Funny! I just came back on line with Tickle Theater and this is like the second post I saw. I missed it on TMF. This aspect of seeing your own soles changed our lives as far as tickling. Meg and I have some fantastic experiences to relate with it if you're interested. My GF is super ticklish, hates it, really not a tickle nerd like me, but warmed up to it after this experience and a special party and now does find fun in the mental aspects.
It's long been a fantasy of mine like a magician cutting a lady in half and her feet get tickled. But no one could do that. Then the actuality of it was created by Kujman a couple dozen years ago with the flanders bench stock. He's made many variations since. I'm not going to get into debates here about him. He was a gentleman to us both.
We were in San Diego vacationing a few years ago and going to meet with a couple we had played with. On the following weekend they were attending a heavy play/theme/costume party hosted by Kujman. They wrangled us an invite too although Meg was reluctant she still went along after they described his parties. We've been to nest, couple play parties, and some munches. But when we got there it blew everything we knew out of the water. Planet tickle. Every one in costume and character and the set-ups. Too much to list here but it was this party, this atmosphere, and this single event that cemented Meg as a ticklee for life. I mean any guy who makes a bookcase that slides open to reveal a two floor torture den is a genius.
This bench came up during the pre-party chat when people were talking over rules. I'd never heard of it. Mike and Patty (my friends) explained that it was mind blowing so we conspired. They and several others asked Kujman if he would do a flanders scene and could bring it out. He opened a storage wall and had three versions of this thing. A medieval one which I assume is the original. A complete acrylic see-thru version that lit up blue. And the modern sleek one that we used, a silver metallic one.
The party began and everyone took on roles of Monks. There was just so much going on I'll skip all that. Meg was lost in the atmosphere. The bench time approached and Meg got nervous. I feel she suspected our double crossing her so she told me she was not going to get into that thing. Here's where the magic of Kujman comes in. He simply walked over, looked directly into her face, said something, sentenced her to the flanders, and took her by the hand over to it like she was hypnotized. I've never figured it out.
Okay so then part of the fun was watching her get all strapped in. Kujman made this a fantastic thing to enjoy on both sides and took his time. Every word they used added to the mental part. Arms to sides tight. Wrapped in a leather. Vibrator in place. Her neck was locked into a neck stock and her ankles into an ankle stock. She said she felt totally cut off from her body. Couldn't budge. That's the trick I found out. The lighting, music and fog added to it.
Next best fun part was when they put the large screen under her face and one back by her feet. Her face was priceless as people gathered to sit on both sides of her head to watch the screen with her. This was ingenious I think. A video started playing like a music video but all about tickling with fast flashing photos of soles and people being tickled all over. It got you in the mood. But I noticed that during the flashed photos every so often it would interject a glimpse her own bare feet back at the end of the bench. Meg never noticed. She's not a foot person.
As it ended it stopped on bare soles. Meg's. It took a full minute to realize they were hers. By then he was onto the toe bondage. I saw a ripple go through her and her eyes started pleading. Everyone as staring at her feet pointing out where they should start the tickling and taunting her about it. Later she told me it was so surrealistic and scary to see her own feet swung up front of her eyes that it added to what she felt on them. To be so exposed that she loved it. She almost never took her eyes off her own feet. This was a girl who hates feet too
The first tickles blew her away. They used a lot of things but fingers drive her wild. To be forced to watch it coming. Every nook and cranny. I gave away her secrets. Toes stretched. She was scream laughing to tears and we often stopped to let her catch her breath. I could tell from her breathing she was okay getting into the crowd more than I would have hoped.
Funny what's never been mentioned about this thing is that the second screen back by her feet allows the tickler to see her face and reactions. It's up above the feet. It appears she is looking down at the corresponding feet as they get attacked. I loved sitting back and seeing this angle.
The very best part was one I didn't think I would enjoy at first but turned out to be a blessing. Kujman is really great at this stuff. He suggested we leave the chambers and let her think about her situation or something like that. I didn't want to leave her alone like that and she didn't want to be left. I wanted my own fun too. Patty convinced me it was for the mental aspect and Kujman knew what he was doing. I reluctantly agreed. He said not to worry, one of his special friends would watch over her. His special friend was a tickling machine, more like a robot in monk's robe. Fully articulated and designed to tickle. Not dreaming here. He gave me two controls. One was to start the machine which would then work on it's own as it wished. And the other was the controller for her vibrator. They remain the two best gifts ever given me. Her face and begging as I left her was what dreams are made of. We left the room and as I walked away I turned on the vibrator on very low. I could hear her make a sound for a moment. After about five minutes Patty and Mike and everyone smiled big as I turned on the machine and we could all hear the screams start soon after. So we all went down stairs with Kujman. I learned a lot about mentality and head space that day.
I'm not ticklish. I'll never know exactly what she went through. Meg later said it was both the scariest and yet most thrilling time she'd ever had. When I walked away her heart just sunk and when the door shut and the vibrator came on and she was alone to stare at nothing but her soles without embarrassment she said it totally sent her into another world. But when that machine started to tickle her without mercy she said she went ballistic and was floating. She thanked me later and she was really happy that I gave her that opportunity to let her have time alone and absorb all that and go somewhere inside her head she had never been. It turned her into a tickle nerd like me.
We've since not been successful recreating that by ourselves with hanging her feet off the bed and a camera. It lacks the genuine helplessness. But have luckily met with Kujman and his gf a couple times since on the East Coast.
That's it. I'm not here to fight about Kujman which many love to do. He mastered this approach and device. He was wonderful to us, gracious, fun and gave us the time of our lives using this approach and a lot of film to look back upon.
