In the porn business, one thing is certain: Every time you turn around, it seems like there are 12 new porn "stars" being trumpeted by the various studios who claim to have discovered them. But today's definition of a porn "star" is a bit more lax than it once was. Today, a moderately talented young model with a penchant for showing off can film two or three movies and be touted as a "star" without having actually earned the title.
Troy Punk, however, is one of the few newer models who seems destined to be, if not an outright "star" worthy of the accolades he frequently receives, at least an adult model of the highest caliber. Since his debut last year in Hot House Entertainment's Steven Scarborough-directed GayVN winner Skuff 2, the dual British and Canadian citizen (he was born in Great Britain and subsequently moved to Canada) has quickly risen up the ranks of the industry, charming many with his laid-back personality and his on-set sexual charisma. His performances are often nothing short of phenomenal, with the refreshingly versatile stud (dig that muscular, furry chest) a standout in the increasingly boring market of strict tops and bottoms. From his sizzling pairing with Matthew Rush in Falcon's award-winning Taking Flight to his incredible work in Kristofer Weston's recently released Colt stunner Leather Bound to his smolderingly high-energy bathroom-stall tryst with Ty Hudson in this month's Jett Blakk-helmed Dirty Little Sins, Punk has demonstrated an easy knack for getting nasty in front of a camera.
But Troy Punk is not just a rising porn star. Indeed, rather than simply perform in movies, Punk has taken a bold initiative and launched not one but two brand new websites, PunksHunks.com and TroyPunksNakedWorkout.com. Along with his boyfriend, former porn performer/director-turned-webmaster Drew Warner (of Sports and Recreation Video fame), Punk will be offering exclusive video content featuring himself and an array of industry studs and regional unknowns "getting down to business" in various locations around the world, as well as footage of Punk (a registered kinesiologist and certified personal trainer) getting sweaty during workout sessions.
According to Punk, taking his brand of hot 'n' sweaty adult entertainment to the World Wide Web has been part of his master plan all along. "[The sites] are something I wanted to do before I even got into porn, actually," he recently told me during a phone chat. In fact, he added, "[They're] pretty much the reason why I got into porn." The easygoing Punk told me a lot of other interesting things during our lengthy phoner, proving that this is one industrious and ambitious porn dude with a lot more on his mind than just dick. And that's certainly something to get excited aboot.
| <?PHP print Create_Archive_Image_Tag('<% Content_ID %>', "KenKnox20050719.jpg", "", " alt=\"\" border=\"0\""); ?> |
| (courtesy: Adonis Pictures) |
Troy Punk: Yeah, the concept is pretty much the same as what I conceived back then, apart from the names. Other than that, it's the way I perceived it to be in the very beginning. Now I'm just enjoying the benefit of what I intended to do with doing porn by making the sites happen.
How did you get the sites off the ground?
Well, actually, your president helped me to get them off the ground by implementing 2257. Not that I was really all that affected by it, but it was something that sort of prompted me to get started on launching the sites, because the Internet was how I wanted to get my porn product out there.
What I like about PunksHunks.com is that it's definitely your site, but it's not your typical "It's all about me" porn star website. You've actually got a good deal of content on there that features other people. Why did you decide to go that route instead of doing something more focused on you?
My site's not a vanity site; it's going to be a sort of everything site—a buffet of porn basically. It's going to have our own production, including movies, scenes, vignettes, solos, webcams … I've been a really avid fan of porn since I hit puberty. Most of it's been straight porn, and working in gay porn has made me develop my own idea of what I think hot porn should be. I kinda want to have a cross between the guys in gay porn who are hot and guys I think are hot in straight porn. I want to have a more masculine, I guess less "gay," porn [on my site], if that makes sense. I want to have lots of snowboarder, athlete-type, tattooed guys—very straight-looking, very straight acting. More rugged masculinity. That element is very erotic to me, and I think there needs to be more of it, and I think the best way to do it is through the Internet because it's a lot more attainable and easily accessible.
Will all of your content be exclusive and original to your site?
We're going to have some our content viewed on Maleflixx.net, just because they have their technology down and it seems to be the most quality way to do that. Some of the vignettes, like the shorter clips and things like that, will be exclusive to PunksHunks.com, and the content on TroyPunksNakedWorkout.com will be exclusive to that site, but can be viewed on PunksHunks.com as well.
Tell me about the live feeds you're offering on the site. Apparently you're taking your sex show on the road and doing feeds from all over the place?
We've done a few already. We're in the process of finalizing webcam feeds, and once we have that up and running, we're certainly going to put our travel schedule up and let everyone know where they're going to be seeing the live shows from. We're a Canadian-based company, so there's going to be a lot of snowboarding trips. Those guys up in the mountains are very hot, and it'd be cool to get them to all jack off in the cable car on the way up the slope. (Laughs.)
Hot! I'm sure those sweaty live feeds of your gym workouts on sister site TroyPunksNakedWorkout.com will be pretty popular too, huh?
I hope so. We're just sort of getting everything off the ground now. It's going to be really different, because I'm actually a registered kinesiologist in Canada and a certified personal trainer and clinical exercise specialist, so I'm going to be putting all of my expertise in that aspect into a very erotic workout that's also going to be informative. You're not gonna know whether you want to work out or jack off when you go online. (Laughs.)
Grrrr! Is it a total turn-on for you to show off like that?
Absolutely. I'm pretty comfortable on camera.
Have you always been an exhibitionist?
Yeah, actually. When I was 3 or 4 years old, whenever I saw a sprinkler, my parents had to come and chase after me, because I would just strip down naked and run through it no matter where I was. (Laughs.)
I love it. How did you come to land in the adult entertainment business?
Well, like I said before, I conceived the idea of the website thing a long time ago and I've been an avid fan of straight porn. And one of my idols has been Jenna Jameson, so I've sort of analyzed how she went about doing her business, and I was like, "That's what I want to do." So I got on the Internet and sent a few pictures to Colt. And Colt wasn't doing any production at that time, so they sent my photos to Hot House. And within a week I was in San Francisco shooting Screw. And that's basically how it happened. It was really "Wham! Bam! Thank you, ma'am," no pun intended, and it's been a really good year for me. I was pretty much in all the major productions last year and [have been] getting a lot of attention.
Were you surprised that it was so easy?
I was really surprised. I had no idea that it was going to take the path that it did. One thing happened after another, and I met certain people at the right times. I was really shocked and surprised by how it all happened, but certainly not disappointed.
And now you're a fuckin' pro! I know a lot of porn stars have a love/hate relationship with the business. How have you found it so far?
I have had a very extensive love/hate relationship with the business. It's been successful in that I have been involved in some of the major productions and worked with the best of the best in production. But it's had its trials and tribulations. There's been a lot of travel and a lot of missing friends, and it sort of interferes with your normal gay man's life. I've been really fortunate to meet my boyfriend, Drew, and we've fallen in love, and he's the man of my dreams. But it's tough when you're doing porn and you're dating and you're meeting people, and some people really like it, which can work against you, and some people really hate it, which can work against you too.
What's been your favorite experience so far?
I'd have to say Taking Flight for Falcon, just because I got a chance to go home [to the U.K.] and got a chance to meet Matthew Rush, who has since turned out to be one of my best friends. We related a lot to one another, and he taught me a lot about the industry and certain things to watch out for and certain things to expect. And my scene was with him, so I got to work with him. I was a fan of his before that, so that was a good experience for me.
Do you have a preference between solo scenes and scenes with a partner? Say, if you had your druthers, which would you rather do?
It really doesn't matter to me as long as there's a camera involved. (Laughs.) The most challenging task for me is probably going to be the naked workout, because I'm really professional at what I do in personal training, so I'm going to have to try to make it fun, as well as balance out the seriousness that I take on when I'm doing that kind of thing. I'll probably play a bunch of different looks when I do them. Sometimes I may look like I just came in from a workout, or sometimes it might just look like I came in from a soccer game.
Yeah, that sweaty look is really good. You can always auction off your jockstrap or your gym shorts or whatever you're wearing at the end of each workout. I'm sure there are lots of guys out there who would like to own those.
Yeah! (Laughs.)
Were you exposed to porn at a young age?
Well, I wasn't exposed to porn at a young age, but I certainly exposed myself to it at a young age. (Laughs.) It wasn't lying around the house or anything, but I found a way at 13, 14 to go to the video store and rent straight porn because there was no gay porn where I was living, so I got to know the straight industry very quickly. And I'm still a very big fan of it. The porn that I watch is straight porn; I don't watch gay porn.
That seems to be a fairly common trend among gay men, actually. I wonder who we're making gay porn for these days.
Well, I think the reason that gay porn stars enjoy straight porn is because they've worked with the people in gay porn, so they're like "Ewww, turn that off." (Laughs.)
I think we Americans like to overgeneralize and say that Canada is really lax about a lot of things, like marijuana and gay marriage. What was your experience growing up gay in Canada?
The only negative consequences I had growing up and knowing that I was gay were ones that I inflicted on myself. There was no real oppression to knowing I was gay at a young age. I didn't come out until 18 or 19; I had girlfriends up until then. Once I did come out, it was certainly really easy to be gay. My parents were reasonably accepting. It's been a really good experience for me. I'm certainly grateful to the older people who pioneered and fought for our rights in Canada, because we certainly have really good rights compared to you guys here in America. Marriage is legal for us; we have the same rights as everyone else. We're not alienated there. And my other home, Great Britain, is legalizing gay marriage in September, so I'm certainly fortunate to come from two of the greatest nations in the world as far as being gay is concerned.
How do you find America to be in comparison? What has surprised you the most about sex here?
I love America. I think America's a great country. I just think it's unfortunate that you have the administration that's currently running it. Certainly a lot of your civil liberties are eroding, and it seems to be getting worse, which is really too bad. I know a lot of people who are leaving to go to Europe just because the state of the country is so bad.
Are your parents aware of what you do?
My father knows exactly what I do. My sister actually produces and markets dildos, so he's not really shy to the triple-X thing at all. She has a company in Canada called Fantasia Lady, and her and I are going to be going into business in the future.
Fun! How much longer do you see yourself involved in the business?
Till I retire in five years. Just kidding. (Laughs.) I love working in the business, and there are certainly people I love working with, and I'll probably continue to work with them and help them in any way that I can. There are people in the industry that do really good business, and I think that's the key to succeeding. There are a lot of people who like to be really cutthroat and vindictive, and there are a lot of people who are there to help you out if you help them out, and I think that's they key to success in any business. Business is business, and there really shouldn't be any emotion in business, good or bad. For the foreseeable future, I expect to see myself working in it. I enjoy it. I think that it's something that is providing a so-to-speak service to people. It's providing enjoyment to people, and it's not at all a bad thing to be working in.
You're already demonstrating a little bit of entrepreneurial ambition with PunksHunks.com. Do you have any other career goals as far as porn is concerned? Perhaps directing?
I don't think that I'm going to get into the directing aspect. Maybe I'll oversee or assist in some direction, but I've got more of a vision that I want to pursue. I want to create a brand, and I've certainly got a lot of projects that I want to follow through with, but my short-term goal right now is TroyPunksNakedWorkout.com and PunksHunks.com, and I want to make them as successful as I can in the next few years. And then from there I have some product I want to release and stuff like that, but I can't go into too much detail. I've got about 10 years of projects that I want to carry out, so I'll be busy for the next little while anyway.
OK, last question. Finish this sentence for me: My dick is to me like …
Like members are to PunksHunks.com! Invaluable!
But of course …
