LOS ANGELES—The couple known on Chaturbate as “Whaaaaaaaat” realizes how important good moderators are to ensuring the quality of their cam shows.
So much so that Lacey and Jeff have even invited two of them to hang out offline in Florida.
“They’re really nice people,” Jeff says. “We actually had them over to our house, and we traveled to visit one of our mods. We’re more friends with a lot of the people in our room. We call them friends rather than fans.”
Lacey, aka LaceyCoffeeGirl on Twitter, kicks off today’s episode of the hit comedy series, Cam_Girlfriend—titled “The Moderator”—by telling viewers about why this role can be integral to having an enjoyable evening on cam.
“He has learned what I like and what I don’t like,” she says. “I don’t like to be called ‘baby.’ … I don’t like to be talked to in capital letters…”
It’s the task of finding the right person for this tricky position that drives Episode 7 of the 10-part series that stars exclusive Chaturbate broadcaster and adult performer, Lily LaBeau, as rising cam model Chloe Cables opposite Canadian TV personality, Dave Keystone, who plays her live-in boyfriend Mike.
Chloe and Mike wrestle with plenty of challenges as they try to prevent their relationship from falling apart while maneuvering through the obstacle course that her profession creates.
Created by Ethan Cole, produced by CAMGF1 Productions and made possible by the Independent Production Fund (IPF), seasoned director Daniel AM Rosenberg called the shots for Cam_Girlfriend over two weeks in February 2018 in Toronto, mixing equal parts comedy and drama with realistic scenarios that cam girls encounter.
The series debuted on June 26 on The Camming Life YouTube channel, where a new episode launches every Friday morning. Each installment so far has run less than 10 minutes, so the standalone stories pack comedic punch.
According to Lacey of Whaaaaaaaat, an effective moderator “really helps the flow of the room.”
“If there’s a dead silence they start chatting or throwing a couple tips and it wakes people up,” she tells AVN.
But Lacey and Jeff, who have been camming together since March 1, 2017, don’t have to worry about anyone sleeping on their broadcasts. Not with their passionate fanbase that has led to 353,000-plus followers on Chaturbate and 750 members in their fan club, making them one of the top couples on the platform.
In order to maintain some semblance of order, they have appointed several moderators over the years.
“We have one guy who we modded our very first day and he’s still with us,” Jeff notes. “He only pops in once or twice a week. He’s not there all the time and that’s probably why he’s able to sustain. Most mods don’t last more than a year. If you’re on every single show you just burn out.”
He continues, “It’s a hard job. Because they’re not getting paid and they’re dealing with so much nastiness and drama. The problem is once you’ve been a mod for a while it’s hard to not be a mod.”
Lacey says their Day 1 mod goes by the handle “JimmmyG” and resides in Canada.
Jeff compares the community vibe of their room to “like an old AOL chatroom,” suggesting that Whaaaaaaaat’s maturity has helped them connect with likeminded individuals.
“Without a doubt it is because of our age for the most part,” Jeff tells AVN. “We thought It would be detrimental for us because camming is an 18- to 30-year-old business. We’re in our 40s, so on the flip side people relate to us. … The people with tokens—the tippers—are typically 35 to 60 years old. They relate to us because we’re parents. Lacey is a grandmother—it’s hard to believe.”
Jeff continues, “We talk more about Netflix and cars and sports than we do sexual stuff. We’re all lonely and lost people that have found a common ground to be at.”
When the nationwide lockdown intensified back in March-April the couple did up to seven-hour shows on some days—a lot of which was “just chitchatting and making sure people were mentally OK.”
“We would stay on as long as we could each day,” Jeff says. “That’s when our fan club numbers absolutely ballooned.”
Neither Lacey nor Jeff had ever visited a cam site up until three-and-a-half years ago.
Jeff was doing sales from home in 2017 when a documentary about webcamming came on the TV he had on in the background. He wasn’t paying close attention to the doc but did hear a couple saying they were making more than $100K a year on cam—and that made him look.
Then he called Lacey—an office manager for a construction company at the time—and asked, “Hey, would you ever have sex on cam?”
Lacey admits, “I didn’t even know what webcamming was. … I said let’s have a drink of wine and I opened my wings and flew.”
Jeff adds, “I did my research. I googled, I went to forums. And everything just pointed to Chaturbate. We created this username because we used to say to each other, ‘What?!’ And ‘What’ was taken.
“And then we put in another A and that was taken. And then another A… It wasn’t until we got to eight A’s that it was available. So we took that name because we figured we would just go on one time and never do this again. Here we are three years and five months later.”
Now when Lacey and Jeff are spotted at an industry event, “everyone’s like ‘Whaaaaaaaat!’” the couple says.
“On our first night we used a built-in camera on a laptop and the built-in microphone,” Jeff says. “We had 8,000 people watching us. It was a full-on crazy show. She was squirting.
“We didn’t make any money that night. We couldn’t even take tokens yet. We were verified but we weren’t verified to take tokens. Looking back I don’t know how we broadcasted. The next day we ran out and bought a microphone.
“In the first two weeks we had 15,000 followers and we thought that was normal. We know girls that have been camming for a year that don’t have 15,000 followers. Now we appreciate how well we did.”
Jeff even lost his job because of his moonlighting on cam. Less than two months after they started they attended a birthday party for his boss’s one-year-old kid.
“We had to go and it was in the middle of nowhere with only 20 people there. And Lacey says to me, ‘Wouldn’t it be weird if someone recognized us?’” Jeff recalls.
A few weeks after the party, Lacey was doing a solo broadcast "and some guy comes in the room says, ‘Hey, I know you.’”
“Now this happens a lot because some people say that just to get a rise out of you,” Jeff explains. “But then he puts my boss’s name in the public chat.”
Lacey and Jeff were stunned—and worried about what may happen—but nothing did for about two months.
Then in early July 2017, Jeff received a termination letter from his boss, who had found out he was camming and said, “We can’t have that type of stuff mixed in with my business.”
“I haven’t gotten another job since then because this just took off,” Jeff says. “But it’s really sad that the stigma exists. It’s so taboo to so many people.”
Jeff, who is from Long Island, N.Y., has lived in Florida for 20 years, while Lacey, who is from the state of Washington, has been in Florida the past four years.
Lacey likes to call their shows “reality porn.”
“Because the way we do our shows—whether it’s couples show or a solo show—it’s reality,” Lacey reasons. “It’s not just giggles. It’s not putting on an act. If I’m dancing, I’m still talking about my real life to an extent and bringing their world into my world. It’s not fake.”
Jeff agrees.
“We get told all the time that we’re ‘the most real people’ our fans have ever seen on a cam site,” he says.
Lacey refers to their online friends as their “cam-ily.”
They’ll bake birthday cakes for some of their longtime club members and sing happy birthday to them on cam.
“I’m very popular with making penis cakes,” jokes Lacey, who also has made cakes with military and race-car themes.
Cooking often happens on a Whaaaaaaaat show. Jeff uses his Air Fryer on cam all the time and has made pizza from scratch.
Some of their most lucrative broadcasts entail “gross food-eating contests.” Another time Lacey wore an inflatable shark costume, while Jeff donned a dinosaur suit.
The fans know Lacey loves coffee, too, gifting her coffee cups and custom blends. Both share a love for watching UFC and pro football—Lacey likes the Seahawks and 49ers QB Jimmy Garappolo, while Jeff is a Raiders fan.
They have built a community strong enough that it has withstood their recent personal life change. Their fans continue to support them in the same way as they navigate a real-life breakup they have been transparent about on cam.
“It’s been amazing,” Lacey says. “The messages we’ve gotten from other cam models, the emails from fans… It’s hard when you’re breaking up in front of thousands—not just breaking up in front of family and neighbors—but breaking up in front of the world. It’s been a little challenging.”
“We’ve gotten amazing support,” Jeff says. “She moved out into her house about a month ago and put a whole bunch of stuff on her wishlist and there’s been a nonstop flow of gifts coming in.”
He adds, “We thought if anyone can do it, we can do it. We’re still going live. We just have two locations. ... I was concerned about my solo shows as a single guy. But she’s been busy with her son and I’ve had one killer show after another.
“We’re doing better financially than we have at any other point in our lives. We have a huge following and friends out there and we keep taking things to the next level.”
Indeed, Lacey says the future looks bright.
“We don’t look at this as work,” she says. “And the way society is going right now I think having that live virtual entertainment is going to be huge.”
To watch Episode 7 of Cam_Girlfriend, click here.
