CHATSWORTH, Calif.—For literally decades, it's been more or less a given that if asked to name one male porn star, the name your average, Everytown American would likely produce has been Ron Jeremy.
Well it seems of late as if another veteran cocksman is in contention to join The Hedgehog on that elusive plateau of household-name status over which he's previously reigned supreme. The man in question is Mr. Marcus, and he may just be a lot more famous than you realize.
"Marcus is a big porno star. There's not too many we know, but we do know Mr. Marcus." Those are the words of Nation, an Atlanta-based rapper whose single "Mr. Marcus" has become a hit on the city's club scene, enough so that local station Hot 107.9 recently had him and Marcus on as guests to discuss it. (The song also serves as the theme on Marcus' official website.)
"I didn't really expect it to blow up as big as it has, but it's starting to blaze in the clubs down here," Nation told AVN. "The people are really accepting it."
Marcus himself said that when he first heard about the song, "I was extremely happy, I was glowing on the inside. I thought, 'This is crazy.' Because there's a lot of rappers out there you will never hear about, there's songs you will never ever hear, and this is one that they're actually playing. That's nice. It's really nice."
The song "Mr. Marcus" is, however, just the tip of the iceberg for the AVN Hall of Famer. Fresh feathers in his cap include: the release of his instructional book The Porn Star Guide to Great Sex, a role in the mainstream film Finding Bliss (which also features Jeremy, it should be noted), and a spot as a panelist alongside noted speakers Hill Harper and Ed Gordon in a love and relationships seminar at last weekend's Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.
In addition, Marcus appears tonight on The Mo'Nique Show on cable network BET, airing at 11pm/10pm CST.
Marcus attributes his heightened exposure to a long and carefully strategized transition in his career approach. "It's not something that's been overnight," he said. "I've been working at this for a while. Once the industry hit the little slow-down that it hit the last few years, I really amped up just getting out there. People had wanted me to do things, but I always would spend a lot more time on set than I would doing other things. So I just shifted my energy, just put a lot more time and energy into responding to what people were requesting, and it's become really fruitful."
Currently, Marcus is beginning to cast his directorial debut, a project for Vivid Entertainment slated to begin shooting August 4.
"It's been a long time coming," Marcus said of his move behind the camera. "I've always wanted to, and I kind of went around talking to people and seeing who would give me a chance, and Vivid stepped up and said, 'No problem.' And me and Vivid have a long relationship, so it makes sense."
Also coming up (August 30), Marcus will be signing The Porn Star Guide to Great Sex at West Hollywood's Book Soup.
"Fifty percent of success is just showing up," Marcus posited. "There are things that I could have easily been sidetracked [by], but I just stayed focused on the goal. Once things looked grim, I tried to find the positives, not focus on the negatives. And that's just something that now is part of my life. Even through other people, their misery, I try to get them to see the good things in life. That's what we're all about."
See a video of Mr. Marcus' visit to Atlanta in promotion of Nation's ode to him here. And keep up to the minute on his myriad activities at twitter.com/akamrmarcus.
