Locals Only: ShootPaul.com - Performance Artists/Professional Pain Receivers

Sit back and check out our interview with the twin masochists of paintball pain, Houvenagel & Paul of ShootPaul.com.

What was your inspiration for the project?
Houvenagle: Personally I’ve been inspired by the dot com entrepreneur Josh Harris and advancing the inevitable. If you haven’t seen the documentary We Live in Public, watch it… just pay no mind to the whole leaving the country thing.

Paul: That reminds me of a time when I had mentioned that if things go bad, I’d just go live in Ukraine for a while. Houvenagle was visibly shaken by the idea, I think I even saw a tear. I suppose a partner with a plan out isn’t ideal. But to answer your question with a question, how could I pass up being shot paintballs over the internet?

Who designed the site?
Houvenagle: That would be one of my contributions to the site. I make the pictures, Paul makes them work… Paul and his splendid army of Ukrainians, Sergey Golyck (Mr. Serg) and Turds Programmer A. Artemov. We wanted to create a primarily monochromatic environment to house our full color, live streaming video.

What stopped the original launch in 2009?
Paul: The original plan had a single major flaw, me living in the room 24 hours a day. I made it three weeks being shot at day and night. The last day, three shots hit the back of my ear in under a second. I blurted out some words I would never say in front of my mother, threw a trash can across the room and immediately drove to my favorite pub for its finest glass of Scotch (Stagger Inn).

Is it true you built the shooting robot? Tell us more about that.
Houvenagle: I watched, or I was painting something on the wall while he MacGyver’d things up in the House.

Paul: I DID! THAT WAS ME! The robot is actually a really simple concept. It’s just a pan/tilt with two servos for up and down and a third to pull the trigger. The servos respond to commands from the control computer via Python. Mr. Serg took care of all the programming nonsense.

How badly do the affects of your new day job interfere with your daily life?
Houvenagle: People’s first reaction to the site, well second after shoot him in the nuts, is one of pity. Well, let me tell you this… pity no one, the House is oddly fun and we enjoy every minute of it. Other than sleep deprivation and a few bruises on the ol’ forehead, there’s nothing a long sleeve shirt can’t take care of. More coffee please.

Paul: Aside from looking like a hickey addict, not too bad. It has certainly taken a toll on the amount of personal time I have available though. I get an immense amount of joy from strangers that recognize me and say something like, ‘My boss yelled at me so I logged on and shot you in the throat. I had a wonderful day after that.’

Besides friends, family and St. Louisans, are you attracting shooters from elsewhere?
Houvenagle: The Internet is full of wonderful patrons. We’ve found new friends on each coast, throughout the Midwest, Germany, Australia, UK, Costa Rica, Iceland… you name it and most likely we’ve been shot by a citizen from there. Some kind fella by the handle EarHole even sent us some homemade jerky… mmm Internet food. Seems as though we’ve developed a core cult following of strangers and new faces sprinkle in each day. Most of our friends and family have stopped shooting us by now… turns out they might actually like us.

Paul: What? My friends and family still shoot me... This question prompted me to take a look into our analytics. Shots have been fired in love by residents of 100 countries... as remote as Senegal. Even Iran has gotten in on the action. I’m proud to call St. Louis home and I love representing a side of the city a lot of people might not know exist.

What’s the most painful shot you’ve taken so far?
Houvenagle: Though constant shots to the back of the hands can become extremely painful one on top of the other, for me the most painful would have to be 4 consecutive shots to my Adam’s Apple within a second or two.

Paul: Pretty much any one of them has a chance to make me RAGE. The RAGE as it’s come to be known on the site is a favorite with users. Basically, if I get it in the side of the head enough times, or similar, the trash can is going to get it. Even more skilled users can elicit a RAGEQUIT. This is when I get really hurt from multiple well placed shots and end up in an impromptu chair chucking contest. I storm out of the room shouting expletives only to return five minutes later for more.

How long will it take until you can take no more?
Houvenagle: Fun is never ending… at least I hope so.

Paul: I’ve already purchased my tickets to Ukraine.

Any exciting new features coming our way?
Paul: I have plans for what has come to be known as the God Gun. Imagine a bird’s eye view of the entire warehouse. Users would look down through a robotic gun that’s fixed to a track on the ceiling. The gun would encompasses the entire room and move freely in a arc. The ultimate in human hunting...
 
Houvenagle: What he said.

When you’re not being shot at, what are doing with your life?
Houvenagle: I enjoy my time away from the site riding bicycles, designing and eating frozen pizza. Yep, that’s pretty much my life wrapped into once sentence… well, maybe add watching documentaries to the list.

Paul: Ugh, the weird ‘talk about yourself’ part. I enjoy sneaking off for ethnic food with my lady friend, beers with Houvenagle and friends, and hipster dance parties. My Great Dane, Lloyd, also brings an immense amount of humor into my life.

 
What does your girlfriend and/or mother think of all this?
Houvenagle: I’ve yet to find a girlfriend willing to put up with my shit. My mother on the other hand, loves to monitor the chat. Fortunately she has an iPad (which still doesn’t support flash streaming), so she can’t truly see what the Internet mongers are doing to her beloved son. Look for the username Mommy to pop up in the Live Chat… that’s the real momma Houvenagle, talk to her, she’s nice.

Paul: I have a girlfriend! Ms. Wright, as she’s known on the site, is very supportive. She keeps me well fed and my bruises nursed. I’m not sure my own mother has been on the site yet. She’s an adventurous one. Recently she booked a trip to Egypt during their uprising. The United States would not let her go.
 
What do you hope  be like this time next year, or how long will this endeavor last?
Houvenagle: Well it won’t happen in a year’s time, but I’ve personally got plans for an abandoned super market… That reminds me, hey Paul, we need to buy a super market.

Paul: Personally, I don’t have a grand plan for ShootPaul.com. Since the site is for ‘fun purposes only’ we don’t have much of a profit motive. If Houvenagle wants a super market, then we’ll have to get one for him. I am committed to this website for an entire year. After that I suspect I’ll seriously be evaluating my life’s choices. Currently we’ve had 100,000 shots fired and we’re looking forward to our millionth.

 
Are you hiring?
Houvenagle: Master of Minions, Paul is always on the lookout for his next minion.

Paul: We are finishing up the paperwork on our first minion. He has a lot of character and I think people are really going to like him.

You had an additional statement for us?
Paul: Thank you for the interview. Jake likes butts. And we’ll see you around the site.

Photography by Brian Cummings
Videos by Brian Cummings & Tangent Mind