LOS ANGELES—This past weekend saw the return of Adultcon to the Los Angeles Conventon Center, albeit in a somewhat smaller room than previously—but hey, the economy still sucks for most of us, so what can you do?
This year's event crowded roughly 80 booths into the 20,000-square-foot space that is Concourse Hall—and that's not counting the VIP area at the back of the hall that cost a slight premium to enter, with Ron Jeremy's booth right by the entrance and the Vette National Army (VNA) wrestling ring just opposite. We're not sure about who else populated that ring throughout the day, but on Saturday afternoon, it was standing room only for the Carmen Valentina/Its Cleo bout, and everyone seemed to want to capture the festivities on their cellphones or other cameras.
The VNA booth was arguably the biggest porn star-related booth at the show, with a presence in two back-to-back aisles, and its inhabitants included the aforementioned Cleo, as well as Vicky Vette herself, Sara Jay, Bobby Eden, Sunny Lane, Gabby Quinteros, Samantha Grace, Rita Daniels and Maggie Green. Not far behind, space-wise, was the LA Direct Models booth, also a back-to-backer, and when we walked by, it was featuring starlets Hope Howell, Morgan Lee, Onyx Muse, Tasha Reign, Abby Lee Brazil, Adriana Chechik and Rachele Richey. We also saw a booth for XL Models with plenty of gold-colored furniture for attendees to use to rest for a few minutes.
Stoney Curtis's Lethal Hardcore brand had a corner booth, with the director himself enticing attendees to pony up a few bucks to join the company's fan club and attend a live taping of a "futuristic hardcore adult feature movie" titled The Procreation Game. Aiding in the enticement were stars Laela Pryce and Talon, and the flyer for the event also announced the participation of stars Brooklyn Chase, Kelsi Monroe, Anikka Albrite, Noelle Easton, Riley Reid, Maddy O'Reilly, Jenna Ivory, Evan Stone, Marco Banderas and Tony Ribas.
Other stars and would-be stars with booths (and, occasionally, a bed as well) included Jessica Ryan, Yurizan Beltran, Nikita Pea, Jelly Ranger, Sarah Vandella, Sheridan Love, Tia Kai, Lexxi Lash (at which the legendary Herschel Savage was also signing), the equally legendary Karen Summer, Gianna Michaels, Austin White (whose booth featured a caged woman and a bondage cross), Carli Montana, Capri Cavanni, Nikki Delano, Jaded Dawn, Carissa Montgomery, Aurora Kett, Mandy Candy, Alex Chance, Rebecca Love, Anastasia Pierce—and right next to her, Jewell Marceau at her Crowned Jewell Productions booth.
One of the larger DVD/Blu-ray sellers at the show was Eric John, whose webcam work with dozens of female performers for his company, Erotique Entertainment, has been released by Zero Tolerance's Fallout Films label—but John wasn't biased: He was also stocking plenty of titles from other companies, most notably Hustler.
We would have been interested to know more about the Iron Horse Productions company, but sadly, no one was manning its booth during our time at the convention.
Interestingly, several attorneys were also exhibitors at the convention, though none with names familiar to longtime adult industry followers. Also near the entrance to the convention hall was Lil' Zeke's Bail Bonds, a company with which some industry personnel may be more familiar. Likewise on tap: at least one dental clinic, one booth hawking wrinkle cream, a couple of booths selling trips to exotic places like Catalina Island and Hawaii, several booths selling lingerie... and Cutting Edge Testing (C.E.T.) for all one's pre-performance testing needs.
And what would an Adultcon be without the pot people? One of the larger booths at the show belonged to Incognito, a purveyor of fine bongs and glass pipes, and not far away was the OG Smoke Shops of Azusa and Temple City. And then there was the Highgasm booth, which sold hemp-based edible personal lubricant (with "25mg pure cannabis essence") in flavors like Cock-o-nut and Blowberry.
Other interesting exhibitors included Fusion Design, with artists drawing caricatures of any attendee willing to pay the modest fee, while several booths away was Popeye Wong, who sold "good girl art" t-shirts, prints and mouse pads. Sadly, we didn't get the name of the poster vendor with plenty of art posters featuring comicbook characters and sexy models, nor the folks selling new and used sexy books (many published by Taschen), action figures and magazines. Also on the floor: the OrchidAndSerpentStores.com, which sold bondage and fetish gear, floggers of various sorts, glass dildos and vibrators.
And of course, what would an adult convention be without the religious folks assuring us that we'll all go to hell unless we repent? Shelley Lubben's Pink Cross Foundation made an appearance, though Shelley herself wasn't there when we passed, and then there was JC's Girls at the Rock Church, but we didn't engage in conversation with either exhibitor.
We spotted the convention's owner, Renaud West, busily taking care of matters both on the exhibit floor and at the ticket counter, and chatted with him for a few minutes. He said he's happy to have the show back in Los Angeles, and said that attendance was shaping up to be higher than ever.
Pictured: Anastasia Pierce in her Wonder Woman parody costume, which can be seen at her Clips4Sale store.
