Catering with Benefits (1) - 26. THE ARTS

While Justin had become the star attraction of the catering events that did not mean that Craig’s food was not appreciated, although sometimes Craig felt otherwise. But he was relieved when he got a request to cater for a sit down dinner. Previously all engagements had been cocktail or pool parties with only finger food. Craig had the expertise to cater for formal dinners but rarely got the opportunity to do so. The booking was from an art gallery owner who was proposing to have a dinner as part of the grand opening for a new gallery space. The dinner would be attended by about twenty of his closest colleagues and clients and held after the opening and cocktail party.

The new space would have art displayed only on the walls thereby leaving the centre of the room to be set up for dining. Craig was asked to put forward a plan for the evening. The proposal was to include the menu, table layout, table decoration and if possible some entertainment during dinner. Craig and Justin set about planning the night and various ideas were considered. The cocktail party was easy, as they had done this many times. Justin would serve the cocktail food just from platters wearing black pants, bow tie and no shirt. As the opening and cocktail would be attended by many people from different backgrounds it was decided not to be too daring. The dinner was a smaller more intimate affair. As it was a sit down meal, Justin’s usual tricks would not be appropriate and he would just serve dressed in black and white like the other waiters. Then Justin noticed in the brief that it called for some form of entertainment during dinner. Craig had not noticed this before and thought it must be a mistake, why would a caterer be asked to provide entertainment. He was in favour of contacting the organiser and suggesting that they contact a talent agency for this part of the function. Justin suggested that they should at least give it some thought and see what they could come up with. They tossed around a few ideas such as a string quartet, a jazz band, even a cappella singers, but thought that to be appropriate to the occasion they should go with the theme of Art. Craig was still not keen on pursuing this part of the brief and still wanted to hand it on to a theatrical talent agency. Justin asked Craig to hold off for a day and let him think about it.

Justin was not very familiar with art or the arts community, so, he did an internet search for a few phrases such as ‘art galleries’ ‘sculpture’ and ‘posing’. These led him to various sites and an idea started to form in his mind. That night he asked Craig if they could go to an art gallery the next day. Craig was always happy to go to his favourite gallery and especially this time after Justin told him he had never been to an art gallery. So they headed off to the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney’s biggest gallery. Justin wandered from gallery to gallery in absolute amazement. Craig tried to tell him what some of the paintings meant, their history and a little about some of the artists. He felt a bit like a school teacher must, when taking a class on their first outing to an art gallery. This was a whole new world to Justin and Craig wondered how it could be that Justin had never before been to the gallery. He was a little sorry for Justin that he had missed out on this while growing up, but was pleased that he had the honour of being the first to expose him to the world of art. As it happened, this would be the first of many firsts for Justin. Craig now realised what a limited education Justin had. Sure, he had his HSC, but very little exposure to the various arts outside school.

Craig was so pleased he had done this for Justin and promised him that over the following months he would expose him to many art forms. They would go to other art galleries, the theatre, ballet and contemporary dance.

Justin’s favourite part of the gallery was the sculpture gallery, especially the sculptures of the human body. They lunched at the gallery cafe and left via the gift shop. Having noticed Justin’s interest in sculpture, Craig bought him a book on sculpture featuring works by some of the masters of the human form. Justin read through the book on the drive home and continued when they got home. He seemed besotted by the pictures in the book. Craig was working the next day, but Justin had free time so he continued to browse through his sculpture book and formulate his ideas on what he wanted to do at the art gallery dinner. He put his idea to Craig, who was as usual a bit nervous about it, but agreed to include it in their proposal to the gallery owner.

The booking came back as confirmed. They were apparently happy with the whole proposal. That meant that Justin had to get cracking and practice for the event. He firstly practiced at home. When Craig was working he practiced in front of the mirror. Then he asked Craig to watch him and critique his performance. Craig made suggestions and photographed Justin so he could see the performance himself.

As the date for the gallery opening approached, Craig finalised his menu, ordered supplies and booked his assistant cooks. Justin booked the waiters and the furniture. They had previously debated whether to use a large banquet table or smaller round tables of 6. The host had opted for smaller tables when he considered the entertainment on offer. So on the day before the event, the gallery was set up with four tables in a circle and a large plinth in the centre of the room. The opening ceremony and cocktail party were held in the older gallery. When this was completed most of the guests left and the special guests were ushered to the new gallery space for the formal dinner.

As they took their seats they noticed the plinth in the centre of the room. There was evidently something on the plinth, but this was covered by a black cloth. This started a discussion among the guests and the consensus was that it must be a new sculpture to be unveiled by the gallery owner. Just as the waiters completed serving the first course, one of them removed the black cloth to reveal just a bentwood chair on the plinth. This raised eyebrows and discussions started as to whether or not it was art. Questions asked were, who was the artist, why was it being displayed in such a special manner, why did the host not unveil it and when was he going to make an announcement about it. The host was of course sitting at one of the tables, but was tight lipped about the display. Then as the guests tucked into the first course, Justin entered the room, completely naked, stepped onto the plinth, sat on the chair and took up the pose of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’. Arts patrons don’t usually applaud visual arts, but on this occasion the guests burst into spontaneous applause. The host was pleased he had trusted the boys, Craig was relieved and Justin was secretly smiling on the inside while he maintained his pose.

At the end of the first course, while the waiters removed the used plates, Justin left the room and one of the waiters removed the chair. As before, when the second course was served, Justin entered the room, this time carrying something in a bag. He removed the object from the bag and took up the pose of the ancient Greek sculpture of the ‘Discus Thrower’. Again the guests paused their dining to applaud.

At the end of the second course, Justin left the room. Then, when the dessert course was served, Justin entered the room, again completely naked and took up the pose of Michelangelo’s ‘David’. This time the host thought he could detect a slight smile on Justin’s face. But as he was so pleased with his guests’ reaction to the evening’s events he ignored this small departure from the true artistic representation of the world’s favourite sculpture. The success of the evening spread rapidly among the arts community, and they were soon getting bookings from both the medical community and the arts community.

After the success of the arts party Justin and Craig started to rethink the way in which they approached their catering jobs. Justin had come into the business to be a special services waiter because all Craig’s catering jobs up till then had been cocktail parties and that suited Justin’s special talents. Now they were getting dinner party engagements so Justin’s talents were not necessarily required at table service. They thought the arts party would be a one off, but when they discussed it thought there may be a market for dinner distractions. Justin told Craig he would work on some ideas and when the right occasion came along they could discuss them and try the appropriate idea. Since formalising the business arrangements and Justin becoming an equal partner, they had a demarcation of duties as befitted their talents.

True to his word, Craig started to take Justin to other art galleries and made some bookings with the Sydney Theatre Company, the Australian Ballet and Tristan got them a discount subscription to the Sydney Dance Company. Every week they attended at least one live performance around Sydney’s diverse offerings of Theatrical events. Justin loved the SDC performances and wished he had been exposed to this when younger and could have perhaps joined such a group. He revelled in this new world he was experiencing with Craig and it brought them even closer as they shared these experiences.

However, when they attended their first Classical ballet performance at the Opera House, Craig noticed Justin was a bit fidgety during the first half and when asked at interval how he felt about the performance, Justin admitted he enjoyed looking at the half naked boys but found the dancing boring. He preferred the strong action and rhythm of contemporary dance.

***

Edward received a text from Juanito ‘I have a friend who wants to be interviewed. You can you contact him on 0956937150’

Edward was interested and called the number immediately, but the call went to voicemail ‘This is Kim, sorry I can’t speak to you, as I have my mouth full at present.’

Edward was now even more intrigued, so he left a message and waited for a call.

When Kim called him back, Edward said “Thanks for calling back, I got your number from Juanito. He said you were willing to be interviewed.”

“That’s right, can’t wait.”

“So how do you know Juanito?”

“We work the wall together and he told me about his interview, so I thought I should give it a go also.”

“As you know, I already have Juanito’s interview so I’m not sure if I need another sex worker interview at present.”

“Oh, but I’m very different to Juanito.”

“You seem very keen to do this, can I ask why?”

“In my line of work you can always use the publicity.”

“You want publicity, so does that mean you will use your real name for the interview.”

“Of course man, I want to be known more widely around town. It’s always good for business.”

“Then tell me what’s so different about you.”

Edward was impressed by Kim’s explanation so they agreed to meet and set a date for an interview at Kim’s place of work.

Upon arrival Edward was ushered into a dimly lit room where he found a naked young man sitting cross legged on a sofa. “Are you Kim?” Edward asked.

“Sure am man, but here you can call me Cum. That’s my professional name.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. So can I set up my equipment here? Then we’ll have a little chat before we start the actual interview.”

Kim then stood up, grabbed hold of a chin up bar above the sofa, swung his legs up and hung from the bar by his knees, like a trapeze artist. He then said to Edward “That’s fine to set up your equipment, but don’t you want a free job first, so that you know how good I am? I’m at the right for you to just flop it out and slip it in.”

Edward was tempted, but replied “I don’t think that’s necessary, we’ll keep it professional, just a chat will do.”

“Fine man, but you don’t know what you’re missing.”

“I’m sure you will tell me in the interview.”