Timb is a familiar face at local music shows and fetish parties. He's the lithe blond standing more than 6 feet tall and dressed in something skintight or gender-bending while toting around a sticker-encrusted acoustic guitar. While he's better known for singing punk-infused drinking songs, the singer-songwriter is heavily involved in South Florida's fetish scene through his day job as a graphic designer at Fetish Factory in Fort Lauderdale. For 13 years, the store has hosted the largest fetish parties in the area, and has recently seen a spike in attendance.
City Link Metromix.com recently spoke with Timb about his work, his lifestyle and "closet fetishists."
How long have you been working with Fetish Factory?
I started right before Valentine's Day in 2004, so I've been here just over four years. But I still love it, and I love the fetish scene here in Fort Lauderdale.
What did you do before designing for Fetish Factory?
I have a bachelor's in computer animation. I was a video game artist for years. While I was in the industry, I worked on three games and two of them saw release: real-time strategy title Star Trek: Starfleet Command and the infamous, politically incorrect shooting game Postal 2.
When I first started Fetish Factory, I was working part time for AmeriCorps, which was pretty interesting. I was helping out doing design work for inner-city volunteer and charity organizations. AmeriCorps is a really good idea in theory, and I was even offered a lucrative web-design job at the Pompano Beach C ity Hall, but the bureaucracy of the job tended to be a turnoff.
The FF ads you design are iconic in South Florida. What kind of reactions do you get from people when they find out you work on them?
I think people don't believe me at first when I tell them what I do, like it's some sort of glorious job or something. It's a fun job, and it's probably different than a lot of stuff out there, but it's really not glorious at all.
How are you involved in the parties?
My job involves a lot of online promotion for the events, but when the weekend comes and it's time for the party, I'm completely off-duty. Any discussion of business while I'm at the party is strictly off-limits. I just go there to party, man.
What's the most interesting thing you've seen at a Fetish Factory event?
I've seen it all, so not a lot shocks me anymore, but every now and then, there's a performance that just blows my mind. At the 11-year [anniversary] event, our Extreme Players Party, we had suspension performances by Allen Falkner that were simply breathtaking. He suspended himself from the ceiling in the middle of the party with hooks through his skin and progressively cut the lines until he was hanging from a single hook in his back. The intensity and emotion in his performance was like nothing I've ever seen before. The next year, he came back with a friend and built a whole good-vs.-evil concept into his suspension performance. It was something to see for sure, both beautiful and horrific at the same time. I went up to him after the show and told him how incredible I thought it was, but he might as well have been on the moon at that point. I don't think he even heard me.
What are the average people who shop at the store like?
Most people are cool, but there are some unlikely people who are on the fringe, and that is a large part of our clientele. Many express their fetishes in private. It's their dark, little secret. I like to call them "closet fetishists." Some closet cases are comfortable when they come to the store, but the ones who aren't are a trip. It seems that many closeted types are very uncomfortable with the darker side of their sexuality. As a result, they tend to be really jumpy and nervous when they come into the store, like their brain is about to pop. This is mostly just a clothing store, so it's pretty strange to see people act so pensive. But hey, everybody has their quirks and weirdness.
Do you find a sense of community within the groups of people who attend the Fetish Factory parties?
I grew up thinking I was the only person who had these kinky thoughts so I felt strange and alone for a long time. It's wonderful to come into a scene like this and know that a lot of people share these thoughts and interests and can express them in a positive way, safely, sanely and consensually. Everyone at the party is pretty much open-minded, friendly and accepting. We've seen everything. We've seen it all. There is definitely a sense of togetherness and community.
I'm a very sex-positive person. I believe that an open, positive expression of personal sexuality is a healthy part of life and allows people to be much more well-adjusted in day-to-day life. I'm sure some people don't agree with me, but they are also the sort of person who would not understand or attend the fetish party or shop at our store, so they are sort of on the outside anyway. People who wouldn't understand the parties or might be offended by them choose not to attend them, and that's how it should be. It's a choice, like anything. If you don't like what's on TV, change the channel or turn it off. But you have that choice.
Fetish Factory will host a Back to School party 10 p.m. Aug. 9 at Purgatory, 1000 W. State Road 84 in Fort Lauderdale.
Call 954-563-5777 or visit Fetishfactory.com.
For more on Timb or to listen to his music, visit Timbrocks.com.
Contact Jake Smith at jsmith@citylinkmagazine.com
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