In “Down with David,” a Straight Dancer Scores in the Gay Bars of West Hollywood

Based largely on the adult life of its creator and writer Derek Nelson pictured at top amp8211 a struggling actor in Los Angeles who supports himself by dancing in gay bars and working as a doorman at female strip clubs amp8211 Davidamp160dives into familiar territory love sex romance friendship career in consistently unfamiliar ways The result is something entirely new that addresses some of the oldest concerns of modern man selfworth selfdoubt selfloathing the arrogance of toxic masculinity and the politics of sexualityWhat happens when you pursue a dream and repeatedly fail in increasingly humiliating ways What happens when you canamp8217t find work What happens when you canamp8217t find love What happens when you do find love What happens when you overindulge in sexual satisfaction What happens when you canamp8217t get laid Or when you canamp8217t pay your bills Or when your own body turns against you amp160To his great credit Nelson who suffers from debilitating fibromyalgia and all of its challenges in real life spared no detail in developing his dashing alteregoamp160 He gave David the same affliction and chronicles his not always successful efforts to navigate the hurdles of his conditionIn recent years Nelson was forced to confront all of the above questions and more finding answers that were as surprising as they were lifeaffirming When he made the decision to move to Los Angeles from a small town in Pennsylvania where he stood out as a big fish in a small pond only to land in a painfully crowded fishbowl filled with guys just like him he was suddenly made to feel that he wasnamp8217t so special after all He learned the hard way that show business is littered with broken young people who thought all they had to do was show up in order to launch a careeramp160 Perpetual rejection and deep despair followed His sex life suffered tooamp160 Despite his good looks the girls he met werenamp8217t interested in getting with anyone who couldnamp8217t do something for them or at the very least show them an expensive good timeBefore long he was sleeping on the streetamp160 The story of how he turned his life around by becoming a dancer in the gay bars of West Hollywood amp8211 which put money in his banana hammock and women in his bed amp8211 is a surprisingly insightful study of human emotion unwavering ambition and the challenge of navigating the terrible twentiesamp160 It is also a very funny look at human foiblesamp160 We must all seek to identify and improve our weaknesses on the road to maturity David certainly does and it couldnamp8217t happen to a amp8220niceramp8221 guyIndeed itamp8217s a good thing Davidamp8217s life is so far from perfect or viewers might not be able to get past the fact that he can be a giant douche with the ladies amp160Even though he frequently shows off his welltoned body in its nearentirety there is no full frontal nudity in this production though it leaves little to the imagination Nelson has smartly seen to it that Davidamp160will never be dismissed as a vanity projectamp160 We might really detest this guy if he didnamp8217t suffer so much in ways so embarrassing we canamp8217t help but feel for him and perhaps feel a little better about ourselves at the same timeamp160 This is especially true in the sixth and final episode when things get catastrophically messyamp160You may hate yourself for laughingNelsonamp8217s costars in Down with David include Starlog founder Kerry Oamp8217Quinn pictured belowamp160with Nelson Nathan E Wheeler and Stephanie Koenig along with Mindy Robinson Tawnie Jaclyn Katelynn Ansari and Alie CraigDown with Davidamp160requires less than an hour for a full bingeamp160 That may be true of most Web series but few of them feel and look so much like a feature film or to be more contemporary about it a truncated Amazon series Nelson imagines it being reworked one day as a fulllength movie That isnamp8217t a bad idea but it works just fine as it is If anything it leaves one with an urge to follow the further adventures of its characters in an ongoing serialized formatIf David provides an accurate indication Nelson has a lot more on his mind than becoming just another instant video star many of whom achieve their outsize success primarily by looking good on camera and sharing their innermost thoughts without going so deep as to force their young viewers to contemplate their own lives or give themselves headaches thinking about the world beyond their own social platformsamp160 Nelson on the other hand has put it all out there in Davidamp160sharing his own distinctive story in a way that might encourage others to at least think about their own if not share them with othersamp160 He is plainly a gifted filmmaker and like so many today he is fortunate that technology has provided him with the means to call attention to his talentsNelson recently completed another short film titled Belles of the Boulevard His costar is another ambitious video maker Nikki Baker best known for her hugely popular YouTube channel Pranksters in Love in which Nikki and her husband play outrageous pranks on each other going to more and more extremes each timeThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet management or associated bloggersamp160

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

In “Down with David,” a Straight Dancer Scores in the Gay Bars of West Hollywood

Author

Publish date

Channel

Ed Martin

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

More Videos:

Click to Make Your 2025 Contribution to Support the MediaVillage Education Foundation

In “Down with David,” a Straight Dancer Scores in the Gay Bars of West Hollywood

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Ed Martin

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

The payment was successful

Cookies