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L.A. Story

November 30th, 2009 by Shaun Proulx

On Set, Poolside

Still playing catch-up, here’s the scoop on my L.A. trip. Several months ago, my friend Buck Angel asked me to write his life story when we were having dinner together while he was here in Toronto. I have been hankering to write a book for ages, and people have been after Buck to write a book for years, but he’s needed someone he can trust to be completely open with and share the most difficult aspects of his past with so that the end result is the real McCoy. I never get tired of describing Buck as my personal hero, and I’m honoured that we are working together to tell the world his whole story for the first time. Buck is the very definition of living life authentically and being true to who you are.

Buck Angel, Superstar

So Los Angeles was about us having our first sit-down, meeting in the middle, really – Buck lives in Mexico, and I’m obviously Toronto-based – to begin preliminary interviews to flesh out what the book will look like. When I told OutTV what I was doing, we decided to hire a crew in L.A. to shoot my first conversation with Buck and turn that into a Shaun Proulx Special.

We Had An Awesome, Hard-Working Crew

It was amazing and intense. I’ve interviewed Buck many times and so there was a bit of a trap in doing this once again, because now in interviews (on-camera or off) we need to go way deeper than we have during briefer chats for radio or a web/print article. Our overall talk was 3-hours under the hot California sun, stopping many times because helicopters circle LA constantly, ruining sound. Especially frustrating when we had to stop during a really good question/answer/moment.

Prep, Prep, Prep.

So that’s the scoop on that. It’s an adventure I’m excited and touched to be part of. The TV special of our conversation that day will likely air in January on OutTV, and I guarantee it’s Buck Angel as you’ve never seen or heard him before. The book of course will be a longer task – I’m going to Mexico in February to stay with Buck for a while and go through the personal photos and mementos and other things of his past that he can only deal with one time from the security of home, it’s that difficult.

A special shout out to Buck’s wife, the renowned body-piercer Elayne Angel, whom I met briefly before our shoot. One of those people you like instantly. Her bestselling book, The Piercing Bible, is a must-read for any piercing aficionado.

P.S. While in LA I was mistaken for Matt Dusk.

P.P.S. Oh, and a couple final photos that will mean some thing to some readers