The story behind complimentary phone sex

Many many years ago, we awoke from a dream.

We were in a doctors office waiting room - we had been going to a lot of doctors at the time for an as-yet undiagnosed problem. We were sitting in the corner near the end table, which as in the default world, was replete with partially dated magazines, some health pamphlets, and a doctor’s office shade of lamp.

Next to all of that, in the corner, and unfortunatley atypical of real life, was a red phone with the sign “Complimentary Phone Sex” in front of it.

You know, to keep the waiting room doldrums at bay.

So when we woke up, we quickly scribbled those three words on a post-it note.

We spent a while thinking about how we could make it. Remember, this was over a decade ago that we had the dream. Probably like 1997 or so.

We didn’t act on it until a few years later with the first iteration below - using a CD player that would switch on and shuffle play a CD when the phone was lifted from the receiver.

It worked ok, but was definitely bulky.

Next up - THE FUN PART - getting audio. What are friends for, but to ask them to record dirty and saucy phone sex converations (simulated or otherwise)? So we asked and they kindly and enthusiastically provided.

Another majorly fun side effect of this project is every once in a while getting these signs printed. We go to the same shop online each time and they print signs for offices. They’ve mentioned a couple of times that these signs are their favorite signs to print - brings us no end of joy to know that.

The most recent version took a more modern approach - an arduino uno with wave shield.

This worked MUCH better, had a smaller footprint, and was easier to produce in small quantities.

These ended up being a great burning man gift to several camps - they see a fair amount of usage in the dust. Two camps that have them - What Would You Do For A Pickle and the Box Office Camp.