‘The Village’ Brings Community Together at AVN Show

LOS ANGELES—In a crowded convention hall in Las Vegas, Beau Butler surveys the room and settles his gaze on a larger-than-life promotional display behind him. The 8-foot-tall posterboard pictures the Falcon|NakedSword exclusive shirtless, just as he is while standing in front of it. “That’s amazing,” he says with a wide smile, staring at an even bigger version of his muscular frame. “This is a dream come true for me. I really love this industry. I love the people. I love all of the creativity.” Last month, Butler spent four days working the studio’s booth at The Village, the gay-themed section of the 2023 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo—the first time the gay community had a dedicated spot and booths at the Expo since the GayVN Awards returned in 2018 after a seven-year absence. “It’s so interesting to me, having a porn trade show. I would have to go to these in my last industry—but that was in mental health. So it’s almost exactly the same, but just hotter people,” he laughs. Butler spent time at The Village meeting fans, catching up with fellow performers, and networking with new friends—including Chaturbate performer Ryan Landers, who spent all four days interviewing a long list of industry performers and insiders for his cam show at the company’s large booth at the center of the room. “The first day was the perfect opportunity because it was just beginning and I just happened to be next to the Falcon both, and everyone wanted to come over and talk to me,” Landers says. “It was crazy.”  One of his many interview subjects was Drew Valentino, the Falcon|NakedSword exclusive who that same night went on to win Best Newcomer (along with Favorite Newcomer in the Fan-Voted awards). “This Expo has been so much fun,” Valentino said. “For one, it’s super cool to see my face everywhere on the posters and in the promo videos. People are coming up to me a lot, saying they’re a big fan of my work or a big fan of my (standup) comedy.” The performer undoubtedly got new material during the week-long festivities that he could incorporate into his routines. “Honestly, I’m getting a shit ton of messages on Grindr—like, ‘Oh my God, is this the real Drew Valentino?!’ So that feels really nice,” he laughs. “I did standup comedy in my early 20s for a couple years, and I loved it. It’s always been something that makes me really happy, and I kind of got away from it with my career. I’ve been wanting to get back into it for the longest time, and now as I’ve moved to LA, and kind of developed a following for porn, I said this is the perfect time to get back into it. I like to go for shock value. I tend to be kind of vulgar, so that’s why talking about gay butt sex and porn didn’t hurt. More like an actor, I kind of talk about my life experiences. My strength has always been storytelling.” Both Butler and Valentino were joined at the booth by fellow Falcon|NakedSword performers throughout the week, including Cole Connor, Cade Maddox, Andre Donovan, Luca del Rey, Devin Franco, Des Irez, Sean Xavier and more. “It’s exciting,” shared Connor. “It’s really great for the queer community to be able to talk and be supportive of each other, right next to all the straight stuff happening—the straight people can come in and mingle. I just think it’s good for visibility. I actually haven’t seen a lot of these (Falcon|NakedSword) exclusives in a while. I haven’t met Joel Hart, so I really want to meet him. I hadn’t seen Max Konnor in a while, I love seeing him. And I just saw Malik Delagaty (at the Men.com booth)…he’s looking pretty good.” Konnor was just as excited to see his Falcon family as he was to meet new fans. “It feels really good to be back here with everybody, to just feed off of the energy. We haven’t seen each other in so long, and it’s good to see all of the new faces that I’ve seen online that I haven’t met yet in person, and it’s good to reconnect with the fans that I used to see every year that I didn’t get to see for two or three years,” Konnor said. “Even within the Falcon family, there was some models that were signed that I hadn’t met until coming here. That’s been so nice.” That sentiment was echoed by GayVN Award nominee Des Irez, who also appeared at the Falcon booth. “I think it’s really important that these types of events happen; it kind of gives fans an opportunity to meet creators, actually get to know them a little bit more on a personal level. It builds more of a sense of community, even with the straight community as well,” he said. “It’s not often that I personally get to meet a lot of porn stars in the straight community; I’ve worked with a few that have worked with the gay industry, too. It’s really interesting. Getting to do one of these conventions is a lot of fun.” Xavier also embraced getting to meet and reacquaint himself with so many people. “Similar to any convention where you’re gathering people together that have a common interest, there’s a sense of community that happens,” shared Xavier, who was often spotted taking pictures with fans and fellow performers. “If you liken it to Comic-Con, you have those that will chase the Comic-Cons across the globe year after year, and you see your friends you see people that are your chosen family. GayVN and AVN is very much the same. Some of these men and women I haven’t seen in more than five—and in some cases 10—years. So to see them here and be able to hug them in person and give them a big kiss, that’s wonderful.” Xavier also stressed the importance the Expo provided for making new friends in the business. “In terms of networking and what his can do for building your own brand and getting you connected to others in the industry, it’s bar none one of the best events to go to.” FabScout Entertainment President and founder Howard Andrew, who was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame last year, was also in attendance at his booth—with many of his models on hand. One of the FabScout models at the booth was Killian Knox, who was up for multiple GaVN Awards and saw the power of networking first hand. “It’s wonderful to be here, and Howard even found a couple new models,” Knox laughed. “He brought several, but he’s also meeting people as clients who want to be a model. I’ve met many new people who are potentially starting their careers here, maybe making their way into the scene. I watched one guy talk to [FabScout], and I saw the whole thing unfold—they scheduled a little shoot to get his pictures made. And then one of his newer models, Jack Waters, was taking about being able to make connections here to really get his career going. You get your foot in the door and then make connections and go from there. There’s a lot of people here who can take you somewhere.” Men.com and Sean Cody also had a large booth presence that featured popular models like GayVN Award nominees Malik Delgaty, Joey Mills, Johnny Donovan and Brogan signing autographs and talking to attendees. “I love any chance I can get to meet fans and other performers, and that’s one of the great parts about having gay booths at the AVN Expo. It’s been great to see fans come up. I’m always surprised, too—a guy just wanted an autograph for his girlfriend today,” laughed Brogan, who also treated himself to a giant pink plush penis on sale at the neighboring booth for the Las Vegas Erotic Heritage Museum. “It’s a lot of fun to see the energy and be a part of it. I know there hasn’t always been gay booths here, so it’s exciting to have that and hopefully have it in the future.” Brogan was one of many models and fans that utilized the studio’s colorful photo booth, one of the biggest attractions in the room. “The Village and Expo are giving everybody a chance to meet new people, and giving the fans a chance to meet the stars. We just wanted to have a place for people to take photos, whether they’re straight, gay, trans, whatever,” said Carlo Fiorillo, who works in production at Men.com and Sean Cody—and was busy manning the popular branded photo booth. “People are loving it. They’re having fun, they’re seeing people’s posts on social media that are of this booth, and they’re like, ‘I wanna go there!’ We’ve had people come back for more in a different outfit, so I think that’s really cool. It’s great for exposure, to get our name out there so people can see what we do. I’ve had a really good time so far. This is my first AVN Expo, and it’s so great seeing all the different vendors and exhibitors and studios, meeting new people and getting closer to the friends that I already have in the industry. I think it’s a really cool convention to have, and I’m glad we could finally have it in person again.” Helix was also on hand with a large model presence, including Kai Taylor—who had his GayVN trophy for Best Three-Way Sex Scene with him on the final day of the Expo, prompting a stranger to congratulate him. “Thank you, babe!” he smiled in return. “You usually have online relationships with your fans, but to be here in The Village and at AVN, it’s like oddly chaotic—but at the same time it’s grounded, and it’s so…humane. I was talking with security guards, and everybody is so accepting. It doesn’t even feel like we’re excluded from society; there’s no such thing as taboo here. It’s very refreshing. When people go out of their way to say, ‘Hey, good job!’, it means something. “This has given us a chance to come together and be like, ‘I’ve seen you for years on the internet, but wow, you’re a real person!’ It was important for us to really see each other and have that human connection, not just an online connection. There were so many people I was looking forward to meeting. I got to meet Austin Wolf a little while ago, and that was really cool.” Wolf was working his 4My.Fans booth in the main exhibit hall, but spent much of his time in The Village meeting fans and peers. Wolf noted that preparing for his first show in this capacity was stressful. “Yesterday and the day before, exhausting. And right now, I think exciting. It’s a lot of people, the energy is good. People are walking up and interacting,” he said. “We’ve been biding our time and strategizing and planning for when we knew this was coming. We didn’t just want to wing it, show up and see how we do. I’m the owner of 4My.Fans, and we have a double booth here, so we’re here recruiting—and frankly just killing it. We’re kind of introducing ourselves into the industry. The last two years, everything has been held back, and we decided to lean in. Now everybody’s here, everybody’s coming out, everybody’s buying tickets—look how many people showed up this first day. I’m excited to give models a platform that recognizes them for what they do, and that doesn’t make money off of them and then pretend they don’t exist.” One of the models at the 4My.Fans booth was GayVN Award nominee Morgxn Thicke, who also spent some time in The Village talking with his peers—and even spending a long time being interviewed by Landers at the Chaturbate booth. “Events like this need to happen. Just as humans, we need to socialize and engage—but also on a bigger picture, I think that it’s very important to kind of normalize sex work. And events like this—where the public comes in and expose themselves to us, and we expose ourselves to them, interact with them and get to know them—serve as a kind of bridge, and deconstruct the construct.” Photography by Chris Brody