All photos courtesy of Cachapero.
There’s no party like a porn party, especially when the guest list is industry-only, and the venue is steps away from well-trod stars that line Hollywood Boulevard. Cinco de Mayo, a busy bar night in Tinsel Town; the sun was setting as Ubers pulled up and emptied passengers at the front door of Boardner’s, a bar established in 1942 with a storied Hollywood history.
Scantily clad adult performers accompanied by their dates – or agents – were boisterous, walking a short step-and-repeat leading into the club, stopping to pose and posture for industry paparazzi. Several were award nominees for the night’s main event, the XRCO Awards, featuring the usual “best of the year” awards as well as XRCO's unique and time-honored awards including: Awesome Analist, Superslut, and Unsung Siren and Stud, and the Charlotte Stokely Girl/Girl Performer of the Year (presented by Charlotte Stokely), among others.
In the world of adult entertainment, the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) Awards are comparable to the Critic’s Choice Awards in mainstream entertainment. This year marked the 40th anniversary of the event or, as longtime show organizer Dirty Bob noted, “the XRCO Awards XXXX.”
“As the second-longest running adult awards show, second only, by just a couple of years, to AVN, and as the world's largest private adult-only industry party, the XRCO has grown and evolved to become one of the most anticipated evenings of the year,” Bob told Kinkly.
“I can't tell you how many people came up to us, thankful that we got the ball rolling again with an in-person show; a few actually had tears in their eyes, telling us how much the industry needed and missed it,” he added. “This really enforced how much the people in the adult business need the XRCO: It is an unpolitical, truthful yearly event that combines an industry-only (no public!) awards show/party/FUN where people involved at any level in the business can get together, not having to worry about looking or acting as the public or fans expect them to act; they can be themselves.”
The list of previous winners is long and littered with adult stars who are famous to fans of the genre. The now-historic adult performer Stormy Daniels won Mainstream Adult Media Favorite in 2006 and 2008. She also was nominated this year for Best Actress and Best Director but was absent as she awaited her May 7 court appearance in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
Jenna Jameson took Best New Starlet in 1995 and quickly ascended to mainstream crossover fame in radio legend Howard Stern’s 1997 biopic “Private Parts.” Records of winners prior to 1993 are sketchy, but performers of legendary status are all archived in the lists of XRCO winners.
There's also a Hall of Fame that requires inductees to be veterans with 20 years or more in the industry. One of this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, Tommy Gunn, 57, won Best New Stud in 2005 and Male Performer of the Year in 2007.
About his 20-year career, he said, “It’s an honor and I’m grateful to have had such a great run and be here tonight. It’s kind of surreal. I can’t complain a bit… You know, I didn’t think I would last X-amount of years as a kid, because I was the kind of kid that would jump off the second-story roof into the pool – but I survived.”
This year’s New Stud award went to Dan Damage, who attended the party with his girlfriend Blake Blossom. She also was nommed this year for Female Performer of the Year and Superslut. Last year, Blossom won an XRCO for Personal Favorite, as well as the Vicki Chase Orgasmic Oralist Award, and New Starlet in 2022. Since then, she also has won nine AVN awards. Their pairing hints at the beginning of a new porn power couple.
“We try to be likable, kind, no judging,” Blossom described. “So, for us, it’s very easy [to work as performers]… He’s actually newly contracted to Vixen.”
[Side note: Vixen is the studio recently rumored to be working with rapper Ye on his mysterious ‘porn project,' which sources suggest may now be defunct.]
“We have similar interests,” Damage added.
Trans performer Ariel Demure, who bagged 2023 Top Trans Performer on content platform AEBN and was awarded Fan’s Choice at this year’s Trans Erotica Awards, said, “I love the XRCO because it’s a great, impromptu get together of up-and-comers and veterans of the industry, just confabulating on how much we love it! Confabulating is a word,” Demure laughed as friend and trans performer E.Streetcar protested it was not.
Turns out “confabulate” is a word defined by Miriam-Webster as meaning “to talk informally” or “to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication.”
As in every area of entertainment media, adult entertainment has been transformed by technology, with many small and mid-level producers succumbing to competition, first from online content pirates and then from streaming platforms that are the dominant producers today.
Subscription sites like OnlyFans and LoyalFans have taken a big bite of the adult content pie, allowing popular performers to cut out the studio middlemen, gain a following on social media, and launch a profitable career without exposure in a “movie.” Nowadays, it’s much more common to shoot scenes for content to fill subscription sites, as well as PornHub and a dozen other free or paid clip sites.
Still, the allure of being a “porn star” casts a seductive spell on new performers who want the experience of bringing their talents to professional production for a big company or well-known director. Appearing in scenes for the most prominent websites and being cast in a studio-produced feature film can significantly boost a performer’s branding, follower count, employment opportunities, and revenue streams.
For instance, perennial fan favorite Angela White boasts 3 million followers on her most current X/Twitter account and is a contract performer for streaming platform Brazzers, while also shooting scenes for old-school studios like Evil Angel, Jules Jordan, and Wicked Pictures. She recently shot content with Australian OnlyFans adult sensation, the Girthmaster – and took home this year’s XRCO Personal Favorite Award to add to 11 other XRCOs, including Best Actress (2020), three Female Performer of the Year awards (2018-2020), Awesome Analist (2021), Orgasmic Oralist (2022), and Superslut (2020). White's impressive career demonstrates the power of the combination of social media and fansite superstardom and a studio career.
New starlet Selena Ivy, who can be found on OnlyFans at /KiskCake, attended her first XRCO with veteran director Will Ryder, a multi-award-winning director known mainly for his parody films like 2007’s “Not The Bradys XXX” and “Not The Cosbys XXX” in 2009. This year, he was nominated for his latest feature, titled “Love, Sex & Robots," produced for Adam & Eve Pictures.
“I wrote a science fiction drama, but I got nommed for Best Comedy,” Ryder shrugged – and later took home the trophy.
Unlike White, Ivy broke into the industry through her content on OnlyFans and is just starting to work with larger production companies.
“I like meeting people, I like having sex, I like coming to these events. I never thought I’d be here,” she said. “I’m like a puppy and just eager to meet people… I want to be in as many movies as people will have me. I really like working on feature films because I feel there’s a lot more creativity that goes into it. I like that aspect of it and the acting,” Ivy said. “I kind of wish I’d held off on doing OnlyFans, until after porn, especially since I didn’t have a platform beforehand.”
Though the landscape of porn is changing, one thing will never change – the stellar performances of the superstar men, women, and thems that make up the industry.
The full list of winners at the 2024 XRCO Awards includes:
Additionally, eight veteran superstars joined the XRCO Hall of Fame:
