John Sex - Career As Performance Artist

Career As Performance Artist

After early work as a gay stripper, John Sex became an alternative performance artist, creating a character based on an exaggerated, cheesy Las Vegas lounge singer / MC. First along with other SVA graduates and students and Club 57 "Sex developed a persona that simultaniously masked and amplified his polymorphous self, elaborating a mythinc yet parodic rock-star figure of mercurial presence" (Frank & McKentie, 1987). His "Acts of Live Art" series there brought performance art into the club context. He was able to further refine the combination of performance art, drag act, gay go-go dancer, cabaret singer, lounge MC, etc. as a performance art dancer who performed at such legendary New York clubs as Club 57, the Pyramid Club, Danceteria, The Palladium, Paradise Garage and Andy Warhol's Underground. His famous backup singers, The Bodacious TaTa's were often mistaken for drag queens but always consisted of female singers and dancers including Micki French, Wendy Wild, April Palmieri and Myra Schiller. His costumes were designed by the famous Katy K, who occasionally sat in with the TaTa's. John used to claim the surname Sex was an Americanization of his family's original name, Sexton, but in fact it was created for him by fellow performers Joey Arias and Klaus Nomi early in his career "during a period of rampant promiscuity" (Hagar). For the 1986 gay parade in New York City, he organized and helped build a float called the Go-Go Stars float which had go-go dancers from various night clubs go-go dancing on it. His last public performance was at the club Mars in New York in 1989. He recorded a four song E.P for Sire Records, produced by Mark Kamins and Ivan Ivan, as well as 12" singles and music videos for his songs "Rock Your Body" and "Hustle with the Muscle." Mr. Sex's trademark was his long, blond hair which stood straight up, and which he claimed was kept erect by a combination of Dippity-do, Aqua Net, egg whites, beer, and semen. He also dressed in flamboyant costumes. He owned a python named Delilah that was often included in his cabaret act, and was a friend of artist Andy Warhol. Sometimes he would leave the python on stage and come down into the audience and wrestle with patrons of the club. He died from AIDS-related complications on October 24, 1990, aged 34.