All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.

Now in paperback, the frank, funny, explicit, and inspiring memoir about how dancing naked in gay clubs in the nation’s capital helped a college professor discover his true self.

All I Could Bare is the story of a mild-mannered graduate student who “took the road less clothed,” a decision that would change his life forever. In the 1990s, when Washington, D.C.’s gay club scene was notoriously no-holds-barred, Craig Seymour embarked on his incredible journey, all the while trying to keep his newfound vocation a secret from his parents and maintain a relationship with his boyfriend, Seth. Along the way he met some unforgettable characters: the fifty-year-old divorced man who’s obsessed with a twenty-one-year-old dancer; the celebrated drag diva who hailed from a small town in rural Virginia; and the many straight guys who were “gay for pay.” Seymour gives readers both the highs (money, adoration, camaraderie) and the lows (an ill-fated attempt at prostitution, a humiliating porn audition). Ultimately coming clean about his secret identity, Seymour breaks through taboos and makes his way from booty-baring stripper to Ph.D.-bearing academic, taking a detour into celebrity journalism and memorably crossing paths with Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Mary J. Blige along the way. Hilarious, insightful, and touching, All I Could Bare proves that sometimes the “wrong decision” can lead to the right place.