Whilst rooting around Kickstarter’s nether regions, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Jonathan Evans and Brock LaBorde who are producing the Air Sex Championships documentary (think air guitar, only less picks and more dicks). Coming at you from the stage since 2008, the Air Sex competition is now bigger and better than ever and about to be broadcast to the world. 

Brock and I had a chat about his hopes dreams for the film… and watching someone do naughty things to an imaginary whale calf. Keep your eyes peeled for the release of what is sure to be an entertaining, and possibly educational, delight!

Do you hope that by bringing the Air Sex Championships to the masses, via film, it will result in some kind of world domination/an international event?

Up until now, the Air Sex Championships have been a USA-only competition. But as more and more people hear about it, we’ve been getting requests from the UK, Australia, and elsewhere. We’d love to bring our show to everyone and everywhere, so yes; we hope to dominate the world very soon. And after that, we’d like to host at least one Air Sex performance on the moon. Wouldn’t that be special?

I enjoy the idea of seeing different cultures and nationalities battle it out on stage and screen, seeing the different techniques that people bring to the table. Do you feel you’re doing some kind of community work and opening people’s hearts and minds?

I doubt most people would view Air Sex as any kind of “community work,” but honestly, we have seen a lot of opened hearts and minds since we started touring. We’ve had quite a few competitors say that Air Sex has inspired them to open up about their sexual preferences and curiosities to their partners. There’s a lot of comedy in Air Sex, so some fans/competitors have even dumped their careers and started exploring comedy full-time. Whether you’re watching it or doing it, Air Sex can be a wild, unforgettable experience that just sticks in your brain for a while. Certain Air Sex crowds start out shy and reserved at the start of the show, but by the end, they’re swarming the stage to sign up. Every time we tour, we try to bring the show to new cities that haven’t seen it before, and sometimes those communities instantly embrace it. Other times, people need a little coaxing and romancing before they fall in love with Air Sex. It’s a lot like actual sex, really. You can’t just walk up to an attractive stranger, whip out your genitals, and expect them to jump you right then and there. You have to establish a relationship and make your partner feel comfortable. And then you can both roger each other silly.

Aside from porn stars and whoever shares your bed, it’s not every day you get to watch someone’s most intimate of moves. Have you learned a thing or two from hours upon hours of watching strangers hump the air?

The best Air Sex shows have fun educational moments in them. Like, a performer will do a weird move onstage, and then during the judges’ critiques afterwards, we ask them to explain that move and then we ask the crowd if that’s something they do or have seen before. The cool thing is that since people are having sex with imaginary people/objects, the laws of physics don’t necessarily apply, so you get to see some wildly unbelievable moves and scenarios. Two shows ago, a guy did a routine that involved stumbling upon a beached whale, having sex with its rotting carcass, then chain sawing it open, discovering a baby whale inside, then having that baby whale indulge in various sexual fantasies on him. So yeah, you learn a lot at Air Sex shows. Probably more than you should.

Have you come across resistance from any of the competitors when it comes to filming their performance? I imagine it comes with the territory that if you are involved in this kind of thing then you’re pretty extroverted and open?

People can be a bit hesitant to perform on camera, especially if their act involves any kind of honesty to it. If they’re wearing a goofy costume and having sex with a pair of werewolves, yeah, they’re probably ok with being filmed. But if they’re stripping down to their panties and fucking a chair while legitimately getting worked up, they could be bashful about it. But at that point, they’re already performing in front of a rowdy crowd. And that crowd has cell phones with cameras. So even if we weren’t shooting the show, someone else usually is. And it’s our job as hosts to make sure everyone feels totally safe taking part in our show. We try to encourage communication between performers and crowd members so they know to cheer each other on and tickle each other’s fancies the entire time. But no one’s ever refused to perform because of cameras or anything. We also hang up signs around the venue that state that you will possibly be on camera if you are at our show.

The website says we should prepare to have the trailer “dropped on our faces real soon”. Any hints as to when we should prepare ourselves for the money shot?

Since we’re still negotiating the film’s distribution, we’ve been holding off on releasing the trailer until we figure that out. It’s hard, because it’s a cool trailer and a good movie, but that’s how these things go. The film just premiered in Australia at the Possible Worlds Festival, so hopefully some reviews will come out soon and we’ll do some more fests!

It also says this is set to be the “greatest movie of all time”. What attributes to this mighty title?

Well, besides the fact that the movie is about the most prestigious sporting event of all time, it’s also a beautifully shot, fun-paced exploration of sex and comedy in modern America. It’s been a challenging film to edit because Jonathan Evans, the film’s director, wanted it to have a similar feel to Dave Chapelle’s “Block Party” doc, which was pretty much a movie that showed a big, fun party, but we also wanted to document the ups and downs of the comedy tour aspect, while also delving into the actual sportsmanship of Air Sex. So we had a lot to do in a relatively short amount of time, but above all, we want our audience to just enjoy what they’re seeing and hearing. We had a great musician named Mikey Felton down in New Orleans create original music for the whole thing, so it’s got this killer energy throughout, too. And even though it’s showing a highly controversial event and there’s a real competition going on, there’s not a lot of negativity throughout. So it’s like one big celebration of everything and everyone. It’s sexy, it’s funny, it’s (hopefully) thought provoking, so how could that not be the greatest movie ever, ya know?

What kind of rating will the movie have?

There’s a lot of dirty words in this movie, so there’s no way it would have anything less than an R rating. However, I believe the ratings system to be fairly outdated and arbitrary at this point. Many indie films, especially docs, don’t bother getting MPAA ratings, and I’m not worried about it at this point. If we get theatrical distribution, we’ll have to get a rating, I suppose, but it’s pretty much a guaranteed R at this point. And that very likely won’t hurt ticket sales.

Where will the movie be released? Netflix? DVD? Websites?

EVERYWHERE POSSIBLE! In a perfect world, the movie is out on Netflix, DVD, and we can take it around the country/world when we tour with the live show and play it at nearby theatres. I’d also like for the movie to somehow play on the backside of your eyelids whenever you close your eyes, but I think we have to wait for Apple and Google to make that a reality.

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All images by Henry Linser.