Dan Savage at Chan Centre For the Performing Arts Amuses Crowd With Answers to Questions About Love and Sex

Dan Savage brought his irreverant blend of sex education and humour to Chan Centre for the Performing Arts last night.  Speaking in front of a sold out audience consisting mainly of students, Savage  kept the hall ringing with laughter for two hours straight. 

Engaging, warm and much more hilarious in person than in his column, Savage answered a huge stack of questions ranging from how to get comfortable as "a bottom," to "what is the meaning of love?"

"Love is kinda like pornography.  You just know it when you see it," he said, but then he struggled to elaborate and concluded that love is exactly what you perceive it to be.  If you feel it, it's real.  Calling it an illusion that two people create together and then with hard work maintain, Savage seemed particularly illuminated as he answered this question. He referred often to the man in the audience who was his boyfriend and husband.  Boyfriend in the US, where gay marriage isn't legal, and husband in Canada.  He also talked about how wonderful it felt for his partner and him and their adopted son to cross the border into Canada and to be able to be welcomed as a family.  The audience met this statement with wild applause.

Can an old love be rekindled?  Absolutely. Happens all the time.  Next.

Often returning to the "GGG" adage he coined in his column which stands for:  'Good in bed,' 'giving equal time and equal pleasure,' and 'game for anything---within reason,' Savage answered a stack of written questions handed in by students before the show.  But he also referred to behavior that breaks relationships down and admonished people to get real about their emotional choices.  A man who wanted his girlfriend to tolerate the fact that he continued to see his ex, even though there was nothing sexual going on, was being "an asshole" and asking far too much of his girlfriend.  A woman who celebrated her husband's love of cross-dressing wondered whether she should share with her children "who he really is."  Savage winced at this question.  "Too much information. Your kids really don't want to know about your sex life."

Showing himself to be the great communicator on stage that he urges others to be in bed, he frequently checked in with the audience. "Should I go on?" 

Shouts of "Yes," answered. Reassured that he was still providing pleasure, Savage continued.