Jeff Stryker Does Hard Time returns to Los Angeles in October, following hit runs in San Francisco and New York, and then hits San Diego before going off on a world tour. \nJEFF STRYKER …Hard Time on stage - and via wonk alter ego?
And, it has nothing to do with the research and writings of a San Francisco policy wonk whose name by birth just so happens to be the same as the stage name of the adult industry legend.
Jeff Stryker Does Hard Time explores the sexual tensions and dynamics among relationships between a group of men in prison. Both the show and its featured performer/executive producer were the talk of New York during Gay Pride 1999, with the show rumored to be the most successful on- or off-Broadway production during its run.
The show will return to the same West Hollywood venue where it sold out 65 performances in a row almost a year ago, the St. Genesius Theatre. It begins a limited four-week run 1 October, then opens a San Diego run 21 January at the Diversionary Theatre.
The play is not rated XXX but shows plenty of male nudity and is usually described as a dark prison comedy.
Stryker has, however, caused an inadvertent problem or three for a writer who happens also to be named Jeff Stryker - by birth. This Jeff Stryker is a health policy wonk based at the Center for AIDS Research at the University of California San Francisco, published in both scholarly journals and the San Francisco Examiner.
And, he says on his Web site, he's been on the wrong end of more than his share of confusions thanks to his adult industry alter ego - but he's mostly good-natured about the confusion and consequences.
For one thing, says Stryker the policy wonk, "(a)lthough I get more than my share of heavy-breathing phone calls, I also get an occasional prime table at a restaurant when I leave my name for reservations. I've had people laugh in my face when I'm introduced, but I also scored a first-class upgrade from an airline ticket agent who spied my name on the passenger list and wanted to meet me (well, him)."
Stryker the Wonk says he's even had nibbles from film producers, with one calling asking if he was ready to cross over. "At first," the wonk writes on his Web site (www.jeffstryker.com), "I thought this meant a switch from gay to straight porn. To my shock, I realized she meant real movies - talkies, if you will."
That offer surprised him "because my alter ego is, alas, not as long on thespian talents as he is in other areas."
Still, Stryker the Wonk has a kind of admiration for Stryker the Porn Legend. "In a business that chews up and spits out hard-bodied young talents," the wonk Stryker writes, "he's still on top. Is there a more recognizable name in the biz? What other gay porn star would be spotted on a fashion show runway with Ivana Trump?"
The confusion between the two Jeff Strykers, though, does have side effects going the other way around, too. When a wire service story quoted Stryker the Wonk as saying the AIDS risk to heterosexuals was sometimes exaggerated, Stryker the Porn Legend took it on the chin and then some.
"(That) prompted an on-line flaming - a burst of chatter on the Internet with nasty attacks on my namesake," says the Wonk, "and indignant questions about why a porn star was suddenly an expert on epidemiology."
As for Jeff Stryker the adult entertainment legend, his Web site is www.jeff-stryker.com. The dash between "jeff" and "stryker" is critical, if you don't want to land by mistake on the Web site of a research and policy wonk - or vice versa.
