to
"BYOB." This is a chemical-free and safe sex party, and this will be
strictly enforced. We consulted with lawyers before we did our first
private lovemaking event years ago and we do it legally. More
importantly, our parties are loving and friendly. We hug you when you
arrive, make you feel comfortable and welcome, take you by the hand and
show you around. I remember how scared I was the first time I went to a
(gulp) "s*x" party, so we do everything we can to make people feel
safe. No one is required to get naked or participate in sexual
activity. One area will be just social, with no sex happening. All men
are welcome at our parties; we do not discriminate by age, color, size
or shape. Yet there will be separate rooms and spaces for different
interest groups to gather: men of color, big guys, musclemen and
swimmer boys, plus a bondage area, a row of massage tables and sweet
sultry chill music. Our host committee will include bodyworkers,
bondage masters, certified sex therapists, and fetish enthusiasts.
Within months, we will add a women's night, and then a mixed men and
women's night. As the parties grow, we will include holistic
"mini-workshops" on everything from nudity and massage techniques to
juicing and fasting. Who knows? We may even add a naked open mic and
cabaret! By bringing sex, humor and holistic health together in the
same events, we build dignity, beauty and self-worth, and we strip away
old layers of stigma and shame. And that's a good thing!
EZ: So it won’t be just a sex party?
AP: This is a love party! It will be social, sensual and sexual. In one
sense, we're just having a big party at our house. What makes it
special is the atmosphere we create, and the clarity of intention in
our invitation.
EZ: It's difficult to produce big events in New York City these days.
Tell me about your feelings about the current atmosphere for nightlife.
AP: I'm so unqualified to answer this question. Seems to me big events
are happening as much as ever, but I'm out of the loop. What I hear
some people say, though, is that we live in a "sexual police state" in
New York, and that the club scene is "kinda tired." So what's missing?
What's next? What's the opportunity?
EZ: Well, it looks like you’re producing what’s next! How does New York
compare with the other cities your deal with? Better? Worse?
AP: London is better because you can pull your dick out in the clubs. I
love the gay scene in London. Europe in general is hipper with sex. All
my other parties are in the states, locked in the land of sexual
repression. I must say, though, that the private home we hold our San
Francisco parties in is the most amazing sex play space I've ever seen
anywhere, an endless maze of beds and bondage and fantasy sets.
EZ: Do you go to other gay nightlife events? Gay bars? Clubs?
AP: I was all over the scene when I was go-go dancing, but not so much these days. Grand Space keeps me pretty busy.
EZ: So are you happier at stuff you've produced yourself?
AP: Actually, I love to see and experience all the creative, wacky,
beautiful things happening in this town. I'm blessed that some of the
best of them—like Freek Factory and Body Temple—have come to Grand Space.
EZ: What do you do when you're not throwing parties? What else do you enjoy?
AP: I work most of the time, and my partner Mark Taylor is a modern
dancer, so his career is very demanding. When we are both free, we
don't care what we do, as long as it's with each other: lovemaking,
movies, TV, the beach, the usual.
[Written April 2005]
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