Back in the 90's, porn parodies were all the rage. Movies, TV shows, pop stars, politicians . . . anyone who got their fifteen minutes of fame was bound to get fucked for fifteen more, in flimsy farcical fantasies. The internet wasn't "a thing" yet, so lonely dorks like me still had to go out to dingy hole-in-the-wall (pun intended) adult video stores in the worst part of town; browsing through hundreds of tapes with unimaginative titles like
Pulp Friction, The Joy Fuck Club, Buffy the Vampire Slut,
and
Forrest Hump.
("My pants are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get!")
I was finally liberated from my weird Jewish family back in Philadelphia, taking drama classes at NYU and hoping to take a big bite out of the Broadway apple. A nineteen year-old guy living alone in a tiny dorm room in the heart of New Jack City, with no girlfriend to comfort me on those cold windy crime-filled nights. Acting was my only refuge, and porn was my only release. I watched those beautiful naked bimbos every single night, trying to emulate the comic flair of Peggy Bundy, Elaine Bennis, and Fran "The Nanny" Drescher. They couldn't act worth a damn, but they could ride cocks like the wind.
I was still pining for Brea Bee, the only real girlfriend I ever had at William Penn Academy. That hot redhead was the coolest girl in school, and I was the un-coolest boy, but somehow we ended up lovers. Sparks flew like the Fourth of July, and I thought we'd be together forever. She unlocked my artistic talents and convinced me to become an actor/playwright. But we gradually drifted apart, going our separate ways after graduating. She enrolled in the drama program at the University of Virginia instead of NYU, leaving me broken and blue with all my Transformers, Go-Bots, and Masters of the Universe. (A lot of kids who grew up watching He-Man and She-Ra in the 80's were now coming out as gay. Those scantily-clad leather-loving warriors turned an entire generation toward "the dark side.")
My porn stash was getting stale, so I took the subway up to "The Deuce." Times Square was still sleazy in those days, and I stuck out like a sore thumb among a horde of hookers and hustlers. I didn't feel like watching a dirty flick at a run-down theater with rock-hard seats and sticky floors (not from popcorn and soda!) so I just went to Carson Books on 42
nd
Street. That place started out as a sophisticated theatrical book store in 1946, but then the neighborhood went to shit, and now there was just a small selection of "adult literature" in a back corner, with the rest of the place devoted to XXX on VHS.
"Hey, Goldberg!" beamed Billy Bukowski, the scraggly store owner.
"Hey Billy. I'm here to check out the latest hilarious send-ups of Hollywood tripe."
"Hollywood can slide right off into the Pacific, for all I fucking care," he grunted while cracking open a can of Surge. "We just got a new title that's right up your Comic-Con alley.
Captain Planet XXX.
"
"Holy shit," I chortled.
"That's exactly what I thought. They got a porn parody for
every
thing these days."
Five busty twenty-something babes sprawled on the front cover in neon latex body suits, groping a buffed-up Captain Planet. That mutated eco-justice hero had blue skin, green hair, and red Superman-style external underwear. The tagline above him proclaimed: "By your powers combined . . . I will CUM!!!"
"I really shouldn't watch this crap . . . but of course I will."
"I ain't judging, bro. That'll be three dollars."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The next evening, I starred as Harry Hope in
The Iceman Cometh.
That sounds like a weird porno about the Abominable Snowman, but it's actually Eugene O'Neill's epic tragedy about a bunch of dead-end drunks living in a flop house on skid row, bitching and moaning about their shitty lives for four straight hours. It's the most depressing train wreck you can possibly imagine, but people keep watching it for some reason. It was opening night at the NYU theater, and the snooty Manhattanites in the audience never suspected that I had
Fraggle Rock
and
Thundercats
posters in my college dorm room.
Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight . . .
My eyes drifted toward the front row, glancing at the illuminated faces. A young woman sitting in the middle looked a lot like . . .
Oh my god . . . no fucking way!
"Brea?" I croaked awkwardly, breaking my 1939 wino character. Indeed it
was
Brea! My old high school flame smiled at me in that adorable way I remembered dearly from William Penn Academy. She gave me a friendly finger-twiddling wave. Balls, balls,
balls!
What the hell was she doing in New York, at
that
theater? She was supposed to be south of the Mason-Dixon Line, "pursuing her own artistic dreams."
I cleared my throat, struggling to resume my tortured stage role. The rest of the play went by in a blur of conflicting emotions, fictional and non-fictional. I somehow managed to get a standing ovation at the end, with several loud "bravos!" from Brea Bee. I followed the rest of the cast out to the lobby for the traditional opening night exchange of praise and flowers. Brea stood next to the box office with a big smile, holding a dozen red roses.
Baaaaaalls!
"Good evening, Mister Goldberg," she cooed sweetly while tossing her shiny hair. That ginger vixen got a lot hotter since we starred together in William Penn's production of
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Her tits went from B to C, and her face went from "flirt-worthy" to fucking awesome.
"Oh my god, Brea, what the hell are you doing
here?
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world!"
"I'm on spring break from UVA, so I drove all the way to Manhattan to see your big theatrical debut."
"But . . .
why?
"
"Because I miss you, Adam. I've been thinking about you all the time, even though I have another boyfriend now."
"Damn. I miss you just as much, girl. I'm still keeping all your love letters in a shoebox under my bed."
"Me too. My favorite letter is the one where you said: 'My most beloved Brea, I need you every moment of every day. Our romantic chemistry is beyond compare. Your tender passion is like divine oxygen, sustaining my soul with every kiss. I need your love to
live.'
"
"Ha, yeah," I snicker, flushing with embarrassment. "No wonder I ended up on Broadway, spouting sappy crap like that."
"We had a good run as soulmates. I was your 'density.'"
"Totally. But density rarely condenses the way you want it to. And my crazy-ass mother sure didn't help."