Exxxotica kicked off its 20th year of touring (+- that one pandemic year) with another big show in Chicago. In looking back at my photos over the years, Chicago has been my most frequent Exxxotica stop. Attendance has always great and the convenience of the convention center, hotels, and restaurants being near the airport just makes it the easiest show to get in and out of.
Fridays are always intense while Sundays had a much steadier stream of people than at other locations. Phoenix Marie had the longest lines, and the LoyalFans spotlight booth had several new people signing for them this year like Chanel Camryn and Hailey Rose.
This year marked the return of the Exxxotica Fan Choice Awards aka the Fannys, hosted by Maitland Ward and Usama Siddiquee. Having not attended the previous Fannys in Atlantic City, the amount of production the organisers put into this gala surprised me. The amount of people participating on the red or pink carpet also surprised me since Chicago was not the home base for many of the walkers.
That weekend I also visited with prolific Chicago pro-am producer, Tad Pole and his TadpolexStudio, before he embarked on his annual Exxxotica Chicago orgy. This year featured 20 men and 8 women. I didn’t stay to watch, but several of the participants said that it was the best thing they ever did. I also met people the next day that griped about missing the orgy. :)
AVN’s Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) moved to Virgin Las Vegas after a two-year stint at ResortsWorld. Virgin was somewhat familiar grounds since AEE was at the former Hard Rock Hotel & Casino from 2013-2020. Beyond the familiar layout, the atmosphere and security was more similar to ResortsWorld. Newer talent complained about a strict dress code that was consistent with those of previous years.
AEE was spread across two large rooms while the Adult Novelty Expo and Internext were in separate areas. Vixen and Fleshlight hosted a pop-up store outside of the convention. Brazzers had the largest and most popular booth at the show with lines for Abella Danger, Angela White, Lily Phillips, and Violet Myers waiting for more than an hour.
Congratulations to Anna Claire Clouds for winning Female Performer of the Year at the AVN Awards. I first met Anna while sharing a smoke with Don Juan Demarko at Exxxotica Denver in 2018 and joked about the industry need for three-part stage names. It has been a pleasure to watch her growth over the past years.
Congratulations also to Jeff Vanzetti and Peter Van Aarle for their long overdue inductions into the AVN Hall of Fame. Without them, there would be no database for the obsessive fan that need a name or number to the person they just fapped to. I only knew Peter for a brief time, but he was a mentor and ideal as a historian for the industry. Jeff had the technical know-how to put IAFD together and the temperament to manage a motley group of contributors that followed. I am glad that the selection committee recognised and gave them their flowers.
XBIZ returned to the Hollywood Palladium for its fourth edition of the X3 show where fans get to meet some of their favourite performers. Given the ongoing fires in parts of Los Angeles, some industry talent from out of town were apprehensive about attending. However, XBIZ LA and X3 went off without much of a hitch.
Violet Myers
The start of the X3 show was delayed by an hour due to a reported bomb threat. Once the police and their bomb dogs cleared the venue, we had the busiest X3 show ever in terms of attendance. The organisers run a good ship. The most popular booths were Brazzers, Fleshlight, and Ricky’s Room while the most popular signer was Violet Myers.
Roxie Sinner
The show also featured a musical performance by rapper, Bia. I didn’t know her beforehand, but she was entertaining and led a raucous concert.
Bia
I couldn’t attend the rebrand of the XMA Awards, but the judges made the right call on many of their picks. Congratulations to Anna Claire Clouds on winning Female Performer of the Year, Gal Ritchie for Best New Performer, and Lilly Bell for G/G Performer of the Year.
The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo returned to Las Vegas this month after a 3-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year, it was concurrent with the return of the Consumer Electronic Show, something that hadn’t happened since 2011. Because of crossover attendance, this was the busiest AEE that I remember but also the most expensive. Prices for rooms, food, and transit have jacked up since the three years.
The host Resorts World is huge, and I saw families with children walking around the facilities which did not happen when AEE was at the Hard Rock. Because of this, there was a more restrictive dress code that people were expected to adhere to when leaving the confines of the convention. Given the size and complexity of the show and the limited production staff, it was definitely a success. Sure, there were quirks that can be ironed out at future shows but that happens at every new venue.
Angel YoungsBlake BlossomLeana Lovings
Besides the adjoining Adult Novelty Expo, AEE featured three main halls. One focused on production companies and webcam platforms, one focused on the gay side of the industry, and the last was mainly talent agencies. At any given point of the day from opening to close, you could find new people to meet walking back and forth between the halls. With the production company booths, most talent had 4 hour signing shifts while the talent at the agencies booth and the AVN booth averaged around 2 hours.
Vicki ChaseViolet MyersRiley Reid
Outside of the actual expo grounds, Vixen rented space in the Resorts World mall to host a pop-up store featuring their clothing line and contract stars. Riley Reid appeared for two days exhibiting her Eighteen Plus clothing line, and the overall line to get into the store lasted about 3 hours.
So weird thing happened to me. After the end of the expo with drink in hand, I was trying to find a ticket for IAFD spokeswoman, Alex Blake, to walk the red carpet for the AVN Awards. When the nice producer saw that I had a press badge for IAFD, he handed me a press badge to be behind the Awards red carpet. I was not prepared to shoot the Awards since I had not charged my camera and flashes after finishing the expo, and I was already 30 minutes late for the call time.
After sheepishly explaining to Alex what had happened and cancelling two shoots, I ran up to my room to throw on my suit, grabbed my camera and strobe, and came back down. The only space that was available was at the end of the carpet what was only half covered by a wall background. I shared my spot with two guys, Jay of Jay’s Playhouse and Bobby of Girlsincars or something similar to that, who were great guys as we coordinated our shots rather than compete with each other. I took about 3-4 shots per look and tried not to miss anyone, but several people skipped us since we were the end of the line and they just wanted to move on.
Female Performer of the Year Kira NoirAVN Awards host Abella DangerFavourite Female Performer Angela White
The carpet started at 5:30pm and kept going until 9pm with 750+ walkers. It does not need to be this grueling. They tried to limit the walkers to nominees, but the problem is that there are too many nominees! Most categories have around 10 nominations each (some with multiple performers), but the fan award categories can have 20-30 nominations with no overlap with the other categories. This Oprah approach builds interest but is too overwhelming on the red carpet. Perhaps the fan awards should be separated into another event.
As for the Awards themselves, they went pretty much as predicted. We were correct with several of our projections. I was pleased as fuck to see Kira Noir win Female Performer of the Year; not just because of its historic nature but that she is one of the nicest and best people in the industry. Congratulations.
Miscellaneous
Because of the expense and limited room blocks, it seemed like more talent stayed outside of Resorts World so you wouldn’t see them at night outside of the expo. I was reluctant to leave Resorts World out of laziness so I mostly stuck to the events that were hosted there.
Alex Blake at the AVN White party
I mostly hung out with my boys at IAFD and AdultDVDTalk along with IAFD spokeswoman Alex Blake. I would like to thank Mark Spiegler, Don Juan de Marko, Tim Von Swine, and East Coast Talent for their hospitality at several events into the late hour.
Liz JordanChanel Camryn
Thank you, Liz, Chanel, and Alex for making magic with me.
It’s that time of year again! Time for the Annotated list of AVN Awards nominees for 2023. (Really, the material is from 2022, but the show is in 2023, so they call it 2023.)
