‘GoGo For The Gold’ Aims To Crown America’s #1 Male GoGo Dancer
GoGo guru Greg McKeon reveals his secrets to judging the stiff competition on OUTtv's new series "GoGo for the Gold."
For too long, GoGo Boys have been the unsung, well-hung heroes of gay nightlife, adding passion, artistry, and beauty to the culture, while drag queens got all the glory. But now, finally, someone’s shining a spotlight on the GoGo box.
OUTtv’s new reality competition series GoGo for the Gold, hosted by Hey Qween‘s Jonny McGovern, will pit 12 of the nation’s hottest male GoGo dancers in a contest to crown “America’s #1 Champion GoGo Superstar Star.”
McGovern created the show with GoGo dancer extraordinaire Greg McKeon, known to Hey Qween viewers as the talk show’s house lapdance specialist (if not from his growing presence as a content creator on OnlyFans).
McKeon got his start dancing when he was in college at U.C. Berkeley, and worked the box for years in big clubs and naughtier bars in San Francisco, followed by L.A., where he moved after graduating.
He and McGovern met on the set of McGovern’s “Sexy Nerd” music video and became fast friends and collaborators. With the phenomenal success of Drag Race, they recognized a void waiting to be filled.
“I was saying to Jonny, ‘Man, this would be cool if we could give GoGo dancers the same opportunity, in terms of exposure and people knowing who they are, and ultimately giving them $10,000,” McKeon recalls. “Because when I was a GoGo dancer, there was no contest for $10,000. So I think it’s pretty cool that we gave one of them $10,000.”
Featured on the show’s panel of GoGo God judges (joined by Jojo Guadz, Teddy Bear, and porn star Adrian Hart), McKeon admits even he was impressed by the quality of the competition — which includes diverse body types and a contestant who is trans.
“I knew that we were going to get good dancers for the show, but I wasn’t expecting them to be, honestly, as amazing as they were,” says the keen-eyed judge, who’s working on a book about his nightlife escapades entitled “GoGo for Love.”
“And I don’t know why I didn’t think that,” he continues. “I think it was just from years of working with GoGo dancers, and just seeing a lot of people phone it in. But when you really tell them, ‘Hey, turn on the gas, let’s see what you can do,’ the show you get is amazing.”
The secret to working the box, he believes, is “all about connecting with the crowd. I think sometimes when dancers are in their own world and they’re not really paying attention — it’s like a deejay, you have to read the room, you have to know who’s paying attention. You have to know how you’re going to make people feel.”
A really good dancer “can make people think that you’re really connecting with them one-on-one,” he says. “That’s when the magic starts happening. You can look and get a bunch of them at the same time paying attention. That was my favorite thing to do — to see how many people I can make think that we had a connection.
“So you’re giving them that look, you know? And that’s one of the things when I was judging that I was always liking, is when the dancers would really connect with us and really be like, ‘No, this one’s all just for you.'”
GoGo for the Gold premieres Friday, May 13 on OUTtv. Visit www.outtv.com.
Follow Greg McKeon on Twitter at @grgisthewerd.
Keep scrolling to see the contestants:
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