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Portland’s premier kink-educational comedy show Giggle Bottom celebrated its first anniversary on Thursday, Sept. 24, to a nearly packed Clinton Street Theater. And though the show’s reputation is purposefully kinky AF, the anniversary vibe was welcoming and gentle enough that first-timers and regulars alike comfortably mingled without horny pretense. In fact, the entire theater hummed with an energy that felt more curious than DTF—making for a surprisingly inclusive show full of laughs, gasps and knowing nods.
In creating Giggle Bottom, host and kinkster-in-charge Devin Devine has built not just a rollicking comedy show, but also a safe space where presenters can talk freely about their specialty kinks, the appeal of what may be considered perversions, how to manage risk and perform dangerous kinks safely, and—perhaps most importantly—how to get the most from any and all sexual experiences, vanilla or otherwise.
“Consent is key to everything we do,” proclaimed Devine at the top of the show. “Mutual, informed, and enthusiastic consent is the sexiest thing about sex!”
While the anniversary lineup was a cacophony of shoehorned performances—from standup sets to improvised scenes, kink demonstrations, and enthusiastic host-led crowd work—the usual Giggle Bottom shows are less chaotic. Typically, one educational segment is followed by a few kink-curious comedians improvising their way through a functional demonstration of the kink, while Devine plays conductor. Everyone laughs, and everyone learns something.
For the anniversary, however, the team indulged in not one but two kink lectures, each followed by lengthy demos, multiple comedian sets, and improv games. The games may have run a bit long, the scenes lingered indulgently, and the show itself stretched longer than usual because of that decision—though most of the audience stayed until the end. It seems redundant to say the overly stacked performances were somewhat masturbatory in length. Maybe that was part of the gimmick that went over my head.
Regardless, for its anniversary show, Giggle Bottom presented a thrilling rope-tying and suspension lecture/demo with expert rope artists Natalie Rose and Ron Swanson, as well as a human-furniture lecture/demo with Mistress Dama and Jet Black. Both demonstrations were captivating, though in service of a smoother program, the show might have benefited from choosing one or the other. By the time the human-furniture demo began, the energy of the room had already been drained, leaving the performers with a bit less crowd energy to work with.
Bottom line: If you’ve ever wanted to explore a kink but felt too ashamed or embarrassed to commit to actual research, or if you’ve ever wondered how kinksters meet and skill-share IRL, or if you’ve ever wanted to witness kink demonstrations outside of an overtly sexual atmosphere—where education and humor supersede arousal, consider buying tickets when Giggle Bottom returns next year in February.
