Nikki Nine signing at the Hustler booth. Photo by Thomas Roche.
Ah, the Adult Entertainment Expo. When you work in "the industry," it's that thing that you do every January; depending on your philosophical perspective, you then either complain about it for the next eleven months or brag about how much fun you had. I tend to do both, and this year is no exception -- corner me at a cocktail party for the remainder of 2007, and you can expect to hear amusing anecdotes about curling-iron hijinx in Dana DeArmond's hotel room, getting felt up by WinkyTiki, forgetting to press "play" when Joanna Angel started talking about her sex life, and nervously attempting to wipe my drool from Audrey Hollander's cleavage. I may sigh rapturously as I relate the time Ron Jeremy almost ran me over on a Segway and clowns pantsed me at a hotel room party. Whether any of it actually happened depends on whether, that day, I'm attempting to prove myself the Bill Bryson of sleaze, the Hunter S. Thompson of sex-positive travelogue, or the Alexis de Tocqueville of the quadruple anal cream pie. You are forewarned.
This having been said, 2007's AEE was the first time I had a minute-by-minute schedule, meaning that I pretty much raced from interview to interview, chewing the fat with new Digital Playground contract girls Katsumi and Lacie Heart as well as DP head hoo-hah Samantha Lewis plus Jesse Jane, Jana Cova, Sophia Santi, and Shay Jordan; Hustler contract girl Nikki Nine and VCA altporn princess Joanna Angel, Julie Simone and Aiden Starr, Anastasia Pierce, Audrey Hollander, Otto Bauer, Aubrey Addams, Chasey Lain, and Barbara from Sin City T-Girls, as well as shooting the shit with Eon McKai, Charlotte Stokely, Octavio Arizala, Joe Gallant, Max Power, and writers Joanne Cachapero, Abby Ehmann and Darklady. On the off hours I hit the now-legendary Fashionistas live show and and the odd nightclub as well as a variety of parties and drunken three-in-the-morning dinners of bacon, eggs and enormous amounts of black coffee.
MyPartyDoll.com. Photo by Thomas Roche.
(L to R) Anastasia Pierce, Darryl of Girlfriends Distributing, Aiden Starr
I'll leave the party travelogue to my esteemed colleague and focus on the AEE show itself. Unlike Gram Ponante, who found the press-accreditation process nightmarish (as it usually is at most trade shows I've been to), I was through the line, badged and wristbanded in about fifteen minutes, and hit the trade show early in the morning on the first trade-only day, Wednesday.
Ron Jeremy signs a boob. Photo by Brian King.
Once I'd gotten used to the typically frenetic pace on the show floor and had a chance to chat with a few acquaintances -- in many cases putting face to name for the first time -- I got the sense that there was more than a little worry about attendance, which seemed a little sparse. Having never before attended on trade-only days, I was just glad I could move around the show without getting bodyslammed by 300 pound guys with phonecams. On Thursday the fans showed up, but the still wasn't quite the clusterfuck I'd experienced in previous years. It was all a blessing -- I was able to buttonhole a number of stars and get some great interviews, which would have been impossible at a more heavily-attended show.
Then Friday came, and, though the schedule said "trade only" until 2pm, the fans busted in about noon. Shortly thereafter, the show floor was so crowded that moving from one booth to another became an absolute chore. In places where demos were being performed -- for instance, the Kink.com booth -- the entire area became virtually impassable. This was a mixed blessing -- vendors who had spent a boatload of greenbacks on booth space were finally granted the boatload of rednecks they'd planned on, but doing any interviews became practically impossible. Lucky for me, Dana DeArmond saved me with an invite to her suite at the Venetian, where I tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to hide my dreamy eyes behind the cold steel gaze of a journalist, while Regan Maddox curled Dana's hair for her appearance later at Pink Visual.
Charlotte Stokely at the Vivid-Alt booth. Photo by Thomas Roche.
Photo by Brian King.
Saturday, similarly, was trade-and-fan, which meant, mostly, that it was for the fans. I got there early enough on Saturday to get some work done and jaw with some of the vendors in the B-to-B area, which was restricted to trade attendees and mostly featured toy and equipment vendors, with a certain sprinkling of distributors and other B-to-B providers. By the time I hit the main sales floor, it was c-r-o-w-d-e-d, and I was glad I'd picked up a few samples of lube so I could grease myself up and worm my way through the packed crowd.
Photo by Brian King.
Saturday also brought news of tragedy, though, as rising star Dana DeArmond found out that her house in Pasadena had been destroyed by flames. That means she was left with pretty much what she brought to Vegas -- as in, a toothbrush and slutwear. See our News Briefs column for info on how to help Dana. Additional scuttlebutt was that Pure Play publicist April Storm was apparently bitten by a poisonous spider and had to undergo emergency surgery. She's reportedly recovering, but needless to say, these two items cast a bit of a pall over the proceedings on Saturday.
House fires and spider bites aside, the event convinced me of a few things. This year it's clearer than ever that fetish and BDSM themes are increasingly accepted in porn. More and more "mainstream" producers had hints of fetish in their booths, and relatively new Jules Jordan Productions went so far as to have the Jules Jordan Pornitentiary, a fully-equipped prison complete with watchtower. Demos at the Kink.com booth drew the most attention at the entire show. Porn is getting kinkier -- no doubt about it.
What's more, though the New York Times recently ran a story claiming that there's a slowdown in the adult industry, the main trend I see isn't one of deceleration, but of diversification. Smaller and newers producers like Julie Simone Productions and Sin City T-girls, and large but "alternative channel" distributors like Kink.com are providing a greater diversity of sexual expression than I've seen at previous shows. As fetish and BDSM become more accepted by the world at large, the porn industry is catching up, and the most interesting work -- it should serve as no surprise -- is coming from the lifestyle players. Most of the porn being produced is still in the same predictable style, but porn, by its very nature, is dynamic -- and the creativity is there if you take the time to find it.
Barbara of Sin City T-Girls. Photo by Thomas Roche.
Best Transsexual Performer winner Buck Angel, Elayne Angel. Photo by Brian King.
More importantly, I don't see the purported slowdown -- not by a longshot. I see plenty of the same shit, different day, and a sprinkling of dedicated artists who are changing the face of porn, usually not because they want to get rich, but because they love what they do. Sure, the porn industry is still packed to the rafters with bullshit, sexism, size-ism, homophobia, transphobia, and generally annoying alpha-male dick-out pissing-match fart-lighting-contests, but what the fuck?
Adult film legend Seka. Photo by Thomas Roche.
There are more women in the industry every day, women who are not just posing or fucking for the camera, but getting behind it and directing, producing, and doing what turns them on. What's more, even the most recalcitrant companies are realizing that women don't just act in porn -- they watch it. Things are changing, and while it may seem slow at times, I submit that in the last two years there has been more profound alteration in the style and variety of porn being produced than there had been for the previous five. For my money, the adult industry is healthy, with more creativity there than I've ever seen in it, and the fart-lighters are starting to thin out a bit.
Furthermore: Keep in mind that the attendees at AEE represent a small percentage of the artists making erotica -- as the web increasingly takes over modern life, the diversity of erotic expression increases every day. Whatever AEE symbolizes or doesn't, it reflects the rapidly-growing world of erotic entertainment -- and the public's interest in and comfort with it.
So it's a brave new world, and getting braver every day.
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