Gorilla Grotto
The Gorilla Grotto and The Answer Man
The Gorilla Grotto
The Gorilla Grotto was a play space created by long-time Briar Gary Warne in 1979 as an experimental store-front café and “adult play environment”.
The Grotto included a small book store and even book purchases were subject to spontaneous trial by fun!
Gary kept a wind-up airplane circling the cash register on a string. Customers making book purchases were offered a gamble of “double or nothing” if they attempted to shoot the airplane with a toy dart gun. Hit the plane and your book was free. Miss the plane and you paid double the price tag on the book. Most people couldn’t pass up this chance for fun and willingly took the chance they’d have to pay double. (By the way, it wasn’t easy to hit the plane!)
The Grotto community was an ambitious attempt to engage thinking adults with their world and their fellow humans in playful and sometimes shocking ways.
Each night of the week, a different theme was presented.
Tuesdays: In-depth interviews of “experts” on a wide variety of hot-button topics.
Wednesdays: Gary hosted his peculiar interpretation of “group therapy” sessions that were popular in the ‘70s featuring the occasional parlor sex play game.
Saturdays: Action-adventure play, sometimes with the group leaving the Grotto for site-specific adventures. For example, clandestine tours of secret underground facilities in the City and the interior structures of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.
Sundays: Singular acoustic musical acts performed.
The Answer Man
Long before the vast Internet of information, Gary also published “The Answer Man” newsletter. He accepted any and all questions which he researched and answered in each issue. The newsletter had many subscribers and extra copies sold from the bookstore were gone within a few days of each publication date.