I (Rochard) met Farrell once in Mexico during YP but had no idea how important he was in the industry. He's a "balls to the wall / anything goes" type of guy who enjoys life and has done the things that most of us wish we had the chance to do. He's had monkey poo flung on him while having sex at Playboy Mansion, shot porn with Princess Leia, and hangs out with Tom Green – All because him and his wife shot some home video footage after a Grateful Dead concert in Las Vegas. After talking his mother into taking out a second mortgage on her house, He bought Homegrown Video and made it into what it is today.




Pictures complements of Fubar - check it out the photo archive of all webmaster events!

                       

GFY Ambush Interview thread Far-L


Question #1
Explain your connection with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park ?

When we were being interviewed for a Channel 4 production in Great Britain one of the guys on the crew, Jason, told me about a friend of his named Trey that had written a script about a mormon porn superhero. He asked if I would look at the script and give some feedback. The script was funny but needed more "porn" humor. I suggested that Jason and Trey come to Las Vegas for the adult show and awards so I could give them a much deeper look at the wild and wacky world of porn.

Trey and I hit it off right away and I regaled him with some of my wackier porn moments, like the time a black guy stunt cocked for a white guy, the first time I learned about ball shaving, and when I walked in with a friend on a dvda (double vaginal double anal) shoot that literally made my friend ill to see and smell.

By some miraculous occurance, not sure exactly how since it is kind of fuzzy at this point, at the awards show someone slipped some kind of hallucinegen into our drinks and by the middle of the show Trey and I had decided that every single award was destined to be ours. I would get up to head to the stage to deliver a speech for everything from best gay performance to starlet of the year until I realized that someone else had been picked - then i would storm back to the table complaining about the awards being rigged to anyone who would listen.

We were all laughing hysterically throughout and by the end of the night Trey decided he wanted to write a porn comedy that would one day win an award. (more about that later)

During the rest of the show I introduced Trey to a bunch of people that would be the basis for inspiration of the porn crew in "Orgazmo", which included me in a tiny cameo. My one line in the movie is only a word long. I say "genius".

For almost two more years we made what we called "prankster porn" together (which I will explain more about in a few). I helped fund the trailer that was made to help get big money for doing the feature film. By the time "Orgazmo" was actually in production, the deal with Comedy Central was being negotiated. Before we were done, South Park was already becoming a household word and Trey and Matt were on their way to the big time. We had an amazing year hitting film festivals with "Orgazmo" around the world and I got to do some celeb hobnobbing, along with my college roommate Dust Brother Mike Simpson who helped put together the soundtrack for "Orgazmo".

The other producers and Matt, Trey, and Jason were all thankful for my input and remarkably they presented me with a "Associate Producer" credit as well as some "above the line" points on the film... which I never saw a dime of but that certainly was not Trey, Matt, or Jason's fault and I still love those guys as brothers to today

Question #2
Homegrown is celebrating twenty-five years in business. How long have you owned the company out of those twenty-five years?

Homegrown Video was literally the first company to start distributing people's homemade porn and at least imo the company started a revolution in porn that reverberates through to today. However, back in 1992, the original owner had done a good job of living way too hard and spending way too fast for his own good. When competition started coming around like Mr. Peepers OGV and others then sales slowed down but his bills didn't and eventually he fell in with some unsavory individuals that were the kind of people that negative porn stereotypes are made from.

Anyone remember that scene in "Goodfellas" where the gangsters take over the guy's bar and run through his credit while selling bottles out the back door? That was about what happened to the original owner of HGV.

He had to eventually declare bankruptcy in San Diego. By this time my ex-wife and I had learned a thing or two about the business after trying for many fruitless months to sell our videos to Homegrown Video. We finally learned the reason our tapes were languishing there and that is when, on my ex's suggestion btw, we decided to try and raise money to buy it out of the bankruptcy. We finally took control in 1993 and have been at the helm ever since - along with my brother Moffitt who came in as a partner after finally getting over the shock that he had a brother in the porn industry.

Question #3
When you first started out in this business, what did you do with the money you made? Did you follow someone around the country while they were on tour?

The original reason to get into porn was it seemed like a much easier way to pay for following the Grateful Dead than making tie-dyes and selling sandwiches.

Go ahead - I know what you are all thinking - So what if I am a dirty damn hippy? I got to see the best parking lots in the country and I learned some very valuable lessons that have served us well in business - regarding grassroots marketing and community branding. The Dead were making money with "free" content for years and growing their legion of fans. Plus I borrowed a line that promoter bill graham used to say of the Dead, "They aren't the best at what they do, they are the only ones who do what they do".

Question #4
At one point Homegrown went into bankruptcy and you decided to buy the company. Where did you raise the money from?

After we found out that HGV's assets were available in a bankruptcy proceeding we set about trying to find VC funding to help buy it. That didn't get too far and whatever prospects we did have flaked hard on us at the last minute.

Getting a bit desperate we turned to our Mother who ended up getting a second on her house to get us the cash to buy. We ended up with the company for a song really. All the original edited masters, raw footage, some antique editing system, and a skimpy mailing list of hardcore fans that the previous owner had not chased away with inferior tape. (this was back in the prehistory of video when stuff was recorded on vhs).

I remember we had to destroy a bunch of vhs tapes that were worthless. There was a small room with one wall of brick and me, Mof, and our other partner spent about 6 hours throwing tapes at that wall and watching them explode until there was a few feet of plastic and magnetic tape carnage on the floor.

I also remember one of the first tapes I had to review for purchase. It had an older woman teaching two girls how to use a condom and I was thinking, "wow this is sexy and educational" but when the woman said "now go try this out on your dad" I became a bit concerned.

I went and checked the releases.

The tape had come from Waco Texas (just after that Branch Davidian thing for all you history buffs out there).

The performers were all legal age with id.

Unfortunately they all had the same last names too.

wickity wickety wack, sent that one back, faster than you could say "Deliverance".

Question #5
Is it true you went to the AVN awards this year with Tom Green? Are you friends with him?

Tom and my friend Mike performed as "Keeping it real Crew" at the AVN award show party in the VIP lounge. A lot of people don't know that Tom used to be a kid rapper and was kind of a Canadian Kid Rock with a couple of radio singles back in the day. The first album Mike ever produced was Tone Loc's first record back when we were just getting out of school. His next was the Beastie's "Paul's Boutique"... anyone who was back there can attest to how they got the room bouncing old school style.

Certainly would call Tom and friend we shared many laughs together at the AVN show. I still crack a smile thinking about his whole "how big is the truffle?" in the truffle reduction sauce riff he did on the waitress at the resturaunt before the show.

Question #6
What is " Xplor Media?"

When we finally took over the assets of Homegrown Video from the bankruptcy proceeding naturally we were excited to get right down to business and get a new title out. We created a new box design and put together a strong bunch of scenes for it. After spending a bag of loot to get a bunch duplicated we sat down to make our first sales call to a big brick and mortar distributor.

"Hello"

"Hi"

"Who's this?"

"Hi, this is Farrell from Home-"

"Fuck you and fuck you mother!"

Click.

Every call we made. Either hung up on outright or chastized for a few seconds of abuse then hung up on.

Finally we realized that no one was going to take anything called "Homegrown Video" because the previous ownership had destroyed the goodwill of the company so thouroughly. In fact, we couldn't sell a distributor a piece of Homegrown for an entire year. The one sale we thought we made was returned.

Two things saved us from going out of biz almost faster than we had gotten into it. First, we hobbled along on our mail list to sell direct to consumers. Then, we created the name Xplor Media and we started putting together titles that were based on themes that were popular with our mailorder customers.

That is how we ended up being the first company to market series based on niche specific themes. We were the first company out there doing a cream pie series for example and hairy bush, plump, horny over 40, etc. (And this was a huge asset to us when we went from selling vhs videos off bbs sites to actually running a website since we were so deep in niche)

Once the Xplor brand had earned enough respect then we started bringing back the Homegrown and have kept working to make that our marquee brand, today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Question #7
How many women did you have sex with by the time you decided to stop counting?

I never counted because I never saw it as a competition in which a score needed to be kept. I have had a lot of beautiful, safe sex with wonderful women over the years. No doubt about it. I was born to porn. The only milestone that I can recall is when I realized that physical beauty had absolutely nothing to do with what made for a good or bad experience and that attitude and enthusiasm were everything. I was paid to have sex with the most beautiful porn stars that were about as exciting to fuck as a piece of knotted timber. I am sure someone could produce some of the shots of shoots I did with toothless biker chick amateurs that had seen better days but who loved sex and knew how to ring a guy's bell and left me walking dazed and euphoric for days.

Question #8
What is " Mr. Peeper's Home Videos"?

Mr Peepers was an amateur video series produced in Porn Valley, USA. The first video my ex and I made when we got into the LA porn scene was shot for Mr Peepers by a guy named Paul who would later become reborn as the notorious Max Hardcore.

The valley was melt-the-tarmac hot and another couple to shoot was at the duplex which was completely empty save for the wall-to-wall brown and orange shag carpet circa 1981.

The other couple was a cute blond pair who had big porn hair that had done a few porns already. Paul wanted them to go first "so they could show us what to do". Ok. No problem. No matter that we had shot a bunch of homemade amateur videos, spent a couple of years studying the biz, doing tantric sex workshops, and reading everything from feminist anti-porn rhetoric to every sex manual known to the western world. We were ready. I guess we just didn't look like we were ready. We didn't have the right hair.

So we would wait, sweating away while the other couple went horizontal. And sweat. And wait some more while standing there dripping. The experienced couple was having issues. Or more appropriately the dude was having difficulties keeping his dick hard. Apparently it kept melting away before any good "core" could be shot.

Finally, Paul decided to move on and give the panting pair a break. Time for me and Alyssa. Paul's brother opened some doors and windows to try and get some air flow to cool the place down.

Now we were certainly ready and we went at each other like a couple of bunnies at the easter orgy. It was good. Solid raunch. Sweaty, heaving sex. Butt smacking and dick gagging hardcore. Sex. The other couple became rather turned on and started making out by the open door to stay cool.

The camera was rolling and framed a nice close up on Alyssa's face while I rocked her from behind. That is when the neighbor walked by. We didn't see her but we both heard her clearly.

"Close the door you FUCKING PERVERTS!!!"

Alyssa looked over. Then looked back in the lens. Pause. Disbelief. Then looked again and looked back into the lens. We both started laughing hysterically.

And it was all captured on video. An enterprising perv could probably dig it up on a sexentertain feed since I am pretty sure they licensed all that Peepers stuff.

Welcome to the valley. Now blow your load and get the fuck out

Question #9
What does this phrase mean to you: " Content is as buffalo to the Indian"?

I have a few mantras that have served me well since getting into this biz. One of them is "sex is food, people have to eat". Another is "content is as buffalo to the indian". (and yes I do know that "buffalo" are more accurately referred to as bison)

The idea is simple. Just as the plains indian would utilize every part of the animal for clothing, food, tools, etc. content needs to be broken down into as many different uses as possible. A cut for every outlet, net, cable, DVD, mobile, softcore, hardcore, etc.

Question #10
Have you ever shot porn with Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher)

Question #11
How do you know Richard Dreyfuss?

Simply met him the night he came to watch us make porn. Incidentally, he played a porn director one time in a movie. The first person to name that movie in this thread will get... their choice... $25 bucks cash or a year pass to the HGV site... which we get almost forty bucks a month for and has many, many members that have been with us for years.

Question #12
Do you know everyone in Hollywood?

I don't know everyone or anyone really. I just know that of the ones I have met most were about as impressive to me as stewed turnips. I am impressed by people like my friend Mike who despite being a multi platinum, grammy winning, half a dozen albums listed as best of all time record producer is still humble and gracious to anyone and everyone he meets regardless of their place in the world or the people they know.

Question #13
Have you ever humped a statue while buck ass naked on camera?

Ok... before my wonderful employees who will probably all be sacked and rehired so I can sack them again before this thread is through tell any more stories about me I will segue into how I got captured on video humping a statue. Actually I think it was more than one.

After seeing me act in a couple of videos a guy named Tony Lovett (great guy who now works at AVN) decided he wanted to write a porn script featuring me as the main character and his hook for it was essentially to create a porn of "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Suess. I was to play the mischevious cat-like character "Mr. Fun".

The guy who was directing it saw right away what a good little content monkey I was and knew that whatever tune he played I would do the hully gully neat and quick. And that bastard had a pretty twisted mind. The shoot was mostly staged at some fancy house up at the top of Mulholland. The first clue I had that things were going to get pretty weird was when the director asked me to rub my dick over the home owner's silverware.

A few hours later I had to dance around a pool with my strange plaid pants around my ankles humping statues.

But I knew that I was really screwed when that pervert wanted me to go down on a starlet while some other guy did the watusi on her butthole.

"Um.... I am not exactly comfortable with that." I protested.

"We need it for the euro version." The director explained.

"I... I... ummm... I...don't... umm..."

"You want to get paid right?"

Two things happened that day. One I realized I am not gay but any double penetration scene with two guys and a girl is pretty frigging bi no matter how you slice it and I might as well accept that and get the fuck over it. Next I realized that it was way better to be the one telling people what to do in their porn scene than being a content monkey that has to do the dance when the organ starts to grind.

Question #14
Have you ever handed gift bags at a party while buck ass naked acting like a gorilla?

No. I have not. Unless you have pictures to prove it then all you have is nada, zilch, zero on me.


Oh crap.

Well... I guess that picture was already posted so I might as well explain. (explain = make excuses)

When we throw our parties at the shows we really try hard to make them unique experiences that are fun and break the typical bunch of affiliate reps getting too drunk and staring at the too few women in the room type of party that have become an all too familiar staple of webmaster events.

That night we decided to do a treasure hunt which was pretty much a thank you nod to Treasure Hunt aka Lady Mischief, at that time one of the newest members of team Homegrown.

When everyone had come back from the crazed search - in which there were no rules other than win at all costs - and the party was just about done then I went into a back room and collected all the gift bags to hand out. Now I don't want to brag, but maybe someone that was there can say how sweet our gift bags tend to be... However, I knew that just going out and passing around satchels of goodies was not quite enough to really show our appreciation for folks coming by.

I new I had to bear my soul.

I had to strip myself of all pretensions.

I had to take off all my clothes and return to my simian self to truly demonstrate my humble thanks.

And so mr. Teabaggins was born.

Question #15
Did any of the pornos you've directed had Hollywood stars in them? If so, which ones?

We made a few videos that featured cameos by various non-porn folks. The South Park folks popped up in a few, most notably "Here comes Elska" and "Sex for Life too".

SFL2 also had Kool Keith, Eek-a-Mouse, some announcer from pro-wrestling whose name I can't remember now, an award winning author named Glasgow Phillips, and a few others as well as some incredible music from a bunch of bands that were on the SRH record label like Lucy's Fur Coat.

SFL2 was the comedy porn project that was started with Trey but we never got around to finishing it properly because the whole South Park thing started taking up all his time... go figure...

We had to put out a fractured, unfinished version of it because my bro got so sick of how long it was taking to finish and how much cash had been spent on it.

I have made a promise to myself to finish it this year. Stay tuned!

Question #16
You did business with Max Hardcore. Why did you guys part ways?

After making our first LA style porn for Paul Little, we became friends and he began to hire me for other productions, not only as talent but also as a crew member, anal lube dispenser, whipping boy. I was there when Paul and his brother came up with the name "Max Hardcore" which essentially began as a riff off of "Max Headroom". Paul/Max and I would watch everything we shot with a magnifying glass and try to figure out the best ways to improve kind of like watching game footage to figure out what went right or wrong during a game.

I like to tell people I went to the Max Hardcore School of Porn. At a certain point, we convinced Max to come on board with Xplor exclusively and we produced a few series with him but a distributor who went by the name of Chuck Zane was pissed since he figured that he owned the rights to the character since he put out the first Max Hardcore material. This certainly was not the case but that didn't stop Chuck from coming after us and threatening to sue. Chuck incidentally is related to Rob Black and he was pure old school porn kingpin. People always told us to watch out because Chuck was a "connected" guy from back east but I never found my dog's head in my bed or anything like that. He was actually a really nice guy even though he would BK his businesses every two years or so it seemed like.

On a sidenote, we were in Chuck's office amicably settling the Max issues when Rob Black's first porn tape had just come in to his uncle Chuck's office. Chuck made me, my bro, and Max watch it while he ridiculed the quality of it mercilessly.

"Can you believe this guy is related to me?"

We all laughed but a year or so later Rob was winning awards and a darling of the adult press worldwide... a couple of years after that he was under indictment but that is another story.

We sold well with Max but his product was just not the right fit. Max needed someone that would be more excited about moving in the same direction as he was - which meant increasingly more depraved and hardcore. We just weren't comfortable with that at all since our stuff appeals to people that don't like seeing women barfing on erections.

Still friends with Max even though I think it is a bit bizarre that he doesn't want anyone to call him Paul anymore.

I remember we always used to talk about how we would take our evolving skills one day into the mainstream. When I was working on "Orgazmo" Max came down to shoot his cameo. We sat and talked while the lights were being set. Max praised my good fortune. Then, with a bit of melancholy he lamented how by listening to the increasingly bizarre requests of certain vocal fans he had basically gone out on a limb and there was no turning back.

I don't know for sure but I always think that was the day he decided that he would be Max from then on, leaving paul out on a curb by a warehouse on a street somewhere in LA.

Question #17
You've been in hundreds of porn movies. What was it like popping her cherry for the first time on camera?

I have had a few interesting first time experiences. This one stands out but I might pop in some more if anyone is interested in hearing them.

Back when I was working for Max Hardcore he used to call me "the Pussycat" since I was kind of the antithesis of his style when it came to doing scenes. Where he came of like some sort of hellspawn with a yearning for anal reaming, I was more lubby dubby teddy bear with an erection style. Therefore when the time came to work with a starlet that had hardly any experience but had potential Max would cast me to work with her before he laid on his deluge of butt humping deviance.

One day a model walked in that went by the alias of Tammi Ann. Max asked her during her interview is she would do anal. Tammi Ann was a natural blond with a sort of coed next door appeal. She looked like she just stepped off the virgin bus and still had panties that smelled of baby powder.

She looked like we had just killed her fluffy little kitty cat.

"Anal! No way. I don't do anal!"

Max didn't skip a beat. "Well how about DP then?"

"DP?" She asked. And you could tell that just like any sophmoric twenty something that she really didn't want to appear like she didn't actually know what DP meant.

"DP", she repeated, "sure I'll do that."

Max looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders. "Ok" he said, "I want you to work with my guy Tim here and we will do some DP.

Half an hour later I had my penis searching for her lost innocence somewhere deep in the recesses of her anus and a big rubber phallus planted in her pink here-kitty-kitty-kitty. Turns out not only did she kind of love the whole anal thing but went on to become known as an "anal queen" and every video she did with Max thereafter became standards by which others would judge the true degree of anal depravity.

Question #18
What part did Homegrown play in box cover art for pornos and the "what you see is what you get" approach?

I touched on this a bit earlier, but allow me to elaborate. With our mail order direct sales we learned early on that being direct was best. So that is what led to our putting out a title, saying fuck it, and calling it "Oversexed, Overweight, and Over 40". When this turned out to be one of the top sellers for over a year then we knew that we were on to something. Mind you, this was back when every single porn coming out of the valley was named something ridiculously ubiquitious like "Hot Cherry Tarts" or word plays on popular mainstream titles like "Gums".

I can't take much credit for us doing that though since I was always trying to go with obscure titles that seemed cool to me at the time but lacked the sizzle of something like "Double Anal Club". My bro is who really pushed for the "tell it like it is approach" and I have to agree that was a great way to go.

I think we might of had to throw each other through a few walls though first before I accepted the idea.

Question #19
Homegrown throws some unusual parties for their affiliates. Which ones have been the strangest? Which ones were your favorites?

Many people don't know that we were part of putting together the first Player's Ball with D$ and KB. We were all working and playing together in San Diego along with other notables like Ynot Bob of Lightspeed. At the time, Pimp and Ho parties were kind of the thing in there and D and KB were familiar with the authentic truly OG style pimp and ho party that was best characterized by an amazing album called "The Hustler's Convention" by Lightnin Rod. Seek it out if you don't know it already.

That first ball featured the Long Beach Dub Allstars not long after the mate in Sublime died and Eek A Mouse and hired strippers that made everyone feel very much like vips. My South Park pals showed up to play and sign a few autographs for people that are into that sort of thing.

Where it got weird though was at the after party during our live sex show when Trey Parker encouraged me to jump in the bed. Some other girl, as J$styles mentioned had a few spikes in her face and no inhibitions whatsoever started balling like someone just launched the bombs and the President had just told everyone that they better get their last groove on.

Eventually, only a few people remained playing cards and talking business. Oystein. St$les. Sweet T. They were talking business as if were weren't even there fucking our lights out. Only they had no idea that I had deeply extensive porn training.

In porn you have to listen to what the director or camera person is asking for when you are right in the middle of concentrating on taking the freaky deaky up a level to blow your mind/load boom boom.

I listened hard.

They were talking about the DMR fiasco. They were talking about industry players. I learned more in that couple of hours than you can imagine. It was like getting a Matrix style download on the state of the industry at the time.

We have thrown some other interesting parties but will have to come back to that...

Question #20
Homegrown is a big supporter of the fight against Acacia. (Thank you for this BTW!). We haven't heard anything about this case in some time. Are you still paying for the defense, and can you update us on it?

Homegrown Video and VS Media together organized the first meeting to decide what to do about Acacia - which is an old enough problem that there are plenty of people new to the industry that don't even know what it means.

When Acacia claimed to own all the patents to stream or download audio and video then we were primed to call bull on it immediately. We had been doing streaming since windows media was called "netshow" and we were unconvinced that Acacia Technologies had clue one about what streaming even was. Like a bunch of people that got their letter at the time it seemed more like a shake down and a con somewhere along the same lines as the bank in Nigeria transfer deal.

We put together a defense group when we realized that Acacia already held a reputation of being patent pirates and had been beaten back on their V chip patent.

We learned quickly, and the hard way, that there were plenty of companies that did not share our view and were willing to sign up to acacia's patents claiming that it was the wisest move for the business. Some of the companies that settled also tried to cast aspersions on our efforts by saying that we were being unnecessarily litiginous, rash, etc.

Now those people are still paying fees while we have been coasting along while the mainstream tries to catch up. Several of their claims have essentially been nullified and in my opinion the rest is not going to make us lose any sleep or have to spend much money. Acacia will probably eventually appeal but that is just the way these things go apparently.

Many kudos to my partner Spike that has been the main point person on the case since day one. Now I do admit that the amount of time this has taken up has been an unpleasant issue at times. However, I can also certainly say that this problem has brought us allies that we would never have expected and given us a crystal clear lens into seeing the kind of companies that we like to do business with and that alone is completely invaluable.

Some would also say that our efforts have proved that our industry is not the "low hanging fruit" that Acacia supposed we were and so this protected us all from further attacks by similar entities. I don't really know if that is true or not but it does have a heroic ring to it doesn't it?

In the end, being involved in any law suit is simply not worth it unless you believe it is your only recourse to a solution. If that is the case then you have to be willing to put some cash behind it. When I see a lot of people in the industry claiming that so and so is going to be sued for this or that I laugh because I know most of them have zero clue what the price tag is that goes along with that.

Question #21
Which porn stars have you had sex with? Which ones were your favorite.

When I think about the scenes that I did back in the day I can only say that it was a wildly intoxicating mix of the agony and the ecstasy. I had good time, bad times, and times that were pretty bizarre.

I had the opportunity to do a scene with the still gorgeous big natural breasted legend Christy Canyon who was one of the original Vivid girls and certainly one of the porn stars that I used to seek out for masturbatory relief before I came into the biz. Unfortunately, I became so nervous about being with her that a stalwart stud by the name of Randy Spears had to come in and stunt cock for me. Completely demoralizing. Remember, this was in the days before viagra and the only erection drug out there at the time was something called prolaxyn (sp?) which involved using a hypodermic needle which had to be plunged into your cock.

There was no way I was about to do that. So I just had to crawl away with my cock between my legs and accept the fact that there would be good days and bad days. Either way, another hard at the orifice.

Then there was the time when we rented out our downtown artist loft to Rodney Moore so he could shoot a gang bang. This just happened to be the day when the Rodney King verdict was coming out and since we were all too busy to pay attention we didn't know that the city was on fire until we were rapping up. (if you want a more richly detailed account of this one check out "gang banging" )

One of my favorite was when my wife, two other starlets du jour, and myself shot a scene together - what can I say? It is good to be the king sometimes...

One scene I performed with a starlet who imo helped inspire future generations of self made sluts who loved the biz for being what it is and not what they did while wishing to be doing something else was Jeanna Fine. We shot a scene in a warehouse that wound up being nominated for "Best sex scene" I think primarily for the fact that I performed the levitating anal move known as "the flying anal". Someone posted a picture here trying to make it seem like Jeanna was bored but that was anything but the case. That cig was the "cherry on top" type smoke that is meant to accompany a good orgasm. This scene always made me happy because I was complimented by women on it... and we all know that usually women think guys in porn are a turn off so I knew I had to be doing something right.

My era in front of the camera was when mostly dorky mooks (like myself) were the only ones willing to get in front of the camera because we were just to damn happy to finally be getting laid. Once viagra and cialis, etc. came along then all the "pretty boys" could finally perform without the typical self consciousness that would distract them from their duties in the ol' days.

Question #22
Have you ever had sex at the Playboy Mansion while monkeys were flinging poo at you?

When "Orgazmo" finally premiered in the US to celebrate we had a party at the Playboy Mansion. Since the guys in Metallica were fans of South Park they agreed to appear as the live entertainment. Tons of Playboy models were running around in skimpy little outfits or bathing suits

I was having the time of my life hobnobbing and generally laughing at the strange fortunes of my existence that would land me there but I knew the day would not be complete unless I could manage to have sex in the grotto.

So I started hitting up every woman I knew from the production to see if one would take me up on the opportunity. Every one of my friends that had a date was already doing the deed which I think in fucking accomplishments ranks a few miles higher than joining the mile high club. But no luck. I would get polite "no thanks" and the occasional "are you fucking kidding" but nada, zero, zilch.

Finally, I was lamenting my fate to Dave the photographer who actually was part of the basis for Dave the photographer that Matt Stone played in the movie.

"I have hit up every girl here and no one will have sex with me in the grotto." I complained.

"That's too bad dude." Dave consoled.

A busty redhead in a sexy yet professional blouse and skirt talking to a girlfriend overheard us. She looked me up and down before she interrupted, "I will do it", she said.

I just about fell over in a state of pent up horniness mixed with absolute shock.

"But I don't want to go in there." She looked over at the grotto and had the kind of scowl on her face that seemed like she figured every single little microbe from the swinging sixties, through the disco era, and beyond was going to march out of the pool and consume her in a blob of disease.

"How about over there?" I pointed to the trail over by where the monkeys are kept.

This made her smile. "Sure, much better."

We walked over and as soon as we figured that we were hidden enough by the foliage we jumped on each other like a couple of frisky teenagers trying to practice our moves. She was tonguing my tonsils. I was rubbing her big tits through her silky blouse.

Unfortunately, the monkeys were having none of it. They started raising a ruckus. We broke the embrace long enough to look at them like "what the fuck?" but that was what put them over the edge.

That is when the poo came flying.

We beat a hasty retreat farther down the path and resumed our lustfest. We had a blast. I almost even missed the actual premiere and it turned out that she was one of the distribution execs that was marketing the movie. I fingered her while she drove us over in her plush beemer to the theatre.

Even with the monkey poop incident I still considered it one of the most perfect days that I ever had the pleasure of being alive for.

Question #23
How many titles does Homegrown have in it's collection?

Hard to keep count. I usually just go with the line that Newsweek magazine said of Homegrown: "Homegrown Video is the longest running series in the history of porn".

When you consider that the series goes all the way back to 1982, that we include 3 to 6 unique scenes on every title, that we carry another dozen plus series with 4 to 8 scenes per title some of which go back years and years then there is only one way to describe it...

We sit on pretty much a Mount Everest of content. Now some would say - "yeah, but who wants to see a bunch of housewives just out of curlers with hairy pussies?" and, sure, those folks are entitled to their opinion. But ask someone that actually knows how well stuff like hairy pussies sells regardless of one's personal proclivities and he or she will tell you that we are sitting atop a gold mine that is on top of a diamond mine surrounded by pure platinum.

We must have been doing something right in spite of all our blunders.

Question #24
What is "Mr. Fun's Mondo Adventure? Is there any relationship to the "Cat in the Hat?"

Now, since I already kind of covered this in an earlier post I will take a detour here to tell a different production story.

I have a term for the sort of run and gun shooting style where you hit a location, shoot whatever you can get as quickly as possible, then get the fuck out before anyone (neighbor, business owner, johnny law) has a problem with it - "Guerilla Porn".

One fine spring day when it was just getting warm enough to shoot in Los Angeles a producer called and said we would be shooting on the beach. Now anyone who is from Los Angeles knows that essentially the entire coastline is public property and in a city the size of LA there is really no such thing as private beach... but a paycheck is a paycheck when you get the call.

So I went with a starlets, studs/dick props, crew, and producer jim powers to the beach. Within minutes the fact became pretty apparent that we would not be able to shoot there due to too many civilians who naturally had emerged from under whatever bit of concrete to enjoy the sun and sand. We packed into the cars and headed a bit farther north hoping to find a better location.

The spot we ended up at was close to Zuma and it had a small hike down to the water from the parking lot. The bunch of us headed down there and began to discuss what and who we would be doing that day. I knew my day was going to be crappy when the girl due to screw me told everyone and anyone standing there that she didn't like working with any guys except the big lumberjack who went by the name "Wolf" who was assigned to work with one of the other models.

Oh well. At least I was still going to get paid.

As the shoot began though I started to get super nervous about more folks showing up at the beach. In fact, some of them even seemed to be taking a vantage point on the hill where they would have a clear view of the show going on below. I am the type of person who is still very instinctually aware of my fight or flight reflex so to deal with that i moved a comfortable distance away from where the shoot was happening when I felt no one was listening to my advice that we should get out asap.

That is when I noticed that at the top of the hill there were some new members of the audience, the uniformed kind.

I was far enough away from the shoot, but not close enough to my car which just happened to be in the lot which now looked like a little hornet's nest of cops. I decided to just go for it and marched up the hill to the lot. When I got to the top sure enough even more cops were showing up. They were buzzing around asking each other who brought the binaculars.

I offered some assistance.

"I think I might have a pair in my trunk."

They looked at me suspiciously.

"You aren't one of those porn stars are you?" One of them grilled me.

"Hahaha, do I look like one of those to you?" They laughed. Being a plain old mook has never served me so well as it did that day.

"Do you guys mind moving your cars so I can get out?" I asked.

When I hit the road there was no point looking back. I might have missed the payday but the day had certainly taken a turn for the better and with a blue sky overhead anyone would have to say that taking the day off was the best option anyway.

Everyone else was busted except a photographer assistant that wisely made a swim for it and got away. Most had to pay a fine but a few had warrants and spent their day in the can.

I love LA!

Question #25
How well does Homegrown convert?

First of all, if I told you how our overall numbers look no one would believe me and everyone would accuse me of affiliaterepitis so I am just not going to even go there. I am happy to provide some clues though so people can figure it out for themselves or giving up that just form their own conclusions.

* Talk to anyone who worked at CE when we were still with them and ask about our conversion and retention with a variety of traffic sources

* Think about what kind of brand loyalty a company with 25 years of fans must have

* Imagine a site where the owners and the employees interact with the customers on a level more similar to a mom and pop amateur site

* we ask people to compare our overall hits ratios to other sites total uniques ratios

Question #26
Why is there a saying "It isn't a Player's Ball until Farrel gets naked?"

This goes way back and I believe the phrase was coined by J$tyles.

Seems like for a bunch of years usually at the after party I would find myself entangled in some sort encounter of an essentially xxx nature - my opinion being that we are in industry that celebrates sexuality but tends to be sort of asexual at many of its functions and gatherings. I was inspired to be in this industry like the Hefner's, Gucciones, and Flynts of the world, the people I feel practiced what they preached.

That takes us back to what we like to call a "Homegrown Moment" and this term was derived from when we would do shoots and sometimes action would spill over to behind the camera. This was never coerced in any way mind you - we have very strict rules about that. Basically, we never ask to go where we are not invited.

Now if you take the Player's Ball which certainly gets the sex appeal of the webmaster shows up like a double dose of viagra and throw in a bunch of really cool down to earth horny as fuck Homegrown girls to shake booty for a while then you quite prone to achieving a Homegrown Moment in the midst of the Player's Ball.

I guess on the amateur side of the porn universe folks are way more comfortable with getting naked and maybe having some fun and things like the Player's Ball and its after parties are just one more excuse to take it that direction...

Question #27
Your content library covers a lot of niches- A LOT of them! How many niches do you think there really is?

This comes off as sort of a trick question because one could easily say there is no limit to niche. If you can imagine a fan for midget tranny foot fetish then fast as you can say "ron jeremy" one exists. At Homegrown we have narrowed our focus to about thirty solid ones that are not too obscure to obtain content for.

We have a lot of success with things that a lot of people don't realize are pure gold. Every time I see someone here, there, or anywhere complaining that a model has too hairy a bush I just want to laugh since I feel like that is saying "I just don't want to make too much money".

Question #28
Did Homegrown really start of a small mom and pop video store in San Diego?

Homegrown Video started in a guy named Greg Swaim's video store in San Diego. He started selling his swinger tapes along with the other adult stuff in the back of the shop in Del Mar and things just sort of took off.

When we bought the company though it was on a dusty little street that literally had tumbleweeds rolling down it in a city way east of San Diego called Lakeside. The place always troubled me because I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the heck the lake was. A big rodeo happens there and I honestly thought that every day at High Noon there would be a showdown in the streets outside. The actual office looked like a ghost town because it was located mostly in the back of a retail storefront property. There was absolutely no retail in the actual storefront, only lots of dust and sort of decrepit furniture strewn about which seemed more likely to be the decorating efforts of hobos who salvaged the box cars on the retired E train.

We moved out of there quicker than you could say "draw you varmit".

Then we moved to an office/warehouse style space with a big contracting company across from us. Apparently the window office across from us was the most coveted space to work in and was rewarded as a perk of distinction.

Question #29
You've been doing porn a long, long time….. Watching some of your older work you can see rather hairy pussys. What do you think about the recent changes with shaved snatches?

I don't really pay much attention to what other people are doing since I am too busy thinking about what my customers actually want and not what I personally like or what my competition thinks people want.

One thing I can say though is that porn has always been about the forbidden fruit, the taboo, the secret desire unfulfilled except in the fantasy world of a video dramatization. This is why blowjobs were so big, then deepthroats, then anal sex, gang bangs, etc.

Note to self: Start buying mirken stocks...

Question #30
Not only did you star in "Mr. Fun's Mondo Adventure", but in the movie you also shaved a woman clean. Were you the one responsible for this trend?

( Did not answer the question.)

Question #31
Who is Gary Aptaker?

Gary Aptaker was the trustee of the court that ran the company while it was in the bankruptcy. In what turns out to be a complete breach of his fiduciary responsibilities to the court he offered to come work for us if we bought the company and although he didn't tell us what the competing offers were exactly he did grimace or smile when we told him what we were thinking of putting in for the sealed bids.

This should have been the first friggin' clue that he was no good but back then we figured he had valuable experience and would help us make the transition from professional deadheads to actually running a corporation.

He convinced us that we had to get him a vehicle. We said no to the caddy but agreed to a Jimmy (snickers allowed) because we had to make frequent trips to the PO box for orders.

He used to drive us crazy because whenever we would make a suggestion then he would ridicule us in one way or another as being inexperienced boobs. I remember he used to piss my brother off by saying "what do you want a fuzzy pink attaboy?"

When we finally had the good business sense to fire the bastard he took us to small claims court... and actually won... but on our appeal he started opening his mouth and actually had to be informed by the judge that he was in the process of incriminating himself.

I don't know what he does now and I always wondered what I would do if I ran into him sometime in San Diego. Probably laugh. Like I was on my way to the bank...

Question #32
What is the difference between Gonzo, amateur, pro-am, and reality porn?

These are my definitions forged in the hell fires of porn's eternal damnation and smithed by years of hammering out title after title and tempured by experience. You don't have to agree with them:

Gonzo - For all you lit majors out there I equate this with a first person omnicient narrative device. In essence, the person behind the camera is also part of the action. I believe the term was first coined to describe the type of porn inspired by the pioneers of that style, Buttman John Stagliano, Max Hardcore, Seymour Butts, and then copied by many others.

Amateur - Amateur is sort of oxymoronic in so far as if a person is getting paid then how can you call it amateur but I see true amateur as being homemade videos by people that are doing it for a one or a few more times kick but certainly not looking to make porn their day job. The best amateurs are shot by couples that simply set up a camera and let it roll. The Pam and Tommy tape i consider to be the most classic true amateur video of all time. Authentic amateur should have that "home movie" sort of uninhibited casualness in which having fun takes a way bigger priority over whether or not the camera/body/light/sound etc is "just right".

Pro-Am: This fills that big grey void between pro, am, gonzo, and reality. Essentially, pro-am features higher production values than amateur, is generally shot by professional full time porn producers, features models who want to be porn stars, and tries to appear "amateur" but emphasizes good lighting, sound, make-up etc.

Reality Porn - I consider Reality style content to be an echo of the gool ol' raunchy days of what used to be called "loops" back in the 8mm days of porn production. In the eighties and nineties, this style of stuff was also called "vignettes". The premise is to create a simple fantasy situation with a modest amount of narrative to introduce the sex. However, "reality porn" draws a certain degree of inspiration from the gonzo style stuff by employing a "verite" shooting form, where the camera shoots in a documentary style and most of the dialog is unscripted improvisation to make it seem like the action is a real life situation.

If anyone disagrees then please let me know now...

Question #33
Who is John Stagliano and have you ever shot with him?

 John Stagliano is more popularly known as "Buttman" and owner of the Evil Angel empire. I have only huge respect for him and what he has accomplished in the industry but also for how humble and down to earth he has remained as a person. He was one of the first people out there to actually let producers collect royalties on their work. I guess no quick biography would be complete about him without also mentioning that he is a mensa member and that he produced a very sexy and successful show in Vegas based on his fetishistic "Fashionistas" movie.

I once had the privilege of working with John when he came down to shoot me and our starlet named Sheena for a video called "Buttman's Inferno". The scene was actually a foursome with John's girlfriend at the time Kristy and another dude. The scene ended up bringing home the award for "Best Group Sex Scene" but the victory was bittersweet for John since Kristy had recently died in a car crash. I of course don't really brag about it all that much because it is like taking credit for being the second leg in a relay race. Sure, I helped but I can't take too much credit...

While I was driving around with John he bestowed upon me one of the greatest lessons I ever learned in this biz.

We were driving along and I noticed that he had the same new over-priced but entirely sweet sony 3 chip prosumer camera that we had just recently purchased.

"I just got myself one of those. How do you like that sony?"

He looked at it and shrugged.

"It's ok I guess but I made my first million with my Canon L1."

Moral to the story: What you shoot with is never as important as what ends up on the tape.