Expert: Charles Taylor - 7/18/2006

Question
I am interested in becoming an adult performer. What cities are the best for finding adult work and do I really need an agent?

Answer
First off.....

Move to where the adult businesses are…..


•   Los Angeles, CA
•   Miami, FL

These areas of the country have more adult related work (i.e., Dancing, Escorting & Adult Content Shoots) and tend to be a little more liberal in their thinking. They are not listed in any particular order of importance but if you have a desire to start in the adult industry these parts of the country would be more realistic then moving to or staying in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. You may also want to take in consideration while the industry usually is recession proof there are times throughout the year where the adult industry as a whole is slow...kinda almost seasonal perhaps.

As far as to have an agent/manager or to be an independent this is totally up to you. I would advise that you never sign an exclusive contact or a contact that stipulates that you can’t have another agent or manager within a particular area or region unless they are willing to have you on some type of base salary. So when times do get tough and they run out of work you will still be able to pay your rent, car note and have food to survive. I would also advise that you retain a qualified adult entertainment lawyer and a CPA to handle your finances or you may run into trouble during tax season. The problem with most agents and managers is that they will take anywhere from 5% to 50%+ percent of your total earnings for every shoot that they book for you. Some may be flexible when it comes down to lower paying shoots and require a contact trade for services rendered. What that means is that instead of you paying them cash from your shoot you would provide yourself to perform in a scene or scenes of the agent/managers choice within reason. Normally it would consist of either a girl/girl or boy/girl scene. The upside of doing business with a agent or manager is that they tend to book you for the higher end/higher paying shoots and that they weed out the seedy guys with handy cams they bought from wall mart or ebay. These types of shoots are also where conveniently the producer is also the male talent and they do not employ a cameraman as well. Now once you’ve got some experience under your belt you may want to reconsider having an agent altogether. Most of the bigger named stars who are now industry veterans either don’t have one or have started their own agency/management service. Now all professional companies and shooters will ask for your AIM Test results (http://www.aim-med.org) and at the minimum if the company/shooter is located outside of “porn valley” they will have a quick stick test draw location for you to get tested for HIV. The location in Fort Lauderdale costs around $100 and the results are available within 30 minutes. Some companies are all into the safe sex style shoots and some even require testing and condoms. As a performer myself I am all for making the industry as safe as possible but the hard reality of the blue biz is this there are less then 10% of adult companies that shoot with condoms and you can get pretty much all of the same infectious diseases from oral sex as you can get through straight vaginal sex, with the exception of pregnancy which for all intensive purposes as you may already know is not a disease. You also must remember that porn shoots are really not what condoms were designed for in the first place. Porn is not traditional sex in traditional locations (i.e., your bed in your bedroom). So if you’re putting all your faith in the little thin piece of latex that separates you from your fellow performer please reconsider entering this industry for not only your life span within adult will be minimal but the scenes you perform in will be marginal at best. Getting of this rant I will give you a few links to help you get yourself started in the glamorous world of porn.

Independents:
http://www.adultstaffing.com
http://www.sexyjobs.com
http://www.hardcoremodeling.com

And if you’re looking for model representatives-

http://www.adultfaces.com
http://www.tk1models.com
http://www.triplexryder.com
http://www.worldmodeling.com


Good luck and welcome to the world of porn!!!