*This post has some risque elements contained within. If you’re a parent of Kellie or Stephanie, you should just skip this one, and continue your idealized view of your daughters.
On Sunday, October 10th, the North Star Bar (27th and Poplar Streets) competed against playoff baseball and an unpopular weekend night out (albeit teachers and city employees had the following day off) to host the first ever Philadelphia leg of the Air Sex World Championships tour.
2009 was the first year of the Air Sex World Championships, which toured 14 cities and eventually crowned the champion from LA as the best-of-the-best in the finals in Austin. This year, the tour expanded to 20 cities, allowing the citizens of the City of Brotherly Love the chance to gyrate for glory and a world title.
For those of you who want to know more, but hate clicking on links, here’s the quick and dirty from the website:
Never been to an Air Sex show before? Here’s what you need to know: it’s a lot like Air Guitar, but instead of rocking out with an imaginary guitar, you’re making sweet and/or filthy love with an imaginary sex partner. You choose a clip of music, you show up in whatever sort of wardrobe you like, and you come up on stage and show everyone how you do it. Or how you wish you could do it. Or how you once had it done to you, and oh my god was that a bad idea and while it’s embarrassing to show that act to a room of strangers, you know that you need to do it now in order to make sure that no one else falls down the same rabbit hole you got stuck inside. Or, you know, just do it however you want.
The only rules we have are the laws laid down by the state we’re in. Since most Air Sex venues serve alcohol, you can’t get naked. And since some also serve food, all orgasms have to be simulated (or at least arguably so). Other than that, you’re free to do whatever it takes to impress the judges, the audience in the theater, and the world!
As we entered the bar, the bouncer checked our IDs while trying to convince us to add ourselves to the contestant list. At first I was flattered, assuming that we were asked because of some vibe we were giving off that alluded to our air sex prowess, but, once we made it to the back room, I realized that the hard sell was because of a lack of contestants.
The first performance was an exhibition by the emcee, done to R. Kelly’s “Bump and Grind.” Then, the judges were announced, one of whom was on the tour, and two that were Philly natives. They ran through their expectations of the contestants, stressing creativity (“you can only see so many fisting routines…”) and commitment to the craft (“if you’re not ready to get air pregnant, get the fuck out of my room”).
Contestant number 1 ended up being the bouncer, who put on a pretty fantastic show wearing only a furry thong shaped like the head of a bull. His wife is definitely one lucky lady.
The second contestant was an embarrassingly drunk guy who kept falling down in the crowd while yelling “sex!” over and over. I had my fingers crossed for a face plant while he was on stage, but instead, I witnessed what may have been the saddest air sex performance ever documented. When it ended (seemingly 3 days later), the judges ripped into the guy, asking him if he always nailed his feet to the floor when having sex, and joking about the fact that he was singing along to the song the whole time. Whoever it is that he sleeps with is NOT quite as fortunate as the bouncer’s wife.
One of the judges came up next, and if I never end up in a room with him again, it’ll be too soon. He was an over-the-top, yelling for the sake of yelling, Lewis Black wannabe whose comments made Stephanie and me contemplate the merits of stabbing ourselves in our ear drums with dull pencils. As he sang “My Cock is on Fire” (a parody of the Kings of Leon song “Sex on Fire“), we decided we couldn’t take it anymore and ducked out of the event to watch the end of the Phillies game.
Overall, the Philadelphia Air Sex World Championships was a bit of a letdown, though I think the perfect storm of it being a new event for the city, taking place on a Sunday and competing against playoff baseball in a sports town kept the crowds away. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that next year, the “talent” comes out en masse.