In the past six weeks Luke McGregor has learned more about sex than most of us ever will. Certainly a whole lot more than your average, porn-obsessed teen.
He has gone down on an apple. He has had his genitals massaged by a stranger. And he has played with a giant vagina puppet in the middle of Melbourne’s Federation Square.
It’s safe to say that the comedian who began this journey as a 33-year-old man who had only ever had sex twice, has well and truly had his eyes – and his mind – opened.
Luke tells Meshel Laurie about one of the more… confronting moments on Luke Warm Sex.
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But on the other side of his very successful ABC and iView show, Luke Warm Sex which finished last night, Luke now has a girlfriend, is having sex regularly, and has conquered his crippling anxiety around touch, nudity and, well, everything intimate.
And he has to learn possibly the hardest bit of all. How to actually be in love.
On this episode of Nitty Gritty Committee, where he talks with Meshel Laurie about the extraordinary experience of laying himself bare (literally) in the pursuit of happiness, they tackle that head on.
“My only fear is that I haven’t been in another relationship, this is my only one,” says Luke. “So I don’t have anything to compare it to.
“I keep going back to that idea of am I more happy with her than without and the answer’s yes, I am happier.”
“Whenever we have had a disagreement, we have been able to talk it out.
“But I am assuming, as a relative novice to this, that love is work. It’s going to be great, but there are also moments where you have to work at it.”
Yup, Luke, you’ve got it.
Another thing Luke is starkly honest about is how his parents felt about watching his sexual "journey" on national TV. The answer? Guilty.
"[My mother] said to me 'I had no idea," Luke McGregor said. "She felt bad. She felt guilty."
McGregor's mother felt a sense of responsibility for her son's issues and wished she could have done more to improve his confidence in relationships.
Luke says he knows why his parents never spoke to him about sex, because nobody spoke about sex to them when they were growing-up up.
"So that cycle of awkardness continued," McGregor said.
"I don't blame [my parents] they would have had even less of an [idea of my issues] than I did growing-up." McGregor said.
Luke McGregor interviewed his parents in the first episode of 'Luke Warm Sex' and they revealed that they have a great sex life. Whenever any issues arose in the bedroom, his parents said they just worked their way through them.
Luke McGregor said that some parents are showing their children the 'Luke Warm Sex' series to encourage a more open dialogue about sex in their homes.
"People have been messaging everyday actually just to say 'thanks'," McGregor said
"People are saying they're showing their sons and daughters because they want them to know about this stuff."
Listen to Luke and Meshel's whole conversation, including how it feels to have a panic attack - naked - on national TV and the intricacies of going down on some fruit, here:
Or download in iTunes, here. Open in a new window, here. Or download Mamamia’s podcast app, here.