The Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) is held every January in Las Vegas. It is an opportunity for adult film and novelty makers to get together and share their wares with various distributors and everyone who wants to sell it, from mom and pop porn shops to the major players like Babeland. There is one giant room devoted to film and digital media. All of the major porn studios are represented with blaring and moaning video screens, and some booths proudly display graphic video games and even interactive toys that work with media. A second room houses any and all manner of sex toys. Various vendors and distributors have got you covered from butt plugs to nipple clamps. While there are a few industry-only days, the joint really starts jumping when fans are admitted to gawk and collect autographs from scantily-clad porn stars (and anyone else they might suspect of being a pornstar; someone requested a photo with my ass last year).
This year was the third year that I attended AEE. I still remember the first year I went. I was so excited. Wide-eyed and dumbstruck I stared at countless graphic sexual images. I think I saw more at that show than I had seen my whole life up until that point. I left the show proudly wearing my I *heart* Vagina pin and glowing with a new sense of ownership about my sexuality. Truth be told, I may not have ever started this blog had I not discovered AEE.
Last year I went for the second time, and I actually got up the nerve to talk to people. Still wide-eyed, I earnestly asked atendees questions about how they got into the industry and what their mothers thought about it and whether banks would give them loans to fund their less-than-vanilla projects and products. Actually talking to people made the show even more fascinating. I left not only with a new perspective but an armload of exciting new products that I went home to "test" and "review."
This year I eagerly awaited my trip to Vegas and AEE. My friends, accustomed the glee and toys I had come to share upon my return from previous shows, were just as excited about my visit. Sadly, I left Las Vegas on Sunday after the show feeling a little deflated. Don't get me wrong, there are some fabulous people involved with AEE, and I fully enjoyed spending time with Team OhMiBod and sex educator, Jamye Waxman, among others, but when it comes to the show itself, I suppose novelties can only be novel for so long. When you've smirked with appreciation for Not the Bradys XXX, how exciting is This Ain't the Munsters XXX? It is basically the same thing repackaged. And how many variations of the famed Rabbit Habbit does the world need?
Let me clarify -- I am all about capitalism, and I am a huge fan of innovation. I just found myself bored with seeing the same products and movies repackaged and reworked. There were a few novel things, and I will take the time to share some reviews over the next few days, but overall, there was not much novel about the novelties and not much new about the new releases. While I certainly enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones, I left the show feeling like I'd lost my mojo. This feeling is best described by the image above: beautiful, half-naked women squeezed the life out of my formerly firm porn show erection. Ah well, I suppose there are worse ways to lose a boner.
*Remember that song from the early nineties, "Detachable Penis"?
