YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH. Or can you?

Over the years I've said a lot about the players and their backgrounds, and I've tried to be as truthful as I could be. I'm not going to swear that I've never stretched the truth nor even outright lied, but I can't think of a specific instance when I did and it certainly wasn't my practice. I don't like to lie, partly for ethical reasons but mostly because I am terrible at it. (I always forget lies I've told and end up contradicting myself and giving myself away.) And I generally didn't need to, because the truth was plenty awesome enough. Jacqueline really was my next-door neighbor. Lumen, Jelly, and Fern really were the 18-year-old high school classmates of the daughter of a woman I dated. The circus folk from the circus folk episodes were really circus folk. I was proud of these facts and excited to share them. There was no need to embellish.

But this posed a problem when people asked specific questions about specific players whose backgrounds weren't so innocent.  What was I supposed to say when somebody asked, "Soandso looks so sweet and shy and innocent. Was she really so embarrassed to strip naked?" Should I have said, "Actually, there's footage elsewhere of Soandso literally fucking a trailer hitch?" Or, "I didn't ask and can't say for certain, but I'm pretty sure that Soandso is a prostitute?"

What I usually did in such cases was either plead ignorance or give an answer that was truthful yet incomplete. I'll give an example, and I'm sorry if this shatters anybody's illusions, but: Sheri and Zahara. Everything I've said about them is true. Tobi really did originally meet them as customers in her bar. And both really had never been naked on video before, or at least so they told me. But they were in Tobi's bar because they had just finished their shifts at the strip club where they both worked. Neither was unaccustomed to exposing her naked charms to strangers for money. And they might even have moonlighted as "escorts", as many strippers do. I didn't ask and they didn't tell, but they were pretty unfazed when I asked them about hardcore forfeits.

Now, should I have said this back then? Should I have said it just now? I don't know, and I'd like your opinions. Again, I'm exceedingly proud of all the true amateurs I was able to recruit, but not every player was a blushing innocent. Should I be fully candid about the ones who were not? I was even reluctant to disclose that I met so many of my players at a convention for kinky people.

Finally, to reward you for reading this far, here's a clip I'm sure many of you will be overjoyed to see:

LBOuttakes 20120606 Fern sucks your dick for five minutes

I had totally forgotten about this footage until I went digging around through the depths of the Shoots folder to see what I could find. I'm aware that I definitely coulda and probably shoulda charged for this. I woulda, but I still feel like I owe some gifts to the fans. If you really feel like you should pay for this, I will cheerfully accept tips via PayPal (or Venmo, or whatever the kids are using these days, I suppose) at red@lostbets.com. But really, unless you plan to throw a big bill in the jar, I'd rather you just paid it forward. Make a waiter's day with an extravagant tip, or something.

But I will probably need money sooner or later. I've been procrastinating on setting up a Patreon, where patrons would get early access to these outtakes and a priority hold of my ear when it comes to which outtakes should be produced next. I should get on that, and I will. But frankly, I'd rather try to squeeze windfalls from a wealthy benefactor or two then try to squeeze a few bucks from thousands. Statistically, some of you are probably very, very comfortable financially. If that's you, and you'd be interested in paying a ridiculous sum to acquire a genuine artifact of lostbets.com history, hit me up at the above email.

(Ugh. I feel dirty.)