Episode 1 • Looners

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Katie. hello hi welcome we are Kinks and Cocktails a new podcast about Kinks and Cocktails my name is Katie my name is Ashley and I'm off and um yeah so we are going to pair every episode with a cocktail that matches the Kink we are talking about

this episode obviously as you know is about balloons

and

we thought it'd be fitting to do champagne

Moth. you know to really pop up oh you're so funny don't worry I hate myself it's fine 

Katie. should we do a little trigger warning here we are about to pop a bottle of champagne so

*Ashely pops champagne and it spills all over the floor*

Katie. at least it was not on the equipment wow the same Ashley

Ashley. well now I'm sticky
*Ashley drinks the overflowing champagne straight out of the bottle*

Katie. okay there you go just drink it straight out of the bottle that a girl 

Ashley. as I would

Ashley. fine right yeah welcome to Kings and Cocktails I am a hot mess 

Moth, just for those who didn't get to see it there is now champagne all over the floor because of Ashley um we're doing great 

Katie, and there's champagne all over Ashley
I think that was a great start 

Ashley, people expect nothing less from us ....should I get a towel?

Katie, a little glimpse into who we are as people

Moth, yeah do you want a towel like for real it's okay because this can be cut out later Ashley: that's fair I'll go grab a towel I should probably clean up 

Katie: it's fine for now don't worry about it

[Elevator  Music] Moth: do you know how to pause Katie?

Katie- there we go okay we are back we had to clean up some champagne

Moth- so yeah should we just get right into common practices and get or describe more of the show?

Katie- um yeah I got some fun facts

um so balloon fetish is more common among men than women and most of them are in their 20s and 30s um there are 250 000 known looners worldwide and it's one of the only things quote unquote allowed on YouTube

Ashley- yeah that's because most people aren't naked

Katie- right

Moth- and these I know balloons sounds very innocent so I feel like I'm constantly surprised on the things that people get away with posting on YouTube at this point that is true like they sneak things on there and say it's something else but it's actually something that shouldn't be allowed yeah definitely more regulated than what I think it used to be but

they're still they sneak through every time thank you yeah so should we just get right into it 

Katie- yeah sure let's do it who wants to go first 

Moth- um I can go first with common practices here all right um so generally speaking I've kind of scoured different sides of the internet to try and figure out what people do modern day like um I found that a lot of the internet Community is pretty booming as far as lunar communities on Reddit and Twitter even as far as like Instagram there's a lot of I think visuals that come with it as far as like touching balloons that sort of thing so I found that like everyone was really interested in generally either like ASMR videos of doing really soft things or touching balloons or 

Katie- Ashley your face when ASMR was mentioned and I agree I'm not a fan 

Moth- um it's not for everyone but yeah I really thought it was interesting just like how many people loved the sounds that balloons made from like the latex to the blowing up of balloons all that stuff 

Katie- one thing that I think bothered me was kind of like nails across a chalkboard some of it not all of it that's my personal opinion 

Ashley- oh like when I rub my nails against the balloon *rubs nails against a balloon* 
Katie- yes like when you did that!

Moth- good I guess um another one was body inflation which I thought was like a really interesting other side was wanting to either inflate your body or have things inflated against your body which I thought was really cool 

Katie- so it's like blowing up a balloon underneath your shirt? but still against you and do you mean like for the feeling or to resemble like breasts? 

Moth- a lot of times I think it's for the feeling or a stimulation on the side of wanting to blow up your body part you know so it's just further stimulation of either that latex to skin contact or wanting to symbolize you blowing up that body part is what I found and I will definitely say probably this is all a third person view of these things so that it's not all 100% correct so if you do hear things like please correct me if I'm wrong 

Katie- yeah that goes for any of us um we are here to be informative and just you know 

Ashley- I'm just here to be mean 

Katie- Ashley's here to be mean thats her Kink that's the only way it is allowed 100 but if we are disrespecting anything we want to know so email us at KinksandCocktailsgmail.com we want this to be a safe space for everyone 

Moth- yes and yeah I will say I think the only other thing that I really came into contact with was I found the biggest difference being in categories between two different types going further from that is that some people really loved um the popping of balloons and some people are definitely non-poppers and they just like the look and feel of balloons and I think those two categories really start to like specialize in those sorts of situations where like videos will cater to specifically poppings a lot of times with disclaimers saying they're going to pop in the video or non-poppers and it's the touching feeling all of that side that comes with it here yeah they definitely have to give trigger warnings if they're gonna pop I like that and it's important but yeah I would agree I think the facts also that you shared earlier of like generally being men is pretty correct I found that like even on Reddit and Twitter it was a majority of women who were posting which I thought was interesting but I think the most people that interacted were probably men or it was for a male gaze is what I lost research that I did was mostly men gays and like men talking about their attraction to balloons yeah there definitely was a lot of content creators that were female for it yeah I will also say I was surprised at how many people got into the specifics of the balloons that they were using I like size a balloon down to like literally category and where they bought it from all the way to like how far they inflated it to color specifications like people were super specific and picky about the balloons that they had 

Ashley- oh everyone is when they're into like balloons I've seen just color you have to have like a certain color there's one guy who like puts his face on every balloon I found that he puts a stamp of his face on the balloons I was like oh okay I mean like he put his face like touching the balloon or like he had like a stamp like an ink stamp maybe your face of his face  so okay I can put that in like the links if anyone wants that one but wow I like it you know everyone's gotta make their Mark that's true he was truly making his mark I like it

Ashley- well I can go into some history I didn't find much for history for um looners but it's they well I became popular and 1824 by my Michael Faraday 

Katie- oh wow we even found like the direct person 

Ashley- um well he's like one of the main inventors he uh made it for a like science experiment by putting two pieces of rubber together and then he was like filling them with gas and stuff um but it was in London and then shortly after it became more popular in the United States to like for parties and everything um in like the late 90s stores started opening up directed towards lunars um so was that specifically for like helium inflated balloons or was that more for lunars the stores yeah uh they're just like directed towards lunars school um like are there any are they all online or is there any physical I think there are some physical um all of the ones I'm finding now are online but I think it was kind of both back then right what I found was mainly in Europe for physical stores yeah the internet really brought the whole world together for anything that you want yeah uh yeah that's what I've seen um 1972 Buster Balloon buddies was a big website that became popular um I think it just changed to balloon buddies because that's what I saw but and then like a thousand people on FetLife with lunars that are all interested in the lunar immunity like in a group on FetLife yeah yeah because you can get into like sub I don't want to call it subreddits but subscriptions yeah yeah I would say I mean there's a lot of groups and I will even say I have been on FetLife before and I made one specifically for this to do hopefully a more interpersonal research um or science for Science and yeah I think that there's a lot of like miniature groups that you can have and then have discussion posts even within those groups and how interactive they are and I thought it was really cool even just to see how active the community is in like lunars especially I feel like are still very active even into like 2022. oh yeah

so like I said I couldn't find much for history so that I would say yeah this would be a tough one for history you had a tough I chose a good one 

Katie- yeah right it was so this is your own fault it's okay but no that you'd I like the history of the balloons and how the internet like really popularized 

Katie- it yeah made it pop off laughs all right so I guess um then we can go into the psychology behind this kink

um it's a kink instead of fetish we've been having a debate about this before we started we're kinks in cocktails right but we discussed fetishes and kinks it's an umbrella term I think one maybe even just a brief description of like fetishes are something that like you cannot get off without and kinks are something that are more optional right maybe even optional might not be the right word it's a fun little added pleasure work but not necessary right that's a very good definition yes all right so psychology of looners let's see why the interest so a lot of it stems from good and bad experiences as a child or a young person um places from like birthday parties or circus um it could even go into how like maybe somebody witnessed someone they were interested in or attracted to handling balloons and so they found that whatever that person was doing attractive if they were blowing up a balloon or anything then that could lead to interest in balloons um let's see it's literally just me in the background popping balloons yeah suddenly I'm interested in balloons

let's see I could resemble a lot of facial expressions like a [ __ ] and I'll have to say that

a BJ like lollipop sucking a lot of mouthy and hand gestures you know um let's say the stimulation like we covered shape size color even the smell sounds um it can be very soothing or like Nero calming so you did you see the videos where um they had the really huge blooms like I don't know like six feet yeah like they were huge and they would lay on them so a lot of people like enjoy that because it feels like they're laying on a cloud that's still really popular in burlesque shows really blowing up big balloons and rolling on them yeah I bet it would feel nice and like calming and I'd be too afraid it was gonna pop on me yes

until that happens let's see the balloons relate to a lot of other sexual interests um they can look like butts penises condoms um breasts let's see another fetish relates to is like feet or shoes if people like popping balloons with like heels pointy heels oh I like that I guess I feel like if anything I feel like Heels play a big role in a lot of different fetishes oh yeah we're like right it's just like a power position in here and so I feel like it's in stilettos on pop some balloons yes and then I'm gonna fall over it's fine 

um some people even pop balloons with a cigarette so people in a smoking fetish can kind of intertwine as well with balloons yeah explore yourself all those might find something about yourself you never know

Moth- today go go touch a balloon today at your local not your local balloon store please ask for consent before touching people's balloons in public 

Katie- maybe purchase the balloon and bring it home and then touch the balloon 

Moth- let us know if you liked it or didn't like it at Kings and Cocktails gmail.com

Shameless plug

all right let's see him so a lot of it can be like taking control of your fear if you are scared of balloons like a lot of people who are scared of clowns can also be scared of balloons obviously so some people get into this King because like he's taking control of that just to bounce off that too I will say when I was on Reddit the amount of people that were discussing like what to do or how to get over their fears of balloons I thought was really interesting there were quite a few posts of like passerbys who just recently joined the group like hey I have this childhood fear what do you recommend for me to get over it and I felt like it was a really amazing space for that because so many people chimed in and were like this is how you could do it or how to expose yourself or how to go through it um and you're not alone and so I thought it was a very welcoming side of the internet versus I feel like a lot of times you get on the not so welcoming side to the internet but it was cool to see that overall that is really cool um once again the internet bringing people together

Katie- sorry if you can hear someone doing dishes in the background yeah thanks Danny my husband anyways maybe we can edit that out or not he can hear it we will do this

and see you

so people also like it because obviously it's it's innocent it's innocent fun everybody well I I don't speak for everyone but most people have enjoyed a balloon at some point in their life um so it's just it's fun who doesn't like a blue one well some people not anyways don't want to speak for everyone um so for some people popping it can feel like an orgasm because it's quick it's exciting it's a relief and they know it can happen again soon or not it depends how quickly you recover I guess yes

so this I did not really enjoy I don't know some there's a lid for every pot Okay so unless you lose it right so a lot of people mostly men were interested in the Damsel in Distress side of it and I did not know this is the thing in the lunar Community until I came across this obviously so um so okay if people the balloon pops and um they get scared or what anything like that um they like to come to the rescue and like Comfort them you know or I know Ashley is pouring us more champagne

yeah I thought that was interesting I mean you know I don't know I never thought of that sort of thing before but m's on distress in the lunar community it's really interesting I wouldn't have thought of that I didn't see a whole lot of that when I was looking on like social media so to hear about that I'm a little surprised I mean maybe not surprises the next word because I feel like men will always take an excuse to help Comfort a woman in distress right and if they don't want it right that's kind of why I wasn't too sure like wait a minute even in the lunar community

Katie- trying their best that's that's all we ask

okay and for non-poppers um they feel like if it does pop they get sad they can be like a death of a good time that got really morbid I know

or for example like I think everybody's had this happen to them before but having a balloon with helium or in it accidentally letting it go and it's releasing into the sky that that is a very sad moment I think for anybody I don't know definitely 

Ashley- no I definitely agree I mean it was sad when my power went out because the balloon hit my Transformer but oh that's very sad and unfortunate

um let's see

so either way popping or down popping um it can be the coping mechanism for anxiety or stress or you know brings him Joy uh let's see

so for popping it it's kind of like from what I read if you're an excitement go hand in hand it's kind of like the nervousness and excitement of going into the haunted house you know you're gonna get scared and that's exciting it's kind of the same as like blowing up a balloon you know it's gonna pop and you're excited for it it's kind of scary but it's exciting does that make sense definitely yeah and then once that anxiety is gone after it pops it can lead to a popping spree or they'll just go go go and not stop until they're satisfied uh let's see him I think that's about it yeah that is all I have on my psychology of the balloon I'll look at you yeah cool no I will also say I think another really cool thing is that I think this community is still very much alive um and like there's even things that I think are really interesting like just the convention side of things and how people group together people being able to find each other again like FetLife is a really good way for people in community to grow but especially even in person like there have been conventions that have been going on for years just like fetish conventions that like use that as a small portion of it or also larger conventions like that are slowly dedicated to lunars and like popping versus non-popping which is cool so I had a note about that about balloon conventions I was wondering do they have are they on separate wings of the hotel because I mean I feel like I'd have to be well they don't really get along is from my general understandings especially non-poppers are very like adamant about right do not so don't come near me with your popping balloons right they don't want to hear it like so I imagine like either they're separate cons or they're on separate wings of the hotel or wherever it is I would assume that they're probably just on separate wings of the hotel yeah or like if it's in like a Convention Center separate rooms for

the only experience I have is with an anime convention and there are like well relative to size as well I should say but also there's like individual rooms for like discussions or like certain activities so maybe right some groups yeah so maybe like poppers have their like own room and they're like oh yeah come here for the pop it thumb you know at X time you know that sounds like a blast actually literally horrible times I live for him

yeah that would be interesting to see the different groups and like little parties and events they have at the balloon con maybe that'll have to be something that we just take an Excursion to like a fetish convention or Volute right a balloon con whatever that ends up as yeah I wonder where that is I didn't look but it is a thing I don't think anything is here in Minneapolis

yeah we are in Minneapolis so all fellow Minneapolis people listening hello hi there you can find us at your local liquor stores finding oh my God absolutely it's mainly me I buy the liquor yeah

I know what I like I'm sorry guys I hope we don't have Midwest accents we probably do oh we definitely do because you're my hi dear don't you know

is there anything anybody found that they liked like in particular when we're doing the research I don't know there's a lot of pretty ladies touching balloons definitely a lot of pretty ladies shout out to kids see the clown you are freaking adorable

I was gonna say I think yeah I feel like there's just I feel like it's a very female dominated like videography situation where like even if it's individuals who do it and there is a very like fine line between that and I think a few other like kinkster fetishes where um I feel like latex is a really big one that it also falls under like inflation is also one that kind of like follows that line so there are a few other things that like if you have those they tend to like go hand in hand or like lead together or even like a clown fetish would also I feel like go really well with because I've seen a lot of people who were dressed up and like used multiple things in their favor for them yes definitely yeah it definitely intertwines with a lot of other things yeah I'm just gonna say anytime what

thank you

anytime we're putting that on a t-shirt you're my kink

I really like the clear balloons for some reason oh like not the colored ones the clear ones like see-through just see through yes clear but I I don't know I was thinking about it I also enjoy clear a lot of other things like when I get my nails done I do like a full set of acrylics I often get anything man yes you are a neon nails girl I usually get mine clear with like gems on them or something but I always enjoy them clear and so it's kind of funny I like the clear balloons while doing my research as well I don't know there's things that are like really aesthetically pleasing like yeah I appreciate what it was yeah right I appreciated I think the Aesthetics of people that also were in the videos like again I saw one clown who like I'm definitely pastels so like I feel like there was one yeah it was just all pastels and all of her balloons were beautifully colored and I'm like oh that's it they had the pattern balloons too yeah like polka dots and stripes and tie-dye I'm so happy you guys sound like cute people and then I'm just I'm just finding the men that grind on the balloons and I'm like I mean this is a thing it's fine I will also say interestingly enough I found quite a few like gay okay lunars I did not come across that I found a lot of gay lunars okay or asexual loners as well oh oh I did not see any explicitly like maybe out big sexual losers or maybe it just didn't say it mine said it so it's like yeah asexual big and bold um I didn't see funny enough any of like the Femme presenting people that I saw none of them said their sexuality so I don't know if that was like they're I think there's also a lot of promoting that happens on Reddit to be totally fair yeah so I think a lot of people were like I'm you don't need to know my sexuality because you should come watch me and pay me to watch me but weren't necessarily looking for like individuals versus I feel like when I saw gay lunars they were more looking for like other gay lunars to like meet or hook up with yeah honey saloons with there should be an app I'm sure there is oh that yeah maybe there is Ashley's gonna look dating app I mean there really are dating websites for all I mean there's Farmers only.com or whatever there's Christian Mingle yes

[Music] farmersonly.com if you want to sponsor us [Laughter] so dating up for sugar daddies is what pops up first for me what does uh something you want to share with us surprise surprise Ashley's number one update for looking for a dating site is looking for sugar daddies if anyone's interested Love Me Again sugar daddy

uh meet other lunars fetish.com balloon date in your area I was gonna say too I mean like fet life isn't technically a dating app but like people do go there to look right to hook up with people or find people in there fetish Community um or just to show off their penis it also tells me okay Cuban so apparently Okay Cupid is a good one for some lunars well don't you put like your interest into some of these oh never mind must include lunars oh so I see here's Google and then it goes rich men in Minnesota there it is

Okay Cupid is not the site for lunars unfortunately I lied to you guys I'm so sorry

Let's see we do have some balloons I could blow one up for you if they want to explore ourselves and play

laughs some ASMR for you I hope you enjoy this if you're gonna love hearing this in her headphones later yeah when I edit this this will be [Laughter] I'll try one I feel like oh gold oh it is called  metallic mine's red you can see it on our first Instagram picture yes and they'll follow us on Instagram yeah pinks and Cocktails go from this way yeah you're supposed to stretch it a lot first and then did you guys come across necking a little bit yeah not a lot where like um well I guess I should blow it up and show you I guess show me I do not have very good lungs I don't smoke I lie as well

yeah so nothing's like creating a neck I guess remember if they tied it off or not first but this part of the blue like yeah oh yeah created like a neck they can see that you know you know the part of the balloon that I'm touching right here this part right here the part by the mouthpiece I think you're supposed to tie it off first yeah there's a lot of people sitting on balloons oh I can pop one for you trigger warning you have to try and blow it up

yes it's a thing trigger warning non-poppers it's gonna happen sooner earlier I'm so sorry yes

I'm trying right now I'm kind of scared also almost scared for my face yeah my balloon is a silver metallic balloon and I think that's really important mine's just red and I hate everyone I'm like sitting here

good knock on her balloon

oh it might be at the top I'm gonna sit on mine to pop it

any second now I can get I understand the excitement

that's really loud I'm so sorry guys mine does have a nice neck very nice very nice snack I don't really want to blow it up anymore it looks great yeah just like that I'm just gonna leave it yeah I'm gonna pass I'm gonna try sitting on mine I'm scared it's gonna hurt my butt yeah I put the towel on it did not hurt my butt you need to spondyl yours do you need me to type are you maybe are you gonna pop yours or just play with it I'm just gonna play with it I'm scared give it here stop it

thank you

someone didn't go to clown School

nope did you go to clown School Ashley have you seen her hair

it's a rainbow you can go check it out on our Tick Tock or Instagram yeah pop blew it up too much I can't tie this one you have to do better follow us on Tick Tock as well pinks and Cocktails the neck is nice it should be a very nice neck you have to tie it at the neck point that it's at

yours is too aggressive you're too aggressive I didn't stretch it enough

we're not professionals

I'll just have to blow up a new one we have a whole bowl full of balloons it's a really cute bowl by the way the star love it probably got it from the thrift shop sounds about right

but no I did date that clown so wait what

I'm so gullible [Applause] that taught me how to dive balloon no I had someone I did date someone that was really into uh give it to me okay um glued animals though so like they made them yeah they went into them they were I know fertilization I never asked my question wait a minute it all makes sense now get it out Nick right now and just even said the name wow you don't know his last name am I gonna have to edit that out no your name's Nick and you dated Ashley you wary there you go you want me to strike your neck yeah I never came across any content of people making like balloon animals or anything like that no I really didn't either I will say I found a lot of people who supplemented with inflatable beach toys yes like the inflatable animals and like yes yes lots of that Lodge balls yup beach balls were a big one so yeah a lot of like pool toys fun so yeah like did they play with it in the pool or like not usually no okay I'm gonna play with mine in the pool duck not Jack oh yeah you got that giant Duck inflatable that's why I said Chuck my brain is like combined him

that will be fun find me on all the Lakes this summer there are 10 000 here have fun trying to find me yes look for the giant Duck and rainbow hair

we'll wrap this up with some lovely balloon for you we're not so lovely that was bad you're welcome well this was fun see you next time yeah um give us five stars please be kind this is our first episode now we're gonna get one star ratings we'll just be the worst rate that'll be our claim to fame it's only okay if reading us one star is your cake [Laughter]

sure for now um yeah you can email us for anything may or may not respond and Cocktails at gmail.com so I guess this is this is I don't know thanks signing up thanks everyone this is great way to pop it off hey

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