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Porn star Ben Dover: A glut of smut on the Fringe

Aug 12, 2009 - 3:00:19 PM

You could call Lindsay Honey an Edinburgh virgin, but that is the only kind of virgin he is. As his alter ego Ben Dover, Honey has appeared in more than 250 pornographic films and - as we go to press - had sex with 1,790 women. This month, though, he will be giving his genitals a well-earned rest and appearing in his own show on the Edinburgh Fringe.

He is quick to make it clear that this time around he is all talk: "I did a warm-up show in London and after 20 minutes two blokes got up and walked out. They thought there was going to be a live sex show, not just me discussing my life. I'm worried that people will see a poster that says ‘Ben Dover Live On Stage' and get the wrong idea."

On the other hand, the wrong idea may help to shift tickets. The Fringe this year is notable for the number of shows about sex. It has always been thus, but in 2009 it has truly exploded. From The Chippendales bringing their firemen's hoses to the Gilded Balloon, via Ophelia Bitz's burlesque with "erotic fruit consumption", to Porn the Musical and the spoof Gallic misanthrope Marcel Lucont in Sexual Metro, then back to Honey revealing the difference between German and English pornography. (Don't ask. All right then, German men all look like 1972 Bayern Munich midfielders.) Why now, though? Stand-ups have always talked about themselves in intimate detail. So talking about their sex lives, as the acclaimed anecdotalist John Gordillo does, for instance, in F***onomics, is just a logical extension. And with pornography becoming increasingly mainstream through the internet, pop and advertising, it was only a matter of time before smut hit the Fringe.

Honey has come to Edinburgh for a particular reason. Now in his fifties, he still has plenty of work, both in front and behind the camera, but is looking to add another string to his bow. He is after some respectable fame, having seen others cross over into the mainstream via his industry: "Look at Paris Hilton. She only made it because of her sex tape. If she can be famous, why can't I?"

He has come close to breaking through before, being shortlisted to appear on Celebrity Big Brother before it was decided that his background was too racy. "I think they can't separate the character of Ben Dover from the real me. They think I'm going to be going around all day feeling up the girls. You wouldn't expect someone who played an axe murderer to be going round killing people, would you? I'm an actor." Apart from his trouser-free performances, he was in the award-winning film Last Resort. Hardly a stretch — he played an internet pornographer.

The Edinburgh residency came about partly because he lost the nice living that he was making with his anecdotes on the after-dinner speaking circuit, when the "PC brigade" got involved and his bookings stopped "in case I offended a waitress".

Honey is certainly not the first non-comedian to perform on the Fringe. The PR guru Mark Borkowski did his own show, as did the Yo! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe. Honey clearly thinks that his show offers enough to attract the floating punter. There are provisos, though. Gordi-llo's F***onomics explores the similarities between sexual relationships and financial transactions. He has no problem with someone from the sex business muscling in on the Fringe, as long as it is a good show. The only boundary is one of quality: "It's about craft and technique." Telling a story is vital, too. "Maybe he is doing something like an English Boogie Nights."

Honey may have more than 1,000 notches on his bedpost, but he is relatively new to this kind of performance. As is Ashley Hames, who, until recently, fronted the digital television fly-on-the-brothel-wall series Sin Cities. I've never seen it, but it doesn't sound like The One Show. Like Honey, Hames is hoping that Edinburgh might help to kick-start his career in a different direction.

"Why am I doing this? Because I'm unemployed," Hames explains. "I was thinking of how to spend the summer and how I could possibly get some semblance of a career together after a decade of edging around the cult TV area." He may not be a contender for a stand-up award, but at least he is honest. "I thought I'd give Edinburgh a shot and see what came next. I like the thought of being nervous and putting myself on the line." After having his scrotum nailed to a piece of wood for his TV series, maybe this a a soft option.

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