Thanks to Rog for letting me do his job for him while he gets laid this week during his vacation. A little background. I’ve been in adult, in some form, since I was 19, or over 15 years. I have been in adult video for about 12 years when Serenity and myself pulled into porn valley with Lucky Smith, met Steve Orenstein and crashed on Frank Marino’s couch. I have been co-owner and Director of Operations for Las Vegas Novelties, www.lvni.com for 4 years and in the same capacity of a new Australian business, C & L Wholesalers, www.clw.com.au for about 6 months. I have also been the proud partner of the most straight-forward, honest, independent and spectacular representatives of this industry, Serenity, for 14 years. I’m not going to go on about Las Vegas Novelties much. I’d rather you visit the website and see what we are about. The company they said would go out of business in 6 months, is still here 4 years later. I’m going to use my day to post my thoughts on some current events occurring in the adult industry. Whether the recession hits this industry, FSC, Extreme and Ashcroft and I’ll also post my thoughts on Wankus of KSEX’s question “to be or not to be a contract star” during the day. Whether you agree about my thoughts or not, maybe they will provoke some thought for you.
The legend of the recession proof adult industry
Yes I’ll be pulling back the curtain to reveal Oz. I was torn between using the word legend and myth. You get my point. There has been a lot of firsts in the last few years of this country. This applies to the adult industry which, yes, has been hit by the recession. This is not to say that some companies are not doing good. Heck, the numbers I’m hearing for Dion makes me wish he did sex toys. The reality is you have companies that have been here forever, declaring bankruptcies with other companies being swallowed up by the larger ones. Strip clubs are down for the most part 20-30%. Just look at the comments in the back of the latest Exotic Dancer Magazine (good job on the re-do Don!) from club owners. Video numbers are down pretty much throughout and most novelty and video companies did a cut and slash with staff prior to Christmas. We can look at it two ways. 1: Does it really suck that bad or 2: Were these companies just running that inefficient in the high-power nineties. Could be both. I do know one thing. Those that emerge when the economy turns, as it always does, are going to be in a great, lean, mean fighting position to have banner years. Of course, there’s always that monkey wrench..Ashcroft. Same guy that lost, will all due respect, to a dead man in an election. I’ll touch on that a bit later. So next time you read about the recession proof industry, think about those companies that have been here for 30 years now out of business or sold and ask those employees if it’s recession proof. More later