People always told Cameryn Moore she had a great phone voice.
They then laughingly suggested she should be a phone sex operator.
Little did they know.
Moore talks about her experiences as a phone sex operator in the one-woman theatre show Phone Whore, set for Friday and Saturday (Aug. 12-13) downstairs at Acme Food Co.
The play is set in Moore’s living room and it’s like the audience is just hanging out – until the phone rings and Moore goes to work.
“They end up eavesdropping on my end of those four phone calls,” she said.
The play covers all sorts of ground on sexuality and opens the conversation about what people like behind closed doors.
Topics delve into less discussed areas of sexuality and hot-button issues, leaving mainstream preferences behind.
“Most of my calls are not because I work for a no-taboo company,” Moore said. “I respect my clients for knowing what they want and knowing how to get it.”
The play won Best Female Solo show at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in 2010 and was an honourable mention at the Ottawa Fringe Festival the same year. Moore is currently touring Phone Whore and her new play Slut Revolution across North America.
“This is a perfect kind of topic for Fringe,” Moore said. “Sex work is sex work and there is a stigma attached to it.”
Her experience in performing arts began with dance and burlesque, which quickly moved into theatre. Moore wrote, directed and choreographed much of the performances she was involved in.
“Community theatre, but we worked hard,” she said. “It’s been a lot of self-taught.”
At times, she worked as a journalist and was laid off from her job in marketing in spring 2009, which was when she decided to try phone sex as an occupation.
“That was a terrible time to be laid off,” Moore said.
After all those jokes about her great phone voice, a friend seriously suggested she try it out and gave her the website address of a company that was hiring.
When not touring her theatre shows, Moore spends 14-18 hours a day working the phones. It’s a day job to pay the bills until solo performing and touring can make ends meet to her satisfaction, Moore said.
Phone Whore begins at 8 p.m. Tickets $12/advance; $15/door. Discount rate of $10 for Fringetastic theatre festival supporters.
Mature audiences only.
After the show is an opportunity to discuss the play with Moore.
Please visit www.fringetastic.com for more information.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com