Notes From the Show Floor

Pictured above, the AVN booth (photos by Rick Garcia) and Sex Is ... seminars (photos by Jeff Koga) LAS VEGAS—The floors and corridors of the 2017 AVN Show were very nearly overflowing with fans and stars of adult entertainment as the expo hit its peak hours Friday evening. Wherever one turned, any given porn luminary could be staring right back, from Ron Jeremy to James Deen to Adriana Chechik. (Find photos from the show here.) Scores of cam girls hosted live chats up down the main hallway outside Muse Hall at the extensive MyFreeCams booth space. Inside, much the same transpired at the Chaturbate booth, where if you mistakenly walked through the middle, you were subjected to a paddling. Inside The Joint, where the 34th annual AVN Awards Show will take place Saturday night, aisles and aisles of starlets new and seasoned greeted fans at their respective agents' booths, as well as those of Evil Angel, AEBN, Erotique Entertainment and many others. Also taking place in The Joint were the Sex Is ... seminars, including spotlights on the 2017 Best New Starlet nominees, a panel discussion by male performers led by Male Performer of the Year nominee Derrick Pierce, and educational workshops by sexperts, including Wicked Pictures contract star Jessica Drake. Drake and her sister contract stars Asa Akira and Stormy Daniels could be spotted taking pictures and signing 8x10s in the hallway between Muse and Artist. And inside the latter, AVN's own booth was packed with hot talent including Gia Paige, Chanel Preston, Kasey Warner, Zoey Monroe, Aubrey Kate, Jenna Sativa, A.J. Applegate, Jillian Janson, Jodi West, Karlee Grey and many, many more. In short, the place was a madhouse. And for first-time exhibitors and veterans alike, the mood couldn't have been brighter. Representing the former camp, Kissa Sins—who was joined at her Sins Life outpost by AVN Female Performer of the Year nominees Veronica Rodriguez and Katrina Jade—enthused, "I love it so far. I call it Vagina Disneyland. It's been fucking awesome, I love it. I really love the fans. It's really fun to be able to represent your company, it's fun that we've taken our little hobby of a sex website and made it into a real website. We're very proud of it." Sins Life distributor Jules Jordan, whose bevy of superstar signers this year includes Kimmy Granger, Samantha Saint, Abella Danger, Aidra Fox, Jessa Rhodes, Angela White, Jill Kassidy, Anikka Albrite and Kissa Sins, remarked, "It's another year of doing what we do for the fans. We get to meet with our customers, so that's always a good thing. We also started a novelty company, Clandestine Devices, so we're at the novelty show with that as well, trying to expand what we do. It's always great to come out here for the fans and have them have a good chance to meet all the new girls. And for me it's interesting to meet them in person, because you get an idea of their personality to hire them and figure out who the next giant star will be. So it's always an exciting time here."  Director Bree Mills, exhibiting for the second time with Girlsway/Gamma Films, had maybe the most positive comments of all about the show thus far, offering, "You know they always say that Wednesday is the slow day because everybody starts piling in on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and I was pretty pleased with the crowd that we got Wednesday, so that was a good sign that we're having a really good year. It's been interesting to see some of the creativity of some of the big booths, and some of the glitz and the glam that's gone into a few of the studios, but you know what, it speaks to that there's a need for it, and so I'm really happy to see investment going back into these events. There were a good few years where it was like, 'Ah, the trade show is dead,' but no, it's clear that it's very much not dead." And as they say, the best is yet to come...