We caught up with meat 'regular,' actor, singer and general sex-bomb-man-about-town, Matt Gent, who's GoGo'ing to be GoGoing with Danny Polaris (Associate Editor) at the meat party tonight at Dalston Superstore...
Hi Matthew, we're excited to have you dancing gogo with us on Saturday. What kind of guys will you be eyeing up from the top of the bar?
Meat draws a damn hot crowd so... all of them? But if I had to pick, hairy ones with danger in their eyes. The sort that might accidentally kill u?
Danny Polaris might accidentally kill you if he slips on the bar. How do you plan to keep him at bay?
If he tries any stunts I'll go full tilt "Showgirls" on his ass. Ya know, mind the monkey shit / pearl necklace style. Though I can think of worse things than falling into him.
You've not been in London for a while, what have you been up to?
Since we last spoke I've been on the road with a Strictly Come Dancing show, then in Germany mincing around in tights for Spamalot, and more recently giving it the whole Jane MacDonald bit on ship. Actually, scratch that, she's shit. It's more like a Man Band – Il Divo with personality. But don't be fooled, I got to SNAX at Easter, and London Pride so not too much work.
What songs do you sing to a man to get into his heart / bed?
About eight bars of Jerome Kern's "All the things you are". But only in an emergency.
Did you do any singing at SNAX?
No. I mostly just got lost. Then fucked a muscle bear and his two mates in the cafe. It took us all by surprise.
The other high point was hearing a pimped out version of Madonna's "Bedtime Stories" on the Lab dance floor. It was surreal. Totally packed and I kept having Wizard of Oz moments: "you were there, and you were there!" seeing people from London. It was magic. Hundreds of sweaty leather clad boys getting messy to Madonna. Was a nice break from the techno.
The gay scene is full of labels – top, bottom, versatile, bear, cub, twink – are these important? Do they mean anything? How do you label yourself?
Ah... the gays. We love our labels. I don't think there's a simple answer to this one. Lots of us crave a sense of belonging so being part of a social group based on appearance is a social group none-the-less. But *toxic masculinity claxon,* it's really easy to short-change someone by writing them off before you've met them – "oh I don't fuck twinks" or "I'm only into muscle." For fast food sex (scruff, etc) I think it's fine. Order exactly what you want! But real life has to be more fluid.
I guess I'd class myself as an otter. (Which is a hilarious concept). And while I try to avoid having a set type, I've always been an admirer of fur.
Sexual labels are a whole other thing. For compatibility I get why top/bttm/vers is a thing. That said, there's a whole masculinity thing about bottoming that's not cute. I mean, if you're gonna take the piss out of a bottom for being a bottom, how exactly do you foresee sex working?
The older I get the less importance I give to labels. They're fine so long as they don't become rules. At the end of the day, sex is meant to be fun, and rules are made to be broken.
What's your ideal costume for a really hot cosplay scenario?
Cosplay is something I've never really gotten into. I'm an actor so I wear daft costumes all the time. But, I watched one of the X-Man films on ship lately so I'd have to say getting thoroughly destroyed in a double team by Colossus and Wolverine.
What tune do you most want to hear tonight?
My faves are the 1975, The Sound and Jocelyn Brown, Somebody Else's Guy.
See the gorgeous Matt tonight (Saturday 22nd July) at Dalston Superstore.