LOS ANGELES—On a cold January morning, a tall, seemingly unassuming man waits to board a shuttle bus to the newest hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Once seated, his voice barely cracks the surface of the louder personalities on board. He is content to absorb his surroundings, a welcoming smile greeting anyone who looks his way.
Once he arrives at the convention hall for the 2023 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, he quietly unpacks his bag and sets up his laptop. And when his live cam show is up and running on Chaturbate, Ryan Landers suddenly turns into the most popular man at The Village as a never-ending carousel of A-list gay porn performers line up to talk to him.
Beau Butler, Cade Maddox, Sean Xavier, Devin Franco…
It’s a plot twist even Landers never saw coming, and it all started with a few interviews that caught everyone’s attention—and never let up.
“I’m still shocked that people here know who I am,” he says, his calm and humble nature immediately apparent. “Beau Butler told me yesterday he has watched my shows. Like…how is this real life?! I just can’t believe it.”
Landers—who has a full-time job outside of the industry—started camming on Chaturbate last year, and his fanbase slowly started to grow from there and through content on his fan sites. “It’s almost like a hobby for me. Making money on OnlyFans and stuff is nice, but it’s really just for fun,” he says.
“The No. 1 guy on Chaturbate is named hardworkertn. He’s from Tennessee, and he puts on great shows. One day I just emailed him out of the blue and was like, ‘I would love to collab with you.’ He asked, ‘Where do you live?’ I told him I’m from Wisconsin, in the middle of nowhere. He said, ‘I’m going to Chicago, do you want to meet there?’” Landers recalls.
They met in the Windy City and hung out for a weekend, doing some cam shows.
“And he’s like, ‘We should go to the eXXXotica gigs.’ So I asked Chaturbate, because not just anyone can go. So they looked at my stats and were like, ‘Oh yeah, we would definitely like to have you come down.’ I was like, ‘Really?!’ I was shocked that they knew who I was.”
His experience at that show laid the groundwork for his success at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.
“I’m sitting (in Chicago) streaming all day, and I don’t know what to talk about, because I’m not gonna stand around in a jockstrap and dance for people,” Landers laughed. “So I just started talking, telling stories and pulling people off the streets and interviewing them. Next thing I know, I had 5,000 people watching my stream—it was crazy. So people looked forward to me coming (to Las Vegas).”
Once at The Village, all it took was a few bookings on his impromptu talk show—and then the big names kept finding their way to Landers at the Chaturbate booth.
Cole Connor, Drew Valentino, Max Konnor, Logan Aarons…
“Some of the performers told other people, but it’s more that they see someone over here, they see that we’re having fun, and they want to know what’s going on. So at first, I had to go and ask each one of them. But then they just started coming to me, which is…unreal,” Landers says, still in shock. “And I feel like I’ve made some genuine connections. I’ve exchanged phone numbers with basically like everyone, which I can’t believe. This isn’t real life.”
Landers got at least one collab out of it (thank you very much, Sean Xavier!), and had done some with other industry stars before on OnlyFans—including one with another performer that was nominated for a 2023 GayVN Award.
“That’s kind of how I blew up. When I was in Chicago at that first Expo, I met Jack Vidra. He’s actually the person that I’ve collabed with the most. And doing this work, sometimes it’s really not good for your mental health. You get bullied online sometimes; even the biggest stars probably get bullied. But just a regular person like me, people are mean to you. You can’t let it bother you. And I was just having a really bad self-esteem day one day, and Jack happened to text me about something—I think about if I was done editing a collab. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve just been having a really bad day.’ So he spent the whole day talking to me about not letting people get you down. It wasn’t like he talked me off a ledge, but he just gave me really good advice. And I was like, ‘Wow, someone of his caliber is taking time out of his day to talk to me to make sure I’m okay about dealing with the pressures that go along with all of this.’ He’s a friend forever because of that.”
That advice and experience helped Landers’ confidence, which continued to grow in Vegas as the performers kept coming to him.
Max Lorde, Malik Delgaty, Killian Knox, Alpha Wolfe…
“I don’t know them. I know some people who they’re friends with, so we have some things in common to talk about. But of course I knew who they are, which makes it really surreal to me. In my past life, I’ve met a lot of famous people, and I don’t get starstruck very often. But when I’m hanging out with these guys, I’m starstruck,” he says, his Midwest Nice continuing to shine through.
“I think it has something to do with when you ejaculate to someone, some chemical must get released in your brain. That’s all I can figure out,” Landers laughs. “So it’s really cool. People always ask me, ‘What’s it like hanging out with so and so?’ And I’m like, ‘Really? Everyone is just a person, just like you or I am.’ Everyone that I’ve met in the industry at the events I’ve been to, they’ve been so cool. I saw Austin Wolf yesterday, and I went up and talked to him. He talked to me like we were old friends. He wasn’t upset that I was interrupting him or anything, so it was pretty cool.”
And after a few interviews, Landers suddenly had trouble fitting everybody into his schedule.
“They’re actually more curious about what I’m doing, because a lot of these guys haven’t done Chaturbate before, so they don’t know what the dynamics are. They’re amazed at how many people are watching, because I’m not doing anything sexual. I have my clothes on and am just talking.”
Landers asks the performers about their background and work, and lets the conversation naturally go where it wants to go—and where his fans want it to go as they ask questions in the chat.
“I ask them what one of their favorite scenes is, favorite people that they’ve worked with. And I always ask, ‘Besides me, who do you really want to work with?’” he laughs, noting that the joke doesn’t always land. “And we take questions from the audience. Usually, I’ll ask if they know who the performer is, and of course they always do. They’re spitting out facts, and these guys are like, ‘Holy cow! They know so much about me!’ And then they really get into it. Joel Hart probably spent two hours here. He actually came and like kicked me out of the shot and was interacting with all the fans.”
And on a few occasions, Landers even left some of his interview subjects to man the chat without him as he took quick breaks (including one to introduce himself and get a picture with multi-AVN Award winner Seth Gamble, who was walking through The Village).
Silver Steele, Jack Waters, Jack Vidra, Cain Marko…
“I’m sure you’ve seen the guys on TikTok that have like 75,000 followers on OnlyFans or whatever. They have the worst content—it’s like a 30-second jerkoff video, and they charge like $30 a month. I hate that. I want the content that I make to be stuff that I would want to pay to watch,” he says.
“So a big thing for me is, I want the passion or the connection between the two people to show up in my content. And I realized yesterday that there was a connection that I was having with the people I was talking to—because I was getting comment after comment in my chat room about it. They could see the connection between me and whoever I was talking to, which was really weird and great. Because I felt that. Morgxn Thicke probably talked to me for like an hour, and we talked about everything. And I get kind of shy sometimes; I was even blushing. Like, Cole Connor kissed me multiple times on camera, and I was like…” Landers says with a smile, reliving the moment. “I didn’t know how to respond. It was a crazy day.”
During one interview, Landers improvised a bit that turned into gold.
“It kind of accidentally happened. A lot of times, (fans in the chat room) ask us to kiss, and most people are like, ‘Okay!’ So Luca del Rey and I were making out, and I was like, ‘Do you want to see where we keep the bottled water?’ So we went into the storage room in the middle of the booth, and people can see us go in and I shut the door. Most of the (porn stars) went into the closet with me, and we just stood in there and talked for a minute. The fans then see us as we walk out…and they’re dying. Dying. So when someone new comes on, they’re like, ‘Go show him the router!’ That was not planned, and it turned out to be a big hit.”
Austin Wolf, Cole Blue, Dillon Diaz, Jake Waters…
“It makes me look cool, but it’s really more about giving the porn stars a different avenue to promote themselves. I don’t care in regards to myself; the people in the chat room are already my fans. They like my taste in content, so they’re going to like the people I pick out of the crowd to come and talk to.”
Landers started to see more followers across his social media and fan accounts during and after his four days broadcasting at The Village—and he wasn’t the only one.
“One of the porn stars told me that they saw a big bump in Twitter followers from my show. My fans will message them on Twitter and be like, ‘I saw you on Ryan’s show! You need to film a scene with him!’ or something like that,” Landers laughs. “So they’re getting a lot of engagement from my fans—they’re really good at that. I also had everybody vote for them for GayVN (Fan Awards). At one point, I had 1,000 people I was directing to the AVN page and have them vote for whoever I was talking to.
“And that engagement is important because it makes porn stars seem like real people—because they are real people, and they’re approachable. Everyone has been wonderful and nice, and I have not had a negative experience from anyone.”
Jesse Stone, Jake Jackson, Drake Von, Steve Rickz…
That includes some people behind the scenes as well, which sparked a passion that Landers would like to explore more of.
“I interviewed Chi Chi LaRue and Sister Roma for like an hour and a half, and we talked about everything—they were wonderful. I didn’t know how my fans would react to having someone like them on, because they aren’t porn stars—but they’re the reason why the porn stars are who they are, so it was a unique opportunity for my viewers to learn some behind-the-scenes stuff and ask questions about how things happen. And it was a great learning experience for me, because they both asked me if I would do a scene for them. Which I was like…what?!” Landers says in disbelief.
“I said, ‘I don’t compare to any of these guys you film…but sure, whatever, if you want me to.’ But I’d be more interested in going to a shoot and seeing how everything works behind the scenes, because that’s really what my interest is. I was in awe that those two came and spent so much time with me, and even (NakedSword CEO) Tim Valenti wanted to talk to me, but Sister Roma hogged all of his time. The funny thing is, when I came in the day before, he was sitting on the couch and he said ‘hi’ to me. So, Tim Valenti remembered who I was. That’s crazy!”
But after his coming out party at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Vegas, Landers is sure to be known by everyone the next time around—which he hopes continues with another stint at the show next year.
“I’m just going to have as much fun as I can. 2022 was a great year, and 2023 got off to a great start here. I was talking to a friend this morning, and I’m like, ‘How is this my life?!’” Landers laughs. “I just think I’m a regular guy. So if someone who is a star in my eyes comes up to me and knows who I am…I can’t believe it. It’s blowing my mind.”
Photos via Instagram at @xryanlandersx
(1) From left: Sean Xavier, Drew Valentino, Max Konnor & Ryan Landers; Austin Wolf & Ryan
(2) Beau Butler; Cole Connor
(3) Cade Maddox; Luca del Rey
(4) Drew Valentino; Malik Delgaty
(5) Cole Blue; Morgxn Thicke
(6) hardworkertn; Drew Sebastian, Jack Vidra & Cain Marko
(7) Dillon Diaz, Jake Waters; Alpha Wolfe
(8) Jack Waters; Joel Hart
(9) Killian Knox; Sister Roma
