'Girlvert' to Host NY, LA Release Parties for Memoir

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES—Oriana Small, aka Ashley Blue, presides over events on opposite coasts this week and next celebrating the release of her new autobiographical tome, Girlvert: A Porno Memoir, from Barnacle Books. On Wednesday, May 25, Small will meet and greet the public at Brooklyn's powerHouse Arena (37 Main St. at corner of Water and Main), with doors opening at 9:30 p.m. The evening will include free refreshments, ’60s garage/soul music provided by members of Robbers on High Street, and for a $25 donation to 826NYC, access to a private lounge and gift bag. In addition, the first 50 people to RSVP for the event will receive a complimentary copy of Girlvert: A Porno Memoir. A week later, on June 1, she returns to L.A. for a "XXX Nite" at famed venue Largo (366 N. La Cienega Blvd.), which will include a Girlvert slide show, a reading from the book by April Flores, a dramatization by way of puppets by Smoking Mary Jane, bondage performances by Nikki Nefarious, Sarah Shevon and Soma Snakeoil, additional appearances by Kristina Rose, Ginger Lynn, Aurora Snow and comic act Lady Butt, plus a slew of other planned proceedings. "It's celebrating the wonderful and weird and extreme," Small told AVN, "but it's not about the glamour. None of this fucking red carpet bullshit. It's going to be cool." Girlvert the memoir delves into the personal history of the woman behind arguably the most inspired and celebrated character in the annals of adult, the anti-heroine of JM Productions' ongoing Girlvert movie series, which gradually evolved into an exaggerated depiction of its star's actual life experiences. Despite the fact that the very first installment of Girlvert cast a different girl in the title role (Keegan Skky), once Ashley Blue stepped into her thigh-highs, it became clear she was meant to do so. "By Girlvert 4, that was when I felt like that was me, and we were one," Small said. "Jim [Powers, the series' director] is very good at psychology on the spot, and he could tell just by a few questions that I had issues with my mom, and he turned that into gold. I would say that most girls in porn, drama follows them wherever they go, and so Jim would be watching me just freak out and have all these relationship problems and car problems, and I'd be so pissed off, so the drama is coming out of me all the time. So he kind of found a way to make fun of me, and I was like, 'Yeah, that is funny.' It was inspired by true events, but then we could take it and be really imaginative and go over the top. We were having fun and being satirical, making fun of me and making fun of other people in my life. In a way, similar to like a comedian will always be making fun of the people that they date on stage, and dragging other big things into it as material—that's kind of what we did." Small was moved in 2007 to begin committing to record the true stories upon which Girlvert's adventures were based following one major turning point in her life: "Basically the biggest thing was I quit doing coke," she said. "I had been off coke for a while, so then I had a clear head and I looked back on these crazy times, the cool drugged-out times that I had in porn and my life, and I was feeling like I wanted to hold onto it because it was not going to be like that anymore. It's not negative, but I'm not delusional and painting some picture about, oh, I was so great and everybody was so mean. I just wanted to tell a real story." Much like the Girlvert movies, Small said she strove to infuse the book with a darkly comedic tone. "I hope people find it really funny, because I thought it was funny," she submitted. "I have a dark sense of humor, though, so I hope that people find chapters entitled 'Gonorrhea and Ass Herpes,' I hope they find that funny. Because I think it's funny." Tickets to the Largo event are $20 and include a copy of the book along with other swag. They can be purchased here. For more information about this Wednesday's event in New York, visit www.rarebirdlit.com. Girlvert: A Porno Memoir can be purchased now at Amazon.com.