Back: Pr. Maximillian Lobkowicz, Scarlett Raven, Jade Song, Trixie Plenty, Selena White, Gonzo Bonobo, Lily Kirkwood. Front: Dr. Susan Block and (inset) Dr. Katherine Frank. Photo: L’Erotique

Length 1:31:48      Date: Oct. 19, 2013

Here in Bonoboville, we’ve put on many a DrSuzy.Tv show that’s morphed into an orgy. But on this live broadcast from our new, still-in-development studios at LAX, we take a break from the action to just sit and talk about the art and science of the orgy and other types of group sex. And what a talk it is! We interview academia’s foremost “orgy expert,” Dr. Katherine Frank, scholar-in-residence in Sociology at American University and author of Plays Well in Groups: A Journey through the World of Group Sex, hands-down the most comprehensive book on the subject. Of course, there aren’t really any other books on the subject, which makes Plays Well in Groups all the more important and exciting.

As sultry as she is scholarly, Dr. Kate takes us on a verbal voyage through history and around some of the many worlds of group sex, from ancient Rome to the AVNs, playcouple parties to bukkake gangbangs, orgiasts to exchangistes, the seminal sexual revolution of 1960s-70s America to the more recent sexual revolution in the Islamic Republic of Iran where sex partiers risk being arrested, imprisoned, whipped by the Komiteh (morality police) and even executed, yet still they party on. We compare human group sex with bonobos, delve into the eerie similarities and critical differences between nonconsensual group sex (i.e., gang rape) and consensual group sex (i.e., swing parties) and talk about orgies as symbols of transcendence and transgression, keys to eroticism most prominently identified by philosopher Georges Bataille. We also talk about the importance of having more than just sex at your orgy, as well as Drs. Chris Ryan and Cacilda Jethá’s theory of human sexual prehistory described in Sex at Dawn, Dr. David Ley’s Myth of Sex Addiction (though Dr. Kate isn’t sure how mythological it is), Terry Gould’s The Lifestyle (which includes a chapter on Ethical Hedonism), the joy of witnessing and being witnessed that we experience in group sex, the record-breaking and mind-boggling 500-person Japanese orgy and how simply watching porn constitutes a form of simulated group sex.

Mid-show, we give a memorial tribute to one of the greatest orgy masters and erotic philosophers in American history who, sadly for us all, just passed away last week: Frank Moore, revolutionary artist, poet, musician, shaman, wounded healer, passionate LUVeR, producer of both our shows on BTV, creator of “eroplay” and orchestrator of amazing audience participation performances—veritable orgies of art and love—that merged music, dance, art and nudity with reaching out and touching each other, literally, intimately and publicly. You’ll find a longer tribute to Frank Moore here.

Speaking of orgy masters, we also remember Marco Vassi, the poet laureate of the Sexual Revolution, who wrote for some of Max’s ground-breaking magazines, Love and Finger, and who Dr. Kate quotes liberally in Plays Well in Groups.

Dr. Kate’s research methodology, though quite rigorous on the academic side, is also deeply experiential. When in Rome, do as the Romans—especially when at those notorious Roman orgies. Also, Dr. Kate looks great in a toga. Plus immersing herself in the world she is researching enhances the research. Or you might say it spices it up. So, just as she worked as a stripper before writing G-strings and Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars and Male Desire, Dr. Kate also participated in various forms of group sex, orgies and pseudo orgies (Playboy Mansion, Burning Man) for Plays Well in Groups. She’s not exactly a group sex cheerleader, but neither is she a decrier. She says, “We should not put so many of our hopes in sex. But neither should we put so many of our fears.”

Enthralling as all this orgy talk may be, here in Bonoboville, we can’t resist turning the last 10 minutes of the show into a real orgy. Actually, it’s just a small, eroplayful spanking orgy in honor of our bootilicious Block Institute manager Trixie Plenty’s birthday. Institute therapist Selena White takes her 38DD top down and does the honors with a fine Jux Leather thwacker that resembles a folded leather belt.

Found amongst Trixie’s many prezzies: a fabulous Fukuoko vibrating glove, a “Nope, Still Gay” chemistry.com T shirt that we picked up at Dr. Helen Fisher’s Sex Week at Yale 2008 lecture, an Obama condom from condomania, a cake presented by Scarlett Raven and a vintage campaign button from Frank Moore’s 2008 U.S. Presidential bid (when I was his running mate). If there’s a heaven, I’m sure that by now, Frank’s orchestrating eroplay orgies. Now that’s transcendent!

If you want to orchestrate your own orgies right here on earth, or if you’re just the least bit interested in the history or dynamics of threesomes, foursomes and moresomes, pick up Dr. Kate’s Plays Well in Groups.  And if you need to talk about group sex—reality or fantasy or a combination—give us a call at the Block Institute (310-568-0066) anytime, or just join us in Bonoboville. We’re here for you. And coming soon: my latest book, Bonobo Way!

Many thanks to all the behind-the-scenesters who braved (and are still braving) nasty viruses and faulty communications to make this show possible, including Abe, Mar, John, Trixie, Lily, Jade, Bennett, Gonzo Bonobo and, first and foremost, O Capt’n, My Capt’n Max.