When Jessie Rosen was growing up, sex was not a typical topic of conversation. In fact, it was rare that anything even close to sex or other acts of intimacy would be brought up. So when she moved to Los Angeles, she knew that the first thing she wanted to do to break into the comedic scene was talk about sex. Because, well, why the hell not? From that, Sunday Night Sex Talks was born.
If the name of her show sounds familiar, that's because it was featured on JoJo's season of The Bachelorette, when her suitors shared their best sex stories on stage at this exact comedy show. So really, it's thanks to Rosen that we know about Wells' threesome. #Bless
Lucky for me, I recently got a chance to attend the very first co-ed performance of Sunday Night Sex Talks, and it's safe to say it was one of the best evenings I've ever had. There weren't any men fighting over a Bachelorette, but there were a bunch of hilarious comedians, so really, I win. During the show, each comedian had a chance to go on stage and tell a story.
"Sunday Night Sex Talks is obviously about sex, but for me, it’s more so about intimacy and about kind of connection around intimacy," Rosen told me before the show began. So although most of the acts involved some sort of sexual topic, that wasn't the main goal of SNST.
Overall, when creating the show, Rosen knew that she wanted to erase the taboo associated with sex; she wanted people to talk about it. "We see sex all the time, right? It’s all over TV, it’s all over the news, it’s all over movies. But like, we don’t talk about it in a forthcoming, vulnerable way really ever," Rosen says.
Sunday Night Sex Talks seeks to change that. "Part of my goal with this show is to kind of challenge people to say things that will allow other people to say things. So for example, you come to this show and you experience or you hear something, and then you’re more comfortable saying to your girl friend or your guy friend or your boyfriend, 'Oh my god, I’ve been through that,' or, 'I kind of want to do that,'" she says.
Although my boyfriend (my plus one!) and I didn't automatically go home after the show and spill all of our deepest, darkest sexual fantasies and dreams, going to SNST did create an environment where we both knew that was totally okay. What more could I ask for?