Two decades ago, Howard Andrew was working in a South Florida nightclub when a patron he never met before approached him.
“He said, ‘I want to hire one of your dancers.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, so you want them as an escort?’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no,’” Andrew recalls. “He said his name was Rick Ford, and that didn’t mean anything to me. But when he said ‘Dirk Yates,’ my head spun around in 12 circles. I wanted to get down on the floor and bow down to the king of porn. And that’s how it all began.”
Some six days later, FabScout Entertainment was born—all because legendary gay porn producer Ford wanted to cast one of the club’s dancers in a scene.
“(Rick) came in the bar on a Saturday, and he was supposed to leave town on a Sunday. We talked for a while, because I was a huge porn fan,” Andrew says. “And he stayed an extra two days in Miami to teach me what to do and what not to do, how to do things and how not to do things, and mistakes that people have made in the past.”
It was a crash course in adult talent management that served Andrew well.
“Obviously, the times we’re in now are very, very different, so I’ve had to modify a lot of his rules. Like years ago, the biggest rule was ‘never say no to anybody,’ even if you just film them in a solo or if you’re just being nice to them on the phone, because you never really know who their friend is. Always be nice to people. If you’re going to send a rejection letter, always make sure it’s very nicely worded and not a form letter, and make sure you keep communication open. Do the best you can to treat everybody with respect, and be kind to people.”
Andrew quickly met Massive Studio owner/director John Bruno (“my first real booking on my own”), and two months later he met Chi Chi LaRue. Suddenly, there was no looking back.
A Budding Businessman
Born and raised in New York, Andrew has been working since he was 11.
“I’ve been a go-getter and pusher the whole time as far as getting work done and getting money coming in,” he says, noting he had two paper routes as a kid and also helped customers carry grocery bags to their cars outside the supermarket every Saturday.
“You’d get tipped a nickel, dime or quarter, and at the end of one day I had $10. It was the day before Mother’s Day,” he laughs, the memory coming back to him as he tells the story. “And I went into Woolworth’s and bought my mother a chip-and-dip set that was $10, but I had no money for gift wrap and tax. So I said to the cashier, ‘Wait a few minutes.’ And I went back and I carried five or six more packages, so I had enough money…but then I didn’t have enough for tape. And the lady says, ‘Don’t worry, I got this.’ She helped me gift wrap it. And to this day almost 50 years later, my mother still has it.”
His family moved to California when he was 16, and Andrew eventually moved back to New York. He worked for Party City for 15 years, during which time he was transferred to a store in Orlando—which led to another auspicious encounter.
“I went out one night and I met a guy. We talked and we talked, and everything was great. We exchanged phone numbers and called each other the next day, and it turns out that he lived in the house directly behind the store I was working in. That was about 30 years ago—and it was Gio (Caruso), as in the photographer, videographer and director. We were together for 18 years, and now he’s still my best friend.”
After leaving Party City, Andrew recalls a night where he went to a strip club in Miami with Gio.
“I observed the bartender stealing money, and I brought it up to the manager on duty—who asked me to come back the following night to watch the next bartender, who was also stealing. And at the end of that night, I was managing the nightclub—and I had never managed a nightclub before,” he laughs. “That got me in there with the reputation of being honest. And in the strip club business, it’s very, very difficult because it’s such a cash-heavy business. And here’s me, fresh in the business and trying to learn as I go—and trying to babysit the boys as I go.”
“A Total Mindfuck”
It was that baptism by fire that enabled Andrew to start his own talent agency when the opportunity unexpectedly presented itself that fateful night when Ford walked in.
“When FabScout started, we operated for about a year where it was just me with Gio helping out,” Andrew recalls. “He would take pictures of the guys for me because he was into photography. And then it was like, ‘I’m gonna do this full time.’ But I still worked at the bar because it was really good access to get models.”
FabScout got its business license and taxes situated, and for about five years Andrew pulled double duty by still working at the bar. But with a quickly growing client base, thoughts of a full-time transition crept up.
“I remember the first day I met Chi Chi LaRue. I was flabbergasted, because here’s this bigger-than-life person—and then a few months later, here I was representing Chi Chi for club appearances, which was just a total mindfuck at that point,” he recalls. “You gotta go back to those days before everything in the world was internet—before Twitter, before Facebook. It was doing the best we can with phone calls and sending a picture back and forth. It was a very different world. There weren’t 10,000 people a day knocking on your door saying, ‘I want to do porn.’ Instagram was not a talent agency.”
FabScout initially started out of a guest room in Andrew’s house (“That was oh so fun,” he laughs) and acquired its first office space around 2008, settling into its current Fort Lauderdale space a year later. The company also added access to a studio space about 10 years ago thanks to the office of Media Gio/Gio Photography, which is in the same facility.
For two years during those early days, Andrew also worked as an assistant to producer/director Edward James. But FabScout was growing exponentially, and soon there was little time to do anything else.
“Brad Star was probably the porn star that started FabScout—he was the guy that put me on the map, about two years in. There have been so many big names since, and some one-and-dones—names that I’ve forgotten 100 times over. Damien Crosse is still with me—I spoke to him this morning. So, 14 years with people is not a bad thing,” Andrew says. “And then I’ve got people that were already doing stuff with other people, and they would come to me to get some work, and I would do what I could. It was studio by studio and model by model, and we built it—myself and Gio, and then (VP and co-owner) Matt (Lock) joined us a few years later and has been with me ever since.”
Rewriting the Rules
Anyone who has ever been to a gay adult industry award or trade show has undoubtedly seen Andrew amongst the crowd, always greeting people with a genuine smile and affable demeanor. It’s a trait that comes natural to him, and one he put to good use after he leaned the value of face-to-face connections.
“Back in the day, I had some friends that were telling me about the Grabby Awards, and I’m like, ‘What the hell are the Grabby Awards?’ I was inexperienced, and they said, ‘You should go.’ And the first year I went, I probably brought about six models with me. And then after that it was like, ‘Okay, public appearances are where it needs to be.’”
He soon followed it up with a visit to Southern Decadence, where he brought gay porn icon Lukas Ridgeston, who was booked at a club for the event.
“I went with him and we had a great week together. That was I think my fourth booking with Lukas. After that, it was all about the events. It was going to Los Angeles in January and doing the Cybersocket Awards and then the GayVNs…it was a lot of fun. Everybody was a big family. There wasn’t as much crap going on then as there is now.”
Andrew also bought out fellow agent David Forest’s company around 15 years ago, growing FabScout even more.
“It’s kind of sad when David passed away and then Dak King passed away, so I’m a dinosaur now,” Andrew laughs, noting he turns 60 in May.
“I didn’t write the book, but I helped change things. When they were in their business of booking, the studios would pay them, and then they would pay the models. So the models never quite knew how much they were making. So if a studio would pay a model $1,000, the agent might give that model $500 and keep $500. But from the day that I started, I said, ‘I’m not going to operate that way.’ So that was the biggest change.”
At the height of the studio era, Andrew notes he represented well above 100 clients., but the number has gone up and down based on how the industry is doing. He currently has about 70 clients.
“There were so many things going on in so many different places—and so many small studios—that everybody wanted more and more, and that kind of slowed down. That took its toll after a bit.”
Other industry changes had an effect on his business, starting with the advent of PrEP.
“I’ll tell you what the single biggest change was. For 15 years, FabScout said ‘no’ to bareback. If you did bareback porn, we were not working with you. We were not working with bareback companies. Not happening. And that was for 15 years,” he says. “Then a couple years ago, everything changed.”
The explosion of subscription-based clip sites also proved challenging.
“Things like that have made a massive change in everything, because models don’t necessarily need or want the studios, and therefore there’s no need or want for me. But everybody calls me and says, ‘Hey, I need your help with this. Can you do this for me?’ And it’s like, ‘I can do everything for you, but if I’m not getting paid, I’m not doing it,’” Andrew says.
“The changes happening the last few years have made it a little more…difficult would be a good choice of words. But I’m super happy for the guys that are making mounds of money that are doing it right, so that’s good for them. It’s not necessarily great for me, but it’s good for them. And that makes me happy.”
Answering the Call
The rise of social media has also signified a major change in model expectations, and it has forced Andrew to adapt his approach.
“The exposure that people get on Twitter and Instagram and the clip sites, they think that they’re going to be immediate stars. They think that they’re going to be the biggest star that’s ever been created. And if you walk up to a studio exclusive today and say, ‘Do you know who Jeff Stryker is? Do you know who Arpad Miklos was? Do you know who Matthew Rush is?’, they look at you like you have three heads. They have no idea. They think they are the biggest stars ever, and nobody came before them and nobody will come after them. And that to me is really frustrating, because there are so many people that paved the way—the Falcon stable of people, the Chi Chi LaRue stable of people. They built the porn industry with actual porn stars.”
Andrew says that the “porn star” moniker is thrown about so much these days that it has lost its luster.
“The boys are all out for an easy buck. Escorting is way bigger than it ever is, STDs are bigger than they ever were—and the boys are making more money than ever, so drug addiction is way higher than it ever has been. So whereas 10 years ago I would get a dozen HIV-positive test results for performers in a week, now I’m getting a dozen overdoses or relapses, or I’m getting a dozen gonorrhea, chlamydia or syphilis positives. So yes, the STD world has changed with the advent of PrEP, but I can remember sitting in my office and having phone call after phone call of people that were testing HIV positive. When you have to look at a kid that just turned 18 and say ‘Hey, by the way…,’ it’s a little distressing.”
But it’s that personal touch has enabled Andrew to be so successful for so long.
“In many ways I’m a babysitter and a therapist on a non-stop basis, whether it’s 10 in the morning or 10 at night. And I would say probably a third of my job is playing counselor, listening and giving advice. I get consistent phone calls from models. I get calls from mothers and grandmothers. I get calls from hospitals, police, and sponsors from people that are in programs. So it’s pretty much non-stop,” he says. “Then you sometimes get the dreaded phone call: ‘You’re receiving a collect call from an inmate at a correctional facility.’ Unfortunately, that call comes in on a consistent basis.”
It’s a role that Andrew has become accustomed to—and one that he embraces.
“Since I was a kid, everybody has always come to me with stuff. It’s very easy to talk to me, and I give that fatherly or grandfatherly advice that you can only get from life experience. And the amount of life experience that I have between being an older guy and being in the porn business for 20 years, it helps.”
A New Purpose
But five years ago, Andrew got a phone call that took even him by surprise—and changed his life forever. It dated back to his childhood.
“The first time I had sex—when I was 16 years old—my girlfriend got pregnant,” shares Andrew, noting he came out when he was 21. “And we made a deal that she would keep the baby and I would graciously walk away. And at 16 years old, of course you’re going to walk away. I knew she was pregnant, but there was no follow-up or anything by me at the time. I didn’t find out I had a daughter—and a grandson—until five years ago. It’s the most amazing story. It started on Facebook Messenger: ‘Hey, is this the little Howard I went to school with?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ They wrote, ‘We should talk.’”
Several times over the years, Andrew wanted to reach out—but stopped himself every time.
“I had picked up the phone to call and say, ‘Hey, I want to be involved, I want to meet, I want to know.’ But then I thought to myself, it’s probably not the best thing to tell a 20- or a 30- or a 40-year-old, ‘Oh by the way, your whole life has been a lie.’ I was already the bad guy for disappearing,” he says. “So when this all happened five years ago, it was just a random Facebook conversation that led to, ‘Well, would you like to talk to your daughter?’”
As Andrew recalls that conversation, he pauses at that very moment—just as if he was letting it sink in for the first time: He had a 38-year-old daughter.
“It was probably a three-hour phone call with her, and then she informed me that I also have a 19-year-old grandson, which took me back a little bit. And finding out that my daughter is very friendly with a ton of gay people, there was never a question or an issue there with me. Her whole life, she didn’t feel like she fit in.”
Three days later, Andrew was on a plane to California to meet them.
“And it was beyond incredible, and more than I could ever ask for. Instant family. I have a very, very special relationship with my daughter. She goes with me to all the Prides, my grandson goes with me. I’m pretty blessed, actually.”
Both know what he does for a living—and aren’t phased by it.
“I don’t hide what I do,” Andrew says. “Some other porn people might be embarrassed or try to hide it, and I am absolutely not embarrassed. I was managing a bar, and some random person hired a stripper to be in a movie—and then spent three days teaching me how to be an agent. So I’m pretty proud of what I do.”
He tries to see them two to three times a year, but the pandemic has made that impossible this last year—so they have stayed in contact via the phone and social media messages.
“My grandson recently went through some very bad stuff, and didn’t feel like talking to anybody else but me. That kind of made me feel good, that he felt comfortable talking to me about it. He calls me when he’s got a question or problem, or something he needs to get off his chest. He never really had a father, so I’ve taken the father role in his life, and my daughter and I are more like really good friends than father/daughter. And it’s…,” Andrew says, pausing again as he takes it in. “Awesome. It’s really, truly awesome. I know I have enriched their lives as well by being a loving, caring ‘parent Part 2’ that they were missing.”
All in the Family
Speaking of, it should come as no surprise that Andrew’s parents are also involved with FabScout.
“My mom is 84 and my dad is 89. I live 15 minutes away, and they are very much a part of my business. My mother has my business cards that she loves to hand out to people. I get these weird phone calls: ‘Some old woman handed me your card and told me to call you.’ I ask, ‘What’s your name?’ They’ll say, ‘Irving Kleishman. I’m 70, but the wheel chair doesn’t really get in the way,’” he says with a laugh. “I ask, ‘Mom, why would you give him my business card?!’ and her answer is, ‘Well, he’s gay!’ It’s just funny.”
Andrew credits the growth of FabScout to a lot of hard work and word of mouth around the family atmosphere he has fostered.
“I do a significant amount of recruiting, but I think they see that there’s somebody here that will always answer a phone call, and will help guide you and walk you through the issues and problems. There are a lot of shitty things that go on in this industry. Some people are able to handle things for themselves, some people need an agent, while some need a babysitter,” he says.
“There will be a lot more issues and a lot more problems as the industry grows—and the freak show called porn is growing every day. There’s new niches that open up, there’s new studios that open up, and if there’s not people to guide the youngsters, then what have we got?”
Andrew says the pandemic put a huge wrench in his growth, but he is starting to get a mound of emails. He’s excited about the upcoming FabScouTS, a new division headed up by Dexx Morningstar and Lana Summers focusing on TS talent; and notes that Pride festivals and other events are starting back up again (he’s anxious to take part, and recently booked three events in one day).
“It’s nowhere near the money or terms it used to be, but it’s still a good thing. When I started, I was fresh out of my real job, working in a nightclub not knowing where I wanted to go and where I wanted to be. So having this happen was a double-edged sword, because I had a life outside of work at that time,” he says. “Now, I would say 80 to 85 percent of my life revolves around the company. And it’s constant, with phone calls and texts and tweets—and then there’s the worrying about the kids you don’t hear from for a couple days. That’s a huge thing—if you don’t hear from somebody that you’re used to talking to, then the worry and the stress goes into trying to track them down.”
And that’s because to Andrew, everyone at FabScout is part of his large, growing—and yes, sometimes dysfunctional—family.
“There’s a lot of guys that have been with me for six, seven, eight years. Sean Duran has been with me forever. And then a lot of them that are out of the business—I’m still friendly with a ton of those guys, like Gavin Waters, Dylan Roberts and Marcus Mojo. This is my family. These are my friends,” he says. “We went through a period a few years ago where everybody wanted to be an agent. There were probably seven or eight ‘agents’ that popped up and started giving agencies a really bad rap. And that slowly changed, and people came around. I’ve been the largest gay agency in the country for years, and I have no intention of changing it. I’m the granddaddy of the business, and I’m not going anywhere.”
First photo: Rick Ford, aka Dirk Yates, and Howard Andrew at 2018 GayVN Awards Show in Las Vegas.
