Comedian Jim Norton has been named co-host of the 24th Annual AVN Awards to be held on Jan. 13, 2007, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
Norton joins Wicked Pictures contract star Jessica Drake who will also host the event.
“I can’t wait,” said the veteran comic.
“I did it once before and it was great. Well, it would’ve been great, if I could have gotten a porn star to have sex with me. But that’s the breaks,” Norton quipped.
It was just three years ago that the New Jersey native got his first taste of the adult industry’s biggest event when he co-hosted the 2004 AVN Awards with Jenna Jameson.
“I learned a lot about the industry,” Norton said.
“I learned that I had a better shot at fucking someone from the general public.”
Having been a popular stand-up comic for 17 years, Norton is known for his witticisms as a regular on the “Opie & Anthony Show,” on XM Satellite Radio and his work on the recently-cancelled HBO comedy series “Lucky Louie,” and on Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd.”
He has also performed on scores of television talk shows, like “The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show With David Letterman,” and others, as well as appearances on sitcoms and HBO comedy specials.
But co-hosting the AVN Awards will be something special, says Norton, who admits to an admiration of several performers and industry members.
“When I got the call from [Executive Producer] Gary [Miller], I got all excited. I feel like it’s an honor.”
For his part, Miller said the decision to hire Norton was easy, given his success at the 2004 AVN awards.
“He did a fantastic job and he’s great at thinking on his feet. You gotta have a guy who’s going with the flow and has the ability to ad lib and keep the show interesting and funny.
“We knew that we needed to have a guy who could stand up in front of seven or eight thousand people and not be intimidated by it.”
Although he’s still working on his material for the show, Norton says he likely will have fewer jokes about porn than he used the last time since much of his current material deals with his observations about life in general.
“But there are some things about porn that are funny,” Norton said.
“You have to fucking love the categories: Guy Who Had the Most Trouble Maintaining an Erection Until the Director's Friend Stopped Giggling and Left. I love that stuff."
But even as some in mainstream entertainment look down on the industry, Norton says he sees it as an important segment of the overall entertainment industry.
“It’s the biggest video industry on the planet, making billions of dollars. They obviously know what they’re doing.”
Himself a big porn fan, Norton still warmly recalls his favorite starlets of his youth.
“I love Kay Parker and Honey Wilder and girls like that. But the only thing I didn’t like in the past were the unshaved muffs. It looked like a Fidel Castro beard down there."
Today, Norton’s favorite starlets include Belladonna, Inari Vachs and Sunny Lane whom he says has yet to take him up on his advances.
“But I'm still hoping.”
For tickets to the Awards, please call (818) 718-5788 ext. 117, or log onto www.avnawards.com.
Pictured: Jim Norton and Wicked's Kirsten Price.
