NTERVIEW WITH THE ACCIDENTAL BEAR, MIKE ENDERS

 "Mike Enders, who you quite possibly know as The Accidental Bear, has a big month ahead of him, with the launch of a five-city concert tour kicking off right after the 4th. Running up and down the West Coast and then crossing over for a grand finale in New York, the tour will raise some much needed funds for LGBTQ mental health organizations that are based in each of the tour’s stops. So you can see a bunch of hot musical queers and help some really important under-served communities at the same time. Everybody’s a winner!

Mike took some time out of luring hot men into his bathroom—er, I mean tour planning—to answer some questions for me."

- Lawrence

 Lawrence: How are you doing?

Mike Enders: Things are busy busy! I’m a little nervous getting interviewed. You have so much less control when you’re on this side of the table.

I know. I’m sorry I couldn't invite you over to talk in my bathtub. That might have been less weird for you. Or weirder, maybe. So, how’s the tour coming?

It’s coming along really well. This is by far the largest thing that I have ever tried to do. It’s all coming to the end now, on the planning side, and I’m starting to see some light. I’m doing this pretty much by myself, so I’m the tour organizer, the travel agent, the promotions manager… I may have gotten a few more gray hairs in the last month or two.

What gave you the idea to do this?

I had a big party in San Francisco for the two year anniversary of the site, and it just went so well. That was back in February. And I realized I want to do more with live music. At the time, it seemed like every week there was some high profile gay person committing suicide, and I was really blown away that this kept happening. And eventually I got to thinking how this would be a good benefit.

 Tell me a little bit about who’s performing. Since we’re one of the big sponsors, we’re actually interviewing all of the artists next week, but give us the short version.

Logan Lynn is a singer-songwriter. And there’s Big Dipper, who right now seems to be everywhere, exploding like crazy. He actually played the show in February. There’s also Rica Shay from New York, and Conquistador, and Darling Gunsel. There’s actually a free thirteen song compilation with all the artists that you can download for free. It’ll be a fun crowd for sure. Each of them can hold their own and has their own audience. They’re all very lively.

So where’s the tour stopping.

We’ll be in five cities this year. San Francisco first on July 5th, and then LA on July 7th, Portland on July 11th, Seattle on July 14th, and then we wrap up in New York on July 19th. It’s all a lot of logistics right now. And there’s five artists, which means five egos and five sets of personalities. There’s a videographer from New York who’s traveling with us making a film. And also capturing everybody’s most undesirable moments, I hope! His name’s Run Shaya. It’s a far off goal right now. but we’re hoping to have something to present at film festivals next year.

Tickets for the tour are already on sale. There’s a link on the site for that, too.

 Where’s the New York show? I’m on the East Coast!

New York is at Webster Hall, which a lot of people seem impressed by. We’re trying to really pack all of these venues, and there’s so much going on everywhere in the summer. In New York, and also Bear Week is in Provincetown that weekend.

Oh, Bear Week. I always go for one or two days. Half the reason I go is as an excuse to eat at this one South African restaurant that’s there.

I’m actually going to be there for the first time ever right after Bear Week. People keep telling me about the beaches, but I lived in Hawaii for ten years, so it’s really hard for me to stop comparing the beaches to the beaches in Hawaii.

Yeah, they’re great beaches, but they’re probably not comparable to Hawaii. But let’s go back to the tour for a minute…

Oh, tour t-shirts for the tour designed by Ed Luce!

Oh, I love his Wuvable Oaf comics!

Yeah. Those came in about a week ago, and they’re available on the site now as well. Each performer’s making their own cool merch for each show. And I’m going to be there! In San Francisco, one of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a guest MC. In LA, Jonny McGovern is guest performing, and he donated his time to the tour for this. And there are free blowjobs in the bathroom! Wait, did I just say that?

And while all this is happening you’re still updating The Accidental Bear.

I am! The site itself—I feel like calling it a blog lessens it—it’s going so, so so well. We started out with five hundred, six hundred hits a day, and the numbers haven’t stopped going up since day one. The site itself is going really phenomenally. So after the tour I’m sitting down with people because right now I can’t even respond to all the emails, and it’s just little me in my boxer shorts sitting on the couch with my cats. So the next year’s going to have a lot of restructuring. I started a PR firm, ABPR Management, out of the site but I haven’t had too much time to concentrate on it yet. So after the tour I’m going to get help, find interns, hire people…

And what else is in the stars? Think you’ll do this again, or is it a one-time thing?

It’s going really well, though. I keep hearing from people across that country—even as far away as New Zealand—who are looking to get involved. I’d really like to have a year two or year three and reach more cities. As for right now, I’m actually heading out now to interview a singer before he performs at Amoeba Records tonight.