EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: CHI CHI LARUE CELEBRATES 20 YEARS IN JIZZ BIZ!

This month, internationally renowned porn directrix Chi Chi LaRue celebrates 20 years in the adult entertainment business. Anyone who pays attention to porn knows that LaRue has been responsible for "mainstreaming" the industry more than any other director in the industry. Having given a face to the people behind the cameras, "she" rose to prominence throughout the '90s and eventually emerged as an industry powerhouse when "she" became one of the co-owners of Channel 1 Releasing. Since then, LaRue has continued "her" reign, influencing nearly every other company in one way or another and ensuring that the porn industry is one of glitz and glamour.

In this exclusive and revealing interview with LaRue, conducted by Unzipped Associate Editor Ken Knox at the Channel 1 offices, the man behind the drag persona sits down with UnzippedBlog.net to tell us about his early days in the business, the celebrities and porn stars he came to know over the years, and dishes about some juicy industry tidbits. So settle in for a long chat, and prepare to be entertained!

So how does it feel to be celebrating 20 years in the business?
It’s great. It’s wild that I’ve been around for 20 years. I think that owning my own company now and being where I am is a nice way to be at the top of the 20 years that I’ve been in this business.

Did you ever think you’d be around this long?
Oh, God. You know, I often said to myself, “God, if the porn business goes away, what am I going to have? What am I going to do?” You know? I didn’t go to school for anything. I went to school and screwed around. I did homecoming shows. I wanted to be a performer. I have my drag; I guess I could host karaoke at a local gay bar or something for the rest of my life. I guess maybe I was hoping that I’d be in it this long.

When you first got into adult, did you have a vision or a goal?
No. I was working at an adult bookstore in Minnesota right before I moved here. It was in the Traci Lords heyday. After I moved out to L.A., I picked up a copy of Edge magazine, and there was an ad for a salesman at Catalina. And I took a bus from Hollywood—Wilcox and Romaine—to Tajunga and Sherman Way in the Valley. I went in and met Chris Mann, who now owns Video Team. We talked about movies, and I actually brought up his movie, Bisexual Fantasies, and I think that he liked that I knew his movie, and the fact that I knew the product so well. He hired me on the spot. And that was in 1987, and I started working that next day. And I remember getting lost on my first day, and being late to work. And I thought, “That’s it. I’m losing this job before I even have it.” And I remember the day I met William Higgins walking down the hallway—didn’t really talk to me, kind of just looked at me, like, “Who the hell are you?” And I had a desk, and I sat there and called stores and tried to hawk porn.

Why did you move to L.A.?
I was prodded and pushed into leaving Minnesota by my friend Kevin, who was the other half of the Weather Gals, the drag act I was doing in Minnesota. We moved, and our friend Scott was already here, and he secured as an apartment at the building he was in. When we got there, we had nothing. No furniture, no beds. I used to lay a towel down with a pillow....

....And finally one day we got a chair from Kevin’s sister, and we would run up the stairs and fight to get in that chair first and watch this little black and white TV we had. But I remember how exciting it was to bring home these brochures and look at all these people having sex, like Leo Ford and Kevin Williams and Jeff Stryker and Ray Stockwell, all these hot men. I was a porn consumer before I started working in the business. I remember the day Jeff Stryker came into the building, and it was like Elvis was coming in the building. I’ve got so many stories. I eventually got sick of selling it and I wanted to be in the middle of it, so I started art directing the photo shoots. I would peek in the editing room all the time. I met Chuck Holmes there, because Catalina was distributing Falcon product at the time, and Chuck Holmes would come there on a regular basis. John Travis would come there. I met Tom DiSimone, who directed Reform School Girls. This was, like, Hollywood, honey! He directed Angel. It was wild! These people were coming into this place where I was working, and one day Leo Ford brought Divine.

How did you go from salesperson to art director?
I would stick my head in the editing bay, and I would always go back to the art department and look at the box covers. I started dabbling in picking pictures for the box covers. I always wanted the box covers to be better than they were. I knew that I had a better eye and could pick better box covers. And when Hot Rods 2 came out, there was a picture of Kevin Williams laying over a red car. He was wearing a black shirt. He had no pants on. His ass was in the air. And I remember saying to them, “Let’s do an ad and let’s just put ‘Greased Up’ and a coupon for Hot Rods 2.” Well, the phones were ringing off the hook when that ad came out. I guess they saw the potential that I had in creating a buzz. I was working at Micky’s as the host. I was there. William Higgins used to come in and stand there and play this weird video game where the arm would come down and grab the stuffed animals, and he would spend lots of money all night long and then just give the toys away after he won them all. And he would tell me to go talk to different boys to see if they wanted to do movies. And in would walk Rick Donovan and Cole Carpenter. I was in Heaven.

So from the art directing you got into directing?
Well, one day we all went out to lunch. And there was an art director there named Scott Masters. And he actually was one of the people that didn’t want me to direct. He put road blocks in front of me all the time. He actually told me that I would have to lose 100 pounds before I could ever direct a movie. And I didn’t understand that because the guy was big himself. And we were all at lunch one day, and it was William Higgins and Chris Mann and John Travis and people like that. They were these lunches where they talked about upcoming movies and strategies and box covers and stuff, and they started inviting me. And I went. I remember saying in the middle of all this, “I really would like to direct.” And I got shot a dirty look by Scott Masters, and William Higgins said to me, “Really?” And he let me go up to San Francisco with John Travis and direct a segment of Hard Men. I sat and I worked on it. I worked on the lighting, I worked on the set, I worked on exactly what it was going to be. And after that, William Higgins kind of faded away from the scene, and so the place was being run by Scott Masters. I knew I was never going to get the chance to direct anything else, so I quit. And I started working at In Hand Video, and they put me in charge of production. I didn’t know how to direct. I really didn’t. John Travis really helped me through that Hard Men thing. So when I got on my own, I had no training. I had just discovered Alex Stone. I had my first discovery. I brought him in, did the box cover, it was gorgeous. Did this movie about a guy reading dirty stories in a magazine, Flexxx. It was Alex Stone in a bed reading these stories. I think I made one of those movies last month! (Laughs.)

You’ve branched out in recent years, doing more than just porn. Is that to help curtail burnout?
Yeah. I’m out on the road, I’m DJing, I’m doing gigs. The DJing was a way for me to not be in the middle of the club being talked to by everybody and getting myself in trouble. DJing let me be in control of the room. I’m a huge music freak – I love everything from country to jazz so it’s like a natural thing for me to be a DJ. I’m a control freak – I want to control the room and hear what I want to hear. Nowadays at circuit parties when you hear that music I just want to claw my face off! So I get in there and play the Spice Girls and Britney Spears and I’m happy.

What has been the most challenging aspect of working in this business?
I consider myself a pretty loyal person. Friends are fleeting in this business. You meet somebody and you become close to them and then suddenly they’re gone. That’s life. As in anything, the jealousy in this industry, and people’s jealousy of me, and my own jealousy – become very jealous also of things, and I don’t think that’d very healthy. And sometimes jealousy breeds contempt. And success breeds contempt, and sometimes its hard to…I’m very Pollyanna – I want everyone to be friends! The reason why there is gay porn awards is because of myself, Mickey Skee, and Fabian Grey –I remember the night I was laying in my bedroom with Zak Spears in Los Angeles, and I’m thinking “We go to these award shows in Las Vegas, but when the gay awards people get up and get drinks and really don’t want to hear about the gay awards”. We work really hard, and I think that we should have our own show. Why shouldn’t there be a gay award show. So I actually called Jerry Douglas and asked him what he thought. And he loved the idea. And the Gay Video Guide awards were born, and we had them at Arena. Joey Stefano danced, I was the host, Andy Bell from Erasure came and presented the last award with Ryan Idol and I thought “God, this is so fabulous!” It’s weird now ‘cause Andy and I are such good friends now and talk about that all the time and I remember he walked up on stage and said, “If I wasn’t a pop star, I would have been a porn star.” And I believe that. He loves it!

What do you consider your greatest contribution to this industry to be? What have you brought to the table that others haven’t?
I think my greatest accomplishment for me would be finally owning my own company. The fact that somebody like [All Worlds Video owner] Rick Ford would think of me to bring his company to, and for me to get all those movies to belong to me and my partners. Now I’m doing it for myself. I am so diverse with my tastes in men. There’s something for everyone here at CH1. Live and Raw has been going for a very long time. We bring good porn for everybody. I’m continuing to do what I’ve always done. If you’re real and truthful, it will just always work. Ask any of the boys who work for us! I know that all the other people take care of their models too. But working for Falcon, I made some of the best movies I’ve ever made. They stand alone – Heaven To Hell, After Shock, Through the Woods, all the way back to Soaked. Look, now everyone’s making water movies! I love making bisexual movies; I plan on making a bisexual movie this year for All Worlds. I can’t really say yet, but we’re getting ready to make another addition to our company. It’s going to be good.

Who do you think your biggest “finds” have been?
Joey Stefano is top of the list. Brian Yager, Johnny Hazard, Hal Rockland, Alex Stone because he was my first, Zak Spears, all the boys that I have now: Tommy Blade, Blake Riley, and Josh Vaughn. Matt Summers. Jordan Young. Ian Fisher. There’s been so many. Gus Mattox is another. So hot.

How do you feel that porn influences gay men? Do you think it does?
Some gay men learn how to have sex from gay porn. Me for one! You ever sleep with anybody and you get home and you know they’ve watched a lot of porn? They start talking like Jeff Stryker – “Yeah, you like that?” et cetera. I would like to think I influence people with my porn by making them use condoms and not eating cum. I think that’s so irresponsible for directors to do that in their movies and then try to be safe-sex advocates.

Do you consider yourself to be an optimist?
I want everyone to be happy; I want everyone to like me. I don’t like to see or read bad things about myself. Me, Paris Hilton, and Madonna—we don’t like to read bad things about ourselves! Sure, it’s fun to be nasty, but jealousy breeds contempt!

People probably think that you live a very glamorous lifestyle, but what would surprise them to know about you? About what you like to do when you’re not working?
I like to go to drag shows and tip all the performers. I like to be in with the people, A lot of time I go to clubs and they try to put me in a corner. Sometimes that fun and glamorous at a Hollywood party, but at some gay club? I want to be with the people! I like to watch TV- Judge Judy, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge. I love to take trips and go other places. I love San Francisco and San Diego. I just like to –you know- hang out and be around people. I like to go to breakfast every morning at the Silver Spoon in West Hollywood. I like to do just basic things.

If you were going to be on one reality TV show, what would it be, and why?
I really wanted to be on Celebrity Fit Club, but they didn’t want me because of the porn aspect. Even though they have Ron Jeremy on every single one of those shows. I think it’d be great to have me on The Surreal Life. That’d be great, and the dichotomy that I would bring to it. I’d love to be on an episode of Charm School – I love Mo ‘Nique and I love those girls—they’re so trashy and fabulous. I’d love to go on a date with New York. She’s fierce. I met her in the airport one day; she was so nice! I love reality TV. I love The Ex-Wives Club. I cry. [Laughs.]

After 20 years in the business, what is it that gets you out of bed in the morning?
I wake up every morning very early. Lots of time to go to the gym; this little 4-foot tall Korean gorgeous girl—I work out with her. Shoots get me up in the morning. The Silver Spoon egg white omelets get me up in the morning. I love to sleep, but my body wants to get up!

After building your own empire and conquering another (All Worlds), what’s the Next Big Thing for Chi Chi? What is it that you really want to do next?
I’d like to maybe own a home in Minnesota. On a lake or something. I love to fish and the wilderness and being out in that. I’m accomplishing my dream everyday, and with the help of my staff, it’s happening. A lot of things are happening that the industry is going to shake when they hear it’s happening. Who knows about the future!

If you could be doing one other thing besides porn, what would it be?
Probably an entertainer. A character actor on TV shows. I’d love to be able to record a song. I did one a long time ago which didn’t really go anywhere. I really think that I could be like a promoter—I could work at a record label. I could be Kelly Clarkson’s press agent. Or a press agent for a rock group for a rock star—except I’d want the attention. [Laughs.] Joan Jett is one of my favorite people in the world, and I’ve always said that she didn’t have the right—or enough—press behind her. Her records are so good, but they never got the success they deserve. I always thought I could amp that up a little bit. I’m all about promotions and getting it in people’s faces. That’s what Chi Chi is—in everybody’s faces!

What do you think makes you perfect for this industry?
My mind. I can envision scenes in my head. I’ll never forget one time I was leaving a Falcon Christmas party, and I was driving in a rent-a-car back to the hotel, and I just started thinking of this concept and an entire movie came to my mind. It was all in there, until I got back and could write it down on a piece of paper. And it turned out to be a movie I did for Falcon called Stop, Sentenced, and Released. The whole thing came to me! I had my friend Vince, Mona, and I think I had my friend Chris Green in the car with me, and just this thing came to me! I’m constantly thinking of porn ideas. After I saw Leaving Las Vegas, Lost In Vegas came to me.

You’re into karma, then?
Things happen. I believe if you give good things out there to the world, good things come back to you. A movie I did for All Worlds called Hardcore… I still consider it one of my best movies, [but] it didn’t get really good reviews from critics, and it didn’t win any awards, though it was nominated for some. It had to have the perfect star, and I was wracking my brain and I could not think of who to star in this movie. I needed someone on the lines of Ryan Idol—that kind of persona—and I got off an airplane in Houston to get a connection and basically ran into Adam Hart. And it was like, “Adam! You’d be the perfect star for Hardcore!” So if things are meant to be, and you give good things out there to the world, good things are going to come back to you. And I’ve always believed that. I’m almost 47 years old, and I don’t know how I can change much—I’m an old bitch. There are things about I’d like to change, but I think all in all that I’m a pretty good person. Ask around, and you might get various opinions, but I would hope that most of the people in this industry would say that they think that I am a good person under all the bravado and makeup.

OK, finish this phrase for me: My dirty mind to me is like…
Like a paintbrush to a painter. Because this is my art, and this is how I express is. And my mind helps me to express it and get it onto tape. Like a work of art.