[UPDATED] Who Is Josh Stark?

UPDATE: The person operating the Black Spark Facebook posted the below status update last night, finally confirming that in fact “Josh Stark” is the performer seen in many of The Black Spark’s videos. But as a rep for the project told me yesterday, Stark is but one of many “Sparks” to appear in the evolving project and film and is not to be confused as “the” Black Spark. It’s a double-edged sword: Had Stark never appeared in that pesky bandana (a gimmick, albeit an artful one), The Black Spark wouldn’t have received so much attention and attracted such curiosity. But as I say below, the videos are still compelling on their own, with or without Stark (it’s unclear if he’ll appear in future clips) or Stark’s questionable identity. I look forward to the next video.

Screen shot 2011-01-30 at 2.49.55 AM

***

In a previous article about Black Spark on The Sword, I wrote, “If concealing his identity is a fundamental component of what he does as a performer and a filmmaker, let him keep it concealed. Why jeopardize the creation of videos like his most recent one below by saying you know who he really is? I don’t care what you think you know. I just want to watch Black Spark’s videos.” While that was true and I was committed to leaving the matter alone at the time and in my subsequent interview with him, a new interview with Black Spark on the widely read gay mainstream blog Boy Culture has led me to change my position. Because Black Spark himself is now directly addressing the question of his identity and the comparison to “Josh Stark,” I feel fine about addressing it, too.

To be clear, the Black Spark/Josh Stark connection was allegedly revealed first on DudeTube earlier this month. Shortly after the revelation, the entire post and its comments were deleted. Josh Stark, as most everyone knows by now, appeared in two scenes for the amateur site CollegeDudes.com; one solo scene and one hardcore duo with Ashton Rush. Being a random, albeit extremely hot, model on an amateur gay porn site doesn’t lend itself to being a cutting edge art-porn auteur, so it would be reasonable for Black Spark (below left) to disavow and in fact completely deny–as he did to me–that he was Josh Stark (below right).

joshblack

(Note the matching moles on the inner thighs.)

joshstar33

From Boy Culture:

Boy Culture: You’ve said no one has guessed correctly. Does that mean, definitively, that the person who appears to be Black Spark in the videos is NOT the same person known as “Josh Stark” of CollegeDudes.com?

Black Spark: I don’t know who that is, but I have Google…

Boy Culture: Black Spark has denied having done “porn” in the past. If you or anyone involved had been involved in traditional porn, what impact, if any, would that have on how your fans receive your work? Would it matter? Should it?

Black Spark: I haven’t denied doing porn. I said if I had only Ray Charles could see it. I know what the the talk around town is. I see everything.

You can read into those cagey answers however you’d like.

Are they the same person? Of course. Does it make Black Spark’s videos any less compelling? No.

josh_stark

(Courtesy Arch Noble)

The more interesting question is how long Black Spark can keep people guessing and how cleverly he’ll continue to avoid giving a straight answer about his identity–assuming he doesn’t eventually just remove the mask once and for all. That his fans wouldn’t support him if they knew he had done traditional porn is actually an insult to his fans, isn’t it? If they really liked him (which they really, really do), why would something as minor as a couple of old web scenes turn them off?

Take, for example, Josh Stark’s one other amateur scene for the site “Dick Dorm,” where he wrestled in chocolate pudding. If anything, knowing that Black Spark was willing to work in a completely different genre of porn makes me like him even more. But isn’t it time for him to come clean?

Dick-Dorm-4

[Black Spark’s XTube; Dick Dorm; CollegeDudes; BoyCulture]

 

30 thoughts on “[UPDATED] Who Is Josh Stark?”

  1. the black spark is super hot and i want his shaft in my pink butthole. yum yum yum. mmmmmmmm mmhhhmmmmm i want that semen. yummy.

  2. Audience to artist ratio, 1:0
    artist to audience ratio, 1:0
    Audience to Art ratio , 1:1
    get it?
    Oscar Wilde said: “Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each…”
    be careful what you are doing. It’s unfriendly and undeserved for something of such beauty,
    just let it be.
    -Bunny

  3. $240 worth of pudding, oh yeah.

    Sorry, that clip reminds me of The State sketch

    The guy’s a douche. The artistic measure of his vids is minute and redundant. It’s just hot guys fucking. It conveys nothing more emotionally nor intellectually.

    I will admit it is a peculiar and welcomed spectacle for Xtube, which mostly consist of lo-res videos of headless bodies jerking off.

    Half of the people that are supporting his art sound like the teacher from Ghost World

    It’s Mapplethorpe all over again :(

  4. *rolls eyes*

    “sheesh” is the same guy who keeps commenting on stories about this dude and how “lame” he is. Dude if you don’t fucking like him stop following him around the internet listening to his videos, reading his interviews, commenting on stories. You say you don’t want to participate you seem to do just that at every turn.

    What’s wrong with feeling powerful while having sex. It’s common for a sex addict to feel that way. Which is what he says he is.

    I for one AM interested and that’s why I’m keeping my eyes and ears open. Looking forward to seeing if this guy can turn this hype into something

  5. This guy is lame. After hearing him state in an audio interview that he “feels powerful when having sex”, i kind lost interest after that. Too vapid and dumb to be something intellectual. To put it simply,its not art, but porn.

  6. [Updated]
    Re/ your update : it’s officially now lame. Sounds like we’re at 15 minutes and 5 seconds, Batman, I mean “Spark”!

  7. So can someone explain, maybe Zach, of why it is considered bad taste to out a porn stars real name and not for an alias? Both are against the wishes of the performer–should both be honored as such?

    1. Not comparable in the least, and the analogy doesn’t even make sense here. You put on a mask and show people 1/2 your face and your body, there’s naturally going to be digging and comparisons made. People figured out who it was, which was bound to happen, and hopefully everyone can move on now. The work/videos still speak for themselves and I look forward to more of them.

  8. Zach, what did you mean by twittering that he clarified things?
    You are seriously not going to tell us that those two aren’t the same guy now!?!?

  9. Um. Zach, what did you mean by twittering that he clarified things? Care to share?
    You are not going to tell us that those two aren’t the same guy now, are you?

  10. WHY DOES IT MATTER? you found out his real identity. why does it matter? the videos he makes are still hot, he still is hung, he still is unique and the mask is still hot. who cares if you know what the rest of his face looks like. the only thing that matters is his work

    1. Who said it MATTERED? What are you talking about?
      I think it’s an interesting story because dude does look hot in the mask and I wondered what the rest of the face looked like, and Voi-la, there it is. Very cute.

      “who cares if you know what the rest of his face looks like”
      I do. It’s porn. I’m a bubble butt fan. With a nice face.

      Found Black Spark on Twitter, and he just seems po’d people found out so fast. I guess if he still wants to keep playing he can “Lucy” it up with a black wig and we can all play “Ricky” stupid.

  11. Steven, what the fuck are you, his fucking PR? Groupie? Sugar Daddy? If you are that fucking in love with him, why don’t you stop wasting YOUR own damn time and hop in that wild ride of his or whatever to get something done? Food for thought for ya, wise guy.

    1. No I’m just impatient I never got the email telling me to confirm my post so I typed a new one. By the time I finished the original appeared. Oops, if I could delete one I would. Bottom line I think he wants the controversy to continue so people will talk about him between video releases so why answer the question.

  12. I think Black Spark is smarter than everyone gives him credit for. Just like w/ the porn vs art he is getting free publicity w/ the is he/isn’t he Josh Stark…i.e. has he/hasn’t he done this before. If he wanted this controversy to go away he could have either ignored Boy Culture and by this weekend the original post would have been on page 2 and so wouldn’t have been seen unless you were looking for it or he could have come out and said yes or no to the question. (Granted if he said no then he better have a scrutiny proof picture or video showing him standing next to Josh Stark or the controversy would continue.) Personally I could care less because I like his work and I think it stands on its own as something good to watch. I know most of the fans wouldn’t care either, they either love his work or they just want to see hot guys have sex. And either way his distractors are still going to have something to complain about. So if you really want to make all this go away just ignore him.

  13. Also he’s getting free publicity every time one of these ‘controversies’ comes up. He got it with the art vs porn and now the is he or isn’t he Josh Stark, i.e. has he or hasn’t he done this before. So why would he come clean? If he wanted to end this he could have done by ignoring Boy Culture all together and the story would have been on page 2 by this weekend or he could have said yes or no to the answer. Instead he gave a politician answer so the story goes on. Personally I could care less. I like his stuff it’s interesting and if he’s done it before it just means he was a broke college kid like all the others who do the amateur porn sites, takes nothing away from his current work.

  14. Great looking guy. Chris Porter expressed an interest in this guy earlier. If he works at Raging Stallion they should be walking over broken glass to snap him up. There’s a DVD I’d buy, the first in quite a while.

  15. Boyculture imparting all of this genius and intellect onto a guy shown wrestling in chocolate pudding is kinda funny? All in in all, The Black Spark is no worst than the continuing BS about that retard Joey Stefano.

  16. What do you mean, “isn’t it time to come clean?”?

    Why? For what purpose? He doesn’t owe that to anyone. I don’t care WHO he is and if indeed he wants and needs to keep that mask on. I don’t give a flying f*ck

  17. Loving the bad brains poster in the background of the dick dorm shoot. Amazing band, amazing album but an odd choice for gay porn given HR’s outspoken homophobia.
    Pay to cum indeed.

  18. hmm. i photoshopped the blue bandana over his face and it looks just like him. the mole, the nipples… probably denies its him cause “josh stark” isnt he birth name.

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