Naughty Events: A Journey Through Intimacy and Freedom === [00:00:00] This Week, On Hot Couple Chronicles ​ So I started chatting them up and inviting 'em over to the house and pretty soon we were having 200 people at our house. But probably the biggest moment for us when we did a charter for an 1800 cabin ship. And I remember sailing on that ship and standing is the skybar you know, above the pool. And as we pulled away from the dock, I was just like, wow, this is crazy. From having 20 people originally in our house to 3,600 people on the ship. I won't say I went to bed early, but like two in the morning. Yeah. The next year I saw five sunrises. You're gonna get laid a lot less by throwing your own events. Oh yeah. Um, don't do it because at some point you will be. I lost two careers because of this. I was in the military and [00:01:00] ABCNews came and did an undercover story at one of our parties, and my commanding officer immediately did a investigation. It was a Halloween party and so not a good decision to wear a flight suit when you're in the military, especially when someone's doing undercover TV story on you. But I ended up getting outta the military and doing this full time. So I guess in the end, it was one of the best things ever happened to me. we're kind of the Super Bowl of swinging and I think we need to have a little responsibility that comes with that. I don't believe we're born monogamous. I think monogamy is a learned behavior. I think we're wild animals that love to have sex. be careful what you asked for because all of a sudden the women are like, you know, I wanna have some fun. And the guys are like, whoa, slow down a minute. And it's, it's quite a reversal. But every single person you [00:02:00] look at on the side is smiling and laugh. Oh, they're cheering, they're cheering it on. They're reading the signs, they're clapping. It's unexpected, I'll say, for some people and I love that. ​ Welcome to Hot Couple Chronicles, a podcast exploring the swinging lifestyle. Our discussions may contain explicit content and adult themes intended for mature audiences. While we strive to offer valuable insights and entertainment, please be aware that the views expressed are based on personal experiences and opinions. We encourage listeners to approach the content with an open mind and to prioritize communication, consent, and respect in their relationships. Remember, everyone's journey is unique, so take what resonates with you and leave what doesn't. Thank you for joining us on our [00:03:00] adventure. ​ I'm Russ. And I'm Ashley. And this is Hot Couple Chronicles. We have a guest today that has been around for quite some time now. He has been in the lifestyle for just a little minute. We are here today with Bob Hannaford with Naughty Events. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Does that mean I'm old? Uh, I didn't. I've been around a while. Not saying that, not saying that. I've definitely been around a while and, uh, I've seen, I've seen a lot of changes and, uh, but I like the way it's going. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about who you are and what Naughty events is and all of the details about how that came about. Well, the short story is I lived in New York [00:04:00] and used to go to some clubs in New York, and I guess that's the first time I really was, introduced to lifestyle clubs and I moved to New Orleans and there was really nothing happening and I was really surprised and kind of disappointed. So back in those days, uh, before Snapchat, before Facebook, uh, I was on America online and I started going to these chat rooms for couples, and all of a sudden I realized there was a bunch of. Lifestyle couples in these chat rooms. So I started chatting them up and inviting 'em over to the house and pretty soon we were having 200 people at our house. And my wife, my wife Tess at the time was like, okay, we can't do this no more. This is too much. And so we kind of had a natural transition over the years from our house to restaurants, to hotels, to cruise ships, to, you know, you name it, we've pretty much done it. Yeah. When was the [00:05:00] moment when you realized this is way bigger than you even imagined it becoming? Oh, I, I guess the first time was at our house. Yeah. There were cars parked everywhere on the streets in front of people's houses, and I was panicking and trying to figure out where I could move the cars and that's when Tess was like, we've gotta do something else. Then our first, uh, we did monthly parties for a long time and our first convention, was, I won't say it was a flop, but we rented way too many rooms and didn't sell them all. And it was, that was a very eye-opening moment for us. And I remember her saying, what are we gonna do? We had to take a loan out to pay the hotel bill off. And, uh, but everybody had a good time. Yeah. And even though we knew we were getting crushed, we just smiled and pushed through, had a great weekend and people were like, oh my God, we love New Orleans. What a great place to hold an event. [00:06:00] And back then we were at the airport, which is a lot different than actually being on the corner of Canal and Bourbon. It's a big difference. Yeah. But probably the biggest moment for us when we did a charter for an 1800 cabin ship. And I remember sailing on that ship and standing is the skybar you know, above the pool. And as we pulled away from the dock, I was just like, wow, this is crazy. From having 20 people originally in our house to 3,600 people on the ship. It's, it's, uh. You know, it really made me kind of sit and think and, and so here we are today. We're thankfully not doing cruise ships anymore. COVID was, uh, wow. Not really kind to us. But you know, we made it through and we're still doing our little hotel parties and little. Yeah, you know, just you're little get together. We're very open that Naughty [00:07:00] Nawlin's is our favorite event we've ever been to. We tell everyone we know that you have to experience Naughty at least one time. You have got to you. It's just different than anything else you're gonna find out there. It's more than just a party for sure. When we started it, our goal. Was to do a party that we would enjoy going to. Mm-hmm. And pretty quickly on, I realized we had a very diverse crowd. I remember it was probably 15 years ago, telling Tess, I wanna do a dungeon. And she's like, why? Lifestyle people aren't into the dungeon. And I said, I think there's a lot of people that has crossover and I'm personally interested in it. So, uh, just, just gimme a small room. I need a small room. And, uh, the dungeon this year was just crazy. And so we've, we've really expanded and added so much education. Things like the dungeon and the rooms that used to just be [00:08:00] playrooms with mattresses now are themed. And uh, there's just a lot of different things going on, a lot of different entertainment. And I think we've really created something special. And I think mainly it's because everyone that comes feels that they have a home, they have something for them. We're not one type of attendee where I think we're the most diverse event there is. And I think what makes us really special is we're very collaborative. Uh, we have event producers and club owners from all over the country that come and it's kind of their annual, I don't know if you'd say pilgrimage, but it's, they're, they're part of the event too. They teach classes, they dj, we have them put up booths where they can advertise and I think the collaborative nature of it is different than a lot of other parties. Yeah, yeah. It's very large, but it's still a small community and I think we all will get [00:09:00] so much farther and we will all be such a better space if we all just work together. So I can't, we all just get along. I know. Yeah. I love it. What I love about Naughty Nawlins is it is truly what you want it to be. Yeah. Like you have so much stuff going on that you can choose your own path and yeah, I absolutely love that. Like you said, there's, it's a such diverse crowd and you have honestly catered to everyone in that crowd and everybody gets to pick what they wanna do and what they wanna turn the whole experience into. And it amazed me the first year we went. I'm excited for this year coming up in 2026 and hopefully to make it this year. Yeah, yeah. I actually get to be there this year. I mean, you go above and beyond. It's crazy to me just how exhausted you must [00:10:00] be and the sense of relief you must feel that Monday mornings like I did it. It's, uh, it's a lot. I mean, I, I honestly, I don't get a lot of sleep that weekend. I was gonna say. We have amazing team. Saw you running around a few times, but that's it. Well next year you need to grab me and stop me. But, I have a really good team and the more we've gone along, the larger, our team has grown, which makes it easier for me at the event. Um, my, I guess my, my way of thinking is the more I plan before the event. The less I have to worry during the event. And thankfully we have just amazing people between the volunteers, the supervisors that we pay to be there and our paid staff. They take a lot of burden off of Tess and I and allow this thing to run. And we give them a lot of leeway too. We believe in them. We have confidence in them. So I tell them, you don't have to call me [00:11:00] unless it's really important. If they call me it's not good. But I think, I don't know if you ever heard of Burning Man. Yeah. To me, the first time I went to Burning Man, it was like a bucket list and I thought I'd do it once, and I went and I experienced it and I thought, well, now I understand Burning Man. I went home and I decided to book it the next year and I went with someone else the next year and it was a completely different experience. Yeah. And I remember thinking to myself, wow, I thought I knew Burning Man, but there was a whole late night subculture I didn't even know about. 'Cause the first year I was, I won't say I went to bed early, but like two in the morning. Yeah. The next year I saw five sunrises. Yeah. And I saw a completely different thing. And then the third year I went back and I kind of combined the first two and, and explored and saw other things that I didn't see in the first two times. So [00:12:00] what we want Naughty to be is a different experience every time you come. And what, what usually happens is, uh, couples will come and they'll do the bar parties and they may do a pool party, and then next year they'll be like, let me go to some classes. And it's a very different experience and we have some people that do the classes the first year and they're really locked into the classes. And the next year they're like, maybe we should do some bar parties. The truth is you can't do it all. You, you can't all, like, we opened that app that first year we went and we're like, oh, like, there's no way you can do everything. There's no, and then we, we were a different couple, so we, yeah, we went to party route the first year. Yeah. We were excited to be there and never been to New Orleans. We went to all the day parties, all the night parties. Now this year, me by myself, and we brought friends. It was more educational and seminars. Exactly. But you [00:13:00] can't, there's so much stuff going on and you're always opening more places to the schedule. So it is, yeah, the speakeasy this year, and I just loved it. I was there every night till four in the morning. Oh yeah. And I just had so much fun. I loved the vibe in there and, and the dungeon. Of course was very different this year than past years. And so we're always, I, I tell you, our team, we have meetings every week and we're like, what else can we do? Mm-hmm. And we go not only to other lifestyle events. In fact, four of our staff was at Splash last week. But we go to EDC, we go to Burning Man, we go on music cruises, we go to festivals that are not particularly lifestyle, but we watch what they do and we look at their production and we get ideas and we're always listening, you know, probably the best thing we get is the feedback in the surveys after the weekend's over. Yeah. Yeah. Now, [00:14:00] so before Burning Man, this past year, you sent that email out, inviting people that went to Naughty, that's on the Naughty newsletter and everything to come with you to Burning Man. And I'm gonna tell you, had us sold of like, like if we could make time, we would've been right there with you. There's, there's prob, I mean there's thousands of lifestyle couples that go to Burning Man. Okay. It's not what I would call, uh, a sexual event at all. Uh, people think everyone's naked. It is not. It's, uh, I'm naked probably more than most, but I know people that live naked there. But typically most people are not. They're wearing costumes and clothes and it's a lot of self-expression. Um, so I have lots of people that come to our camp that don't camp with us, but they're just there and they hear that I'm there, so they come stop by. Uh, and we throw a party once a week just [00:15:00] to try to bring lifestyle people together. Uh, we had about five couples that actually camped with me this year, which was really cool. A few of them I didn't even know had been to Naughty, like literally halfway during the week I said something about New Orleans and they said, yeah, it's our favorite event. And I was like, wait a minute, you, you've been to Naughty? I just thought they were camping with us, but they said, no, we got your email and that's why we booked. And I was like, oh, okay. But it's, it's a very different experience. But I love it and I try to bring a little bit of my burner self into the mix when planning Naughty. Hey there listeners. Are you looking to prioritize your sexual health and wellness? We've got just a thing for you. Shameless care offers at-home testing kits, telehealth, consultations, and even treatment for ed, and performance anxiety for when you wanna play, but your body says otherwise. It's convenient. Discreet and all about keeping you at your best. And guess what? We've teamed up with them to give you an exclusive discount. Use code hot. That's code HOT [00:16:00] at checkout to get $30 off your first order. Don't walk, run. It's time to take charge of your sexual health today with Shameless care because your health is nothing to be ashamed of. ​ Yeah. Yeah. I know we've noticed a big uptick in the crossover between the festivals, the music festivals. Yeah. The speakers we had this year were festival speakers. They were, oh man. When our sound team came in they didn't say anything to me before, and they placed the speakers in. I was just like, wait, what? We're gonna play those speakers in here? The subs were as tall as me. Yeah. And I was like, is this gonna hurt the walls? But these particular speakers are made by aerospace engineer. He is very famous in the festival world for having very clean sounds and not having to like blow you [00:17:00] away to make it sound good. And that's really important to me. I always say I want it to be loud on the dance floor, but I want people to be able to talk on the outskirts of the room. And so that's when they brought them speakers in. I was like, oh, no. And the first night when they were dialing them in, it was rattling our stages. But they got 'em dialed in and, and wow. It's, it was pretty neat. Do you have any advice for anybody that wants to create their own event? You know, we, we do an industry tour every year. It's on Friday. We call it Bob and Tess's excellent adventure. And we take people out to different places, and I think I've already got the place picked for next year. And it's a way for people that are in the industry to kind of connect and meet other people in the industry. I do it for two reasons. I do it because there's a lot of fighting in the industry and a lot of people not [00:18:00] particularly liking their competition. So my philosophy is if you get to know your competition, you're less likely to cause problems. And the second is to inspire and educate. I have handed over my playbook to other event planners and said, here's my contract. Here's my banquet event orders to show other people what we do and how we do it. So my advice, my biggest advice would be, understand two things. You're gonna get laid a lot less by throwing your own events. Oh yeah. And you'll find out who your friends are because I, I remember we were having 200 people at our house and they were free. The parties were free, and we moved it to a commercial property and we had to charge. We charged $40 for the night and included food, and our numbers plummeted because people didn't wanna pay $40. And people that would come to every single house party that [00:19:00] we thought were great friends stopped coming. They didn't wanna pay $40. And it, it's just really, it was really disappointing to me at first. And you kind of find out who your friends are really quick and you're so busy running the event, you don't have time to do what everyone else is doing. Yeah. Like I mentioned before with the staff I have now, I take more time. Wednesday night I sat and I got myself a little VIP area and invited some of my friends and we sat there and danced and had so much fun. And I was like, this is what it's like being on the other side. And like I said, the speakeasy, I was up every night to four because by then pretty much everything was shut down and I could just relax and dance and have fun and you know, my wife was up on people's shoulders and we were actually experiencing the event. And most people can't do that when they're just running a club [00:20:00] or a party by themselves. But they don't realize that until they get knee deep in it. And and the other thing I tell people is if you're ever gonna run a party, you can't be outed or you can't be out. Um, don't do it because at some point you will be. I lost two careers because of this. I was in the military and ABCNews came and did an undercover story at one of our parties, and my commanding officer immediately did a investigation. I never got in trouble. I never got named. Luckily they blurred my face out. But, I made a genius decision at the time of wearing a flight suit. It was a Halloween party and so not a good decision to wear a flight suit when you're in the military, especially when someone's doing undercover TV story on you. But I ended up getting outta the military and doing this full time. So I guess in the end, it was one of the best things [00:21:00] ever happened to me. But at the time it was a little difficult to go through. Oh yeah. We understand that. Oh, completely. That's why yeah, we, and we know of so many close people that have similar stories, similar journeys, and us personally have similar stories. And I mean, but that's why we're doing this and that's why we're here. And that's why we work so hard and keep pushing and hopefully one day you won't have to. And I know that you've written about so many different values and consent and BDSM and STD prevention. How do you balance all of your values? What are your values for Naughty? One of the things we're rolling out this week, actually, um. Not really our surprise, but it is a surprise. We just got the hotel links in finally and we tested them and there were some mistakes. Anyway, they're fixed again and we tested 'em over the weekend and hopefully maybe they'll go out today. But while we were waiting for the links, we created a video about consent. It's about [00:22:00] three minutes long, I think and it says what our values are, what our ethics are, what our policies are, and from now on, you won't even be able to book a room at our events until you watch this video. We're making it a disruptor. So not only, and a lot of people are gonna hate this, not only do you have to watch a video before you can book your room, you have to take a quiz and pass it. I like it. To make sure you understand it. You can't just skip to the end and say, where's my link? You have to somewhat listen, and if you don't pass it, you can just watch the video again, take the test again. But every single person at our event, and I've never heard of a club or an event doing this, but I will know that every single person that's at our event at least understands our consent policies. Yeah. And, and what's happened is Naughty's become so big because we bring a lot of people that have never been to a club, [00:23:00] never been to an event. And I don't want someone that doesn't understand to get into trouble or, or take something for granted or, uh, just simply not understand. And we've always put out a lot of messaging and we always have a consent class. Usually gets about 40 people. And what about the other? 2,900 people. So I think it's important for us because I feel like I'm a grandfather now. I feel like we're the grandfather event in the country. We're one of the longest running and largest. I think there's a responsibility. And so we're trying to be kind of the example to other clubs and events of, of what we should do to educate. It's why we have so much education at our event. I want people to go home knowing more than what they knew when they came, not [00:24:00] just partying their asses off like rock stars, which I want them to do that too. I want them to have all the things, but if you go home, a better partner then when you came, if you learned a little bit more about intimacy, about communication, about how to work not only with your partner but with other people, if you pick up some skills, if you're interested in the dungeon and you learn some things that you could take home with you. To me, I think that's the biggest win for Naughty. We don't have that many issues with consent, thankfully. Knock on wood. We've had a couple in the past and usually alcohol's involved. Yeah. And usually it's somebody new. So we got together as a team and went, okay, how can we prevent this? The after party we didn't serve alcohol. And we are trying to think of things to do to help. You [00:25:00] know, we screen people as they come in the play floor, and if they look too intoxicated. We turn 'em away and we say, come back tomorrow. And that's the biggest issue we have. We get a lot of angry people. What do you mean I'm too intoxicated? And you know, as they're stumbling and almost tripping and we're like, look, it's, it's important to us. We want our people to feel safe and have the safest encounter is possible. And we feel the best way of doing that is educating them before they get to the event. So, we're rolling out our hotel packages this week and everybody's gonna have to watch a video. Even the staff, the speakers, the entertainers, everybody, nobody's exempt. And I think that's a big step forward. Yeah. Yes. That's huge. Definitely, there's people that are leaders and should set a good example. We were just talking about that recently. I feel sometimes like we're consent, consent, consent. It feels [00:26:00] like everyone should know it. It's something that we repeat constantly. Yeah. At some point it almost feels like we're broken records, but then there's always that one person that is new in the room that needs to hear it, so I know, and it's the most important thing here. I think it's that and STI. So the two big pushes we're making now. As we said, I've been doing this for a while. Yeah. And I was doing this pre AIDS and nobody was using condoms and nobody was getting tested and AIDS came out and shut everything down. And everybody was like, oh, wait a minute, uh, maybe we should be changing the way we're doing this and we were an advocate from very, very early on pushing condom use, and we provide them, we hand them out. We put signs everywhere at our event in the app, everywhere we can, we have classes about it. This year we had two companies and those companies in the main section of the halls where you have to [00:27:00] walk by, there's other promoters and podcasters around the corner. But if you're walking in the main hall, you're gonna see the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. You're gonna see the STD places you're gonna see sex education. We think that's the most important thing we can have, and we make that in the most important place in our event. And I think when you go to other events, you can see what's important to 'em. You know, we, we go to events that are lifestyle events. They don't even have play floors. They don't have any education, they don't have anything like what we do. And that's okay. I love going to those events because I'm going there to party. Party. Yeah. But I, I think it's, like I said, we're the, we're kind of the Super Bowl of swinging and I think we need to have a little responsibility that comes with that. I do. I love that. I love that. 'cause I do agree. I think you guys have set the standard for events. I love it there so much. I don't think you understand. Well, without hot [00:28:00] couples from Georgia coming, it'd just be me and Tess sitting around. It'd be a whole lot less fun. I promise you. So when we accidentally became social media influencers, advocates, whatever you wanna call us. Yep. And we went to our first Naughty. Our goal was to get Naughty's attention, Wanna be invited to Naughty. We wanna be invited to Naughy. That was a goal. And then this last year when you invited us and Ashley got to go and have her table, and have her space and meet all these incredible people, it was definitely a highlight this past year. Well, we, we definitely saw a lot of your content and this week we put out. Thank you for that. A bunch of stuff from you guys from Instagram and also your YouTube and your podcast. We wanna support podcasts like y'all's because we listen [00:29:00] to it. Our team listens to podcasts almost every day, and we have to because there's so many out there now. And yeah, there's a lot out there now. There's some that are a shit show. I'm sorry, and there are other ones that are really informative and they're telling people and explaining throughout the year, what we try to do in one weekend. And we appreciate you guys as well because you're carrying the message and letting people know about the fun stuff. I mean, look, I like listen to the fun stuff just as much as anybody. The hot and steamy stuff. But it's great when there's also a message to it. Yeah. You know, I, I listen to a podcast. It was actually two different podcasts last week and they were talking about taking care of yourself. One was 4OurPlay, Bella and Jace. And they kept taking naps and in their videos they're like, oh, there's so much to do, but we have to take a [00:30:00] nap or we'll never make it tonight. And I thought that self-care was so good. I, I wrote a blog about it last week, and then I, I saw another or listened to another podcast. They don't have video and the girl was talking about how she got overwhelmed. Overstimulated, overwhelmed and Naughty was at the end of a nine day road trip for them, and she hadn't seen her kids in nine days, and she just had this moment where she was missing her kids and just overwhelmed. They didn't get any sleep the night before. They were up till four in the morning. They got up at eight in the morning because they had to do a bunch of other stuff, and it's chasing that. It's that fomo, right? Fear of missing out. Yeah, and I, I like both of these blogs because one said we just hit a wall and she slept all day and actually missed her favorite event, which is a sexual freedom parade. [00:31:00] But it enabled her to go out that night and experience things with her friends that she might not have had if she had not taken a nap. That was one thing we learned quickly is after the first night we said, okay, we're gonna skip. Because we, that first year we were. The partier. We were going to, the day parties take bar takeovers, I mean, from basically noon to 8:00 PM was four different bars. And so we decided, okay, we're gonna make dinner reservations, so we have to go at six o'clock at night. We need to get something to eat that gives us time to go, maybe take a nap, get ready for the night party. And ever since, they always ask, what's your best advice for events like Naughty, bigger events and we always say, you have to eat, you have to hydrate, you have to sleep, and you have to just take a minute, whatever you need to. Yeah. 'cause it's not, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. You gotta take your time. It's, yeah. We say that all the time. The, the [00:32:00] marathon sprint analogy is perfect. Yeah. We now we have these IV guys. I had a guy that was, he was so hung over and he was, his eyes were bloodshot. I'm like, dude, go see the IV guys. And I saw him two hours later. He is like, thank you, Bob. That saved my life. Yeah. And uh, and I've done it too, but I don't take my own advice. Yeah. Because honestly, I'm so nervous. Not, I think nervous is the wrong word. I, I'm just, I'm anxious that everything goes smoothly, so I'm always up till four and I'm always having to get up early for different operational things. Yeah. But now that I have more staff with me, I schedule one day to sleep in. It's usually Friday. And I schedule one night to take off the night and just enjoy myself. And that helps, but sleep, hydration, food. Yes. I can't, I cannot emphasize that enough. If you're gonna stay up really late, and I suggest you [00:33:00] do at least one night, you gotta take a nap. Yeah. And you probably don't know this, but I live in Mexico full time now and I am a full believer in siestas. I just got my Mexican citizenship last week. So I'm a dual citizen and I'm fully embracing the Mexican culture when it comes to siestas and I feel so much better. I don't feel drained and I feel so much better in the afternoon and the evening, and it's a little hard for me to take a nap during Naughty, but I highly encourage you guys to do it. Yeah, it is hard for me to slow down and take a nap, but at least lay down for a little bit. At least slow down. So I almost always take a little nap. A nap, but. I have the benefits of, it doesn't take me an hour and a half to get ready. Like yes. I mean, she has the makeup and the hair and you know, depending on the theme, you know, how extensive that can be. I do, and one of the [00:34:00] things I always do, I, I usually go pretty hard into the themes but usually I'm a little bit more on the crazy side. And, this started a long time ago because I never wanted anybody to dress for this theme and feel outta place or silly. Or if they look at me, they'll go, oh yeah, I'm fine. And I usually go over the top and do some silly things and, but I like expressing myself through costume and, yeah. And it's, it works for me because I do these events, right? But I, I go on the groove cruise, I go on all these other types of events, Burning Man, and I'm just one costume creature morphing into different characters throughout the week. So doing it Naughty is natural for me. But I think participating in the themes, it gets you more buy-in. It gives you more conversation with other people. Yeah. Yeah, breaks the ice easier. And honestly at this point, as soon as [00:35:00] we realized that Ashley was going to Naughty, the costume planning started then at that moment. Feels like prom. And now, especially at events like Naughty where everybody goes over the top. I mean, it's New Orleans. It's the perfect place to go over the top anyways, but you feel out place when you're not in theme. It's like prom of swinger events. We, We do tell people you don't have to dress up. Yeah. But you'll probably feel more comfortable if you do. Yeah. Yes. Because being the one person not in theme, can make you feel a little odd. But we never wanna push anybody or make them feel uncomfortable. You can kind of see the first timers because they're the ones walking around in a polo shirt and jeans and then after that first event, they're like I'm going shopping. We're planning now. Yeah, we're gonna start planning now. Or I've seen, I mean, we have such great stores in New Orleans. Oh yeah. [00:36:00] Like Cutie Pie and just so many different places. Hustler Hollywood. And one of my favorite is Fifi Mahoney's, which is a wig store. And their wigs are next level. And I see people come in the first day and then the second day they're grabbing their husbands. They're like, we're going shopping. And they head out and then they come with a complete new costume the next night that they didn't even bring with them. And I think that's awesome. And talking about how long you've been around. What have you seen change the most from back when you started to now? I think the normalizing of it. You know, I, I read a book many years ago called Making the World a Better Place for Gays and Lesbians. And one of the crux of the books was that so many people were in the closet. And Harvey Milk was a big advocate. And, he was actually a politician, became a politician [00:37:00] advocate and was openly gay. And he said, coming out is our secret weapon. And what we're seeing now is the normalization through media, especially social media. We've been on 60 Minutes, Primetime Live, Oprah, 2020. I can't even think of all the shows we've been on, but it's, it's a way to normalize it. We put ourselves out there because we can. And we encourage other people. The sexual Freedom Parade was an idea for me to be out on the street marching down the damn street saying, I'm not gonna hide anymore. Accept me for who I am or don't. We don't care. We're gonna march down the street. And I, I think Pride Parades had a, a big part of that movement. Of the L-G-B-T-Q movement moving forward because people were being seen. If you don't know anyone that's [00:38:00] gay, it's very easy to be homophobic. But if you have a child that's gay, if your neighbor's gay, if the person, the cubicle next to you is gay, if you find out a friend of yours is gay, that's gonna change how you think about people in that community. And people are now finding out. Their friends, their family are poly or they're kinky, or they're into non monogamy. They have open relationships, and there was such horrible stigmas about it. It was either gross and horrible or Austin Powers-ish. Yeah. Yeah. But now I think there's acceptance and I, I really give credit to the young kids that are growing up now. When I grew up, if a girl kissed another girl in a movie, it was immediately r and everyone was talking about it. Now girls kiss in college and don't even think about it. I [00:39:00] remember telling my wife, I, I think your daughter is gay. And so of course she goes and says, bob says, you're gay. And that's not what I said, but she said, I'm not gay. I just like to kiss girls and boys. What's, that's not gay. And that's what's coming out now in this generation. And I think it's great. I think it's beautiful. I think there's still some pushback, but I think the future's bright and I think the normalization of this lifestyle, it's just a different relationship style. Yeah. And. Some people say it's a choice. I don't believe we're born monogamous. I think monogamy is a learned behavior. I think we're wild animals that love to have sex. But we're taught and trained at a young age, especially women, are trained to be, you'll find your prince charming, and [00:40:00] you'll never be attracted to anyone else again. But men are taught to go out and sow your seed and have fun. And I think there's a double standard. One of the beautiful things I've seen is the blossoming of women that come into this world. They come, not kicking and screaming, but they come being in many times coerced by their partner. Like, come on honey, just come, I, I really want a threesome. And then they show up and the woman is just like, they find their intersexuality and it blossoms. And I always tell the, the men in the relationships, be careful what you asked for because all of a sudden the women are like, you know, I wanna have some fun. And the guys are like, whoa, slow down a minute. And it's, it's quite a reversal. But the equality in sexuality is one of the biggest changes in my timeline, and I think that's a great thing. Hey, beautiful. If you're looking to feel [00:41:00] confident and sexy, voluptuous fix and has got you covered with stunning lingerie and outfits that fit every curve, and for our listeners, you can snag 10% off your order with code Hot couple in GA at checkout. Don't miss out. Check out the link below and find your next favorite piece. Yes. I love it. I agree. I do agree. I love watching our our friends, men and women, both just the blossoming, the confidence this lifestyle brings and the changes it has brought to so many people we know. And yeah. I was gonna ask you, that was my next question was about Sexual Freedom Parade because that is my, uh, that is my favorite highlight of all of Naughty Nawlins and how does logistics of that happen and how are you able to pull all of that off? Because it's insane. You know, it's amazing and we're so fortunate. I lived for most of my life in New Orleans where you can hire police to give you a police escort, even if it's a sexual [00:42:00] freedom parade. New Orleans as a community and the police department, the city has been so welcoming to our event, to our guests and so nice to us, to Tess and I just have so much respect that there's a lot of cities you would never be able to do this in. And I, I don't want this to be only in New Orleans. I'm actually working with some other people to possibly put together some sexual freedom parades in other cities that are more, I guess, open-minded. But it is just amazing. The floats, the bands, the police. It's a little bit of logistics. There's permits we have to get, we have to pay for, sanitation to clean up after it. There's a lot that goes into it. But being in that parade every single year, it's very emotional for me and Tess and I always ride on a float. We always ride together. We start the parade off together and every single year, usually about [00:43:00] a block and a half in, I jump off the float and I run up ahead and I watch everybody come by and, and to the very end. And then I run back to the front again and I high five people. And you know, it's just the amount of love and community at that moment. And I've had so many people in tears at the end of the parade and so many people just really emotional. Even, I feel a little emotional now, but it's different and I think it's one of many parts that makes Naughty special. And until you walk in that parade, and I tell people too, I have so many people, oh, I can't do that. I can't walk in a parade. Some 'em might see me. See you what? Be for sexual freedom? You're afraid? I've been, I've gone to gay Pride parades doesn't mean I'm gay. It just means I support that [00:44:00] people can love who they love. And if you are at the parade, it just means you support people can do what they want to do behind closed doors. And I think that's important. So it's not outing yourself being in a sexual freedom parade. To me it's being an ally. And showing support. And if you happen to be part of the community too, that's great. Yeah. But it's it's very empowering. At least it is to me. It is for me. I cry. Both times I have been in it. I cry and I told my closest friend I brought this year and I raved about that parade. And she had so many moments, similar moments, and all love. 2025. It's just so hard to feel that out in the open like that, in a place of such a big city. So many people. But every single person you look at on the side is smiling and laugh. Oh, they're cheering, they're cheering it on. They're reading the signs, they're clapping. It's unexpected, [00:45:00] I'll say, for some people and I love that. I've had people, you know, oh, we're not doing the parade 'cause we gotta get ready for the ball or whatever. We changed it a little earlier this year and we, and now it's back on Bourbon Street, which I think is so much better. Yeah. But I think it's just, I tell people, just do it. If you can't, if you don't wanna march in it, go stand on the sidewalk. Yeah. And wave to every people that goes by and support 'em. Wave. People are making flags now. Get a flag and wave it. And yeah, it's, it's a very, very special part of Naughty. Yeah. It's so special. I always rave about the Sexual Freedom Parade. All right. Well we are almost out of time, but before we head out of here, I know you have an announcement that you wanted to talk about before we leave. So, we just signed a contract with another hotel buyout for a Naughty Halloween, a three night event. So we're gonna be doing something similar to Naughty, but different. It's gonna be a smaller event. We're doing the Nopsi [00:46:00] Hotel and it's gonna be Halloween theme. So it's three balls. And they're gonna be pretty similar each year. The first one's gonna be a day of the dead ball. You know, I've, I love being here in Mexico and they really celebrate Day of the Dead with the face paintings and the Katrinas. And so we're gonna do a day of the Dead Ball the first night. The second night's gonna be a vampire ball. I think when you think of Ann Rice's, Vampire Chronicles and Lestat and all that, I just think New Orleans has so much lore when it comes to vampires, werewolves, and those kind of things. So we're gonna encourage people to dress like vampires, ghosts, phantoms and I think that'll be a really cool night. There's gonna be candelabras and and if people that haven't been to Nopsi, it's, it's really beautiful and looks like old New Orleans has these huge chandeliers. The walls are brick. [00:47:00] It just has a very New Orleans, almost burdelo kind of feel. And we're gonna just make that over the top. We're gonna just make it, brodelo, over the top. And then the last night is gonna be just a haunted New Orleans Halloween ball and your favorite Halloween costume. And it could be scary and gory, or it could be funny and silly, it could be creative, whatever, you know. And we're gonna bring in extra body painters and face painters. And I, I just, I think it's gonna be really cool and for people to come in early, we're gonna take 'em to some haunted houses in New Orleans. Do some tours, do some parties at Colette's. The weekend we're doing it, there's actually a Halloween parade called the Crew of Boo, and it goes up and down Canal Street. So it's only two blocks from the hotel. So we're encouraging everybody to go check out the parade. There'll be lots of throws. And then after the parade, the event will start. There's even a zombie run [00:48:00] on Saturday. It's kinda like the Running of the Bulls, but everyone dresses like zombies. So there's just a lot of, I think New Orleans is the best city for Halloween in the country by far. I don't think anyone even comes close. Yeah. And we used to throw Halloween parties and so we were brainstorming, uh, you know, Naughty's gonna sell out way earlier this year. Normally the last four years, we'd normally sell around 200 rooms by then. I think I looked at the rooms going back, I think we sold 211 1 year, 213 1 year, 216 1 year. It's like, it's almost like automatic. We've sold 500 rooms at the same time. And I was just like, oh wow. We'll be sold out months in advance. So we sat and talked about it and, so that's what we're announcing. And we're gonna announce it on Thursday and our tickets will go on sale the following Thursday on the [00:49:00] 15th of October. And it won't be this year, but it'll be next year. And I just think it's gonna be, yeah, creepy, scary, funny. It'll have all the feels of a New Orleans full moon Halloween, and I think that's just gonna be really cool. We're gonna do video mapping on the walls. We've got these huge windows in the Nopsi, and we're going to video map on 'em. So there'll be a full moon outside with bats flying around, and there'll be people peeking in the windows, you know, monsters. And I just think it's gonna be fun. I, I love Halloween. Tess and I used to run a haunted house in New Orleans. So we get to bring back our haunted house experience and and we're probably gonna launch a third event that's gonna be also at the Nopsi. And it's just gonna be the dungeon. I don't know if you got to see the dungeon this year, but, we're gonna do a BDSM weekend. That's just a kinky [00:50:00] BDSM weekend, there's a lot of crossover, but people that really enjoy that, we're gonna give a weekend that's just focused on that. And so I think we have a lot of really cool, Naughty things coming up for everybody. And I'm very proud of where it's going. Everything's selling out so easy. I can't put more people in our hotels. You know, I, I could, I could sell a lot more tickets and make a lot more money. I'm not gonna overcrowd it. So instead I'm gonna do another event. And I think it would be a lot of fun. Yeah. And there's so many people joining and this world is just blooming and it's growing so big by the minute. And you guys are the first to know about it and yeah. So your followers will probably be the first people to hear it. So you kinda got scoop there. I'm excited. We're gonna have all of that in the show notes. We'll have all of Naughty's information. You can go and check it out and yeah, I'm excited for that because I love all witchy, spooky and New Orleans. [00:51:00] That's, yeah. A lot of the reason why I fell in love with New Orleans. I'll send you a link to the event. It won't have a place you can buy tickets, but you'll see all the things we're doing and the people that we've sent it to have been like, wow, that's, yeah. A lot of clubs do Halloween parties. Mm-hmm. And a lot of event producers will do like a two night hotel takeover. We're doing it Naughty style, we're doing it big, we're doing it three nights. We're doing it the weekend before Halloween so that we don't compete with all the clubs that are doing Halloween parties. Yeah. We don't want to do that. So Colette's big Halloween party will be the following Saturday. So we'll do a big Naughty Event and then be sticking around to do the Halloween party for Colette, so it, it'll be fun. That'll be fun. Yeah. That's exciting. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being here. I am so honored to have you on our podcast. And again. Thanks for having me. For everything you do for the community and for all the amazing events that you do. It's a beautiful space. I am so glad we've [00:52:00] gotten to enjoy Naughty and we cannot wait for next year. And yes, thank you for being here. Thank you. It'd be good to see Russ finally. Yeah. Yes. It's ongoing joke at this point that friends just assume that I am murdered in a basement somewhere. So every time they see me it's just ai. But yeah. Thank you for being here. We appreciate you and as always, it's not that serious. Don't make it weird.