Eric Eisner And Bruce Forman - TheRomp.com, entertainment web site - Brief Article

WEBSITE DU JOUR: ROMPER ROOM FOR BIG KIDS

Call it a virtual arcade of perverse pleasures. A rec-room where Beavis and Butthead, the kids from South Park, and MAD magazine's Alfred E. Neuman might congregate. That's TheRomp.com, a high-tech enfant terrible founded by Eric Eisner, son of Disney chief Michael Eisner, and friend Bruce Forman.

As with today's highly interactive video games, TheRomp viewers are invited to use their computer mouses to manipulate cartoon vignettes--allowing them to participate in all sorts of dastardly dramas. Like, for instance, a gleeful thrashing of actor-turned-National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston or a pummeling of "Celebrity Pinatas" in the form of Joan and Melissa Rivers. TheRompers can also indulge their more puerile instincts with a game entitled Booty Call, where they can help the "hero," Jake, score with women. So far, the bulk of the audience is male and in college, but, say the duo, there are women who embrace the often randy content. "There was just a posting the other day on the site, requesting a female version of Booty Call," says Forman. They seem to be onto something: The duo says the site is currently receiving 30,000 computer hits a day.

Eisner and Forman say that their entrepreneurial brainstorm was the manifestation of many business school hours spent "blowing off class and fucking around online." But TheRomp is not just a site helping people eat time with games. Using ratings systems and an extensive comment-postings area, TheRompers truly become part of a postmodern Greek chorus of pop culture. "Our audience is increasingly turning to its peers to express themselves, and to get their entertainment," says Eisner, "because it's so freewheeling and unbridled."

In essence, TheRomp.com is a site built on a lot of bold moves--or, as some might say, hubris, considering the recent plunge in internet stocks. "A shake-up was bound to happen," says Eisner, who adds that you can't survive today "unless you've created a real, niche strategy, which we know we have."

It probably can't hurt that the head of one of the world's most powerful entertainment conglomerates is also your Papa. Eisner says, "My dad supports what I do--like any father does when his son's trying to tackle a big hurdle."

And considering the nature of its content, the closest squeaky-clean Mickey Mouse is likely to get to TheRomp.com is as Celebrity Pinata's sacrificial rodent.

Arty Nelson is a writer and the Bureau chief of the wireless cultural guide, Modo LA.

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