Not your grandma’s bingo

If playing bingo surrounded by beefcake men sounds like a guilty pleasure, it doesn’t need to be — it’s for a good cause.

Men Alive, Orange County’s Gay Men’s Choir, is holding a Beefcake Bingo tonight in Huntington Beach. There will be games, food, drinks and ripped younger guys as well as big beefcake men, said Duffy Lucas, a member of Men Alive.

“Come to have fun, have a cocktail and bring your wallets,” Lucas said.

Men Alive is a nonprofit performing arts organization that puts on a three shows a year. The organization has more than 150 members and has performed with Bernadette Peters, Sam Harris and Michael Feinstein and has packed the house at its home venue, the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Men Alive has also presented with the Pacific Chorale at the Orange County Performing Arts Center and for the Gay and Lesbian Assn. of Choruses International Chorale Festival in Montreal and Miami.

“It’s just a wonderful organization . . . It really changes lives,” Lucas said.

The organization was founded by Artistic Director Rich Cook in 2001. An Orange County resident, Cook said he has been a music director and chorale conductor his entire life. After seeing Texas’ gay men’s choir, the Turtle Creek Chorale, in the 1990s, Rich said he was inspired to start a choir in Orange County. It wasn’t until 2001, after seeing the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles perform, that the idea really became a reality.

The choir is a way for Cook to send a message to the public and be a face for a community that isn’t entirely accepted or understood, Cook said. The organization’s mission statement is to be a bridge to the community, Lucas said.

“I can have an impact,” Cook said. “I can do my part to show that gay is OK.”

Part of the message Cook said he wants the public to take away is that gay men are not all one type of person, but are all different.

“How does society know what a gay man is unless they meet one?” he said.

The organization has 130 singers who rehearse weekly for its three yearly performances. Over the next year, it will perform “Laughing All the Way” for its holiday show in December, “Fever of Love” in March and “Comedy Tonight!” in July.

To put on the shows, Men Alive has to put on fundraisers. No performing arts organization can fully fund itself with ticket sales, Cook said. The money raised at Beefcake Bingo will go directly to Men Alive for rehearsal and venue costs and other expenses. There will be studly men, five different kinds of bingo, food, drinks and prizes.

There is a $5 cover charge, and each bingo card will be anywhere from $5 to $10, Lucas said. There will also be different prizes. The events starts at 7 tonight at Flight Bistro and Social Lounge at 8082 Adams Ave.

“It’s going to be an awesome event,” Lucas said. “It’s all about having a good time.”

If You Go

What: Beefcake Bingo is a fundraiser for Men Alive, the Orange County Gay Men’s Choir

Where: Flight Bistro and Social Lounge at 8082 Adams Ave.

When: 7 tonight

Cost: $5 admission includes one bingo card.

Info: www.menalivechorus.org