We have gotten a truckload of responses to our appearance on Jensen!. Answering everybody separately is bit of challenge, so here we go…

Jensen!, a national Dutch late night talk show presented by Robert Jensen. When you’re on the show and you are weird you will be made fun of, when you are hot Robert will be all over you, when you have a real life story to tell he will be serious. All of the above will be mixed with humor, usually of the simple/easy/sex-oriented kind. All in all it is a light program that is very popular in the Netherlands.

The production people of the Jensen! show contacted us, wanted to know if we were interested to talk about and show Japanese bondage. He assured us we would be taken seriously. After a few phone calls with production we agreed to be on the show.

The show is “semi-life”, meaning it is taped just hours before airing. All people agreed that the most spectacular thing to do, television-wise, was a suspension. To do the actual suspension we did I need less than 10 minutes. The actual program is only 38 minutes and is packed with items. 10 minutes was to long so production and us came up with a plan. The plan was changed every 10/15 minutes or so by the people working for the program. Most of the changes were minor variations of the big plan but there were 4 big plans. Here they are:

Plan 1: We would prepare part of the bondage backstage, we would prepare the onstage part of the bondage during commercial break and after the break, live, we would finish the bondage. Then Jensen would walk towards us and hold a short interview with Bob (Chantal could not wear a mic during the suspension). That would be it, 5 or more minutes air time.

Plan 2: We would do the bondage live, as an act, they could cut/paste in the editing room after taping if it was to long. After the act Jensen would walk to us and hold a short interview with Bob (Chantal could not wear a mic the suspension). Could be as much as 10 minutes air time.

Plan 3: We would take place on his couch and he would interview Chantal and Bob. During commercial break we would prepare part of the bondage. After the commercial break we would finish the bondage live. Optionally Jensen would walk towards us after the demo, with Chantal flying and some questions could be answered by Bob (Chantal could not wear a mic during the suspension). Could be as much as 15 or more minutes air time.

Plan 4: We would prepare the bondage backstage. Go on stage, Chantal partly bound, Jensen would walk to us and hold a short interview. He would walk away and we would finish the bondage live. Could be as much as 10 minutes air time.

Plan 5: The moment I could pull Chantal of the floor the filming would start. After finishing the bondage Jensen would walk towards us and interview Bob (Chantal could not wear a mic during the suspension).

Plan 1,2,3 and 4 were all discussed, changed and changed again before our part in the show. Plan 4 was the last (we kinda liked plan 3 :)) and final plan, this would be executed. Just seconds before filming of plan 4 would start some lady who has not had any contact with us before mentioned plan 5. We said this was not discussed with us and not what we prepared for (remember, -seconds- before filming starts). We got a Bitchy answer that we should do it as she told us. So we assumed she was someone important there and did as she said, plan 5.

Now, still with me? Here’s what actually happenend: I’m ready to pull Chantal of the floor, notify the lady. Filming does not start, at least not with the camera pointing at us. Jensen introduces shibari with his current guest (Dutch p*rn actrice and producer Kim Holland), then he introduces us. In the mean time I’m ready with the suspension. Jensen does not walk towards us (which he should have done in every plan) but keeps his fat ass on his chair. Does not ask a single questions that could be labelled as “interview”, instead interviews Kim Holland about shibari, who clearly (and understandably) does not know anything useful about it. He also asked questions to Chantal who could not answer them because she was unable to wear a mic during the suspension. Then, with a lot of grandeur he introduces us to start our act/show… which we already finished (the plan was -NOT- to do a show/act). Here, a bit pissed off, I told about the chaos that was surrounded with our appearance on the show, the bitchy lady and the disability to take decisions and hold on to a plan. This of-course was not aired :). RopeMarks, stage exit, right.

On the positive side, we are not angry or anything with the production or Jensen, it is just how it is, live and learn. We are however very disappointed and are far from pleased with the end result even if it is quite good considering the material they had to work with (kudos to the editing room :)).

Besides the entire experience, what we found strange is that in our TV experience the host of the show would always introduce himself to us and the other guests on the program, before the show starts. It is a common courtesy we think to introduce yourself if you’ve never met. Robert Jensen did not introduce himself, we found this quite rude.

During rehearsal when people discussed possible items and options for the show I heard a lot of “No, we cannot do that because -HE- would not like it”. He, being Robert Jensen; He, spoken as if he was the devil himself; He, whispered to make sure he couldn’t hear it.

This, and the overall atmosphere when Jensen was around, lead me to believe that it is possible, even likely, that Robert Jensen has to big an ego. This off-course is just my current opinion based on external factors. Should we ever really get to meet I will not let this opinion get in the way of getting to know the man, I watch his show from time to time and enjoy it.