noizemagazine - Index

noizemagazine - Spring 2008 Issue # 55 - Index

Promoter Spotlight:
Local LA Hero Tom Whitman
In LA, is there any night of the
week when Tom Whitman’s name
doesn't figure somewhere into the
schedule? His events run the entire
spectrum of gay-fabulous, but they
all have one thing in common: "I
try to produce events that I want
to go to,” he says. “I want to hang
out with fun, flirty, unpretentious
people. I want to go to an upscale
event and dress up one night, and
get sloppy in a pitcher of margaritas
in the afternoon on another
day.”
Tom says his events are geared to
conversation, not attitude. Take
aptly named “Drunk and Horny,”
Tom’s Friday nights at FUBAR.
"Wear something tight," says the
ad. "If you go home alone, you
aren't really trying." Or just turn on
your mojo at "Smack," Thursdays
at O-Bar, the home of the selfproclaimed
"world's fastest open
bar." Three times during the night,
drinks are free for a few minutes—
and after some lubrication, the hottie
you've been eyeing across the
room becomes soooo much easier
to talk to. In addition to “Saturday
On Sunday” nights, the line snakes
around the block in front of “here”
Lounge for the jock-themed night
“Player,” and in winter months for
“Size,” a surfboards-and-margaritas
celebration of Southern California’s
famed beach culture.
"Before I produced events in the
gay world," says Tom, "I produced
concerts and television, so I love
the production aspects of events."
Yes, Tom has worked in what we
here on the Left Coast call “The
Industry”: He wrote and directed two
animated shorts that have toured the
international film festival circuit. Before
moving to LA, he worked in NYC for five
years as a producer at MTV Networks,
and even now, he frequently returns to
Gotham. So he knows the scene on both
coasts. But Tom says that LA no longer
plays Second City to NYC, although he
acknowledges that LA nightlife is changing.
“It’s transitioned from being centered on
big, Circuit-type events to more spreadout,
smaller events in bars and nightclubs,”
he says. “The younger crowd
likes to do different things. It’s not just
about staying out until 7 a.m.”
A hOLLYWOOD WONDERLAND
Nowhere is his producing experience
more evident than at Wonderland, a big
Circuit dance event held on the backlot
of Paramount Studios the weekend of
West Hollywood’s Gay Pride. Wandering
around a movie studio is a cheap thrill