Q & A with Tom Whitman

1. What are the three golden rules for throwing a great party?
Deliver great music. Care about your own event. If you don't want to be at your party, why should anyone else?

2. The biggest no-no?
Not enough bartenders. Gays require drinks. Quickly.

3. Madonna or Gaga?
I have to say Gaga. She's the biggest pop star in the world and gays are way up on her list of priorities.

4. What was the first record you ever bought?
Ugh, this is embarrassing. I remember getting a Dolly Parton album and the Donna Summer album Bad Girls from a record club when I was seven or eight. I'm sure those two albums made me gay.

5. Which dance track is a guaranteed crowd pleaser this summer?
It's too early to say. I'm pretty sure that a couple of tracks off the Beyoncé album will be playing ad infinitum (and that's a good thing).

6. What time does your day start, and how?
Weekdays, I'm up between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. My office day is probably unlike most people's office day -- figuring out how high the truss needs to be for aerial bungee, approving or denying new go-go boy pictures, listening to new artists who want to perform at Cherry Pop.

7. What are you doing for Pride?
I produce the centerpiece event on of LA Pride Weekend on Saturday night. It's an event called Wonderland, and it's been on the back lot of Paramount Studios for five of the past six years. We have aerialists from Vegas, fireworks over the dance floor, live performances from people like Lady Gaga, Kelis, Kim English, and go-go boys on fire escapes two-stories high, a Ferris wheel, and, of course, 3,000 of the hottest guys from across the country. I always feel like I've been run over by a truck afterwards, but it's worth it.

8. What's the single most ridiculous thing that's happened to you while on the job?
I had to grab Lady Gaga's disco stick from her because she couldn't figure out how to get the dead batteries out of it and was already 15 minutes late going on stage for Wonderland. Kim English wouldn't go onstage until I got her honey barbeque wings at two in the morning. The Backstreet Boys got mad at me because I referred to them as The Spice Boys over an open mike. I could go on.

9. What would your advice be to someone who'd like to break into party promotion?
Start small. Throw a great small event, don't try to conquer the world on your first night. Gays like to be up close and personal in a crowded space.

10. How do you like to spend your downtime?
I honestly don't give myself a ton of downtime. Maybe that's why it's so hard to date me.

11. What are the can't-miss events of Summer 2011?
My event Wonderland on LA Gay Pride weekend. Ptown on the 4th of July has a special place in my heart. Madrid Pride is ridiculous (in a good way!), as is EuroPride, wherever it happens to be.

12. What's the strangest piece of swag you've ever received?
Ugh. I hate swag. With a passion.