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commitment to helping people discover that themselves if it's there. I'm really not into twisting it people's arms at all. If it's there, it's something you have to live with, and you should be able to do so comfortably. I feel coming out is a thing I'm doing for myself. I think I'm fortunate to be living at this time. A lot of people have paved the way.

High Gear: How much of your popularity is linked to evoking a sexual response in the audience?

Richard: In terms of the group, I think it has a big impact. Whether you're gay or straight, it doesn't matter. There's three men on stage. Women can relate to it. Men can kind of wonder what's going on, and the vibration is there, for sure. At first, I personally made a conscious effort to create that type of effect, because I was so insecure about my singing and other aspects of my performance. We started at the Continental Baths and before then I wasn't really open about being gay. It was a chance for me to open up, so I realized it and I played to my sexuality a lot. I was younger too. Now I'm not conscious of it at all. Whatever goes on up there is what I feel in the music.

High Gear: Would a large portion of your female audience think you were selling out as a sexual image for them if they knew you were gay?

Richard: You know, you go through that trip a lot, and I'm sure I'll go through it for the rest of my career, but no, because it's all fantasy anyway. Most of them don't wind up meeting you so they can fantasize: you alone, you with them, or you with another man. From the ones I do meet after the shows, once they get to know me as a person. They get over that.

High Gear: There's a general assumption that much of theatre and music is basically gay. We know there are many gay men in theatre; but what about gay women. Have you worked with many?

Richard: Oh yes, I've worked with some. There are more gay men, definitely. I don't know why. In life in general it seems there are more openly gay men than there are women. As women continue progressing, I'm sure more of them will express their feelings about being gay, bisexual or whatever. Now lesbians are in every dimension of the arts. There are actresses I know, a few that are dancers, a few that are in night clubs. I'm sure their involvement is as varied as with gay men just on a smaller open percentage.

High Gear: Have you ever performed for a predominately gay audience and do you inject more camp than there is present now?

Richard: Well, we've performed at the Continental Baths in New York. No matter where you are in New York it's gay. On the night club circuit, we've never done the Rainbow

Grill or any of those so-called

HIGH GEAR

AUGUST 1976.

CITY LIGHTS,, Richard Casselman, Geoff Leon and Orrin Reiley perform in Playhouse Square's new nightspot, Kennedy's. Wednesday thru Sunday at 8 p.m. with cocktails and dinner at 6:30 p.m. For CITY LIGHTS without dinner there's the "nightcap show" Fridays and Saturdays at 10 p.m. For reservations call Playhouse Square at 523-1755.

higher class places, but in the Village, sure. As far as camp, we don't do much of it. It's kind of stereotyping, what a gay is supposed to be. We've always hoped that people would

appreciate our music. Our act is the same for a gay audience as it is a straight one.

High Gear: Do you think there is such a thing as gay entertainment?

Richard: I think there is, but I. don't think there should necessarily be at all. Everytime I hear gay versus straight I get discouraged. I don't see gay and straight. That isn't my view of life. You know, there are gay productions like Boy Meets Boy and P.S. Your Cat Is Dead, and for some people that's what they should be doing, presenting a segment of society in a constructive, positive way. That's not gay entertainment though. I mean let's face it. Black theatre is open to whites, as it should be, gay theatre to straights whatever.

as

High Gear: Gays are loved as performers, but hated members of society-at-large. Why do you think this is so?

Richard: People are just afraid. We all have elements of maleness and femaleness inside us, how conditions are going to be, how we're going to live. A lot

of people are afraid when they see those things in themselves...People can't accept minorities. They can't accept something which wasn't prescribed to them in grammar school. They don't like to change. I guess many of them are just not ready for it outside of the arts. It's easier in big metropolis where people realize they have to initiate change, and not that other people aren't, but I do believe gays are sensitive, there's a certain sensitivity in our make-up. You have to be aware of what's around you and gayness is around everyone. You hopefully learn to deal with it early.

High Gear: As a performer, your life style must be significantly different from

others. Have you ever been able to maintain a "lover" on the run?

Richard: Yeah, I lived with a woman for three years, and I moved out from that apartment a few months ago. I've had male lovers in between, and now I'd love to have a male lover. I would, in fact, like very much to have a male lover; but I've not had very successful

relationships. High Gear: Why is that?

Richard: First of all, it's a very special relationship. Society

makes it much easier for a man and woman to live together. That's a fact. However that doesn't mean that two men can't work it out and live together as well

High Gear: Are you monogramous of polygamous? Richard: monogamous. That's a problem in the gay world.

High Gear: Do you think that's very practical?

Richard: I don't care if it's not. Is it practical to be gay or practical to be a singer? It's just what I am.

High Gear: I'm still wondering if it's possible to have one "best friend," shall we say, and still have relationships with other people. It could be a very viable alternative.

Richard: Well, I don't see myself getting "married" married, at least not now. That's ten years from now. Who knows? At the moment here in Cleveland if I were to meet somebody, it would be that person. My energies aren't such that I can divide them like that, but then I might go somewhere else and meet someone else who I would form a relationship with. It's not a fixed thing, but there is that focus. I can only feel really intense feelings for one person at a time. At least that's where I'm at now.

High Gear: What is your

career goal?

Richard: Ultimately acting in film. I'm not that satisfied with what I'm doing now. I'd like to be working alone, go solo. The group for me was always a means to something bigger. It's an initial contact, those steps, gaining the leverage....But then just as well I enjoy the music. I

can't do that with one person, that goes kind of sour. That's what's kept Twentieth Century together for three years. It's the working together and creating factor. Still, it would be nice to solo for all of us.....

Photos by Al Morrill