LOS ANGELES—AVN Hall of Fame performer Lisa Ann is making a comeback, signing an exclusive distribution deal with Evil Angel that calls for her to produce and direct a new series of movies in which she will also star.
The first scene of the agreement debuts today on EvilAngel.com featuring Lisa Ann taking on Johnny Sins, the 2018 AVN Award-winning Favorite Male Porn Star.
The special Valentine’s Day-themed romp will also be part of her first new movie in four years, Lisa Ann: Back 4 More, the initial release for The Real Lisa Ann Productions that will hit the streets from Evil Angel in the coming weeks.
In the title Lisa Ann also performs separate scenes with Isiah Maxwell, Prince Yahshua and 2018 AVN Male Performer of the Year Markus Dupree.
“Evil Angel is nothing like any adult company I’ve yet discovered in the business,” Lisa Ann told AVN. “Because what they’ve done is they’ve turned this into a regular turnkey, full facility business.”
Citing the “raw data” alone, Evil Angel Chief Financial Officer Adam Grayson said, “there hasn't been a bigger star this century in our business than Lisa Ann.”
“Lisa and I have a number of good friends in common, and when she began to think in late 2017 about a comeback, the matchmakers got us on the phone to discuss the possibility of working together,” Grayson told AVN. “We had collaborated on some projects in the past and our extreme Type A personalities always clicked. I've always been a fan of hers and knew the sort of marketing muscle she could bring to any company.”
Indeed, Lisa Ann brings one of the biggest brands in adult entertainment to the vaunted Evil Empire with 1.6 million followers on Instagram and another million-plus on Twitter for starters. She has also penetrated the mainstream sports world in an unprecedented fashion, co-hosting two weekly fantasy sports radio shows on Sirius XM.
In addition to her media reach, the four-time AVN Award-winning superstar pointed to her content’s appeal in cable markets as an added bonus part of her new endeavor with Evil Angel.
“My brand still sells very well on cable,” Lisa Ann noted. “I’m a very different element for Evil Angel to take. When I first started talking with Adam of course I was a little concerned because I was like, ‘You know I do a lot of things but when it comes to Evil Angel, I really do nothing. … So I’m not sure how well it’s going to translate on your site. Your fans will have to love me and understand that I don’t stick golf balls in my ass.
“But there’s always room to open the audience, right? And there’s always fans that are changing their flavor. I think that I will bring something completely light and fresh and beautiful to what they have right now—a female touch—which is always different.
“And then with the cable aspect I think this is where I’m really going to soar with Evil because I feel like I’ll easily fit into a format where they won’t have to be going, ‘Oh, we can’t take this scene because…’”
Grayson, who called the decision to join forces with Lisa Ann a “no-brainer for Evil Angel,” said Lisa Ann’s product would only complement the Empire’s already diverse offerings.
“We don't expect Lisa is going to try to compete with Rocco or Jay Sin on being ‘ultra Evil Angel,’ but we knew that we could work together to create content that really worked for both her core fans and our site members,” Grayson added.
No stranger to being behind the camera, Lisa Ann has helmed more than 50 movies and performed in 600-plus during a storied career that started in the ’90s. As a seasoned veteran who has experienced the challenges of being a producer and product owner, she appreciates the seamless process Evil Angel provides its content partners.
“I’ve set my shoot days to the point where I’ll go home, I’ll upload all my content, I’ll pick all the photos that I’m going to send to the editor and that night it’s done,” Lisa Ann continued. “So it’s just such a great feeling to know the next day when they come in they’re checking my paperwork. They’re going through the content. They’re starting the editing process. For me it’s all about time.
“The business has its chance to be more like Silicon Valley and Evil Angel has really taken that and run with it.”
She continued, “Evil Angel has also allowed me the opportunity to express myself in a very neutral state of I no longer want to divide my titles by race. … So I won’t be releasing an interracial title. I’ll be releasing Lisa Ann movies. And my movies will be equally spread to whatever I’m shooting that month.”
Johnny Sins has enjoyed quite a history with Lisa Ann, working with her on numerous occasions as he rose through the ranks. So when he got the call to be part of her Valentine’s Day surprise, Sins told her anywhere, anytime.
“Lisa Ann and I go way back and have always supported each other, so it was great that she picked me to be one of her first scenes back!” Sins told AVN. “Without Lisa I probably would not be where I am today. I joined her talent agency early in my career and she was behind me 100 percent.”
The setup for their scene is simple—it’s Valentine’s Day and they’re getting ready for a romantic night on the town.
“He came into the bathroom to zip up the back of my dress and then it’s history from there because a good porno doesn’t need more than that,” Lisa Ann reasoned. “As soon as he touched me we realized we wanted to have sex and we did it right there in this beautiful bathroom.”
Sins said their hookup didn’t feel like work.
“She runs her set very efficiently and knows exactly what she wants,” he continued. “Not to mention Chris Streams shot the scene so it was a breeze working with all these professionals.”
Lisa Ann’s final scene before she retired in December 2014—via a handwritten letter to her fans—was with Isiah Maxwell, who actually was her partner in the first scene she did upon deciding to return. That scene—titled “Lisa Ann is Back in Black”—went live for the members on TheLisaAnn.com last month as her gift to them for sticking with her.
“I was grateful and ecstatic to be chosen for Lisa's first scene back,” Maxwell told AVN. “I truly was honored and it was a privilege to perform with her. I've worked with Lisa four times and each time is better. I feel that our first scene together catapulted me into the spotlight. She gave me an opportunity before meeting me in person early in my career.”
Lisa Ann said all her upcoming scenes will debut on EvilAngel.com first and then after 60 days she’ll have the option to add them to TheLisaAnn.com—perhaps with some alternate editing. Her scene with Maxwell—that she shot with Holly Randall just before the New Year to see how she felt about performing again—is the one exception.
“I wanted them to have something fresh first,” Lisa Ann said. “For my fans that have still remained members to my website it was only right to give them what I did first. I haven’t had anything new for three years. Now I’m adding new content every other day, so they get three updates a week.”
Lisa Ann said she’ll also perform in every scene in her second movie, which is already in pre-production and has yet to be titled.
“Just because I feel like my fans have waited so long I have to give them as much as I can,” she explained. “And then Evil will be hiring me to direct some projects for them. So I’m going to expand my palette by taking on some of their work as well—just here and there for something different for me and I won’t be in those scenes. I’ll just be doing more directing.”
In addition, Lisa Ann indicated she would be donating a percentage of her proceeds each month to different charities.
“I’m going to make it a fun event every month as I pick the charity. I’ve gotten more socially active with charity since I’ve been gone,” Lisa Ann said. “I started participating in things for Alzheimer’s research because both my grandparents had it. And my two best friends, both their moms are suffering from it right now.
“So the month of my grandfather’s birthday will be dedicated to Alzheimer’s. The first month is going to be for an anti-bullying campaign dedicated in the name of August Ames, and I think I would like to get involved with a suicide prevention charity the following month.
“I had a fan who had a liver transplant in Houston and he’s doing very well and I get his clean bill of health every year. So on his birthday month I’m going to donate to his charity of choice, probably the hospital that’s helped him so much. This is going to give me a chance—I’m going to narrow it down to three the month before every month—it’s going to give me a chance to network with some people from those foundations, learn more about these foundations and then I’ll do a Facebook Live letting everyone know: these are the three I was researching. This is the one I chose and this is why. And it’s going to allow me to do some more research and thinking, which I want to hopefully spread throughout the business, to learn other things outside of this business.”
Lisa Ann intends to release one new movie a month through Evil Angel going forward and will continue to host her two Sirius radio shows—“Fantasy Sports Tonight” with Howard Bender on Sunday nights and “Lisa Ann Does Fantasy” on Monday nights with Adam Ronis.
In addition, she’ll also continue hosting her weekly podcast “The Lisa Ann Experience,” and make appearances this year at select trade shows and adult retail stores.
“It’s important. We need to keep these stores in business. We need to support them,” Lisa Ann said. “Toys have taken over the stores; there’s very little DVDs anymore. But that doesn’t mean that adult stars shouldn’t be coming and meeting their fans.”
