Faced with a director's provocations, flamboyant performer Warwick Broadhead is pushed to re-enact the highest and the lowest moments of his life using his own cast of alter egos. From lavish scenes with opulent costuming to the intimate whisperings of a man alone, Warwick bares his soul in phases. He revisits the young man in 1950's suburbia; the orgy of self-discovery in 60's San Francisco; the moments of reflection as an aging artist alone in the maze of his local sauna. Rubbings From a Live Man is a tribute to one man's ability to stare his life in the face, by performing it anew.