Ballongdansen!🎈

Ballongdansen: (the balloon🎈 dance) A comedy stage performance where naked or semi-nude participants cover themselves with balloons that pop as the dance goes on. 

Ballongdansen has been going on in many parts of the world for decades.  Although the dance has British roots, it's maybe best known as a Swedish Phenomenon where it both is performed, and had a song and singing group.  In 1982, the comedy routine made its massive, iconic debut in Sweden during the first season of the SVT television show Nöjesmaskinen. It was performed completely naked by Sven Melander, Lasse Åberg, and Bosse Larsson, who used only balloons to strategically cover themselves.

Since then, balloons have been blown up and placed over the penises and breasts of many dancers and performers.  Today in Scandinavia s a viral  graduation tradition where students perform a choreographed routine completely naked, using only large balloons to strategically block their bodies.

Three are many versions of the dance on the net, but they all use the same performance basics.  The dancers line up and attempt to move in unison, passing their balloons back and forth as they change positions.  Although naked performances tend to be erotically focused, the balloon dance is more lighthearted and done for laughs more than thrills.

Some of the laughs come when those balloons don't get passed fast enough, and the audience gets peeks of the penises of the guys involved.  As you can see in this video, (especially with the guys on the right) there are plenty of moments where the balloons get get where they're supposed to be going fast enough.  Most of the cute students in this video don't really seem to mind.

Alternative Methods

If fashion isn't your thing, you can always pull a Swirl....  If you find clothes too confining, you can always show your patriot pride by panting on the stars and stripes like Swirl does here for this festival.

California's hottest Body & Dance Show!

'Let's Get This Party Started!'

With FH having it's focus on the male form, I've featured many posts about male strippers over the years.   Although the heyday of male strip clubs, at least in the US was in the last 80's and 90's, three are still clubs and unique venues that feature hotties taking it all off for their avid audiences.  When the pandemic hit, I got into watching the live and recorded performances from the men from the Stock Bar in  Montreal.   Although there weren't audiences for awhile, the clubs owners wisely kept the shows going for online audiences. 

Although I've featured plenty of current clubs and strippers, FH readers know I also love looking back.  When it comes to male strippers in the mainstream, the most well known group has to be the Chippendales.   I've spotlighted and uncovered many men from the famous show, and even done a few theme days on some of my favorites. (HERE) The Chippendales however, weren't the only group of naked guys to jump on the bandwagon during the popularity boom in the eighties and nineties.  

One group I'd never heard of until recently is the California Dream Men.  Thanks to  a message board, and poster phofman, I was introduced to the stripping studs earlier this year.  The California Dream Men were founded following the immense success of the Chippendales.  Although they were formed in the US, they really took off in Europe.  Although they played all over Europe, they specially popular in Italy and Germany.  Check out much more on the PAGE THREE HERE:

California Dream Men

'Are You Ready For Them???'

Although I hadn't heard of California Dream Men before seeing the post from phofman, I did know some of it's performers.  There were more than a couple of Playgirl centerfolds who shook their groove thing on stage with the show.  Both Steve Mateo, (who I featured HERE:) and Danny Celaya, (HERE:) were early members.  When the popularity of mainstream strip shows began to wane, the show basically closed in the US, while continuing to thrive in Europe. 

The California Dream men went on for another decade touring in Europe until the early 2000's.  There is a another group, California Dreams currently touring Europe, but that is a European-based all-male dance group based not in the US, but in the Czech Republic.  

'Because the California Dream Men performed mostly in Italy and Germany there has been less censorship than was the case with the Chippendales and Manpower. The guys would sometimes be full frontal nudity, both in the show and the official merchandise, but the focus was never on the penises' (unlike the London Knights for example)

phofman

In addition to the many stories, images and videos that phofman shared on the thread on lpsg, many other posters added to the thread with additional videos and visuals.  Because they were so popular in Europe, they were often featured in European magazines including some hot full nudes in the Italian magazine Eva Tremilo back in 1999.

When I contacted phofman about sharing his hard work, he was eager to have the California Dream Men and their story shared with as many people who would enjoy and appreciate the material.  phofman continues to add to the thread when time allows for taking screenshots, upscaling and archiving.  Instead of my just copying phofman's work, and the work of the other contributors, I chose some of my favorite images to share.  I encourage you all to check out the thread in it's entry on lpsg HERE:

There were a few performers however, who I think need their own spotlight, and will feature a few individual dancers, (and  performances) in the future.  There is also a great book, which I just ordered by Tyler White, one of the members who toured Europe with the California Dream Men.  
 

In the book, Hillbilly in Hollywood, white recounts his  personal journey and the group’s experiences during its European tour, revealing risqué behind-the-scenes stories of drugs, sex, humorous episodes, and political entertainment drama that would capture the attention not only of the group’s many fans but also that of a broader audience.  The book is available on Amazon HERE:

'At the time I didn't understand why the show had closed so suddenly, but a year later I heard that the producer had sold over half of the rights for the California Dream Men in Italy to the promoters who were his partners in this country. Were he to form a musical group only from California Dream Men cast members, he would have to share any resulting profits with the local promoters. But if he could use the fame of the California Dream Men show to start a separate boy band for Sony, he could be the sole owner.

When the Italian promoters of the show learned about how the producer was damaging the California Dream Men franchise in favor of X-Dream, they were so angry with the producer that they decided to prove to him how powerful they were. So they had not done any advertising of our shows in Rome. They were willing to let the show close instead to letting the producer get the best of them. And that is what happened.'

Tyler White

A Look Back: Garden Tools

May is the month of expectation,

the month of wishes, the month of hope

Emily Brontë 

This post, and this series of images was originally posted in the spring of 2022.  The images are a collection of naked gardening images I'd saved over the years.  In addition to sharing my gardening experiences, I loved the sexy sense of fun in so many of the images.  Some of the images come from charity calendars.  This means most of the men were not models, and were likely being photographed naked by a professional photographer, for the first time.

With both Easter and spring being all about re-birth, there is no better time to head out to the garden.  Easter weekend marks the beginning of planting season for many, especially those who live where the risk of frost is now in the rear view mirror.  Apologies to all of those who were blasted by the blizzard in the Northern mid-west in the US and Southern Manitoba in Canada.

I used to hate gardening, mainly because it was part of my allowance chores when I was a kid.  My parents didn't really 'garden' really, but they did have a small vegetable garden, filled mostly with rhubarb.  My chores not only included planting and picking the rhubarb, weeding the dandelions out of the lawn as well as mowing and watering the lawn.

When I finally got my own home however, gardening became... well, a necessity.   It's never really become a passion, but the home I bought had tons of gardens and I try my best to keep up on their care as much as possible.  Now, I have to admit, some of the harder plants to maintain have been replaced by plants, like Hosta plants, that are almost impossible to kill.

When you own a house, especially one with retired neighbours who spend all day in their gardens, there's pressure to keep up.  The garden centers where I live are just about to open, so it's only a matter of weeks before I fork over hundreds of bucks for soil, weed killers, hanging baskets and fertilizer.  Gardening is still somewhat of a chore for me, but if I had a naked work crew like these guys, it would be joy to get out there and tip toe through the tulips.