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I first met Ducky DooLittle years ago when she sent me one of her little Xeroxed zines with a note saying, "I thought I smelled sex." That was back when our P.O. boxes were right on top of each other at the East Village's 14th Street Post Office. We struck up a friendship that blossomed into many kinky collaborations, including the panty fetish zine Peek!, parties, performances, fashion shows and all kinds of mutual admiration press coverage.
Eros Zine: Congratulations on the book! How does it feel to be a published author? Ducky DooLittle: I'm totally tickled! Sex With the Lights On has been a long time coming. I really feel like I have made something beautiful. I'm very proud of it. Eros Zine: Let's talk about how you got here: You've been a sex worker of some sort for 17 years now. Tell us about all the different jobs you've had. Ducky DooLittle: I started out on 42nd Street. I was a peepshow girl at Show World, a stripper, a nudie magazine model and a dominatrix. All of that work paved the way for me to become a sex journalist for what I like to call "cut-rate glossy porn magazines." That led to writing for art, fashion and men's magazines. I also worked as a sex educator with the feminist sex toy store Babeland. With time I became their lead workshop facilitator and education coordinator. Today I perform on stage and teach sex all over North America. Eros Zine: Which job did you enjoy the most? Ducky DooLittle: All of my jobs have either required performance skills or writing skills. I think I enjoy it all and I really love the fact that I'm the driving force behind what I do for a living. I'm the boss of me. It's been that way no matter what kind of job I have had. For example if a strip club manager treated me wrong, I would just leave. I always knew I was good at what I did and there were a hundred other clubs that I could work in. Of course New York City has changed a lot since then. I think NYC's sex workers don't have the same options we had back in the 1980s.
Eros Zine: Which job did you like the least?
Eros Zine: Working the peepshows on 42nd Street must've been interesting. And now it's also somewhat historical. What are your thoughts on the cleaning up of 42nd Street, the closing of many strip clubs, etc. Ducky DooLittle: I miss 42nd Street. When they tore down the buildings and wiped out the sex emporiums I felt like they erased a piece of my history. There are so many New Yorkers who feel the same. Times Square had been a living monument to sex, crime, drugs, homelessness and prostitution. Those are realities in our society and no matter how you try to zone them out of existence, they will always exist. I liked 42nd Street because everyone knew what you could find there and everyone was there for similar reasons. There was a certain sort of honesty in Times Square that's hard to find in life. Eros Zine: You've been fielding questions from kinky freaks, as well as just the sexually curious, for over a decade. How did all that experience help you with your book? Ducky DooLittle: There are 200 questions answered in my book. All real questions from real people. When I teach sex workshops at sex toy shops, universities or even church groups, what I've always done is pass out blank index cards and pencils. I ask my audience to write down any sex question they may have. This makes it so the brave and the not-so-brave can participate on the same level -- anonymously. Over the last eight years I saved every single index card. I filed them meticulously by body part or sex act. When it came time to write the book I realized I could write a book with the help of every person I had ever encountered in my workshops. My name may be on the cover, but this book belongs to hundreds of people. We wrote it together. Eros Zine: Now you field questions online. Does that mean way more work? Ducky DooLittle: After 10 years of doing online sex advice I cannot keep up with the incoming questions, which is why it was time to write the book. Now everyone can have this entire collection of questions available to them at any time. Beyond that, I tour extensively so people show up at my live appearances and get more. Eros Zine: Are the questions more "normal" now? 'Cause I always found that the real freaks were into snail mail correspondence. Ducky DooLittle: Normal is always a relative term! When I was doing nudie photo shoots for adult magazines I got my most fringe letters and questions. I really enjoyed fielding questions about things like panty fetishes and foot fetishes. At this point in my career I get the most enjoyment out of speaking to and educating college age individuals. So I think I attract more base level and less perverse questions. Honestly I like it all. I enjoy being accessible yet totally open-minded. Eros Zine: Do people still send you dirty pictures and comix and stuff?
Eros Zine: Your zines were always so beautifully crafted. Do you miss the personal touches of snail mail correspondence? Ducky DooLittle: Thank you. I do miss the days when my post office box was full of odd letters from fans, quirky publications and picture postcards from around the world. To cure my hankering, I still do limited edition zines and still maintain my P.O. Box. I do zines in limited numbers just because I don't have the time to do ongoing mail order. I usually post on my blog when something new comes out and they are swallowed up in a few days. It's fun, but not like the old days when a young woman could have her own little industry just by self-publishing little zines! Eros Zine: You've traveled around the country performing and teaching and met people face to face. Do the questions differ from state to state? Ducky DooLittle: Totally! I just did a couple workshops in Minneapolis. I was born and raised in Minnesota so I was a little nervous performing there for the first time. I was so happy to find the workshops sold out and they really got all my little jokes about the midwest and how repressed our culture can be. It was beautiful. I like teaching in San Francisco because people there are not so isolated around sex. They want to really pull apart ideas and theories around sex and we have some incredible, sexy workshops in the process. Meanwhile in New York City I find people come ready to take lots of notes and head right home to use what they learn! New Yorkers don't fuck around. One thing I love about teaching sex and performing on the road is that I find pockets of beautiful, progressive minds in every city. Eros Zine: You're currently on a tour to promote your book. How do the audiences differ now that you're an author? Do you feel people are taking you more seriously? Ducky DooLittle: The audiences have always been wonderful but the best part about having a book out is that I have so much to say that I could never answer every question and say it all in a one- to two-hour performance. Now that I have a book, people can take a piece of me home with them. The information is not fleeting. It's a great feeling when someone asks a question about how to feel good in their skin or how to shake up their relationship and I can give them a bit of face to face fuel and back it up with an entire chapter on those subjects. Another great thing is that by reading my book people are really starting to see how hard I have worked, how sincere I am and that over the years I have amassed a great body of knowledge.
Ducky DooLittle: I'm always changing. After being a stripper and a peepshow girl I became a nightclub go-go girl and burlesque dancer. My most famous burlesque act was when I performed as the cake-sitting clown named Knockers! At the same time I was doing some comedy bits in New York City and touring that material. That's a lot of work for a limited amount of reward. Teaching sex and writing about sex has made it possible for me to move into using my more of my brainpower and given me the ability to make a better living. Eros Zine: And do you still perform? Ducky DooLittle: I've never stopped performing, I just stopped appearing in nightclubs. Today I do limited engagements at theaters. And teaching sex workshops has actually made me a better performer than ever. I regularly do one- to two-hour performances. These extended speaking appearances have sharpened my chops. Today I'm selling out large teaching venues and moving more toward bigger theaters and storytelling. In 2007 I'll be back on stage doing a one-woman show where I mix stories with sauce, with sex advice. The show is called Knock Out. I believe it's my best work yet. Eros Zine: You're totally self-educated and you've read a million books to get there. Which ones did you find the most informative? Interesting? Ducky DooLittle: Wow. There have been so many books that have changed my life. I find the best books are the ones that make a person feel less isolated in life. When it comes to sex I've loved Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry because it taught me that there are so many women, from many different backgrounds, who have worked the sex industry and found it to be a wonderful, horrible, creative and devastating experience. Usually all at the same time. I also liked My Secret Life because it was a personal, shameless account of a gentleman whoring in Victorian London. It was a nice display of how things never change, only individuals change. Most recently I've also enjoyed Hobo by Eddy Joe Cotton and Education of a Felon by Edward Bunker. Both books are about rough and tumble street kids. Being an orphan and homeless as a teen I could totally relate. Eros Zine: How is your book different from other sex education books?
Eros Zine: And what's in the future for you? Ducky DooLittle: Expect more books. More stage shows. More photos and adventures in my blog. Most of all expect the unexpected and catch me while you can because I never stay the same! And I like it that way. Eros Zine: Thanks, Ducky! Fans can keep up with Ducky DooLittle at duckydoolittle.com, at Ducky's Live Journal, and at her My Space Page.
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