“Unnatural Acts” was an early Flash webisode series that allowed users to interact with the show and vote for favored acts. Modeled after The Gong Show, each webisode featured flagrantly cheesy and casually raunchy performances by atypical individuals who collectively relaxed the meaning of “talent”. The San Francisco-based comedy troupe, Killing My Lobster, wrote the acts and provided the voice talent.
As a member of the audience, the user was provided a tray of buttons that triggered various ways to interrupt or torture the performer during their act. Beyond tossing tomatoes or hurling eggs onto the stage, other indignations included nose hooks, cattle prods, hypnotic trances, molten butter, electrocution, tranquilizer darts and little yappy dogs. Any act could be brought to a quick and unceremonious conclusion (the equivalent of being “gonged”) by activating the “End Misery” button. Users voted on which performance went on to compete the following week.
I was involved from the beginning with the show’s visual design—creating the campy, 70′s-style stage set and opening title sequence, designing many of the characters, and creating the look and feel of the interface. Working closely with the writing team and the show’s producers I created brief storyboards to visualize the performers’ acts and the means by which each act could be tormented. I then served as the animation director for the series and programmed the show in Actionscript.
