N. HOLLYWOOD – There are different tactics one can employ to work one's way out of porn. For some, it's a matter of moving out of town, changing hair color and settling down with a boy- or girlfriend in Flyover Country. And then there's veteran actor Kyle Stone.
"I'm doing several things right now," Stone said in an interview. "I'm writing a book. I'm trying to start a potential new career in standup comedy. It's difficult. I use the fact that I've been in the business for 15 years as part of my routine. In fact, one of the jokes I do in there is, I say I was talking to a friend of mine and I told him I was going to try to do standup comedy and he said to me, 'Well, won't you be nervous?' I said, 'Well, let's think about this. I've been getting naked and having sex in front of strangers and a camera for 15 years. I think I can handle this, yeah.' So that's one of my actual lines in my standup bit."
Stone takes the stage each Tuesday night at the HaHa Café Comedy Club in North Hollywood, where even famous comedians like Damon Wayans occasionally show up to try out new routines.
"He dropped in and did about 20 minutes, so that's always cool," Stone said. "I've been meeting some good comedians and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one of them notices me and wants me for a movie. I've met a lot of them, and they're like, 'Hey, I know you'; that sort of thing. And I say, 'Thank you very much.' Part of my bit is how my recognition has changed throughout the years. People used to give me what I used to call The Look, which is a kind of thing where they look at me with this quizzical look, and they figure out who I am and they run away."
Would that be just women, or everyone?
"No," he responded, "that was mostly guys in the early part of my career, but now that porn's become a little more pop culture, a little more accepted, now people will come up and talk to me. People are very nice to me. They come up to me and tell me they love my work and, 'Hey, I watched you in ... ' and of course, they really make me feel very old when they do that. 'You're a veteran; you're a legend' – they use the L word; that's when I back up three feet. 'Legend? No, I don't know about that.'"
"So I have a slight advantage, because when they see me, and they know who I am, they want to hear what I have to say," Stone continued. "'That's that porno dude; what's he doing here? I want to hear what this guy has to say.'"
Stone still takes the occasional porn role, though these days, it's usually in blowjob movies.
"I think the last time I had a major script in my hand was something I did for Jonathan over at Wicked, a non-sex role," he recalled. "I don't remember what the movie was; I don't even remember who starred; I just remember she was a little fireball and she was really sweet. But the b.j. stuff helps pay the bills. A lot of people, they go, 'Are you still working?' 'If you're still hiring, yeah, I'm still working.' But I've got to go somewhere else; it's time to head toward other horizons."
Part of those horizons will be Stone's autobiography, From A Skill To A Pill: Diary of a Mad Porn Star.
"It's basically about how the pill has changed the industry and basically how it cost me my career," he lamented. "I was one of the 25 guys in this industry who could naturally perform and once the pharmaceutical companies came out with the ED drugs, pretty much almost everybody could do my job, so that's why the book is called From A Skill To A Pill, because basically that's what's happened. It's basically my views on how the industry has changed in the time I've been in it."
But that's not all the book is about. For instance, Stone also relates the story of how he got into porn in the first place.
"A wrong number," Stone explained. "You might remember Nasty Natasha; she also went by Eden later on in her career. I dialed a number – it was actually the right number but it was the wrong number, and it was late one night, and she answered the phone, and I said hello. I said – I thought it was a girl named Cindy – I said, 'Hey, Cindy, how are you doing?' She's like, 'Who's this?' I'm like, 'What do you mean who?' I gave her my real name. She said, 'This isn't Cindy's number.' And I'm going, 'Oh, I'm sorry.'"
"Now, this is 1:30 in the morning. So I said, 'Oh, I'm sorry; I'm sorry; my mistake.' She goes, 'Well, you haven't talked to Cindy in quite a while, have you?' I go, 'No, it's been over a year.' She said, 'Oh, because I just got this phone number today. I thought it was kind of funny it was ringing.' I said, 'Oh, well, once again, I'm sorry.' I tried to back out of it."
"So Natasha goes, 'Well, what were you going to say to her?' And I'm like, 'Well, uh; well, uh ...' So I told her, 'Well, um' – I tried to dance around it, and she goes, 'You were going to talk sex, weren't you?' I said, 'Well, uh, it was kind of – you know, it was a possibility.' She goes, 'Tell me what you were going to say.' Now I'm thinking this is some kind of set-up at this point, right? I'm going, 'I'm not going to jail. I'm just going to hang up now.' She goes, 'No, no, it's okay; tell me.' I said, 'Well, I'll tell you what: I'll give you my phone number. You call me back and I'll tell you whatever you want to hear.' Because if somebody calls you, you can say whatever you want."
"So I gave her my number, and she called me right back, and we had phone sex. Now, when it was over with, she says, 'Oh, guess what I do for a living?' I go, 'Phone sex operator?' Because she was good. She says, 'No, no, no, I do porn for a living.' I said, 'Oh, yeah, right.' She says, 'No, no, really I do. In fact I'm in this movie and this one,' and she gave me a couple of movies she was in. And she says, 'So you have my number, obviously; I have yours. Call me in a few days.' 'Okay.'"
"So I went out and actually got the movies, and I watched them, and of course, her voice was so distinctive, when the scene came up, I'm looking at naughty little Natasha and going, 'Holy shit! This woman's gorgeous.' She was a little fireball. And so I went, 'Holy moley!' So I ended up calling her back, and I said, 'Hey, listen; I saw your movies. You're awesome.' So she goes, 'Let's like meet for lunch.' So a week later, we got together, we had sex, surprisingly enough, and when we were done having sex, she said, 'So, have you ever thought about being in my industry?' And I said, 'Well, let's think about this. I'm an American male, I've seen porn – yeah, yeah; I think anybody's that's watched it has gone, yeah, that's a job I'd like to have.'"
"So she turned to me, and she said, 'Well, I honestly think you could do this if you wanted to.' She obviously saw something in me that I didn't know existed other than the fact that I've been horny since I was 5, but she said, 'You know, I think you could.' I go, 'Okay!' She says, 'No, no, not that fast.' I said, 'Yeah, it figures.' She says, 'I really want you to think about this.' This is pre-AIM 101 [AIM's video for new performers], and this is something I write about in my book: She asked me to take a week off to think about what I was getting into, and I did, and I think everybody, when you come into this industry, you should be sent away for a week; sit down with an agent, sit down with a producer, sit down with whoever you want to sit down with; go through all the paperwork; set it all up; don't sign anything, but research what you're getting into, and don't make a snap judgment on this. Take some time off to think about it."
"And I did; I actually waited a week and I thought about how family was going to react, how friends would react. I was working at a law firm at the time; I had to consider how that was going to go over, and I did take the time to think about it, and it worked out for me. I just believe that as long as I wasn't hurting anybody and nobody was hurting me, then there really wasn't anything wrong with it. I loved sex; I loved women; I knew I never was going to purposely hurt a woman because that's not my style, so I thought it was something I wanted to do. So we talked about it. A week later, she said 'Okay; at least you've had time to think about it.'"
Stone's first scene was with Natasha, for Odyssey Group's Triple Play 67: Girls Who Love It Up The Ass, and he loved it – and thus the legend was born.
While there's no publication date yet for Stone's book, anecdotes like the one above are a big part of his comedy act, which can be seen every Tuesday night at the HaHa Café at 5010 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood – and if you mention Stone's name at the door before 8:30 p.m., you can probably get in for half price (though there is a two-drink minimum.)
"There are usually some really good comics there, and we always have a lot of fun," Stone stated. "For 15 years, I've been doing something that I love. Before that, I was working at the law firm, filing; I didn't love that; it was a grind. I didn't enjoy getting up and going to work, but for the past 15 years, I've been enjoying my life; I've been enjoying getting up and going to work. I want that to continue. I don't know that I can go back to a 9 to 5 grind of doing something I don't feel good doing. I love to act; I love to entertain; if I can make people laugh, that's always a bonus. I guess I'm an exhibitionist. I like to entertain. So let's hope it keeps going. I'm trying to get as many people to come see me as I can, and hopefully it'll lead me somewhere."
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