How I got into porn. When it was illegal
So, I get asked this a lot.
Mid 1980’s, I’m mid 20’s and have an escort friend. Just friends. Sometimes I’d drive her if her driver was off.
One day “Paul, can I ask you a weird question?”
“Sure”
“I’ve got this regular, he asked if he can watch me fuck another guy. Would you….there’s good money in it”.
Well a gentleman always says yes, and they money was about 250. (This was before webcams, before the Internet, before mobiles. People had to pay properly for their kinks).
It was fun. We did it a few times for her clients.
1991 – mobile phone 🙂 I ran some contact ads, face out, phone number on, and met a lot of couples. Just fun. Then one guy asked “can I film you with my wife?”.
I thought nothing of it and said yes.
But fucking in front of the camera WOOHOO!
So, the next few years were spent trying to find a way into the porn industry. Wasn’t easy because while being in porn was only a social and career death, actually being a maker meant you were breaking laws (even if arcane ones) and selling it was slam dunk you’re done. So, the industry people weren’t exactly open to new guys. (In fact there were way more people in the British Olympic team than there were in the entire porn industry back then).
In 1998 IIRC a producer finally told me “find a new girl, we’ll shoot you together”. So I put the word out and some time later friends of friends were chatting about their mad friend who wanted to do porn, and one of them said “I know a girl wants to”, and they put us in touch.
We met in a pub and she convinced me she was real. I was a tough audience – I knew if I called the producer and then let him down, I’d never get another chance.
The scene went well. After a cup of tea so did the second 🙂 And I became his house stud and have been performing ever since :-)*
So, if you think it’s hard now, think about what it was like back then.
*He also then told me that the “find a new girl” was the standard brush off. No new wannabe guy EVER turned up with a new girl, (new girls were usually friends of existing girls). But that since I did, the least he could do was shoot 🙂
FWIW the “when did porn become legal in the UK” question is a bit messy, because making and keeping at home “vanilla” porn was never illegal, but, the year 2000 is when it became to all intents and practical business purposes, legal.