This question has been bugging me for a while. I understand why porn makers pick the women: those women are willing to say yes (why they are willing to say yes is, of course, another question altogether). And, depending on the genre, the women also must fit a certain “look” (typically, thin, attractive, with very large breasts).
But I presume that there is a far wider field of eager men for porn then there are women. So, how do certain lucky stiffs ( )end up in front of the camera?
Is it some inherent talent that I’m not aware of? I realize that there are some porn stars that are incredibly well endowed, but that isn’t necessarily true for all of them. And, ISTR that none other than the Straight Dope Science Board once explained the perceived endurance of porn men by the magic of editing (link )?
So, what is it? Is this just an extreme example of it helping to know the producer, or is there someplace guys go to get into porn?
And, yes, if you’re wondering, I am jealous. I will always believe that the worst day on a porn set has got to be better than my best day working in an office. Even if we do get free bagels on Friday.
If you can perform and don’t look like a rotting corpse, you’re in. It’s the “can perform” bit that’s tricky; not everyone can get it up in a freezing garage at five o’clock in the morning and then ejaculate on cue.
I’m more curious about what the audition process is like. I mean, do you just go down to your local porn studio and fill out an application or something? Do you pester them until they give you a try?
:dubious: Normally, it looks to me like they are working in some spacious rented house somewhere in Southern California. I mean, I did see some guy once on the beach, and I’m sure getting grains of sand out of his ass after work was really irritating, but at the time I saw him he was being fellated by 2 women, so I’m sure all of the burdens of the job sort of worked themselves out.
You have to know someone who knows someone. You have to be able to get it up on camera, in front of three or four clothed strangers who are watching you in extreme close-up. You have to have amazing staying power. You have to look pretty good these days - being a porn star of non-muscular build is a lot less common than in the 70s and 80s. And yes, you have to ejaculate on cue, a very particular skill.
The easiest way to start out in the industry these days is to make your own.
I’ll be very surprised if we get any currently employed male porn stars coming on to share their perspective. The bastards will be far too busy, to be wasting their time posting advice to likely competitors on a message board! Bah! :mad:
No, I got that particular situation from Asia Carrera’s homepage. It just stuck in my head. The point is that you have to be able to perform under those circumstances as well. Anything they throw at you, and you pop a boner on command, or you’re unreliable. The porn industry doesn’t have time for the unreliable.
As for the alleged upside of the work… I’m doubtful. I don’t think there’s much joy in it.
Finding new talent, male and female, is a big part of the business. As you might imagine turnover is rather high, and more than that there is an unlimited appetite for new faces. The studios stalk the trade shows and hold open casting calls and try and scoop each other for a fresh new female face to lock into an exclusive contract. Finding men is an easier task but not because there is a much bigger field of men who want to be in porn than women, but because in straight porn there are almost no male porn stars with any name recognition. Customers buy the porn for the women. And don’t forget the men in straight porn make a fraction of what the women do, which definitely limits the pool of potential applicants.
Still, finding men might be easier than finding women who fit the particular demographic you’re looking for, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The audition for men generally consists of them having sex on camera on the spot. If ten guys show up you’re lucky if one is able to do it with any great success, even with Viagra. Very few men have what it takes to function at the level required for professional porn, physically or psychologically.
Well I shot some emails to a few male porn stars - Brandon Iron and Jack Lawrence - both of whom I’ve corresponded with in the past, pretty smart guys and surprisingly accessible online. These two are at the top of the business and regarded as A-list talent. I asked them if they’d sign up as guests and answer the questions in this thread. Let’s see if they respond. In the mean time this is Jack Lawrence’s Youtube page, Breaking Into Porn, where he has a series of videos that answer some of these questions.
Well, every third porn video I’ve ever seen seems to have Ron Jeremy in it, so I’d say in addition to all the aforementioned, they look for penis size and back hair.
This is probably a joke, but just to say it, Ron Jeremy is famous for being famous these days and has about as much to do with the modern porn industry as Mother Teresa.
His book, Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz, is mediocre, always avoiding the issue whenever it should be getting really juicy. But it has a lot to say on working conditions on porn sets, on the difficulties men face in performance (you’ll run screaming from the John Bobbitt chapter), and the reasons why he succeeded and a lot of men didn’t.
There’s this one guy, Kyle Stone, shows up a LOT. And he looks like he should be working in the post office. He’s got no muscle, pale, freckley, not the biggest guy in the world either, and always seems to be flying at half mast. Does not compute.
)end up in front of the camera?