poolboy — Sound Design

October 2025

In 2025, I was asked to join the creative team behind experimental performance sensation, poolboy.

poolboy is online. Watch him. He is telling you a secret. He is taking his shirt off. Your computer is whitehot in your lap. What happens next is entirely in your control.

poolboy (the play) is an immersive party and performance about submissiveness, friendship, and surveillance. Since 2020, Sam Mayer has documented his life on the streaming platform Twitch and at popup, IRL installations. The result is equal parts reality show, party, and live memoir. poolboy translates the chaos and performance of the online into an expansive IRL encounter. Mayer surrenders his agency to the room, transforming his life into the raw material for a dangerous experiment in endurance and vulnerability.

As a sound designer I was tasked with managing multiple live and playback inputs that were engaged at will by both performance and audience members. Those were distributed to localized multi-channel outputs across the venue. First as an AV workshop version in October 2025 which will culminated in a full production with multiple performances for Austin’s Fusebox festival in April 2026. Tickets here.

Additionally for the workshop I created an audio reality show-themed recap to bring the audience up to speed on story as they passed through the lobby of Crashbox.