Brad Hammer and John Duff | Do It / 2021

the star of your own show

by Douglas Messerli

 

John Duff (performer), Brad Hammer and John Duff (directors) Do It / 2021 [3.30 minutes] [music video]

 

Once again in his 2021 music video Do It, singer John Duff argues to let your sexuality hang out, even when you’re alone. If he seems to, at first, be addressing the lonely housewife, it quickly becomes apparent that he is arguing it for his prime audience of gay men. And his dance moves, although here primarily based on the exercise mode, in its display of jockstrap, crotch, and butt seem more aimed at a male (gay and straight) audience than a female one, although it’s obvious he wouldn’t mind if women tuned in, making it more female friendly than usual.

 

Lady

Do you think it’s that you’re crazy?

Or are you just afraid and

You’re not ready to let go?

 

Waiting.

Now you’re Over thinking reflex

Or is it that you’ve repressed,

So that they don’t see your show?

 

Although they call you names

Throw their stones, they can break

it won’t pain you the same at all

As if you never go

and you let regret take hold

You’re the lead

Now pretend that you’re alone

 

You don’t need to sleep

Just to dream the dream

Fear is in the mirror

Do it like nobody’s here

 

   But, of course, there is nobody in the rooms through which Duff shimmies in half undress. It is the year of Covid and loneliness, and what he seems to be arguing for is a kind of self-loving sexuality that permits even the gender shifts for which he often argues in his videos.

 

  Duff’s own comments surely support my view that he is not just speaking about sex, but sexuality in general:

 

"'Do It' is about overcoming the fear of perception, not dulling your shine to fit or liming your ambitions to please small minded people. It’s about actively being yourself and making choices that put you first. People have a really tough time being selfish, but there is no way to prove that you aren’t the star of the show. This could all be your dream [and] you could be making this all up. You could be the writer, director, [or] producer, so why wouldn’t you be the star in your own life?" (Duff, in an interview with Sean Abrams in Askmen).

 

Los Angeles, October 16, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2025).