A Look Back at Circuit

'John, a gay Illinois small town cop moves to Los Angeles, hoping to fit into a place more welcoming of his sexuality. He soon discovers the "circuit," where he meets an insecure hustler, who draws John into drug abuse and illicit sex.'

Dirk Shafer

John (Jonathan Wade Drahos) temporarily moves in with his cousin Tad (Daniel Kucan), who is living with his suddenly ex-boyfriend Gill (Brian Lane Green) and Tad's new boyfriend Julian (Darryl Stephens). Tad is a filmmaker, shooting a documentary on circuit parties and Julian DJs at the parties. 

Gill takes John to a party in the Hollywood hills, where he meets Hector (Andre Khabbazi), a hustler who is battling mounting insecurities over his looks and age as he is about to turn 30. John and Hector forge a friendship and Hector introduces John to the world of circuit parties and illicit drugs. One of Tad's subjects is Bobby (Paul Lekakis), an exotic dancer and model who performs at circuit parties (and with whom coincidentally John tricked at a party).

Paul Lekakis

John follows Hector deeper into circuit scene. Hector uses a variety of drugs including Special K, GHB, cocaine, crystal meth and, suffering from body dysmorphia despite being in terrific physical shape, anabolic steroids. 

Jonathan Wade-Drahos

Dirk Shafer was still in the closet when he was named Playgirls 1992 Man of the Year.  This made promoting his Playgirl spread more of an acting exercise, playing straight in his many interviews and television talk show appearances.  

In part, as a way of dealing this with all of the this, Shafer went on to write, direct and star in Man of the Year, a 1995 mockumentary about his time as a semi-closeted gay man in the role of a heterosexual sex symbol.   I was fortunate to have interviewed Shafer back in 2011 on FH, (HERE:) just four years before his death.

Andre Khabbazi

Shafer's next directorial project was Circuit, a fictional look at the world of gay male circuit parties. Filmed over a six-month period, Shafer, who was not part of the circuit party scene but who did say he did a little experimenting as research, used circuit party music to guide him in shaping the film. 

'I picked out what I liked for this or that sequence, and pictured scenes to certain music.'

Dirk Shafer

Shafer shared that based the character of Hector (Khabbazi) on a real person he knew who was obsessed with growing older and his looks.  He killed himself on his 30th birthday. To represent visually this obsession with youth and beauty, Shafer shot each character reflected in a mirror.  

Although most of the main cast were relatively unknown actors, Shafer did cast some a few well known names in smaller roles. (Jim J. Bullock, Bruce Vilanch, Randal Kleiser, William Katt, and Nancy Allen) 

Although most of the main male cast members had nude scene, ( like Khabbazi above) most were dark, or shot in flashes, with quick edits to mimic the music of the circuit parties.

Wade-Drahos

The 'brightest' nude scene was one of the films first, with John in the police station locker room after his partner discovered he was gay.  The brightness also parallels' John's journey as this was just before meeting Hector and getting into the circuit party scene.