Published in Issue 10 of Paper Chained in June 2023.
Twenty years ago, Marcus Proctor was a sex worker walking the streets of Europe and Los Angeles. Today he’s writing and starring in TV shows. Paper Chained Editor Damien Linnane spoke with him about his incredible journey and his recent memoir, ‘Happy Traveller’.
So where did the idea for your memoir come from?
I travelled about six years. I had a bit of a unique way of seeing the world so I thought I might share some of the crazy adventures. It’s kind of amazing that I’m alive.
Where did your travels start?
It was 1999 and I’d just gotten out of a real head-fuck of a relationship that was going nowhere. My sister had left on her own journey the year before, so I was just like, “Maybe I should do that.”
I started in England. I went to London and was staying in a gay hostel. The manager there was a recruiter for an online like escort agency. He was like “You want to make some money.” And so that’s how it started. I had fun adventures for a couple of years, just accumulating amusing stories to email back to friends. I was also a bit of a disco bunny so ecstasy was happening, then finally I went home to get a bit healthier again because I’d lost about a stone. I went back to travelling again and sex work because it’s easy money if you don’t have a visa. But it was different the second time. The first time I was arranging to meet customers. When I went back, I was working on street corners. It was a lot darker too. I think what drew me back to it was a lot of childhood abuse I’d buried. Like some part of me was trying to tell me something. I was trying to work through trauma.
Working on the streets started in Cork, Ireland, and even though it was a dark time there were still some funny adventures as well. A guy pulled up to me once and we were talking about prices when three gay bashers came towards us and yelled “Faggots!” The guy was about to drive off and just leave me there, so I hung onto his window from the outside of the car and lifted my feet up. He was like ‘what are you doing?’ and I’m like ‘just drive!’ He took off with me hanging onto the side of his car. We got away from the gay bashers but then there was a cop car on the other side of the road. I just kept my head right down so the cops couldn’t see me. Eventually, he pulled up somewhere so I could let go. I was wanting to still try and close a sale but he just took off straight away with the tires screeching. I had to walk all the way back the same way while avoiding those guys and the cops.
By the time I got to Los Angeles, meth was everywhere. Every second person I picked up would offer it to you. I’d always liked drugs, and I didn’t have an addictive personality, but meth was something I could feel getting a hold of me.
I was working on Santa Monica Blvd. But during the day there was a porn theatre, the Pussycat Theatre, and you could sometimes pick up guys there in the car park. I was just walking up and down the lane-way that would connect these gay pubs. There was a guy sitting in his car at one of the pubs, and I was like “You’re cute”. So I went up and started talking to him, asking him what he was looking for. I offered him a blowjob for $50, and then he pulled out his badge and told me he was an undercover cop.
I was a bit like ‘whoops’ but I was also cheeky, saying “What do I have to do to get out of this?” He was pretty cheeky too and grinned at me, so I got in the car and had to give him a free handy to get out of it. I just thought that incident was funny, but it was the cops patrolling the streets at night that could be the problem. It would be like two or three in the morning and they’d be driving up and down. You’d move a couple times, but they’d still recognise you of course. If they stopped, I’d just take off. One time, I jumped a few fences and hid under a parked car for about half an hour. I could see the cop car driving back and forth looking for me, but I had my Walkman so I was happy. I just stayed under there until I thought it was safe to leave, then I’d go home. I wouldn’t work the rest of that night because it was kind of obvious and I didn’t have like a different jacket I could wear to disguise myself or anything like that so I’d just slink back to my house.
I never had terrible experiences with the police but the people that I’d talk to or that I’d see regularly on the street would have those stories, as well as black eyes from being locked up in the police cells for the night. They would get gay bashed in there and some cops would turn a blind eye and wouldn’t help them. It was mainly transgender sex workers who had that problem, in my experience.
This was around 2004. The world has started to wake up in ways since then, but you can’t just erase decades of some peoples feeling towards transgender people, sex workers or queer people in general just being degraded for no reason. There’s nothing unnatural about being queer, plus you don’t know why sex workers are out there doing that. Some people enjoy it, but others are doing it because of childhood trauma, mental health issues, or drugs.
I mostly kept to myself in prison, I was the quiet guy just reading his book or drawing, and I only got in a couple of arguments. One was with a guy who wouldn’t stop talking about how much he hated gay people. I got angry with him and asked why, because I have a lot of LGBT friends. He said it was because he was molested as a child. I had to explain to him that there’s a difference between being gay and being a paedophile. He didn’t get it at first but I was able to get through to him after a while. My point was that he wasn’t trying to be a horrible person, he was just taking out his anger on gay people because he didn’t understand.
I had a friend like that. He was molested as a kid and his way of getting through that was to abuse gay people. And I said the same thing, you know, paedophiles are everywhere across the board. Female, male, gay, straight. But he actually already understood that, and he admitted that he was just taking his anger out on gay people.
Were you the victim of any violence yourself while you were working?
I had to talk myself out of getting shot point blank in the face by a client. He pulled up and we were arguing over prices and he finally agreed to mine and we went back to his house in South LA. We finished the deed and I was getting dressed and he put money for his original price next to me, gave me a menacing look and walked away. I was like, “Remember what we agreed on mate?” We started arguing and he went to his drawer and took out a gun and stuck it in my face. I said “Look, I can bring my man around and get the money, do you want me to do that?” I didn’t even have a man, but he said, “Do you really think I give a fuck about your man?” And I was like, “No, but you know, this is a business transaction, right? And I want my money.’”
He ended up giving it to me. I was really calm; you build up a lot of walls in that arena. You could just do anything and I wouldn’t react. And then he was like “I’ll take you back to your spot. You know, I’m a man of my word.” I’m like, “Whatever”. We got in the car he said, “You’re too good for this sort of life. Why are you doing this?” And I’m thinking, “Oh my God, you’re not Oprah. Just drop me off thanks.”
I just got out and I went home and just for a second it hit me that the experience could have really ended up badly. That it could happen to anyone on the streets. A lot of them could just be killed and never be seen again. This is just how dark the world can be and it’s an interesting paradox, because I felt at home on the streets at night. Because you at least know what you’re dealing with. In daytime, people wear masks all the time, and there’s also a freedom out there when you’re doing the streets like that. But the things that are out there, and the way people live their lives, it’s just insane.
There was another time where this guy took me to do whatever with him and a friend, but they stopped in South LA, and robbed me at gunpoint. One guy asked for my shoes. And I’m like “I’m not giving you my shoes. I’m not walking fucking barefoot”. And he’s like, “Okay, well, just give me your wallet and phone.” I gave him that and eventually took off and hid under a car again. I was there for like 40 minutes because he was just driving up and down the street looking for me. I thought he’d finally stopped but then he reappeared again ten minutes later, and that was around that time that I was like, “I really should stop doing this.”
How long did you work the streets for?
About six years, on and off. I think the final straw was an experience I had with a guy who offered me pot. We went into an alley and he tried to rob me. He had his hand in his pocket and he told me he had a gun pointing at me, but I told him it was so obvious that it was just his finger. He had a go at me but I pushed him out of the way and ran out onto the road. There was a car coming towards me and I jumped in front and yelled for help but the guy just drove off. I could understand, because it was LA and he was probably worried he’d get shot. Anyway, the guy ended up barrelling me over and had me on the ground. I was punching him but he got me in a choke-hold and I could feel myself passing out so I was just like. “Fuck it”, and I gave him the money. Five minutes later, I was blowing someone else, trying to earn the money back that I’d lost, and I started to dry retch. I managed to keep going but that was the point where I realised it wasn’t funny anymore.
I think when you’re taking drugs but also just living a dodgy life, it can do something to your soul where you kind of cross into a dark place. And even if you come back from it, there’s a darkness that you might not be able to shake off.
What are you doing with most of your time now?
Writing and acting. My past acting credits include being on an episode of Queer As Folk after the casting director saw me in a gay bar in Toronto. I’m currently working on writing three shows. An Aussie drama (Elliot’s Creek), a UK dark comedy (Heaven Can Wait) and a US comedy (Mikey). It’s hardcore getting a show up and running. I’ve placed myself in the lead role for all three because I haven’t gone through hell for no reason, and I’m promoting my memoir as well.
Is there good money in writing TV shows?
Once you sell the fucking thing, yeah [Laughs].
You can keep up with what Marcus is doing via his Linktree.
