CHATSWORTH, Calif.—Greg Scarnici, a humorist and drag performer who has also served as an associate producer on Saturday Night Live, takes on the long-lost genre of printed gay porn in his new book, Hot Rods, which he describes as “a parody of a vintage 1970s gay porn magazine shot entirely on Fire Island. Featuring feathered hair, mustaches, speedos, un-manscaped torsos, striped athletic socks—and of course—terribly written erotic stories.”
Fire Island, a resort community off the coast of New York’s Long Island, has been on the receiving end of scathingly negative publicity this year, thanks to a series of crowded parties that appeared to brazenly defy all precautions against transmission of COVID-19.
But Scarnici’s new book returns to a more innocent period in Fire Island’s history, offering what he considers to be “a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the bygone era of printed erotica and a time when style and design seemed to be the main focus of these kinds of magazines.”
Scarnici told Instinct Magazine that he “decided to recreate a vintage gay porn magazine here on Fire Island because I came across a few '70s porn magazines at a thrift store a few years ago and they inspired me on so many levels. The men all had lean, natural, un-manscaped torsos, the books were so over-designed and the stories were terribly written.”
The book comes six years after Scarnici’s literary and photographic debut, Sex in Drag, a parody of Madonna’s now-classic photo book Sex, a groundbreaking and controversial work when it came out in 1992. The book was also a significant influence on Scarnici, so 22 years later, he paid a humorous homage to the iconic work.
“I came out around the time Madonna released Erotica and Sex and both of those projects were an extremely important part of my acceptance of myself as a gay man,” he told HuffPo at the time. “Seeing a huge pop star shooting at The Gaeity Male Burlesque with my favorite porn star at the time, Joey Stefano, made me realize it was not only okay to be gay, but it was also okay to embrace my sexuality.”
In his drag alter-ago, Levonia, Scarnici also released a new musical track last week, 50 Years Old, which he describes as “a middle aged anthem” for the dance floor. It can be found on SoundCloud.
Scarnici’s other books include his memoir, I Hope My Mother Doesn’t Read This, and a collection of essays, Dungeons and Drag Queens: Fire Island Through the Eyes of Its Worst Drag Queen. Those books are available through Amazon, while Hot Rods can be purchased through his website.
Photo By Greg Scarnici Instagram
