My Life. My Blog.

The only thing more shocking than the truth
are the lies people tell to cover it up.

I am a strong believer in owning and embracing everything that has happened to you. Your experiences are your own, and you should be able to mold them into stories that belong to you. I think there is real strength in owning something horrible that has happened, in going from hiding a shameful secret to being able to say, “This is my truth. I got through it, and I’m okay.” I don’t think I’m quite there yet in terms of declaration, but at the end of the day, you are allowed to own the hurt you’ve experienced. You’re allowed to take back what you feel like people have taken away from you. I’ve decided I will not let this ruin me.

If that resonates, check out my blog, where I rant about whatever pops into my head—from TV shows to deep thoughts, personal stories (which may not be as funny as when I tell them, but still a good read), my art, and my memoir Stripped, a wild ride through a year and a half of my life.

Welcome to my page… The Straight T!

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In his debut full-length memoir, Stripped, Erik Mario Austin unravels his chaotic return to Los Angeles, where what begins as a simple swipe on a dating app in search of love, sex, and connection spirals into a nightmare he never saw coming. Labeled an addict on the run from rehab after a staged intervention, Erik’s life rapidly collapses as rumors spread, loyalties fracture, and those who claim to be helping push him closer to destruction.

A raw, twisting memoir that reads like fiction, Stripped chronicles Erik’s dramatic fall into homelessness as he spirals through some of Los Angeles’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Pulled into a modern-day Dickensian underworld, he becomes ensnared in a ruthless network of homeless con artists who survive by seducing, stealing, and scheming beneath the city’s glittering façade. In their desperate hunt for drugs and shelter, they prey on the wealthy and surrender their stolen rewards to a manipulative kingpin, a twisted modern-day Fagin who keeps them loyal with just enough to survive. Forced deep into the city’s underbelly, Erik learns that trust is a currency no one can afford and that every choice comes with a price that may not be paid in money.

Told with the urgency of a psychological thriller and the intimacy of a whispered confession, Stripped is part porn, part dark comedy and entirely unflinching. With sharp humor, fearless honesty, and theatrical flair, Austin tears the mask off society’s prettiest lies and exposes what happens when survival becomes the only script left to follow. At its core, Stripped is a raw and revealing story of queer identity, addiction, betrayal, and the art of surviving your own destruction—when life goes off-script and you’re forced to improvise.

Sometimes, survival is the greatest performance of all.

Overwhelmed

I'm going to be honest: I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by OLIVER! right now. Producing a show of this size is a massive undertaking, and there are moments when it feels like I'm carrying the weight of a lot of people and a lot of responsibilities on my shoulders. Between rehearsals, schedules, fundraising, sponsorships, sets, costumes, emails, and a thousand other details that nobody ever sees, I'm tired. Really tired. The funny thing is that I absolutely believe in this prod

1 hour ago

Jordan

Tonight I'm having Jordan choreograph "Be Back Soon" for OLIVER!, and honestly, I couldn't be happier about it. One of the most important lessons I've learned over the years is that you don't have to do everything yourself. Jordan is incredibly talented, has great instincts, and I know whatever he creates will be better than anything I would have come up with on my own. Sometimes leadership isn't about holding on to every responsibility—it's about trusting the people around y

22 hours ago

Drive

Today my mom and I took a drive all the way up to San Simeon. It's funny because I grew up on the Central Coast, have driven past Hearst Castle countless times, and somehow had never stopped to see the elephant seals before. First of all, San Simeon is a lot farther away than I remember. Second, after all these years, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Hundreds of giant elephant seals sprawled across the beach? Sure. What I didn't expect was that most of them looked comple

2 days ago

Bayou

My Bayou Buddies group chat suddenly came back to life yesterday after months of relative silence. At first I thought someone had accidentally sat on their phone or discovered a long-lost alligator in their backyard. Nope. Turns out SeaWorld announced auditions for Howl-O-Scream already. Already?! I feel like we just finished last season. The messages started flying immediately. Who's auditioning? Who's coming back? What's the theme? Who's ready to spend another season wander

3 days ago

Burger

I was convinced today was finally going to be the day I got Firestone. I even grabbed my mom and headed downtown with visions of tri-tip sandwiches dancing in my head. Unfortunately, so did half of San Luis Obispo. The line was so long that by the time we found parking and saw the crowd, we decided to abort the mission and head down the street to The Habit instead. Now, The Habit is one of those places you can find almost anywhere, so it wasn't exactly the exciting local food

4 days ago

Mom

I got a text from my mom today saying she was coming to San Luis Obispo. Now, that may not sound particularly exciting, but my mom almost never comes to SLO anymore, so it definitely caught me by surprise. My first thought was, "Wait... why?" As it turns out, she's making the trip to help her friend Mitch's mom. I found that kind of interesting. In a world where everyone seems so busy, there's something really nice about someone driving several hours simply to help a friend a

5 days ago

OLIVER!

There’s something about this moment that feels bigger than logistics, bigger than timing, bigger than the practical “can I make this work” conversations. I’ve been thinking a lot about why Oliver showed up right now, right when life already feels in motion in a dozen different directions. And honestly, I don’t think it’s random. It feels like one of those rare commitments that pulls you out of your own head and drops you into something communal, something alive, something tha

6 days ago

Lord

Not in the greatest mood today because the Oliver! schedule is currently held together with Scotch tape, prayer, and passive aggression. Kristina suddenly has another appointment even though music was originally on her placeholder, and somehow Korey and I are now trying to rework an entire evening while 50-plus people are showing up tonight expecting organized theater. Adorable. Also I drove all the way to Atascadero in the rain to pick up scripts, which if you know me at all

7 days ago

Uggg

Today was chaos from beginning to end. I drove all the way to San Luis Obispo waiting for scripts that were supposed to be dropped off in Atascadero, which is somehow always farther away than you remember. I sat around all morning thinking they were coming and eventually realized absolutely nobody was showing up. Thankfully Larry came through and printed emergency copies because at that point we were basically producing Oliver! through prayer and office supplies. Then I got t

May 27

Broke

I am officially exhausted by being broke. Like aggressively broke. Like “let’s split a soda because capitalism is cruel” broke. Today Sheila took me to see The Devil Wears Ratatouille, which sounds like a fake movie Kirk would produce in Stars Hollow for twelve dollars and a panini. She bought popcorn and we split a drink that was half Cherry Pepsi and half Diet Coke, which honestly tasted way better than it had any right to. The movie itself was fine. Like airplane entertain

May 26

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