Since Ben Fraser found his Dad’s stash of magazines in the garage when he was 10 years old, pornography has loomed large in his imagination, and his sex life. After it became compulsive and addictive, he struggled for years to quit, and to live in accordance with his values of treating women with respect. Using online support boards and finding real life mentors, he has been able to stay “sober” for long periods of time since 2003.
In 2008, Fraser began work on a musical play about his dating life. Through many drafts, the pornography theme started to dominate, and Fraser decided to make that the focus. By 2010 it had evolved from a musical play into a screenplay, and a complete draft was done in early 2013.
The idea was always to take the topic seriously, but with a light comic touch. The goal was to present characters struggling with porn addiction and show the obstacles to sobriety, as well as the keys to success. While it has a message, it was also intended to be entertaining and thought-provoking.
After making a short film with another production company, Fraser began to realize that Brick House could work well as a web series. It seemed much more manageable to create a few 4-6 minute episodes at a time, rather than a complete 90 minute film. And “Brick House – The Web Series” was born.
The first three episodes were uploaded to YouTube on July 30th, 2014. After Fraser shared it on http://Reddit.com/r/noFap, the views for episode 1 jumped into the thousands.
Excited by the response, Fraser began writing four new episodes for a second season, and composing new songs in August 2014.
In November 2014, Fraser was a guest on a Podcast called Pornfree Radio with host Matt Dobschuetz, and spoke about his experiences with porn addiction. Fraser got inspired by this experience to begin creating his own podcast in December 2014, detailing some tips and tricks for quitting porn, and ways to reframe porn addiction. He gradually began to think of himself as a coach or anti-porn activist.
When key members of the cast decided to skip season 2, Fraser decided to make the new episodes more of an ensemble, and also make the cast more diverse. And since the songs were a popular part of Season 1, he decided to make sure that each episode had a song. The four episodes of Season 2 were released between February 14th and March 6, 2016.
Brick House has been a labor of love and recovery for Fraser, and he is grateful that so many have enjoyed and appreciated the work.
The series is on a hiatus now, but Ben has been re-working many of the original ideas into a one-person show