Chapter 1 concludes with major reveals in a jam packed pop-up event.

Experienced: June 17, 2017 at Hollywood Fringe Festival
Location: Estrella
Address: 8800 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Price: Free (iConfidant beta program participation required)
Audience Size: 40-50
Runtime: 60 minutes (15 minute reveal, private bar space)
More Information: iConfidant site, iConfidant Facebook, The Lust Experience site, Instagram, Facebook

Background of the iConfidant experience leading up to the pop-up event:

Seemingly out of nowhere (as is sometimes the case with The Lust Experience) a website revealed a new product that would help you “find your missing piece today.” This site promised to match you up with a confidant. Calling themselves a companion site they claimed to be different than the usual dating sites.

The process started with sending an email to their contact address. I quickly got a response from the Founder / CEO of iConfidant Stacey Erikson saying that she added me to their e-mail list of those interested in the program.

About a week later I got an email congratulating me on being selected for the beta test with a few questions for me to answer. These questions presumably helped to match me with my iConfidant. After another week the correspondence between me and my iConfidant was underway with a simple “Hi” emailed to me from my iConfidant.

Over the next 5 weeks or so my iConfidant and I had exchanged a total of 18 emails. The responses I got started out very generic and almost robotic which played into the theories people had that we were communicating with an AI instead of a real person. It was a slow pace but enough to talk about things ranging from the loss of a loved one to what our favorite TV shows were. It became obvious that I was talking to an extremely nuanced AI or an actual person. The experience for me was positive overall and I was excited to see a Facebook post mentioning that we would get to meet our iConfidant in person on June 11th.

Up until this point I had no idea what my iConfidant’s name or gender was. I had asked for a name but that question was ignored. I was very curious what the meetup would ultimately be. As the days drew closer to June 11th some suspicious things happened.

• Stacey Erikson did a facebook live video to discuss potential technical issues with the beta related to a security breach but reiterated that everything was fine and on for the June 11th meet & greet. It reminded me of a hostage video with her frequently looking at someone off camera to make sure she’s saying the right thing.
• Some participants in the beta program were getting calls and even visits from Stacey about some weirdness with iConfidant (a physical bugging device in someone a participant’s house for example).
• Literally minutes before reservations were released for the iConfidant Meet & Greet there was another facebook live video where Stacey hauntingly declares that she has no idea who the iConfidants we have been corresponding with are.

Day of the event:

The morning of the Meet & Greet we were emailed a zip code to be in for the 2pm event. Eventually we found out the event was to be held at Estrella in West Hollywood and introductions would start at 2:20PM. There was a private space for the iConfidant Meet & Greet attendees and after walking in we put a nametag on. This fit perfectly with the Meet & Greet theme but also allowed us to mingle with other iConfidant beta program participants.

We were gathered into a private theater space with seats in a room behind the bar at exactly 2:20PM for “introductions”.

Introductions begin (live streamed here):

The crowd was anxious as we filed into the theater. There was a tangible but oddly somber excitement in the air. Almost as if we knew something bad was about to happen. A legitimate meetup of someone you had been corresponding with for over a month wouldn’t feel so oddly formal. One individual even brought a bouquet of flowers for his iConfidant and had to awkwardly file into a theater with them.

A man finally stepped on stage encouraging us to whoop and holler to meet our iConfidants with “Who wants to meet their iConfidants!!” Suddenly he became very serious, robotic, almost possessed, as he started to yell at us about submitting ourselves wholly to The Lust Experience. The lighting on him and his tone of voice put a damper on the excitement as this event took a sudden sinister tone.

This was the beginning of many game changing reveals packed into the short 15 minute presentation:

• Stacey didn’t know the meet & greet was still happening after her last live stream revealed she wasn’t in control of iConfidant
• Kristen (who was filming Stacey’s final live stream) was playing her and used Stacey’s revelation as bait to get us all to come to this event
• Anoch (deity worshipped by the cult in The Tension Experience) is a part of The Lust Experience story. Up until this point there wasn’t much tying The Lust Experience to The Tension Experience.
• Tom (scientist that played Addison’s faux father and creator of brainwashing helmet technology in The Tension Experience) was behind the takeover of iConfidant from Stacey

The biggest reveal was when the crowd, once again, was asked the if we wanted to see who our iConfidants were. At this point I expected a group of handlers (female characters from The Tension Experience, dressed in white, taken in by the cult to follow Anoch) since many of the reveals up until this point were references to the previous season.

Only one hooded person came out on stage. The hood came off revealing Addison. The same Addison that drove off in the dramatic finale of The Tension Experience after she found out that much of her reality in the OSDM ‘cult’ was fabricated and that Tom wasn’t even her father.

One person was corresponding with all of us via email. She was all of our iConfidants. This reveal left everyone speechless. It tied together the story from the previous season with this current season. It brought back ties to the OSDM cult and Anoch and all the folklore we came to love. It re-introduced the main character through most of the live event from last year.

Tickets to the Meet & Greet were limited to those who were part of the iConfidant beta program so there was at least some vested interest in the reveal of our iConfidants. Anyone who was not a part of The Tension Experience would have probably been very confused but hopefully extremely intrigued. We had time to mingle after the presentation in private to discuss story points further. Overall this event was a great way to end Chapter 1 of The Lust Experience.

This event, despite not being fully immersive in nature, is a very satisfying way to further the long form episodic story being woven for us. Last year’s Scare LA presentation played out similarly and was what got me hooked into their world. I had little idea what was going on at the time but could tell by audience reaction that something very unique was brewing. Come along for the ride you won’t regret it!