Mike John Interview - Mike John's Movies
Sept 1999

After three years of interviewing female performers, I’ve finally decided that it’s time to also include the men in front of, and behind the cameras as well. Mike John, who is still fairly new to the business, directs vids for Diabolic, including his own lines, Panochitas and Down the Hatch. We set up a time to do the interview when Mike’s first ‘Hatch’ vid was being edited. That way, I could catch a sneak peek after the interview. We sat in a big, comfortable room at the Anabolic office and had a very causal conversation. Forgive me if it starts to ramble, but sitting with Mike, talking about porn just lends itself to a free style conversation. You see, he actually likes porn, so it was more like a conversation than an interview.

I’m sitting here with Diabolic’s Mike John, director of the ‘Panochitas’ series as well as the man now in charge of ‘Up Your Ass.’ We’ll get to those in a bit, but first, let’s get to the new stuff. What do you have in the coming up?

What we’ve got in the works now is ‘Down the Hatch’ coming out in a few weeks. It’s a cum swallowing extravaganza.

Why did you decide to go for a swallowing video?

I always liked Rodney Moore’s work, especially his POV stuff. I’ve always been a big jerk off. That’s how I got into this business. I have a lot of respect for his camera work. A lot of people might not even realize just how good he is. I saw a four way scene he did the other day where he’s fucking and doing camera. It’s better than ninety percent of the stuff out there where the guy is just holding a camera. Swallowing has always been really high on my list of things I like to see girls do. So, when they asked me to do a line, that’s what I came up with.

What are you going to do to make this different?

I always like throwing in as many extra as I can, so I made all the scenes multi-pop. If it’s an anal scene, we’ll get through with the vag, everybody cums in the girl’s mouth. Not all at the same time, no opportunities to dodge. They take one load at a time, swallow them all. Then the last guy to pop goes right into her ass. Then we do the A and a volley of pops again. On top of that, I take all the girls myself and do a POV blowjob.

The advantages of being a porn director.

My original idea was to have that before the scene where I find out if they really qualify as a swallower. I found that it didn’t work, so I’ve mixed it up. We’ll put a scene here, then a few scenes down the road, you might see that girl again with her blowjob. It’s kind of like a mini-BJ movie within the movie.

So this isn’t just an oral movie.

No. There are DP’s, anal, all the things you would expect, but the main focus is that these girls swallow every load. If they dodge even one, I rip the tape out and go break it in the middle of the street.

That’s a bit extreme.

I tell them in advance, ‘Hey, you’re here to eat cum. If we go through forty minutes of shooting and at the end you do some porno tricks, blowing bubbles and shit, both of us are taking this tape out in the street, I’m paying you a kill fee, I have to pay the guys, but we are smashing this fucker.’ That seems to do the trick, because there are all sorts of tricks to avoid swallowing in this business. We’re going to put some examples of that in the movie, showing the right and wrong way to do it.

When should this be hitting the shelves?

I don’t have a release date yet, but it’s the next Diabolic release. The box is being finished today and we’re halfway through the editing. I’ll take you in to show you some of it in a bit.

How do you like making movies for Diabolic.

I really enjoy it here. The cool thing is that we aren’t under any pressure to make a movie just because we have to have something to release. They are willing to wait a bit for quality and that’s important to me. You have to understand that we’re asking a lot of these girls, so it’s best not to rush them. The main thing is that I don’t have to compromise. I could wait until I found a girl who was appealing to me and who would really swallow.

Who’s in this movie?

Anastasia Blue, Chocolate, Cinnabunz, Melody Love, Cricket and a New Zealand girl named Tavaly Griffith.

This is the first of a series correct?

Yes, this is the first one, but there will be more.

What other series have you done for Diabolic?

Panochitas.

And that’s up to what volume?

Three is out, four is in the can, coming soon.

You mentioned that you like Rodney’s work. Is there anyone else who you see as being exceptional?

I am so heavily into the POV thing. I like that because you can almost forget that it’s not your dick. That’s what I’m trying to do with ‘Down the Hatch.’ Other people? You know Rodney is the main one. I know he’s holding the camera and he gets great fucking shots. It’s really effective. I’ve always liked watching the old Buttman stuff and way before I worked here, I was a big fan of the Anabolic stuff.

When did you shoot your first movie?

The first movie I directed was Panochitas 1. Before that, I did camera for Sean Michaels’ ‘Up Your Ass’ which was turned over to me when he left.

Are you still shooting camera on other productions?

No, I’m too busy with my own stuff here.

So you’ve got ‘Panochitas’ and now ‘Down the Hatch’, any others?

‘Up Your Ass’ and a few others, but I can’t say the names at this point. You know how people are.

Does that keep you shooting or editing all the time?

Yeah, I’m more than busy shooting almost every day.

How did you hook up with Anabolic/Diabolic?

I met them on one of their World Tours. They were just traveling about and needed a little bit of assistance. I’m from Venice, they are right here. We just got along great. After that trip, they knew that I was a stroker and a big porno fan so they invited me over to hook me up with some tapes. When I came back, Sean and I found we had a lot of common interests, and just hit it off. I started shooting camera for him and these guys liked my work. One day I was talking with Greg (Head of Diabolic) and told him that I was sick of driving to the Valley. I wanted to go down to South America, shoot girls giving me blowjobs so I would have something to jerk off to when I’m an old man. Greg loved the idea and said we should do a line. A few weeks later we were on the plane.

What’s it like working with the women down there?

It’s very difficult to get it done. It’s a Catholic region. Pornographers don’t go down there. The women aren’t at all interested in having people know what they’re doing. I can pretty much guarantee that anyone else shooting down there would make it a one time thing. They would see what you have to go through and just give up. People don’t even respond to you for money. It’s not like there are agents down there setting us up. It took me a month to shoot volume two.

With the difficulties, you have to ask, why bother? Why not shoot someplace easier?

The main reason is that I had to do something different. I’m not a big porn star, I can’t just do something that everyone else is doing. There is no Latina line out there period that I know of. They have some East L.A. girls with the big hair and the tats and the big tortilla asses, but I wanted something real. It’s something that I could do to bring something new to the table.

So ‘Panochitas’ and ‘Down the Hatch’ are your babies, but you took over ‘Up Your Ass’ from Sean. What do you think have brought to the series that is new or fresh?

So far, there were a bunch of scenes left from before Sean left. I have been shooting scenes to supplement what we already had. The next volume will basically be all mine. We’re bringing in Lexington as the main guy. When it was Sean’s line, he had a very loose format. He would put a white couple in, then a black couple, then an interracial. Now it’s basically going to be the biggest black dicks in the business slamming white chicks up the ass.

So the concepts are yours, you shoot camera, do you edit your own stuff as well?

No. I sit in there with Kurt, but I can’t push the buttons. I can’t even hardly turn on a computer. I sit there with him because I know what I shot and what I want, but Kurt comes up with some fucking incredible edits. He really adds a lot to my stuff.

Is this the kind of movie you want to be making, or do you have a dream project hanging out there?

You know, these guys have pretty much let me to what I want. I’m a big stroker and here I get to make exactly what I want to see. With ‘Panochitas’, I get to shoot girls who haven’t even been filmed blowing out a birthday candle, let alone taking a dick.

If you could pick anyone in the business to put in the next Down the Hatch, who would it be?

There is a young woman named Mirage who came in the other day who had a special effect on me. She’s new, but I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head. For this line, the main thing is that she likes to swallow and doesn’t cheat. I went out and rented Rodney’s Swallow tape and if I would have went out and bought that tape, I would have been fucking furious. Half the girls have their lips so tight they look like they have staples in them. The title is ‘I Swallow’ and I would have bought it because I was looking for girls swallowing and they just don’t fucking swallow. If I put something on one of my boxes, then I mean it. That’s what I would shoot for, a woman who doesn’t break the rules and loves to swallow.

Have you gotten a lot of feedback on your work so far?

Yeah, I haven’t read them yet, but they tell me a lot of letters come in about ‘Panochitas’. I don’t really care too much about feedback. I mean, AVN, they don’t give us shit because we don’t pay them, but the main thing is that the lines are doing well. The real people that count are the jerk offs and if they’re buying the tapes, then that’s enough for me. If they start shipping them back in big boxes, then I know something is up.

All of your stuff can be found on www.Diabolicvideo.com right?

Yeah, all my stuff is for Diabolic. And there’s my boss over there. Mr. Gang Bang Auditions himself.

Oh, I just watched Gang Bang Auditions 3 the other day.

(Greg) Really? What did you rate it?

I didn’t review, I just watched it for fun. I wanted to see Layla Jade.

(Greg) She is unbelievable, a rare girl.

(Mike) She is in ‘Up Your Ass 10’ and she was working with Jake Steed. At the very beginning of the scene, I told her to verbalize about eating cum. She went into this fucking monologue that just never stopped. I have never heard anything like it. We ended up stringing her voice overs throughout the movie. The last thing she said, was “I even like it after it’s gone cold.” And Jake just fucking lost it. I wish I could hire her to just give me dialog all day long.

She has a great voice, tremendous accent.

She’s the best filthy talker I’ve ever seen.

We have an interview set up for next month, it should be very interesting.

Did you see the Gang Bang she was in, 24? Those girls saved the day on that shoot. It was below zero outside. All the guys had on jackets, huddled in the car and not a peep out of Layla. She was out until the very end giving her dialog. They were such troopers. When she had to lick that toilet seat, it was so cold, I was shaking and I had all my clothes on.

It’s nice to see more of her stuff come out so people can see how great she is.

She really, really loves her work.

(Greg) She does it for the work, not just for the money and you can always tell the girls like that.

I can’t wait to finally meet her.

(Greg) One thing Mike has done for the ‘Up Your Ass’ series that he won’t mention is that he has brought the quality up. His attention to detail and the extra things he does to make the movie flow are exceptional. And ‘Panochitas’, we get tons of fan mail for that.

Well, on that note, let’s go take a look at the new footage.

Great, thanks Rog.

Thank you Mike, and Greg, you’re next.