The Upstage Interview: Cameryn Moore

(Charlebois Post Publisher's Note: This interview falls well, in our planning, as the editors at CharPo also consider Ms Moore Fringe Personality of the year for her tireless work not only to promote her show, but also to promote the Fringe, here, itself.)

Upstage Host Eric Sukhu spoke with Cameryn Moore about Little Black Book Productions' Slut Revolution, presented as part of 2011 Fringe Festival. Below is an abridged version of the interview, edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

UPSTAGE

Tell us about Slut Revolution

MOORE

Slut Revolution (SR) was my artistic response to the things people were bringing up to me last year when I was touring Phone Whore (PW) at Fringe Festivals. PW is based on my work as a phone sex operator. Being a voyeuristic experience for the audience, they would come up to me afterwards and say it was wonderful but we want to know more about you.  How do you get to a place where you’re doing phone sex. What is your life like that led you to this point. SR is my chance to respond to that. As I started looking at formative sexual experiences and developments in my life, organizing it around themes, I was struck by how very much it made sense that I ended up doing PW. SR contains all that and more.

PW was more about my relationships with clients and more abstract issues about fetishes, sexuality, and taboos but SR is an autobiographical experience.

UPSTAGE

SR is more personal. 

MOORE

PW was more about my relationships with clients and more abstract issues about fetishes, sexuality, and taboos but SR is an autobiographical experience.

UPSTAGE

Is that scary?

MOORE

I’ve been working publicly around sexuality issues for about a year and a half.  I would like to think I’ve developed a thick enough skin to deflect judging stares, crossed arms in theatre (a very aggressive stance to take towards a performer). I’d like to think I’ve developed some defences around that.

Every time I say something that’s really outside audience experience I’m concerned about what kind of effect reinforcing that otherness I’ve felt in my life will have on the audience. 

UPSTAGE

Any experiences with audience reaction after the show?

MOORE

Every time I say something that’s really outside audience experience I’m concerned about what kind of effect reinforcing that otherness I’ve felt in my life will have on the audience.  Responses from audience after the show heals my soul.  Hugging me and telling me how much they could relate to this or that point. 

In the middle of the show I feel strange but afterwards I see that there’s commonality and I am not as far away from everybody as I sometimes feel.

UPSTAGE

Last year I noticed one PW audience member seemed to pull back as if  - what did she just say! Is SR like that? 

MOORE

SR isn’t nearly as graphic as PW; it's more intimate and vulnerable.  There are flashbacks of memories that are unusual but it’s not nearly as discomfiting to the majority of audience as PW could be; much more relatable in a lot of ways.

When I am coming at it from "a this is my experience" point of view, I am choosing to open up to you the audience.

UPSTAGE

Do you find people get uncomfortable when sexuality is presented in theatre?

MOORE

I am really committed to presenting  my artistic portrayals of sexuality in a way that is authentic for me. When I am coming at it from "a this is my experience" point of view, I am choosing to open up to you the audience. Coming at it from this perspective makes people feel more comfortable. Still in your face but coming from a gentler place.

UPSTAGE

When writing a show do you try to make sexuality more present or do you tone it down to make the audience comfortable?

MOORE

No. With PW I was thinking about what are the kinds of calls that I take; what is a good representative sample; which calls might be received as more scary or confrontational. With SR not everything in my life has to go in the show. In a one hour show there’s only room for so much …I did have to do some editing to maintain the things that support the development of the show.

UPSTAGE

Will SR be touring? 

MOORE

I did three shows in Boston. And I'm taking it to Winnipeg and Calgary from here. Each of my shows are workshopped and previewed three months before they come out in Boston, giving me plenty of time to hone script and polish it so that by the time it gets to Boston and Fringe it’s a finished work.

...no matter how sexy Montreal is, there’s still a current of some repression.

UPSTAGE

When we were talking about PW being well received in Montreal, you told me Montreal is the sexiest city in North America.  

MOORE

Don’t know if that’s the strength of the legend but it’s an incredibly sexy city.  There are people in Montreal who would come up to me and start talking to me about sex stuff – I would say to them I’m interested in why you would come up and talk about this to me. They would say well my friend was nearby and they didn’t want them to hear – so no matter how sexy Montreal is, there’s still a current of  some repression.

UPSTAGE

What kind of reaction is there to your presentation?

MOORE

PW brought up strong reactions.  Once when I was flyering around the venue, a man came up to me and said - I was just at your show and found it revolting. In my head I was going "what did you expect – it’s called Phone Whore!"  

...I set up my manual typewriter outside MainLine and on Prince Arthur sidewalk.  I call it sidewalk smut...

UPSTAGE

You were typing outside the beer tent – what was that all about?

MOORE

It’s a way to use late afternoon time and promote the show. When  I arrived, the beer tent wasn’t up yet so I set up my manual typewriter outside MainLine and on Prince Arthur sidewalk.  I call it sidewalk smut; short abrupt erotic fiction where sometimes I’m just making stuff up on the fly; I sometimes will take custom orders for $5.

On the first weekend on St-Laurent, I was typing in a restaurant doorway when a  group of three people stopped by. I did a custom piece for one of them. Another of the three who seemed very skeptical asked for a story. I wrote a short piece that involved him being at the mercy of his girlfriend to whom he had given a gift certificate to a sex toy store. The story involved clamps, blindfolds; and more. I really thought I had gone too far. When  I looked up his jaw was on sidewalk. That was my 6 month anniversary, he said. I felt like I was doing psychic sidewalk smut.