quinn65
3rd Level Red Feather
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2001
- Messages
- 1,563
- Points
- 113
Since I popped back out here a week or two ago, a few people have asked about the startup story of LOL. It's actually not a bad story, and since anyone I'd ever actually tell lived it with me, I've never put it together in one place before. So I thought what the hell, I'll give it a shot.
Then I thought hey, why not make it into a thread and see if other producers would share their stories too? Gauntlet down.
So here's mine.
*The LOL Story, or The Accidental Ticklers*
I'm a business guy with about half my career in consulting and half in corporate life. Work has taken me all over the world, but about 20 years ago when my wife (also a consultant) got pregnant, we decided to settle down and get off the road. We chose my old stomping grounds for this, since in central Indiana I had a built in support network of retired parents and siblings who could help out.
So at around age 40 that brought me back into contact with a bunch of old high school friends. (If you remember our model Lynn, it was at her surprise 40th birthday party where a bunch of us -- including Dianna and Rhi -- reconnected and started hanging out again.)
Another work-related thing I've done from time to time is guest lecture at universities. Not a big deal...just some professors I'd kept in touch with asking me to speak to a class about career readiness or industry trends or war stories from some kind of project or another.
Lynn's birthday was in 2004, so I guess it was 2006 that I did a guest lecture one evening for an undergrad business class here in the area. After the lecture, a bunch of students hung around to ask questions. Nothing unusual there...until all but the last two had left the room. The stragglers were a couple of young ladies: coed business school undergrads straight out of central casting.
They said they had a question about their small side business. What kind of business, I asked? Answer: a video business. Ok, what kind of videos?
Surprise #1: after some hesitation, they say tickle videos! I'd say you could have knocked me over with a feather, but that's bad even for me. See, I'd had a bit of a tickle fetish for a long time; enough that I'd already joined here around 2001. But for me at that time it was more of a curiosity than anything.
So I played dumb and asked, what the heck is a tickle video? In a tickle video, they explained, a person is restrained and then tickled. This is recorded, of course, and the videos are sold on the internet. But not to worry, they said! It's totally anonymous, completely G-rated, and also a lot of fun.
Ok, I asked, but what on earth could you possibly want from me? Well, apparently business was pretty good shooting videos among their friends, but someone got the bright idea that if they could talk a faculty member into being tickled, it would really sell big. Being risk-aware business school students, however, they surmised that if their proposal raised concerns, a faculty member might be inclined or obliged to threaten the enterprise. Apparently, during my presentation, it occurred to them that I, being neither faculty nor having any idea who they were, represented an opportunity to achieve the target objective while mitigating the risk.
So that's really intriguing, I said, and hey, thanks for asking, but no, that's not going to happen in a million years. First of all, I'd probably die, and your fun little tickle video would become a snuff film. And secondly, just no. I mean of course I was intrigued, but as appealing as this might sound to some, I just wasn't in a head space that evening where I was ready to get tied up and videotaped being tickled by a bunch of college girls.
Surprise #2: they ask if I'll do it for $200!
Seriously?! How much do these things sell for, I asked? Well, they wouldn't say, but I think the bidding hit $400 before they finally gave up. I told them to be careful, we parted ways with a smile, and that was that.
(Before you ask, yes I did try to find their site, and no I never did. If it was on C4S it was buried somewhere, or maybe they had another channel. And I never saw them again.)
Anyway, fast forward a week or two, and of course I'm telling this story to my goofball friends over drinks. When I get to the bidding part, Dianna says, "Hell, I'd have done it for $200." I say no way, she says yes way, and so, maybe a little tipsy, I double dog dare her to get tied up and tickled on video for $200 so we can sell it on the internet.
Long story short, challenge accepted. She was a little tipsy too. And you can't just walk away from a double dog dare, so I figured out how to sell clips on C4S, built some stocks, and we were off to the races. We shot the video (I'll attach a screenshot, you may have seen it), made sure it was all anonymous, and I posted some clips on the site just before my family headed out on a trip to Colorado. Dianna got her $200, and the deal was that if we actually sold anything I would get some money back.
So we're off on vacation hiking around Colorado, and a week later we make it into Telluride where I can finally pick up a cell phone signal. On a whim I check C4S.
Surprise #3: we had made something like a $500 profit!
So I send Dianna an email: "You're not going to believe this, but we're rich!"
And she replies: "Cool! Can I do another one?"
And that was how the insanity started. Suddenly Dianna's sisters, our other friends, and various friends of friends all wanted to shoot tickle clips and make money. H&K was dating my nephew, and we thought she'd be great, so we made a bet that she'd have to shoot a clip if she lost at bowling (of all things), and thus began the H&K era as she continued both making more clips and recruiting her friends. It became sort of a regular add-on activity when we'd get together, and then later it was a *reason* to get together. It was a party thing like playing Pictionary, except instead of drawing stuff on flip charts, people were getting tied down and tickled.
Ok, I guess it wasn't really like Pictionary at all.
But it was turning a tidy profit. We started calling it the free ATM. For some people it was just mad money, but for others it really helped. For instance, one of my friends was going through a divorce and between jobs. She was approaching the end of her rope and shot a clip that made enough money starting the next week to keep her going.
And that's pretty much how it went. Although we talked about it, we never did bring in professional models. Eventually the friend recruiting peaked and started slacking off, and the whole thing just died a natural death.
It was a lot of fun. I went from being mildly interested in tickling to being really fascinated by how tickling strips away the stuff people build up around their personalities to try and come off a certain way. Sometimes, in the most well-planned and well-staged tickle clips (imo), you can see this whole Kubler-Ross-like progression:
1. Shock: they're strapped in and realize they can't get out; this is *really* going to happen
2. Denial: the nervous joking around and second-guessing begins, building up until just before the actual tickling starts
3. Anger: especially for really ticklish people, there's almost an *affrontedness* to the first few seconds of tickling; they're about to lose control and they know it
4. Bargaining: trying to hang on, struggling to keep control, realizing they're inevitably going to break down, and begging for it to stop
5. Acceptance: eventually, they just have to give themselves to what's happening, let go, and ride it out
So yeah I guess I got a little psychological about tickling while we were at it. And for the record, by "most well-planned and well-staged," I mean clips where all of this is negotiated with expectations set beforehand and fully consensual; I'm not advocating non-con stuff. But the best ticklees know why restraints are needed and enjoy the process just as much as the ticklers. I think it's when all that comes together that the "art" happens and you get the truly classic clips.
At any rate, it was definitely an interesting way to have fun with old friends and get to know new people.
Hope you liked the story. Btw, I know I promised a screen shot above but I can't figure out how, so I'll go ahead and post this and maybe add a link shortly.
Take care,
-Q
Then I thought hey, why not make it into a thread and see if other producers would share their stories too? Gauntlet down.
So here's mine.
*The LOL Story, or The Accidental Ticklers*
I'm a business guy with about half my career in consulting and half in corporate life. Work has taken me all over the world, but about 20 years ago when my wife (also a consultant) got pregnant, we decided to settle down and get off the road. We chose my old stomping grounds for this, since in central Indiana I had a built in support network of retired parents and siblings who could help out.
So at around age 40 that brought me back into contact with a bunch of old high school friends. (If you remember our model Lynn, it was at her surprise 40th birthday party where a bunch of us -- including Dianna and Rhi -- reconnected and started hanging out again.)
Another work-related thing I've done from time to time is guest lecture at universities. Not a big deal...just some professors I'd kept in touch with asking me to speak to a class about career readiness or industry trends or war stories from some kind of project or another.
Lynn's birthday was in 2004, so I guess it was 2006 that I did a guest lecture one evening for an undergrad business class here in the area. After the lecture, a bunch of students hung around to ask questions. Nothing unusual there...until all but the last two had left the room. The stragglers were a couple of young ladies: coed business school undergrads straight out of central casting.
They said they had a question about their small side business. What kind of business, I asked? Answer: a video business. Ok, what kind of videos?
Surprise #1: after some hesitation, they say tickle videos! I'd say you could have knocked me over with a feather, but that's bad even for me. See, I'd had a bit of a tickle fetish for a long time; enough that I'd already joined here around 2001. But for me at that time it was more of a curiosity than anything.
So I played dumb and asked, what the heck is a tickle video? In a tickle video, they explained, a person is restrained and then tickled. This is recorded, of course, and the videos are sold on the internet. But not to worry, they said! It's totally anonymous, completely G-rated, and also a lot of fun.
Ok, I asked, but what on earth could you possibly want from me? Well, apparently business was pretty good shooting videos among their friends, but someone got the bright idea that if they could talk a faculty member into being tickled, it would really sell big. Being risk-aware business school students, however, they surmised that if their proposal raised concerns, a faculty member might be inclined or obliged to threaten the enterprise. Apparently, during my presentation, it occurred to them that I, being neither faculty nor having any idea who they were, represented an opportunity to achieve the target objective while mitigating the risk.
So that's really intriguing, I said, and hey, thanks for asking, but no, that's not going to happen in a million years. First of all, I'd probably die, and your fun little tickle video would become a snuff film. And secondly, just no. I mean of course I was intrigued, but as appealing as this might sound to some, I just wasn't in a head space that evening where I was ready to get tied up and videotaped being tickled by a bunch of college girls.
Surprise #2: they ask if I'll do it for $200!
Seriously?! How much do these things sell for, I asked? Well, they wouldn't say, but I think the bidding hit $400 before they finally gave up. I told them to be careful, we parted ways with a smile, and that was that.
(Before you ask, yes I did try to find their site, and no I never did. If it was on C4S it was buried somewhere, or maybe they had another channel. And I never saw them again.)
Anyway, fast forward a week or two, and of course I'm telling this story to my goofball friends over drinks. When I get to the bidding part, Dianna says, "Hell, I'd have done it for $200." I say no way, she says yes way, and so, maybe a little tipsy, I double dog dare her to get tied up and tickled on video for $200 so we can sell it on the internet.
Long story short, challenge accepted. She was a little tipsy too. And you can't just walk away from a double dog dare, so I figured out how to sell clips on C4S, built some stocks, and we were off to the races. We shot the video (I'll attach a screenshot, you may have seen it), made sure it was all anonymous, and I posted some clips on the site just before my family headed out on a trip to Colorado. Dianna got her $200, and the deal was that if we actually sold anything I would get some money back.
So we're off on vacation hiking around Colorado, and a week later we make it into Telluride where I can finally pick up a cell phone signal. On a whim I check C4S.
Surprise #3: we had made something like a $500 profit!
So I send Dianna an email: "You're not going to believe this, but we're rich!"
And she replies: "Cool! Can I do another one?"
And that was how the insanity started. Suddenly Dianna's sisters, our other friends, and various friends of friends all wanted to shoot tickle clips and make money. H&K was dating my nephew, and we thought she'd be great, so we made a bet that she'd have to shoot a clip if she lost at bowling (of all things), and thus began the H&K era as she continued both making more clips and recruiting her friends. It became sort of a regular add-on activity when we'd get together, and then later it was a *reason* to get together. It was a party thing like playing Pictionary, except instead of drawing stuff on flip charts, people were getting tied down and tickled.
Ok, I guess it wasn't really like Pictionary at all.
But it was turning a tidy profit. We started calling it the free ATM. For some people it was just mad money, but for others it really helped. For instance, one of my friends was going through a divorce and between jobs. She was approaching the end of her rope and shot a clip that made enough money starting the next week to keep her going.
And that's pretty much how it went. Although we talked about it, we never did bring in professional models. Eventually the friend recruiting peaked and started slacking off, and the whole thing just died a natural death.
It was a lot of fun. I went from being mildly interested in tickling to being really fascinated by how tickling strips away the stuff people build up around their personalities to try and come off a certain way. Sometimes, in the most well-planned and well-staged tickle clips (imo), you can see this whole Kubler-Ross-like progression:
1. Shock: they're strapped in and realize they can't get out; this is *really* going to happen
2. Denial: the nervous joking around and second-guessing begins, building up until just before the actual tickling starts
3. Anger: especially for really ticklish people, there's almost an *affrontedness* to the first few seconds of tickling; they're about to lose control and they know it
4. Bargaining: trying to hang on, struggling to keep control, realizing they're inevitably going to break down, and begging for it to stop
5. Acceptance: eventually, they just have to give themselves to what's happening, let go, and ride it out
So yeah I guess I got a little psychological about tickling while we were at it. And for the record, by "most well-planned and well-staged," I mean clips where all of this is negotiated with expectations set beforehand and fully consensual; I'm not advocating non-con stuff. But the best ticklees know why restraints are needed and enjoy the process just as much as the ticklers. I think it's when all that comes together that the "art" happens and you get the truly classic clips.
At any rate, it was definitely an interesting way to have fun with old friends and get to know new people.
Hope you liked the story. Btw, I know I promised a screen shot above but I can't figure out how, so I'll go ahead and post this and maybe add a link shortly.
Take care,
-Q
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