Review: Bobby Gordon's Debbie Does My Dad

Once upon a time your father was a porn star. It’s a story we can all relate to.  You came home from school and pops was bangin broads on the washing machine while directors requested contortionist positions and zesty cum shots. 

This isn't sounding terribly familiar is it? Okay let's rewind and reset. You're Berkeley-bred poet, playwright and performer Bobby Gordon, the son of famous porn star and adult film director Richard Pacheco (born Howie Gordon). He's won Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Director awards and was named Playgirl's Man of The Year in 1979. In short, he is a sex god, and your life is pretty awesome as a result. But not for the reasons you may assume.

"Let me put your minds at ease

There aren’t fake breasted blondes fucking in every corner of my house.

I don’t have to dodge directors or boom mics over naked twins.

I’m not woken up in the morning by shouts from the next room from some girl about how she’s never seen a dick that big and ‘do me now damnit.’  No.

We’re normal Americans. Well almost."

-Excerpt from Debbie Does My Dad

 

Bobby Gordon describes his dynamic one-man show, Debbie Does My Dad (DDMD), as, "the bawdy and beautiful tale of how I grew up in the shadow of my dad's erection."  And based upon his father's tongue-in-cheek teste-monial (see below), it's an erection that does indeed cast quite a shadow. His father's dick has a staring role, but Debbie Does My Dad is more of an exploration of sexuality, manhood and child-raising than it is a glorification of porn or penises. 

This is the crowning achievement of Gordon's show. He has been able to convert a rare breed of penis envy and hippie parenting into an amazing conversation about what it means to be a whole man in a repressive society. Some people think Richard Pacheco is the shit because he starred in over 100 porno flicks and fucked hella women, but really it's because he was a loving husband and amazing father who raised his children to be kind, sweet, sensitive and comfortable in their own skin. Oh yeah, did I mention he's also super open about his sexuality and hilarious to boot?

Debbie Does My Dad engages audiences with much-needed muses on sexuality, while also titillating them with sexual humor and scandalous anecdotes that you're average American boy can't quite relate to. We've all been walked in on masturbating, but most of us didn't receive a lock on our door and a pile of Playboys as a result. We all had nightmares growing up, but most of us weren't told to grab our dicks as the solution to that and any problem. And we've all seen pre-cum, but few of us were invited to ask our dad's about it. Though humorous, these situations expose the fact that a lot of people don't openly converse with their parents about sex. And many men don't honestly discuss sex period, saving any such conversation on the topic for trumped up bragging sessions. Gordon wants to change that.

The show invites viewers into a world where it’s o.k. to talk about sex. It does NOT mean that it was always easy, or wasn’t really awkward. In fact, with so many expectations from girls about what a porn star’s son is supposed to be, fumbling and uncomfortable are words I could use a lot to describe my early sexual experiences.  In the show I’ll fumble along with the audience, grow, challenge everything I’ve been told, and redefine myself as a man and as a sexual being.  When people leave the theater I hope that first and foremost that they have had a damn good time. And then I want them to think about what they know about sex and manhood, and maybe do a little rethinking.

-Bobby Gordon

America is the epicenter of pop culture and porn, but it's also still very puritanical in it's views on sex. Sex is a constant in all of our lives, and yet there is little honest discourse about it. We can't all have the hippie/porn star upbringing Bobby Gordon had, but we can use Debbie Does My Dad to laugh and spark those conversations about sex and sensitivity that we've typically repressed. There is a new manhood to be sought, one that embraces the pieces of ourselves we've always shunned. Check out the clip below as Gordon expertly articulates his proclamation in DDMD. 

After sold out  shows in South Africa and San Francisco, and before Scotland's famous Fringe Festival, Debbie Does My Dad will be showing for two nights only in LA at Santa Monica's Highways Performance Space. Check out Debbie Does My Dad Friday and/or Saturday at 8:30pm.

Buy tickets HERE!