Here at BaDoink, we take our principal tenets of lifestyle, sex and technology very, very seriously, but we also like to have a damn good laugh too. What better, then, than to find a project that combines ALL of those things? I know, it seems like an impossible dream, right? But, good news, sometimes dreams can come true! For all of us, that dream comes true in the form of an awesome sounding Kickstarter project, a “Future Mockumentary” about sex robots with the intriguing, curiosity-tickling title of Gigahoes.

The project was launched by stand-up comic Adam Lash. Adam has worked on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and was also part of the New York Comedy Festival, so the guy really knows his stuff. Happily for us, Adam was able to take some time out of his busy schedule to sit down and talk to BaDoink about this new comic venture. Here are the highlights of our conversation…

I know it’s an obvious place to start but tell us a little bit about Gigahoes.

Okay, well, Gigahoes is going to be a 12-part mockumentary that takes place in the not-so-distant future and follows the escort agency, Artificial Intercourse, and its sex-bots out on their calls with human johns.

Adam Lash
Adam Lash, co-writer of Gigahoes and self-confessed nerd.

How did this even get into your brain?

Well, I am a giant nerd; I love all things like Next Generation and Doctor Who. So, I was talking to [Gigahoes producer] KL [Thomas], one of the creatives of the show, and you remember the Michael Bay film, The Island, about using clones for organs – it’s not a very good movie – we were talking about how once we figure out how to clone ourselves we’ll probably abuse that technology.

I’m a stand-up comic, and I wrote a joke about how sex robots are going to lead the robot revolution – or robocalypse – and people liked it. KL and I did some sketch comedy together and I wrote a sketch about it and she completely hated it; she thought it was misogynistic, but she liked the core concept of the idea.

So, after talking about it, I said why don’t we do it as a web series and delve into what we’d really do with sex-bots. We started shooting ideas back and forth and then we got my co-writer and co-creator, Kevin Gilligan, on board and we started writing the script.

Do you feel confident that you’re going to reach your Kickstarter funding objective?

Yes, I know we’re going to get there. This is my first Kickstarter campaign and I really believe in the project. Everyone we talk to thinks it’s a great idea and we’re like, hey, so you wanna pony up ten dollars?

Gigahoes
Left Co-Creator and Co-Writer Kevin Gilligan. Right Co-Creator KL Thomas

Why did you decide to use Kickstarter?

Well, I’d done a web series a few years back and we did it off our own dime and we thought it went really well but it fell apart after one season. When I met up with some new friends and started working on Gigahoes we knew we couldn’t pay for it out of pocket because it was such a big idea.

The way web series and web content is going, you live or die by production value. We know that everyone will see that we don’t have the budget of an actual TV show but we hope the audience will be like, okay, these are sex robots, let’s just go along with the joke. We’ll do our best with make-up and little tiny graphics here and there to say, ‘this is the future!’

How WILL you indicate that it’s the future?

We’re still having some decisions about that. Since we’re set in NY City, we don’t think the city’s going to change too much in 30 years; there’ll be some different types of billboards… we’ll probably have phones that look a little different, maybe people will have ear buds in. Because of budgetary reasons, we’ll probably go the minimalist route and say ‘hey, we’re the future… here are a few touchstones to show things are slightly different to what they are now.’

So you’ll have the robots basically look like humans, then?

Yeah, we’re just going to have humans be robots, kind of like the show Almost Human, but they’ll be clearly defined in the first episode.

Gigahoes
Actress Jessica Park, one of the sexbots, posing for the Gigahoes logo.

Are the robots conscious? Are they sentient? Do they question who they are and what they’re doing?

They are fully functioning AIs. If the show keeps going, that’s something we want to talk about. In fact, the first draft that Kevin and I wrote of the first season was more of a comedy-drama than the straight up comedy that we have it as currently.

Eventually though you’re going to have to get into some deep, dark stuff…

Kevin and I are really looking forward to tackling those issues because we plotted out different obstacles for our Artificial Intercourse family to tackle. It’s not just 12 episodes of a bunch of funny situations; there’s also a moving storyline throughout… It will center on social issues, how society feels about sex robots. We want to cover these things because we know there’s a very good chance you and I will have sex with a robot in our lifetime.

Where do the robots come from in Gigahoes?

Okay, here’s our backstory of how sex robots came along… So, you know the SpaceX program? In our story we had someone do an AI-X – here’s a million dollars; someone invent artificial intelligence! So by the early 2020s, somebody invents the first AI. Hewlett Packard is starting to go out of business so they throw all their funds into buying that AI and they start making sex robots, knowing they will sell immediately.

Gigahoes
More of the Gigahoes cast. Right to Left, Jessica Park, David Morton , Malorie Bryant, Kimberlee Walker.

Will you look at class divisions within sex-robot culture, based on who the manufacturers are?

That’s actually what we want to be dealing with in the second season. We envision the sex-bots much like iPhones. The first generation was cool and revolutionary; the second one came out and it was better and everyone forgot about the first; then the third one came… The way we looked at it was, what if your iPhone could talk? It’d be like, ‘hey, yeah, the new one came out but I’m still good… there’s no need to get rid of me; I’ll still do what you want; talking to people and texting, I can still do that… don’t throw me away! I’m perfectly reasonable!’

So we have divisions and rivalries between generations of sex-bots. That’s actually one of the main themes of the first season. Our agency gets a brand new 7G sex-bot. He’s like the Alpha-Male program; he’s a jock, he thinks he’s super awesome; he puts everyone else to shame and he acts like it. Everyone else in the office is of an older generation and they’re more of a family.

Who’s going to be the focus of the show?

I think for the most part, Steven and Adam. Steven is the owner of the agency – he’s played by our co-writer Kevin Gilligan – and I play sex-bot Adam. Each episode we follow one robot. The first episode, the introductory episode, we meet all the characters really quickly and get a sense of what’s going on and then we follow Adam out on a call. Most of the episodes will lead into the next episode. We follow everyone but I’d say Steven and Adam are probably the touchstones that people will relate to mostly.

Do the Gigahoes feel pleasure?

They don’t have emotions, although they are emotional. Unlike Data [Star Trek: the Next Generation], who was very child-like and didn’t understand a lot of things, our sex-bots do understand. Some understand more others; the programming is a little different from bot to bot. Adam’s main programming is that he’s the perfect boyfriend; Brandon is a kind of loveable douche-bag. Of our two female bots, Jessica is the girl next door and Charlie is a dominatrix. That’s their main programming, what their core personalities are.

Gigahoes
Out in NYC filming Man on the Street segments. Clockwise, Jason Messina (director), Adam Lash (Co-Creator and Writer), KL Thomas (Co-Creator), Jessica Park (actress).

Why would people want to fuck a robot?

Because we kind of already do. You know, I’m thinking about my motivation for having sex with a robot, now that you ask the question, and I think, for whatever reason, it’s just because I want to have sex with a robot. Our generation grew up with all this really cool sci-fi stuff, and all these sexy robot characters…

And nowadays we have a lot of different sex toys… In terms of the show, sex robots are a natural extension of that. I think a big motivation – throughout our show – at least for the people we’re following or going on calls with, sex-bots are a safe alternative for the johns and the weird kinks they have.

So what makes sex better with a robot in this future reality of yours?

There’s no judgment or baggage; you can basically do whatever, your way. I think a lot of people are selfish when it comes to sex. Sex with a robot, you can be selfish; you get exactly what you want, every time. That’s a siren’s call.

All in all, it’s a very challenging project…

We all have a pretty good collective version of it in our head, of what we want it to be like. We haven’t shot anything yet but it’s still nerve-wracking. We know we can pull it off; we got the talent, we have the people around us… but, you know, we still haven’t seen the dailies from those first couple of days so we’re still a little nervous. I mean we’re just filming stuff for Kickstarter right now, trying to have as many updates as possible, keeping people interested, getting the word out there.

We will make the show. If we don’t hit our goal, we’re still going to do it; it’ll just be a little slower in the process. It’s something we all really believe in so it’s going to happen. If we can hit the goal, and then some, it would really help the process along and make it even better than what we can actually think of.

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If you also want to see the dream of Gigahoes become a polished reality, then visit Adam’s Kickstarter page and make your own funding contribution. Remember, without Star Trek, we probably wouldn’t have iPads now, so if you want to have sex with a robot any time soon…

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