John McLoughlin (April 8, 1956 – October 24, 1990), better known by the stage name John Sex, was an American

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

singer and

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from the late 1970s until his death in late 1990.

Early life

Sex was born on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

as John McLaughlin. He attended the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

, where he knew

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

Kenny Scharf Kenny Scharf (born November 23, 1958) is an American painter known for his participation in New York City's interdisciplinary East Village art scene during the 1980s, alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Scharf's do-it-yourself pract ...

, and

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

. He often used the print studio there to create

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

-style posters for downtown bands, and later for himself. He exhibited some of his word-based art at the "Beyond Words" show at the

Mudd Club The Mudd Club was a nightclub located at 77 White Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for underground music and counterculture events. It was opened by Steve Maas, Die ...

– alongside artists such as Haring, Kenny Scharf, and

Futura 2000 Leonard Hilton McGurr (born November 17, 1955), known as Futura, and formerly known as Futura 2000, is an American graffiti artist. Biography He started to paint illegally on New York City's subway in the early 1970s, working with other artist ...

and performers

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

Fab Five Freddy Fred Brathwaite (born August 31, 1959), more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer. He is considered one of the architects of the street art movement. Freddy emerged in New York's downtown ...

and

Alan Vega Boruch Alan Bermowitz (June 23, 1938 – July 16, 2016), known professionally as Alan Vega, was an American vocalist and visual artist, primarily known for his work with the electronic protopunk duo Suicide. Life and career Boruch Alan Berm ...

– and at the "New York / New Wave" exhibition at P.S. 1, both in 1981. He soon met

Klaus Nomi Klaus Sperber (January 24, 1944 – August 6, 1983), known professionally as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona. In the 1970s Nomi immersed himself in the East Villag ...

and

Joey Arias Joey Arias is an American artist based in New York City, best known for work as a performance artist, cabaret singer, and drag artist, but also as a published author, comedian, stage persona and film actor. He also goes by the names Joseph Ar ...

in the downtown New York scene and gave up painting, finding he could better express himself in performance. Early in his career, McLaughlin adopted the stage name "John Sex". He claimed the surname "Sex" was an Americanization of his family's original name, Sexton, but in fact it was created for him by Arias and Nomi "during a period of rampant promiscuity".

Career

After early work as a gay stripper, Sex became an alternative performance artist, creating a character based on an exaggerated, cheesy

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

lounge singer Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The rang ...

and master of ceremonies. First, along with other SVA graduates and students and Club 57 "Sex developed a persona that simultaneously masked and amplified his polymorphous self, elaborating a mythic yet parodic rock-star figure of mercurial presence". His "Acts of Live Art" series there brought performance art into the club context. He was able to further refine the combination of performance art, drag act, gay go-go dancer, cabaret singer, lounge MC, etc. as a performance art dancer who performed at such legendary New York clubs as Club 57, the Pyramid Club,

Danceteria Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from 1979 until 1986 and in the Hamptons until 1995. The club operated in various locations over the years, a total of three in New York City and four in the Hamptons. The most famous locat ...

, The Palladium,

Paradise Garage Paradise Garage, also known as "the Garage" or the "Gay-rage", was a New York City discotheque notable in the history of dance and pop music, as well as LGBT and nightclub cultures. The club was founded by sole proprietor Michael Brody, and ...

and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

's Underground. His backup singers, "The Bodacious TaTa's" were often mistaken for drag queens but always consisted of female singers and dancers including Micki French, Wendy Wild,

April Palmieri April Palmieri is an American photographer and musician who performed with a 12-piece all-woman percussion band, Pulsallama. During the early 1980s, the band played at such venues as the Mudd Club, the Pyramid, Danceteria, and Club 57 (nightclub), ...

, and Myra Schiller. His costumes were designed by Katy K, who occasionally sat in with the TaTa's. In 1984, John made a cameo appearance in

The Cars The Cars were an American rock band formed in Boston in 1976. Emerging from the new wave scene in the late 1970s, they consisted of Ric Ocasek ( rhythm guitar), Benjamin Orr (bass guitar), Elliot Easton (lead guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards), ...

' music video '' Hello Again'', directed by Warhol. For the 1986 gay pride march in New York City, he organized and helped build a float called the ''Go-Go Stars'' float which had

go-go dancers Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...

from various

night club A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

s go-go dancing on it. He performed "Hustle with My Muscle" in the 1988 film ''

Mondo New York ''Mondo New York'' is a 1988 Mondo film directed by Harvey Nikolai Keith. The documentary film was inspired by the 1963 movie '' Mondo Cane''. Overview ''Mondo New York'' examines the lives and activities of Manhattan performance artists, and fea ...

''. His last public performance was at the Club Mars in New York in 1989. He recorded a four-song E.P. for

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer ...

, produced by

Mark Kamins Mark Kamins (April 13, 1955 – February 14, 2013) was an American record producer, remixer, and disc jockey famous for his role in the New York club scene. He is best known for helping launch the career of singer Madonna by bringing her to Sire ...

and Ivan Ivan, as well as 12" singles and

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

s for his songs "Rock Your Body" and "Hustle with My Muscle" and "Bump and Grind It", the latter of which were produced by video artist Tom Rubnitz. "Hustle with My Muscle" and "Bump and Grind It" were released as an A and B side single and this was one of only two releases o
Varla Records
a label specializing in alternative New York artists. Sex's trademark was his long,

blond Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can ...

hair which stood straight up, and which he claimed was kept erect by a combination of Dippity-do,

Aqua Net Aqua Net is an aerosol hair spray created by Rayette of St. Paul, Minnesota. The company brought the product to retail stores in 1961. By 1964, hairspray had become the top-selling beauty product in America.Sherrow 2006, pp. 183 and for its mark ...

, egg whites, beer, and semen. He also dressed in flamboyant costumes. He owned a

python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

named Delilah that was often included in his cabaret act. Sometimes, he would leave the python on stage and come down into the audience and wrestle with patrons of the club.

Death

On October 24, 1990, Sex died from

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

-related complications at the age of 34. Sex's longtime partner, Wilfredo Vela, succumbed to similar complications four years later.

In popular culture

*Sex was one of the downtown personalities profiled in ''Radicals in Miniature'', a play by Ain Gordon with Josh Quillen of

So Percussion Sō Percussion is an American percussion quartet formed in 1999 and based in New York City. Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Cha-Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for th ...

, performed at the

Baryshnikov Arts Center The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) is a foundation and arts complex opened by Mikhail Baryshnikov in 2005 at 450 West 37th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The top three floor ...

in May 2017.Soloski, Alexis (May 17, 2017
"Review: Recalling an Electric New York in 'Radicals in Miniature'"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

References

Notes Further reading * In Touch magazine #77 March 1983 Portfolio of photographs of John Sex and interview with John Sex (

Peter Berlin Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen-Huene (28 December 1942) is a German-American photographer, artist, filmmaker, clothing designer/sewer, and model best known by his stage name Peter Berlin. In the early to mid-1970s. Anderson, James: "Peter Ber ...

on front cover) * Musto, Michael (1986) ''Downtown'', New York: Vintage Books * Warhol, Andy; Hackett, Pat (ed.) (1989) ''The Andy Warhol Diaries'', New York: Warner Books

External links

Guide_to_the_April_Palmieri
_collection_of_John's_Sex_videos_in_the_Fales_Library.html" ;"title="April Palmieri">Guide to the April Palmieri
collection of John's Sex videos in the Fales Library">April Palmieri">Guide to the April Palmieri
collection of John's Sex videos in the Fales Library at NYU]
The Joy of John's Sex
- video clips of John Sex performances. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sex, John 1956 births 1990 deaths 20th-century American singers 20th-century American artists AIDS-related deaths in New York (state) American electronic musicians American male erotic dancers American performance artists American synth-pop musicians Gay artists American gay musicians American LGBT artists Musicians from the New York metropolitan area Nightclub performers People from Long Island Singers from New York (state) Sire Records artists School of Visual Arts alumni 20th-century American dancers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century LGBT people