In the Beginning ...
Seymore Butts and the legendary Seka opened the AVN circus of flesh on Thursday, Jan. 6 with the ceremonial ribbon cutting at 11:10 a.m., officially kicking off four days of new business deals, industry networking, promotional opportunities and random debauchery. The pair were accompanied by vixens Teagan Presley, Christie Lee, Nicki Hunter and Kelly Erikson as a mob of over 150 photographers and local news crews captured the moment.
"The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is — for fans and industry insiders alike — the premier event for the industry," said HEE spokesperson Carrie Dieterich. "It's remarkable that the fan figures for this year's event exceeded those of last year, despite the fact that the Expo was not open to the public during the first day, as it was in years past."
Attendance was not the only area of growth for the 2005 AVN Expo. Exhibitors totaled 328, an AEE record and a significant increase over the 252 exhibitors that participated in the 2004 Expo.
And speaking of exhibitors, filth fave Evil Angel came to Las Vegas armed with its first new booth in recent memory. The gonzo heavyweight greeted clients and fans inside a dungeon-like structure complete with black metal bars.
Over at the Vivid booth, a team of bodyguards surrounded ClubJenna girl Krystal Steal, who looked stunning in a pink cowboy hat. Justine Joli sat next to Steal, saying that she was flattered that Jameson asked her to sign.
Hard working Joli, who described her tight Dickies bodysuit as "nonexistent," was splitting her time between signing for ClubJenna, Metro Studios and Andrew Blake. She also revealed that an authentic mold of her pussy from California Exotic Novelties would be available by the time this issue was published.
"I'm really stoked," she said. "I want to see if it looks like a Cornish game hen." Don't we all.
Mark Wood and Francesca Lé, co-owners of LéWood Productions, held court at the Juicy Entertainment booth, their new distribution home. Wood was also promoting his Nxt Level product with Kristal Summers, signing slicks of such modern classics as Cum Swallowing Whores 3.
"I'm going to start putting more girls into my movies," Wood clarified. "I'm so over five guys in every scene."
Then there was Dani Woodward, who said she was having fun seeing her pictures in strange places.
"I walked by the Exposed booth, and I'm on two covers of their magazine, and I didn't even know it," she gushed, sweetly perplexed. "Robbie Bentley shot it. Isn't that fun?"
And They Shall Come.
Friday morning, faithful fans by the thousands flooded through the Sands Convention Center hall with their digital and video cams, clogging the aisles and raising the spirit and enthusiasm of the record number of exhibitors. Booths large and small stretched from Hustler, Vivid, ClubJenna and Adam & Eve up front to the trade-only B2B area at the back.
"The adult entertainment industry is undoubtedly driven by its devoted fans," offered Paul Fishbein, president of AVN. "But the widening scope of the industry has injected new enthusiasm from entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on rising demand for adult products. This new entrepreneurial energy will foster competition and raise the standards of quality for adult entertainment in what will be a successful and prosperous New Year for the industry."
At Digital Playground, bone-raising blondes Jesse Jane and Devon chatted with retailers as salespeople took orders. The exquisite Franco-Vietnamese Katsumi mesmerized fans at the Pure Play booth, as Euro-porn's own Rita Faltoyano held court at Smash Pictures.
A sparkling Jewel De'Nyle said she loves her new home in New York, though she makes regular trips to L.A. to direct her movies. She revealed that this would be her last signing appearance at the Adult Expo. Still a 25 percent owner of Platinum X, she plans on working behind the scenes when the company and Red Light District move into their new Chatsworth command center.
Meanwhile, JM Productions owner Jeff Steward was waiting for his two stars, Ashley Blue and Missy Monroe, to show up. "I should have told them to be here at nine — that way they'd be here by 10," moaned the boss. In the meantime, he talked about his new series from Khan Tusion, Midnight Prowl, which he calls "somewhere between amateur and reality porn." Porn girls show up at adult bookstores and have sex with the customers, much to their apparently spontaneous surprise. Sweet.
Over at Anabolic-Diabolic, much sought-after Anabolic t-shirts were generously distributed to hordes of eager fans. And the hard-edge company had something new this year: a large-format calendar with extreme hardcore photos of Anabolic's favorite girls.
"Just wait — next year everybody's going to have these," predicted Gia Paloma, the most popular babe at the booth as she scrawled her John Hancock across a candid snap of herself taking a veiny beef stick up the Paloma poop chute.
Retailers may have been surprised to see former Zane Entertainment owner Chuck Zane at the Extreme Associates 2.0 booth.
"I'm doin' the foreign for Rob," grinned the uncle of Extreme owner Rob Black. "Also for Tom Byron's Evolution Erotica and Max Hardcore. I get to go to Europe five or six times a year. It's better than having to come into the office every day," Zane admitted. Fans were treated to the official unveiling of new Extreme contract girl, Salome — who turns out to have been Kami Andrews in a previous incarnation.
Tireless Kat Sunlove was getting things in order at the Free Speech Coalition booth, equipped with two computers set up to Send a Message to Congress about civil liberties concerns regarding the Patriot Act.
"We had 50 people send a message yesterday," bragged the fetching fuck-patriot, "and that was just retailers."
At the Heatwave booth the talk was of Riley Brooks, the all-American nasty girl who just signed on as the new Kelly the Coed. And then there was fire-eating Jennifer Steele, who blows flames from her mouth during sex. The all-black Onyxxx line, Heatwave's Alex said, is going out like gangbusters, especially backdoor titles Analicious and Anal Stallion.
Hall of Fame director Andrew Blake, the owner of Studio A Entertainment, pitched his new release, Close-Up, with the gorgeous Tall Goddess, who he turned into a blonde. Cineaste Blake said he still prefers to shoot on film and transfer it to DVD, valuing the "impressionistic" film look over the see-every-ass-blemish realism of Hi-Definition. "If you want to see the ?real thing,'" he chuckled, "go out and get yourself a real girl."
And They Did Multiply.
Saturday is traditionally the busiest day of AEE, and this year was no exception.
"This is ridiculous," Mitch Spinelli, owner of Acid Rain, told AVN. "I'm amazed every year at the size of the crowd, but this is really something."
Bang Productions, the creators of the popular Internet series Bang Bus, exhibited for the first time.
"We did great on the first day, we were welcomed by the distributors attending here, and we wrote a lot orders," said Penn, Bang COO. "But we're having a lot of fun with the fans as well, drawing crowds for our contests."
Who doesn't love contests? Shane's World shared a booth with their distributor New Sensations, passing out company logo T-shirts. Lucky folks spotted wearing a Shane tee were invited to spin a wheel and win a prize, anything from free DVDs, to — guess what? — another T-shirt.
"We wanted our presence out there as much as possible," Jennie Grant, owner of Shane's World, told AVN. "This will be a big year for us, and we want people to see that we're everywhere." The company ran a special version of their contest for the first, trade-only day, offering 100 DVDs as a top prize.
"One DVD doesn't really do much for a retailer, but we thought 100 would be a quantity they would appreciate," Grant explained. "And I don't think a consumer really needs that many at once." She wasn't kidding. As every one-handed fast-forward jockey knows, DVDs are built to last. God bless technology.
And It Was Good.
Come Sunday, fans and retailers not attending church packed the corridors of the Expo for the final day of the show, many still buzzing from Saturday night's AVN Awards extravaganza. As usual, the fans formed lines thick and long for autographs and photos with primo porn pusseratti.
Wicked Pictures, which the night before garnered its sixth consecutive win in the Best Actress – Video (Jessica Drake for Fluff and Fold) category, had a busy morning with scores of attendees waiting for Drake and the other Wicked girls.
"2005 has gotten off to a great start for us," Wicked Publicity Director Daniel Metcalf said. "This show is a tremendous outreach to the fans and an unprecedented outreach for us on the retail level, and on an international level with the new deals that we've been able to get into place." A sleepy but radiant Julia Ann was happily signing posters and told AVN, "It's Day Four, and I am just running on adrenaline now!"
Oriental Dream Pictures' staff was all smiles, showcasing the company's first-ever AVN Award for Best Ethnic-Themed Release – Asian (for Dress-Up Doll Asuka), as foxy Japanese imports Sarina Kuramoto and Asuka Otaki signed for delighted fans.
Autograph hounds crowded the DVSX booth — drawn by schtup stars Alex Devine, Carmen Hayes, Katrina Kraven, Katie Morgan, Olivia O'Lovely, Gen Padova and Sammie Rhodes — as a live DJ kept the music blasting. Company Publicist Jennifer Main proudly noted that MTV's Viva La Bam cast had stopped by the day before to get footage of Bam and company working their skater punk magic on the booth's stripper pole.
"We feel like this year has taken us over the top," Main told AVN. "This show was chaotic with the level of the crowd, but we really got our names out there. Sales-wise, it was an excellent show for us, too."
Pleasure Productions Sales Manager Dan Motola agreed.
"This show was truly outstanding for us. It's always good to have a chance to connect the faces with the voices that you hear on the phone every day. We'll be putting out a lot of good product that people are going to get excited about in 2005."
As will, no doubt, the entire industry.
The 2006 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo will take place Jan. 5-8, 2006 at the Sands Expo Center. The AVN Awards Show will take place at the Venetian Hotel & Casino on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006.
