Emma Sirus – blog.iafd.com

AVN 2026

Another January Awards season has passed with the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo and AVN Awards returning to the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Similar to the Hard Rock in 2013, the Virgin staff and security made some adjustments to hosting after several common complaints in the first year, and the expo ran more smoothly this year.

Adult Entertainment Expo

The Expo was divided into three rooms. One room had large booths featuring studios like Brazzers and Sex Like Real and platforms like Loyalfans and MyFreeCams. One focused mostly on adult novelty companies. The third and largest room had a mix of studios, platforms, talent agencies, and other random vendors. Brazzers had the largest booth with lines that you had to cut through just to navigate in that area. Angela White and Abella Danger had the longest lines of fans waiting at the convention.

Sabrina Bishop interviewed performers on the floor for IAFD, but random fans kept trying to get her attention and talk to her even though they did not know who she was. Sabrina is a great interviewer showing natural rapport with whoever she was talking to although there were a couple fangirl moments that surprised me.

Sabrina Bishop, Girthmaster, Sara Loverays, Mikayela Miller — Sabrina with Girthmaster, Sara Loverays, and Mikayela Miller

Convention photos on Flickr

The Nightlife

The best part about AVN week is meeting friends that you only really see on an annual basis, often in an informal setting like at a party. One person, Mia Rose, I hadn’t seen in 17 years.

Dorcel threw a great party to promote their movie, Strip. I was happy to see Riley Reid there after an absence of three years. She again greeted me with, “It’s been so long!”, and I reacted again in confusion because years become a blur when you’re old like me.

Riley Reid and Anna Claire Clouds — Riley Reid & Anna Claire Clouds

Photographers were being kicked out of the AVN White Party, but I was too busy drinking and recording Anna Claire Clouds‘s new boobs with my brain for anyone to complain about my camera.

AVN Awards

I had attended 6 or 7 AVN Awards in person mostly working behind the scenes. My first was in 2006 when I accompanied Ariana Jollee along with several other members of AdultDVDTalk down the red carpet at the Sands. Twenty years later, I had the privilege of the lovely Emma Sirus taking me to the Awards. The red carpet went smoothly for me as a guest compared to when I photographed it in 2023. The Awards production crew was surprised and delighted to see us. Everything was a blur, and Emma fed me ice cream afterwards.

Several performers came up to me and asked me where my camera was. Some even asked me when they could see their red carpet photos while the red carpet was still going. Maybe adrenaline caused these conversations to be on autopilot.

Right before the Awards started, people like to take their photos on stage. As I led Emma to the stage for a photo with her co-nominee, other people stopped me to ask me to take their photo for them with their phones. After I finished taking this photo for Olivia Jay, I tried to compose a shot for Emma. Realising that Olivia Jay was in the frame taking selfies, I asked Olivia to move slightly to her left. Olivia petulantly screamed at me that she was there first. When she was finished with her selfies, she walked by and bumped Emma for good measure in front of everybody else.

Can’t have an AVN week without some drama.

The Awards themselves started earlier than usual and ended reasonably before midnight. Wiz Khalifa threw an inspired set, and the winners were all deserving. An ad by Joi promoting AI elicited boos from the crowd, and its placement at an awards celebrating performers was curious.

On a Closing Note

After finishing up my 22nd AVN week, I don’t know how long I can keep doing this. AVN is the most grueling event on the adult industry calendar and is geared for the young or the young at heart. I am neither. Most of the pornorazzi that I knew when I first started are dead, and the ones that are still around are jaded or bat shit crazy in their resilience. Even though I have made adjustments to my approach, I am plenty jaded and my resilience is waning.

I have met thousands of performers and made lifelong friends in and around the industry through these events. Many that I don’t view from a perspective of a fan so it always confuses me when people ask me for an introduction. I will miss them when I am done.

Like multiple winners at the AVN Awards, I would like to thank Mark & George for their hospitality the whole week, Dorcel for letting me crash an awesome party, and Sabrina for patiently keeping my short fuse in check with the idiotic attendees around. Shout out to my boys, Bono, Jeff, Danny, Shawn, Sammy, and Swine and my muse, Lily Labeau.

Thank you, Emma, for being one of the kindest people I know and being a great Awards date.

… and Summer, Sona, and Annaleigh, thank you for being magical.

Exxxotica Miami 2023

Exxxotica Miami was a laid back show this year with its third show since the pandemic. There was the same square footage of exhibitors, but the crowd only seemed intense on the first night with the ladies’ free entrance. There was no ridiculous lines at any particular booth. It seemed like the crowd gravitated more towards the stage and Dungeon areas with their entertainment than waiting to see their favourite stars.

The Loyalfans-sponsored main booth featured several popular performers over the years. One signer who stood out was Jenna Haze who made her return after a 5 years absence from Exxxotica. She said she was in between her studies given the summer and missed her fans. She plans to remain close to the industry in becoming a therapist.

Outside of the Loyalfans booth, there were new and local performers walking out and about the convention. Being out of touch with current porn, I did not recognise many of them to ask for photos. I was thrilled to see the best talker in porn, Anya Olsen, though after not seeing her for over 5 years also. She’s a bit laid back in person compared to on the screen.

After hours, I stayed clear of the official parties at the strip clubs and instead hung out by the pool with friends mostly from the Chaturbate booth even though the weather was hot and stormy. I was randomly handing out White Claws to people who asked knowing that it was still cheaper than buying booze at a strip club. One night I tried to drag Emma Sirus out to the pool, but all she wanted to do was sleep after a long day at the con.

Photo gallery on Flickr

Photo gallery on Porn Crush

Exxxotica DC 2022

Last stop of the Exxxotica tour, this show at the Dulles Expo Center in Virginia was the smallest of the four this year. The energy was overall good, and I had a chance to test out a new ring flash setup for the first time. I had no idea what I was doing on the fly so some of the photos from the first two days were underexposed.

I enjoyed meeting old friends and making new ones. After blinding Kay Lovely in Jersey with yet another new light setup, I had a chance to gab with this statuesque beauty longer and tinker with both her lights and my flash. Meanwhile, the decorative booth at Emma Sirus caused some focus issues that wasn’t obvious until after I reviewed the photos. I also saw the return of Nikki Dial, who is an incredibly lovely woman to talk to. I almost didn’t recognise her since twenty years is a long time between seeing her.

The afterhours of the convention were a little more laid back this year. With the temperatures dropping below freezing, I just didn’t want to go very far beyond checking out a party that Chaturbate models Ivy Minxxx and Delilah Cass were hosting nearby. I ended up being the Behind The Scenes videographer for April O’Neil as she greeted random dogs during the weekend. I also got to see Alex Coal and Lilly Bell eat several times if you’re into that.

We get a short break with the holidays before reconvening for AVN and XBIZ in January.

The rest of the photos on Flickr