Jerry Mitchell of Broadway Bares (Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS) joins Karl Schmid to talk about their love and support for individuals affected by HIV/AIDS.

The following is a transcript of the conversation between Karl and Jerry Mitchell.

JERRY
I was trying to make people laugh. I was trying to make people have good time and feel good about their bodies in this crazy times.

KARL
Welcome to +Talk on +Life, where we’re all about turning positive into a plus. And somebody who is doing that and is full out and has been doing it forever, it’s my guest Jerry Mitchell today. Hey, Jerry.

JERRY
Hi. How are you?

KARL
I’m well. Okay, first off, congratulations on the Isabelle Stevenson Tony. That’s three on your shelf now, isn’t it?

JERRY
That’s my third Tony Award. Can you believe it? I can’t.

KARL
Well, it’s well deserved. Obviously, you’ve been given this special Tony in recognition of everything that you’ve done as far as helping the HIV Broadway Cares community through “Broadway Bares,” which is in its 31st year.

JERRY
Yeah, we’ve been doing it for 31 years. If anybody told me I’d be stripping for 31 years, well, I’m not stripping anymore, but working on a strip show, a burlesque show to raise money for AIDS, I would’ve said, “You’re crazy.”

KARL
Give us a bit of background about how it came about.

JERRY
I was in the Will Rogers Follies on Broadway dancing eight shows a week, and I was dancing in practically nothing. I was practically naked. And my dressing roommate, Jason, we were trying to raise money for Broadway Cares for another one of their fundraising events, the Easter Bonnet Competition. And each cast tries to come up with unique ways to raise money, and we had done all the bake sales and we had done all of that stuff. So he said, “Why don’t you put together a burlesque show and dance on the bar at Splash and make some money?” And literally, a light bulb went off over my head. I called seven other guys who were in Broadway shows at the time, this was 1992, who I knew were in exceptional shape. And I choreographed a routine for each of us. And we went to the bar and there was a line around the block. We ended up doing two shows. I went home with a a pillowcase full of beer-soaked, wet dollar bills. The next morning they told me there was 8,000 bucks in that pillowcase. And I said, “I’m gonna do this better. I’ll add girls.” And I thought, “That’s chancy. Girls stripping at a gay fundraiser.” But you know, the gays loved watching the girls strip, that they were sexy and confident. And we grew and grew and grew, until last year we did the 30th anniversary show. We raised $1.9 million in one night. So about $24 1/2 million has been raised to date.

KARL
Yeah. It’s phenomenal. Just describe what the mood was like as a younger gay man working on Broadway at the time when you started all of this. Because the community was just vanishing, especially dances on Broadway.

JERRY
By 1990, I had lost eight of my best friends from college to AIDS. And I think when I lost Michael Bennett in the mid-’80s, that really hit home. Because not only was I a dancer for him in “A Chorus Line” and working on his new musical, “Scandal” and “Chess,” but I was his assistant. I was his associate, I was training under him. I was looking up to him. I had to figure out a way to help people like myself who didn’t have a lot of money to donate but wanted to be part of the fight and to raise money. But also, I needed to find a way to feel safe myself in the dating pool, when there were no drugs yet. There was no way to protect yourself. And it was very scary going out and having sex with someone new if you didn’t know how to be safe and have safe sex really.

KARL
Yeah, and I think one of the fantastic sort of ongoing themes with “Broadway Bares” is that you’re celebrating sex and sexuality on stage, yes, by being a burlesque show. But you guys were putting on something very sexy and sexual. And I think that was in stark contrast really of what people expected and what people thought was quote-unquote appropriate at the time.

JERRY
When we first started “Broadway Bares,” Tom Viola at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, we would get letters from people who said, “How dare you raise money for AIDS by putting on a strip show?” Well, we were putting on a comedy show. We were putting on a comedy burlesque strip show. Burlesque has always been based in sex, but it’s also been based in comedy. I was trying to make people laugh. I was trying to make people have good time and feel good about their bodies in this crazy times.

KARL
I’m sure that over the years you had performers who participated, who themselves were HIV-positive, who themselves, especially in those earlier times before antiretrovirals, knew that at that point there perhaps wasn’t much of a future for them. What did that do for those people when they got to stand on stage, and as you said, be sexy, be funny, and know that they were helping the community?

JERRY
Imagine feeling the lack of confidence from a positive HIV diagnosis, in a time when there doesn’t seem to be any cure or any ability to get that confidence back. Then being able to go on stage, perform as you do as a performer, and feel the love coming at you. And sort of really curing your stigma, your own stigma. I’ve seen it happen in performers in the show who were HIV-positive and have thanked me. Because like myself, when I danced naked in the Will Rogers Follies, I was in the lowest confidence level of my life. I had just gotten out of a terrible breakup. And the power, it reinvigorated my confidence in myself and allowed me to become this director-choreographer that I’ve become.

KARL
Tony Award-winning director and choreographer. So for somebody who is doubting themselves because of their HIV status, to go along and participate in the audience of this has also gotta be incredibly liberating.

JERRY
When people come to “Broadway Bares” for the very first time, I don’t think they’re aware of the amount of love that is gonna be flowing from the stage and from the audience to the stage. You know, we’ve had “Broadway Bares” in the West End. We’ve had “Broadway Bares” in San Francisco. And I just returned from Italy for “Italy Bares 4.” And you know, really, the thing that they’re fighting in Italy is the stigma. But one of the things that I was so excited about this last trip was we did a dress rehearsal and there were 1700 high school students at the dress rehearsal. And it was informing these young people that if an HIV diagnosis comes along for them today, there is a way to still live a full and fruitful life. And the stigma is really something that they’re fighting so hard in that country. And we are too here, but there more so. And it was to see those young people at the show.

KARL
But I feel like if I’m seeing this show, you’re just reaffirming that life is a wonderful celebration and that you are able to do anything.

JERRY
It’s being able to celebrate the life that you have still to live. That’s really what it is. And the show has become really a celebration of life.

KARL
Well, Jerry Mitchell, thank you for your time. Thank you for 31 years of fantastic “Broadway Bares,” full-out as always. And I’m so glad we got to have this time together, Jerry.

JERRY
Thanks for having me, Karl.

KARL
That’s gonna do it for this episode of +Talk. You want more information? It’s easy. Go to the website, pluslifemedia.com. Remember, you can follow us across social media platforms. We are @pluslifemedia. We’ll put all the information about “Broadway Bares.” if you want to donate, if you want to contribute, there are ways, and it’s all a great cause. Until next time, be nice to one another and live a full-out life, as Jerry Mitchell would say.