Perverts Put Out is an occasional series of readings held in San Francisco. It showcases hot erotic stories, poetry, and dance from some of the best performers working in the genre today.

Saturday night, I got to see some astonishing performances. I’m just hitting the highlights here — everybody who read was top-notch.

Daphne Gottlieb (who is just beautiful) read some poetry. She has skill, style, energy, and a compelling performing voice. I was very sorry not to get to meet her; she had another reading to do. I also need to buy her books to savor the words on the page.

I also enjoyed the hilarious and hot story Meliza Bañales read about strippers, an FTM transsexual, and cunnilingus.

Thea Hillman read a disturbing and achingly tender story about people trying to transcend the limitations of race, class, gender in New York.

Then Steven Schwartz did Bearlesque, while Lori Selke narrated. I wasn’t surprised at all to see that Lori was an excellent narrator, but Steven had been apologetic about his dancing. Yet he moved with controlled grace and comic glee—a really fine performance of an insightful comic piece. I was not the only one who cracked up at the Lacan reference. And he finally explained the difference between boys and girls — something that should clear up much gender confusion.

And Carol Queen, the magnificent, told us about a random encounter with someone at a Jack- and Jill-Off sex party staged for the Playboy Channel.

S. Bear Bergman told an incredibly hot tranny smut story. How hot was it? It was a good thing that my partner and I were sitting in the front row, of I’d have been doing highly improper things to her. As it was, I had a couple of “Look, ma, no hands” orgasms just listening. Bergman is a strong writer and performer whose professional discipline and rhetorical skills enhance the power of the performance. Nothing showy, nothing artificial, just sheer skill and power. It’s damned hard to be that natural in front of an audience.

The evening finished with a bang, so to speak, as Simon Sheppard performed a very funny piece on the attractions of the Reverend Ted Haggard.

Definitely watch for the next version of this reading series.

And next weekend is going to be good, too, since I have tickets for the Saturday performance of Bear Bergman’s Monday Night in Westerbork at Theater Rhinoceros (2926 16th Street at South Van Ness in San Francisco).

(Theater Rhinoceros makes me think: All cats die. Socrates is dead. Therefore, Socrates is a cat. Or a theater. Or even Ionesco.)