Art of Kissing Explored at After Hours Event

At first glance, Michael Christian seems like a timid, soft-spoken man. Take another look, and you’ll notice that his walk emits a certain self-confidence. Hand him a microphone, and you’ll get an hour-long lesson on how to wow that special someone in your life with nothing more than a kiss.

Michael Christian (pen name William Cane) has been doing research into the field of kissing since 1989, when he began putting out ads in a number of newspapers to find out just what makes up a good kiss. His first book, “The Art of Kissing,” was written from the responses he received during his three years of research and data collection.

Regularly a professor of english at The College of Staten Island, Christian tours more than 400 colleges all over the country instructing students and faculty alike on how better to please their lovers while making out.

“The truth is, that I was always interested in what my partners might have been thinking about,” says Christian, explaining that he had been curious about the subject.

His show here at Rowan certainly raised a few eyebrows, with audience participation at an all-time high for a SUP event. Christian asked questions of the audience like, “What do you wish your partner would do while kissing?” and “What do guys like, as opposed to girls?” and managed to get a number of responses out of people who enjoyed everything from facial caressing to wild hair pulling and lip biting.

Four Rowan University students acted as his models during the show, performing the many different kisses on each other. At first they seemed nervous and a little bit uncomfortable, but as the show went on, they relaxed and eventually let loose with a barrage of over-the-top, demonstrative smooches. Two even dressed up in giant tongue costumes during the final segment to demonstrate, in detail, the inner workings of a proper French kiss.

Christian made a relatively lucrative career out of his stage show, claiming he makes as much money doing two weeks worth of these performances as he does from a whole year of teaching.

Christian has written several follow up books, including, “The Book of Kisses,” “The Art of Kissing: Book of Questions and Answers,” and “Kiss Like a Star.”

“They wanted me to write ‘The art of Holding Hands,’ but I drew the line there,” Christian said. “I’m not gonna write a whole book on just how to hold hands.”

The books detail over thirty different kinds of kisses, ranging from the exotic to the mundane. Christian’s favorite kiss is a combination of a few exhibited at the show.

“My favorite is Lip-o-Suction, where the boy is kissing the upper lip, and then he goes to the lower lip,” explained Christian. “A lot of creativity could be involved in that, and plus, you could also do that to music. So it combines some of the aspects of the music kiss, which is a lot of fun.”

“The Art of Kissing” has been translated into 19 different languages, and is most popular in Germany.

In addition to kissing, Michael Christian is currently doing research into the field of birth order and how it affects people’s personalities.

Click here to listen to an interview with Michael Christian.