Adult Entertainment Expo

I spent last week schmoozing around the Adult Entertainment Expo in
Las Vegas. I played up the California PR-man schtick and left my
sunglasses on the whole time.

The Adult Entertainment Expo is like Burningman if Burningman chose
"avarice" as a theme. A sea of naked men and women dancing on
makeshift stripper poles, surrounded by 20-foot-tall poster pictures
of themselves, mobbed by fans and the popping of camera flashes.
Everything promises sex and adventure and excitement, but there's
actually very little of any of these on the convention floor.

But I had a hell of a lot of fun.

The casinos trick your body into believing that it's perpetually
between 4 and 7 p.m.- the light never changes and the drinks flow
all day and all night. There were times, as I snapped my business card



to an LA studio rep and peered at them over my shades, that I thought
maybe I was being too cheesedick about the whole thing. But everyone
seemed suitably impressed, and no one called me out.

Actually, there's no way I could have out-cheesed the people who were
wandering around. I hate to admit it, but I bought (and wrote off as
a business expense) a bottle of hand-sanitizer. And I used it all. The shock of being surrounded by a concentrated dose of LA pornsters in a Vegas environment almost did me in.

Representing T.I.M. was exciting, as people’s reactions could go one of two ways. People would either get excited- I deal with a lot of these people via email and telephone on a day to day basis but have never actually met them, so it was neat to make instant friends, or they would recoil, scared that my evil would rub off on their highly moral hands. There was far more of the former than the latter, so I had plenty of people to chat with.

Tom Bolt, part of our New Barbary Coast sales department (and owner of the warmest voice you’ll ever hope to hear), came along to find to studios to represent. New Barbary Coast was Paul’s brainchild about a year ago, when he realized that there were far too many maverick gay porn studios out there who, due to their being “too edgy,” weren’t being distributed by anyone. So he started yet another company, NBCD, to help them get into retail stores. Tom blanketed a number of studio owners with his voice, and came away with some juicy contacts.

Always on the lookout for fresh talent, Nick Stevens, our casting director, also came along- to get some naked pictures of the Vegas boys. The last time I saw him at the convention, he was walking around with a slice of beefcake wearing a T.I.M. shirt. I can only assume that this means you’ll see a slice of beefcake wearing Dawson in the near future.

One of my most notable meetings was with New York’s adult film auteur Joe Gallant of Black Mirror Productions. Joe’s a bit of an anachronism, a piece of 60’s mentality with a deep love of administering yogurt enemas to his performers. Talking to him is an experience not to be missed- “groovy” makes a regular appearance in his vocabulary, but he means it. He’s recently made a transition from shooting some of the most incredibly interesting straight porn around to making gay films. He gave me a copy to check out, and I look forward to checking it out. Anyhow, he brought up his newest discovery, a transsexual from Michigan who’ll be starring in the film he’s currently shooting, tentatively titled Atomic Skullfuck Orgy. I met up with him in a Vegas tranny bar and proceeded to try to look up his discovery’s skirt.

I want to say congratulations to everyone who asked for a t-shirt. You won! Woohoo! I’m going to start having a new contest every week, starting now. The first five people to comment below get a brand new “FUCK THE SEX POLICE” t-shirt. Make sure to email me (saul@treasureislandmedia.com) after you comment, and give me your mailing address.

xox