Anthony Stephens / Special to the Sun
Attendees take cellphone photos as a group of adult film stars takes the stage at the Brazzers booth during the AVN Entertainment Expo, Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, at the Resorts World Events Center. AVN is the pornography industry’s largest trade show in the United States.
Friday, Jan. 26, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The collages of sights and scenes present on the floor of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, the pornography industry’s largest trade show in the United States, can be overwhelming.
But among the dozens of adult film stars showing off their assets in various forms of dress, exhibitors peddling unimaginable wares for sexual pleasures and the sea of humanity taking it all in this week inside the Resorts World Events Center, even the seemingly mundane could stand out.
Take the middle aged couple from Columbus, Ohio, both decked out in blue jeans and T-shirts as they roamed through the sprawling exhibit space Wednesday afternoon. His gray T-shirt in all black capital letters proclaimed, “It’s not cheating if my wife watches.” Not to be outdone, his wife sported a black T-shirt with a message in white lettering, “He loves to watch.”
The couple, who identified themselves as Todd (who works in sales) and Amber (who works in skin care) had taken a 2,400-mile detour to Las Vegas on their return trip from vacationing in Cancun.
It was, Todd explained, their second visit to the AVN show. In 2018, just months into their relationship, the two were staying at the Tropicana and they asked a blackjack dealer what sort of entertainment they could find in Las Vegas while they were visiting. The dealer told them the AVN show was at the nearby Hard Rock and began describing what they’d see.
“My only question was, ‘How do we get there?’ ” Todd said.
What is it they like about attending AVN? “The environment. The energy. The hot women. The new toys,” Todd said as Amber nodded in approval.
The new toys were abundant throughout the booths on the exhibit floor. Among them, one was touting its subscription service for a website featuring interactive sessions with models created using artificial intelligence. Personal sex toys, some of which employ technology to allow the user to program and control their rhythm via a cellphone, were on display at booths at nearly every turn.
Other booths peddled supplements, heat-generating devices and magazines, which evidently are making a comeback in the industry. Nestled in between booths for the group Decriminalize Sex Workers and another for OC Models was T-SOA, a certified public accounting firm with offices in Henderson.
Why would an accounting firm set up a booth at AVN? “Why wouldn’t we,” responded Aaron Williamson, a principal with T-SOA.
“From our inception, we wanted to attract all populations and communities that we feel weren’t being served,” he explained.
Williamson said he had been working with people from AVN the past couple of years to get a foothold in the industry. While T-SOA has attracted some of the industry’s talent as clients, the purpose for having its booth at AVN was to attract others involved in the industry including producers, production organizations and others behind the scenes.
Exhibitors notwithstanding, the biggest draw for AVN, though, is the adult film stars in attendance. At booth after booth, the stars are featured. Attendees line up for the chance to meet them, take pictures of them, take selfies with them (for a fee, generally $20, of course) and share stories with them.
Scarlett Alexis, a relative newcomer to the scene appearing at her second AVN, was signing autographs and handing pictures out at the spacious Brazzers booth (Brazzers was described as the Budweiser of the online porn sites by one AVN attendee). The French-born, American-raised star said AVN was the one chance for everyone in the industry to get together and to meet fans, which she enjoyed. At the same time, though, the whirlwind of the four-day event, she said, could be exhausting.
Las Vegas local Alexis Fawx was also at the Brazzers booth. The winner of multiple AVN awards, Fawx also has interests in the Las Vegas craft beer business, where she has collaborated with Astronomy Aleworks founder and brewer Matt Brady, and local coffee, comedy and cannabis businesses.
This year, she said, marks her 13th year in the adult entertainment industry. “I’m here for the fans. I want to meet them,” Fawx said about attending AVN. What does she enjoy the least about the expo? “These shoes that I’m wearing. My feet ache!” she said as she was ending a four-hour signing gig.
As Fawx was leaving to give her feet a break, AVN Hall of Famer Angela White arrived to start the first of three days of signings at the Brazzers booth. Now attending her ninth year of AVN, the actor said she, too, was in Las Vegas for her fans.
“I like to use AVN as an opportunity to give back to them for all they’ve done supporting me,” she said, noting AVN is the only time of the year when everyone in the industry is able to get together in a single setting.
Another AVN Hall of Famer, LT, was touting his upcoming reunion with Cali Sweets, whom he said he hasn’t worked with for a dozen years.
Rather than talking about what he liked about AVN, LT instead bemoaned changes in the industry. Years ago, he said, there were 30 or so companies that would flood the AVN floor promoting the latest titles on CDs. Now, the majority of films are promoted by just a handful of the big corporate streaming services, he said.
But all was not doom-and-gloom for LT. He said he was happy to see the AVN Expo thriving again. “After COVID, I didn’t think this would ever come back,” he said.
This year’s AVN Expo and its festivities, which continue today and Saturday at Resorts World, conclude Saturday night with the annual AVN Awards Show.
