A British guy who sparked public outrage after announcing plans to pop his homosexual cherry in front of a live audience took to the stage in London this week.  But it appears the hyped performance was little more than an April Fool’s joke.

Last October, Clayton Pettet said he and an unnamed partner would have protected sex in a peep show called “Art School Stole My Virginity.”  As Perez Hilton later put it delicately, “19-Year-Old Art School Student Will Create Art Through Penetration of His Virgin Butthole!”  He told the UK’s Daily Star, “Basically it’s like I am losing the stigma around virginity.  I want the audience to see if anything has changed between me and my partner.”

The ticketed event apparently attracted about 120 voyeurs who did not get to see anyone stem the rose and deflower Pettet.  Instead, they found him pants on, sitting with two piles of bananas.

At the time of Pettet’s announcement, Twitter was a buzz. Who could have predicted TheWrap.com’s Executive Editor @JosephKapsch would have been so spot on and insightful in calling the stunt “BANANAS” back then?!

The Huffington Post’s Gay Voices describes the scene in so many words (a HuffPo attendee was invited to insert a banana into Pettet’s mouth):

“I am your anal virgin,” he said. “You are my partner. Pick up a banana.” I immediately started to panic: penetrating a 19-year-old was not on my to-do list tonight, even if it’s with a piece of fruit. “Now penetrate with my mouth eight times.”

Dazed Digital goes into more detail and includes a candid interview with Pettet who explained, “There’s this partner I’ve never identified.  I think if people were expecting something else, it shows what they really wanted.  They didn’t want an art piece, they wanted to see me have sex.  If they came for the art, they wouldn’t be as disappointed — they’d know there were things to read between the lines for.”