Pictured: William H. with Elegant Angel stars Nyomi Banxxx, Asa Akira, Kristina Rose, Alexis Texas and Jayden Jaymes. Elegant's Asa Akira Is Insatiable and Buttwoman vs. Slutwoman were big winners at the AVN Awards.
LAS VEGAS—Traditionally, the closing day of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo has been (to put it mildly) a sluggish one for all involved. After the biggest night of the year for the world’s most taboo industry, and the hours of unbridled partying, decadence and other untold debauchery that attend it, the show floor usually calls more to mind a scene out of Dawn of the Dead than Girls Gone Wild.
Not this year. Day 4 was spirited, well trafficked, and permeated with the afterglow of many ecstatic winners from the previous evening’s AVN Awards Show.
Perhaps the happiest of them all was BurningAngel founder Joanna Angel, who positively beamed joy from her signing post at the AVN booth over her triple triumph for Best Porn Star Website, Best Solo Sex Scene and Best Web Premiere.
“I had a great time at the awards because I won things!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “I’m very thankful, and I enjoyed signing at the AVN booth. It’s like I’m signing at the epicenter of the foundation of what this convention is. I thought the show was great. I actually like that it was a little bit smaller; it was pretty busy the whole time, I think I did some good business while I was here, and because of how the show was a little smaller, it was easier to do business.”
In regard to the general turnout over the weekend, Angel said, “I think it’s a lot better than last year or the year before that. It’s been pretty packed the whole time. I’m impressed. Usually, Sunday’s really slow, and it’s pretty busy, so I think downsizing a little was a good idea.”
Echoing that sentiment was big victor Asa Akira at the nearby Elegant Angel booth (whose trophy tally included those for Best Double Penetration Sex Scene, Best Anal Sex Scene and Best Three-Way Sex Scene – G/B/B, all from Elegant’s Asa Akira Is Insatiable).
“Everyone was saying how much smaller the show was going to be this year, and I think there’s maybe less companies exhibiting, but there’s definitely the same amount of people, if not more, I feel like,” Akira asserted. “It’s like nonstop signing.”
Added Akira’s signing neighbor, Alexis Texas (a recipient of five awards, herself, including Best All-Girl Three-Way Sex Scene, Best Group Sex Scene and Best Tease Performance), “I’m so surprised there’s so many people here! Like, usually Sunday’s a lot like a Thursday. But there’s like the same amount of people as there were yesterday. It’s kinda cool.”
Meanwhile, in the rear of the booth, awards show host and first-ever repeat AVN Female Performer of the Year winner Tori Black registered stunned amazement over her record-setting achievement as she prepared to join freshly crowned Best New Starlet Gracie Glam on the podium.
“When I got back to my hotel room last night, I was just walking around going, ‘What the hell? What the hell? What the hell?’” she gasped, pacing rapidly back and forth in demonstration.
Super-agent Derek Hay of LA Direct Models, which represents Black, Glam and Texas, expressed similar, if more subdued, pleasure with his girls’ performance at the awards: “We’ve been blessed the last two years, we’ve had very strong results from the awards show with LADM models,” Hay said. “You know, we work hard and they work hard, and that’s the result, I guess. So we’re pleased with that and hope that will continue.”
Asked for his take on AEE as a whole, Hay enthused, “I’ve enjoyed the show very much. I was very pleased, even among the models from LADM who weren’t booked to sign or necessarily had a gig here, lots of them wanted to come and participate in the show and be here in Vegas, so there was a really strong vibe from our models about being a part of this, they’re excited about it, and we’re excited about it. We’re glad to be a part of it and that it’s still here.”
Back-in-action Spanish starlet Rebeca Linares was spotted walking the floor with Jules Jordan Video director Chris Streams, and took a moment to address a controversial issue among her admirers: her recently augmented bosoms.
“I think for a long time to do it, but I was always worried to how it was going to look, if it was going to look good or bad, if people was going to like it or not,” she offered. “It was something I wanted to do a long time ago, and I love it. The movies online already for the website, it looks too big because of the inflammation and the operation, but now it looks better. Some fans don’t like, some fans say it’s OK, and I have new fans, so I don’t know … I’m happy about it.”
One of Saturday night’s other big winners, director William H., stopped in the aisles to share a few thoughts about his Best Director – Non-Feature win. “I want to thank AVN for letting me up there, because I came that close to taking a shit,” he revealed. “I was gonna say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, watch the wet spot grow,’ and I was just gonna piss myself, but I held back and that was nice. But thank you very much. And keep the bugs out of your wiener holes, kids.”
Budding performer Sarah Shevon was attending the expo for her very first time, and said it had lived up to her notions of what it would be like. “It’s pretty much what I expected from looking at YouTube videos of interviews in the past,” she posited. “Being new, it’s just an opportunity to show myself more, in case someone hasn’t stumbled upon me already. It’s a little hard to walk around sometimes, get stopped a lot, but that’s all good, because that’s what I’m here for!”
The only person to indicate slightly less than effusive feelings about the convention was Evil Angel owner John Stagliano, who remarked, “How have I felt about it? Well, my hand has definitely not felt enough ass at this convention.”
In all seriousness, he noted, “As far as business is concerned, we’ll go back and assess the situation. It wasn’t great, but it might have been worth it. That’s about the best I can tell you. And it was nice being here, just for the experience.”
Reflecting on his honoring Saturday night with AVN’s Reuben Sturman Award in recognition of his prevailing battle in federal court last year on charges of peddling obscenity, Stagliano said, “It was a really special experience. I was very touched by the whole thing, and what AVN did, it was very nice.”
He did, however, temper that by lamenting, “I wish they had done something better for John Leslie and Jamie Gillis. They are part of the first generation of porn stars—the first generation of porn stars, the very beginning—and they are significant. And John won so many AVN Awards, it would have been nice to have seen something a little more.”
At around 3:30 p.m., AEE 2011 began to wind down … exhibitors got busy packing up their wares, fans went in for whatever last minute autographs were left to be obtained, and the stars trickled slowly off to the Venetian’s circle bar, their rooms, a shoot here and there, a restaurant, or back onto the highway home. It was a good show, the overall consensus seemed to say.
And throughout the air, there was that little glimmer of early excitement for meeting back in this spot come January 2012. See you then.
