A History of Mr. International Rubber - 2002-2006
2002
Seven men were ready to vie for the title, a new stage setting laid out to make the event take place in a locker room (complete with shower), and the return of the always acerbic Kris Francis to provide bite. By the time Mr. International Rubber 2002 Yannick Kerjose came on stage to give his farewell speech, I doubt if anyone in the crowd knew who would be donning the new title, but it was Chicagoan William “Rubberwilli” Schendel who stood front and center to accept the sash at night’s end. The 2003 first runner-up John Reddy of Alexandria, Virginia and second runner-up was Elmar Koeller of Marpingen, Germany.
Willi decided from the very start to use the title as a means to bring more men into the MIR circle. “I saw IML as a venue to get to the international crowd while they’re in Chicago. A few years ago at IML I started something I called The Rubber Agenda, which is a separate set of rubber events that correspond to the IML schedule. That way rubber guys have something to do while they’re there and they don’t have to hang around the leather guys the entire time, but they can have something that’s just rubber guys. There is a play party that is in the Agenda. I worked with Master Mike Zuhl (of International LeatherSir/Leatherboy), and hosted the first Recon party. I just tried to find as many ways as I could to meet people.”
Willi also saw IML as a means to reach the international attendants that come to Chicago “The first Mr. Rubber Italia contest in 2003 happened because they had come to IML and found at there was Mister International Rubber. They said, if there was MIR they needed to send someone. I was honored to be able to judge that contest and help select the very first Mr. Rubber Italia, Andrea Pannucci. He would compete in MIR the next year."
Since then, Willi has become one of the driving figures keeping the contest progressing forward. “Willi has traveled all over the world. He is very much into the rubber scene, he knows the people to contact and he’s a dynamite guy to work with. He just took hold of the contest and ran with it,” is how Roger views it. “My parting words to the new owners of the title were ‘It would be a good idea if you treated Rubberwilli very nicely, because he can do you a lot of good’.”
2003
A lot of changes were being made in 2003 when Mr. International Rubber 2004 was won by Las Vegas’ Chris Vincent.
Roger Hickey had decided to sell the Cell Block, and this year’s Rubber Blowout weekend was also meant to be an introduction to the two new owners. Unfortunately, the new occupants were woefully ignorant about what a fetish bar was, and basically ran the bar into a ditch. By the following April, Roger had taken the bar and contest back under his control.
While Roger, David and other bar employees had kept many records and photographs of the MIR contests, Roger was soon to discover that almost all of these documents had been destroyed in the few months in which the bar had changed ownership. While the less said the better about the two men left unnamed here, all parties interviewed for this chapter described the duo mostly in epithets.
Both runners-up this year were international contestants. Mr. Rubber Italy, Andrea Pannucci was first and David Peachey from Sydney, Australia was second.
2004
The loss of much of the general information about the contest led to several challenges getting things going in 2004. “I started taking on the responsibilities for MIR in 2004," say RubberWilli. "I jumped in behind the scenes for Mr. International Rubber 2005 and worked really closely with Jeff Roscoe. He was helping the bar get back on their feet. He created the MIR website. Meanwhile, I had to come up with a new application. My goal was to get all the basic questions out of the way. When I entered the contest (in 2002), the application was one page. Now the application is three pages. We ask questions like, what are your club affiliations? What do you think is a distinguishing characteristic of rubber? It’s a little more in depth and that gives the judges a better idea of who the contestant is and where they can probe further.”
On Saturday November 13, in front of over 200 cheering spectators, Frank “Bug” Buog from Otterstadt, Germany headed the first international sweep at the Mr. International Rubber 2005 Contest. Frank was also the first man to hold the Mr RubClub title, Germany’s first ever gay men’s rubber contest. Nine men competed from all over the globe. David McLay from Montreal, Canada was first runner-up and “Rubber Matt” Matthew Grevink from Sydney, Australia was second runner-up. The expansion of contestants and contests was something that made Roger proud. “When there are contests like Mr. East Coast Rubber or West Coast Rubber, that’s when you realize that you’ve really done something. They had a series of elimination contests in Europe for a representative to send to Chicago for Mister Rubber. The man from Australia was a real coup.”
The judges were Mr. International Rubber 2003 Rubberwilli (head judge), 1999 Thomas Smith, 2000 Tom Kelly, 2001 Chad McLaughlin and the Leather Journal publisher and editor Dave Rhodes. Khris Francis emceed with his spicy brand of humor which, as usual, took no prisoners.
2005
For only the third time in the run of the contest, a new Master of Ceremonies ventured forth to host the ninth Rubber Blow-out Weekend. Jinx Titanic played fast and loose with the crowd, getting more and more wild as the evening continued, along with ASL interpreting by Brooke MacNamara, a perrenial crowd favorite.
Michael Schneider, Mr. Rubclub 2005, was elected as Mr. International Rubber 2006, and the second German in a row to win. (And counting Christof in 1997, the third German overall.) Alan Stroik from Southern California was present as Mr. West Coast Rubber, and placed as 1st Runner-Up. Also competing were Paul Shank from Houston and Kevin Heindorf from Chicago, who stole the show with the memorable catch phrase “Fuck you like the bitch you wanna be!”
Michael is not just a rubberman, he is also a Saint…sort of. “I am a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” he informed me. “I am not a fully professed Sister, but I am a Saint. I am not Saint Michael, but I am known as Saint Phoenix. I am not allowed to do some actions on my own; I need a fully professed member beside me, either a Sister or a Goddess.”
On his own, Michael used his title as a method of spread the good word about rubber across Europe. “After winning MIR, I attended several contests in the leather scene in Germany as a judge, a rubber contest in Rome, Berlin for Folsom Street Fair, gay prides in Paris, Zurich, Nuremberg, Munich, London, Europride, and Vienna for the LifeBall Charity Event benefit for HIV/AIDS.” He also has one other accolade to be known for; Michael is also passionate about sport dancing! He was the German champion 2005 in Latin formation dancing.
Judges for the contest were Mr. International Rubber 2005 Frank Buog, Laura Petriella of Vex Clothing, Bill Stadt of the International Mr. Leather organization, Tommy DeNial of RubberZone.com, and Chuck Windemuth of the Chicago Leather Kennel Club (a titleholder grooming organization). This new judging line-up was a change that Willi was aiming for. “We wanted to get out of a rut of having the previous winners always being the judges. All the previous winners were saying they wanted to relax and enjoy the contest, so we pushed to find judges that were are not previous title holder except the one stepping down. We needed to begin to cultivate and find out who are the people who are worthy or need to be judging this, you have the credentials, the experience, you know what we’re looking for, would you be our judges.”
As occurred at the contest of 2003, Roger Hickey used the occasion to announce that the Cell Block would once again be changing hands and introduce a new owner. But this time, the signature belonged to an experienced leather bar owner, Frank Blondale, who had officially signed to papers on August 31, 2005. While Frank, as owner of The Detroit Eagle, had a good idea about the mores of a leather bar, the rubber contests, he told me, were new territory. “At that time, pretty much nothing and been done for the Mr. International Rubber 2006 contest. I wasn’t aware of how little had been done or how much needed to be done. Thank God RubberWilli was there and was active on the part of the contest. That was what got us through the first year. Willi knew that something was stirring and that there was going to be a sale (of the Cell Block), so as soon as Roger and I signed the papers, Willi was in touch with me.”
The circumstances of that first call were unusual. “I was on my way out to judge Mr. West Coast Rubber for their first contest,” Willi recalls. “As I was on my way out, I called Frank and introduced myself. It was the first time I ever talked to him. I said ‘By the way, these guys are doing this contest that will be a feeder contest to MIR, I need your permission to give them gift certificates to send their winner to our contest. It would be good publicity.’ The first conversation I ever had with him, and I was standing on the El Platform getting ready to go to Mr. West Coast Rubber contest, asking Frank’s permission to give away gift certificates over Labor Day Weekend.”
“I had not been to an MIR before. Obviously with (The Detroit Eagle)” said Frank about his newness to MIR, “my weekends are spent in Detroit. Detroit is kind of unusual in that we don’t even have a gay leather shop here. There is one leather store, but it is basically straight. As far as a rubber vendor in the Detroit area, there isn’t anything. Most guys in Detroit either go to Chicago or Toronto for leather gear."
With the ownership of both the Cell Block and the contest still in a re-organizing stage, details on and registration for the weekend were not available until around the start of October. Under the guidance of Mr. International Rubber 2003 Rubberwilli, small revisions to the format were made, judges were empanelled, and a great contest weekend went down. David Boyer, like Frank Blondale, gives Rubberwilli a lion’s share of credit for keeping the contest alive. “He took up the torch,” David says. “He was a good ambassador to begin with. After he won the title and I was still there (working for Cell Block), he was going out to these places, like a party or a club weekend, and getting people excited about being part of the whole thing.”
2006
As Mister International Rubber approached the tenth year, Frank and Rubberwilli decided to attempt to make the contest grow. Frank began laying down ground work for expansion, starting with venue. “I had a meeting with the folks at Circuit (a club) in Chicago,” he informed me a few months ahead of the 2006 contest. “We got them settled as the contest venue for the tenth anniversary. We had a lot of discussion about having a change of venue for the contest to Circuit. I’d been listening to other people, and part of the idea is that MIR, if it is going to be seen as something besides a bar contest, needs to have a little bit of distance from the bar. We had taken a look at theaters and other places like that, and the problem is they were either too small or way too big. Ultimately what you want is slightly packed – not too many people to be uncomfortable, but more than enough people to fill it. You can’t have a 500 seat theater with 200 people or it looks like nobody came! Circuit was also accessible to the bar and the host hotel.” The expanded contest included an opening Wet Rubber Competition at the CellBlock on Saturday night, then the final contest taking place on Sunday afternoon at the Circuit Club. There were additional categories for scoring this year, including a first ever audience vote and the first appearance of the "mystery bag".
With the contest expanded to a two night show, it was Mr. Rubber Italia 2006 Maurizio flying home with the title. First runner-up was Frenchman Eric from Paris, and Canadian Frank made his appearance as the first Mr. Rubber Montreal and finished as second runner-up. Judges for the contest were Hervé Bernard, Mr. International Drummer 1998; Roger Hickey, former owner of both the Cell Block and Mr. International Rubber; Ryan Johnson, Mr. Vulcan Rubber 1994; Fred Katz, former owner of DV8 NYC and a Zeus video actor; and Michael Schneider, Mr. International Rubber 2006.
The 2006 host was Eddie Hibbs; aka Sister Erotica Psychotica of the Los Angeles Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. “The main reason I had Eddie come this year,” Willi explained, “was I had people saying that previous MC’s had demeaned the contest or didn't give it the respect it deserves. I thought ‘Ok, we’re going to have a Nun!’ Nobody’s going to argue with a Nun. And Eddie’s really in the scene, knows what it’s about, understands it, has rubber gear and wears it. He was also great on stage and kept the contest moving.”
Epilogue
With the Mister International Rubber contest and the rubber weekends set to move into a second decade, all the principals from the past and the future see MIR as an ongoing concern. Even if the new owner of the title, Frank, claims, “I don’t know where the future of rubber is in the US. I know that it is a major mover in Europe. It’s interesting that the leather scene is kind of fading. I am not sure there is going to be a scene to replace it. I don’t know if any particular fetish will become as big as leather once was or still seems to hold sway. On the other hand, I think rubber will be a major player. It is interesting, because I thought about where MIR might be in 5 or ten years. But I think the contest will remain viable over that time.”
As for maintaining the vitality of MIR, Willi is ready for the challenge. “It’s my baby,” he emaphatically states. “It is something I am very committed to, for better or for worse. When I entered the contest, in my interview, I said I wanted to help grow this contest. I wanted to help it become more viable and to bring the reputation of the contest up. One of the things MIR has going for it is that it’s small enough that you get to know people and I think it’s still focused on the fetish. I think if it gets too large, it becomes commercialized and too much of something else. I would like to see it land somewhere between where we are now and where Mid Atlantic Leather (MAL, a yearly leather event held in Washington DC) is.” He also wanted to add an important kudo to the look of the contest's avdertising and website. “Ron Volanti, Jackie Weinberg and Sean Evans are also three really important people behind the scenes. Ron does all the photography for MIR and is one of the three official IML’s photographers. Jackie does our graphic design concept and Sean translates that to the web. So we do a photoshoot, then I give the photos to Jackie. I give her concepts and she comes up with a look for the year. Sean joined us in 2006 and was key to making our first year of online registraton possible.”
There was also the small things that Roger believes gave MIR (and other Cell Block sponsored events) a personal touch. “We were family. Whenever we had these events, whether it was a leather event in February or a rubber event in November, we would take the contestants, judges and their spouses to a nice restaurant, and treat everybody well. We know that if we treat our guests well, they’ll treat our audience and our contestants very well.”
"I always enjoyed bringing everybody together; to see people come from halfway around the world, from one side the country to the other and from Europe or Australia, and hug each other..it was a homecoming of a sort for them."
Being able to keep the contest at the family level is something Willi echoes. “I always tell the judges 'you start judging Friday as soon as contestants get their numbers. You watch them and see if they’re moving around the room, are they talking to other people, are they sticking with their clique. When someone comes up to them, did they shut them down really quickly?' The guys who think they’re God’s Gift to rubber aren’t going to win this. We’ve had really hot guys who come into this contest who get on the stage thinking ‘I’m the hottest guy on the stage and I’m going to win this.' It’s not all about looks, it’s not a beauty contest. I take very seriously that the person who wins MIR is an International title holder and they need to be the International representative.”
When I asked Roger about the recognition that the contest has given rubber in both the US and around the world, Roger declared “We didn’t realize we were doing it at the time. Back in the first year, we saw that there was certainly an interest in the fetish. Participants in it came out of the woodwork that first year when we promoted it. That’s when I thought it would be a good idea if we kept it at any price. Chicago is already on the map in the leather community because of IML and has been a gathering of the leather clan for more that 25 years. So it wasn’t hard to do. We had the people already interested in coming, we were known internationally in the gay/fetish community, very big in the leather community throughout Europe. I think when people saw there was a rubber contest being done in Chicago; they thought they could travel here and give it a try. Then they were pleased when they did. (Cell Block) never made money on that title. Almost every dime that came in went back out in the area of promotion! The business itself was promoting the thing, with full color flyers and trooping all over the world. If I put everything together, I could tell you that there was no money made. The last two years we were there I think we managed to cover our expenses... and that was it. But over the years, I have been very excited by the people that I have met and that have participated in this contest. Although everybody’s gone into it with their eyes open, they all wanted to be winners. Very seldom did I run into any resentment for any of the runners-up or people that didn’t place. For the most part our contestants have been very congenial, very collegial; I think they had a lot of fun doing it. It’s taken on a family reunion quality.”
David Boyer echoes many of the same sentiments. “I had the idea that the contest would grow into something when we started it,” he recalls. “My job has always been to show people a good time. I think everyone of the guys that has won the contest has been good for the contest. I think they were good title holders; they were fun guys to work with. I always enjoyed bringing everybody together; to see people come from halfway around the world, from one side the country to the other and from Europe or Australia, and hug each other….it was a homecoming of a sort for them. Just being able to provide that made me feel great. That’s what I really enjoyed doing.”