Phone... check. Keys...check. Wallet...check. And just as you’re leaving the house to get into your car… “Damn, I forgot my mask!”
How many times in the past few months have you left your house or gotten out of your car and forgotten your mask? For me personally, it has been a tough adjustment; I’m sure the same goes for those of you reading this. In most states, it is now “mandatory” to wear masks in public places like grocery stores, gas stations and malls. In fact, mask use has even made its way to the sets of adult entertainment. Welcome to 2020, the year of the ominous virus known as COVID-19.
In the past few months, I have seen multiple stars springing up with new podcasts, music, clothing lines and a handful of other artistic and entrepreneurial endeavors.
The adult entertainment industry recently resumed productions after a three-month hiatus due to the virus, and while this shutdown led to hundreds of unemployed people, government assistance was in short supply. Why? Because small business loans were restricted for anyone whose products were “prurient” (aka arousing sexual desire). This led to many of my colleagues either finding themselves unemployed or ineligible for relief and being forced to adapt their personal brands to newfound ways of online monetization.
Now, many adult stars went from spending long hours on a porn set for multiple days a week to creating our own content from the safety of our own homes. I was fortunate to have five years of archived behind-the-scenes footage that I was able to edit and redistribute via OnlyFans to my audience, who wanted fresh content! This has also been an opportunity for me to connect with my fans on a more personal level, which has been rewarding. In fact, some of the top performers in the world are making over $100,000 a month with this new paradigm shift from studio shoots to at-home shoots.
This pandemic has also given us an opportunity to pursue business interests that we might not otherwise have had the opportunity or time to explore if this lockdown never happened. In the past few months, I have seen multiple stars springing up with new podcasts, music, clothing lines and a handful of other artistic and entrepreneurial endeavors. I myself have been able to focus on a direct-to-consumer condom brand that I co-founded a couple years ago called P.S. Condoms. With my newly acquired free time, I have been able to focus more on the everyday aspects of growing and building a business. I’ve learned more the past few months than I have the past couple years; it has been a crash course!
It’s also been refreshing to see people you know just for having sex on camera, to being able to explore and show their many other talents and passions that go unrecognized. With this new shift, performers have been able to transcend from the shadows of “Porn Valley” to the mainstream. You know it’s something big when you have the likes of Cardi B and Beyonce referencing OnlyFans and the cultural phenomenon that it has become.
Mind you, it hasn’t been an easy road back with the implementation of new safety protocols to keep performers and crews safe while on a pandemic-secure porn set. It took months of planning from many levels of government, regulatory bodies in health and safety, testing facilities, production companies, agencies and performers to produce safety guidelines for sets. Before COVID-19, standard protocol was to be tested for a “full panel” STD test every 14 days. Within those 14 days, performers could shoot with one another, while anything outside of those 14 days, a performer is deemed as ineligible to have sex on a porn set because their test is then “expired.”
Now, performers must be tested every 72 hours for COVID-19 in order to shoot for a sanctioned production. That’s a total of 10 times a performer would have to be tested for COVID-19 within a month (at $35 a pop, it comes out to $350). I mean, we are already a very careful population of people when it comes to spreading germs. We have figured out a way to keep our hygiene and health in tip-top shape. In our industry, it is imperative that we are health conscious and know our bodies well in order to perform at an optimum level. This includes many aspects of mental, physical and sexual health! It’s ironic how the adult industry has created and already started implementing protocols and procedures that are pioneering pandemic era workplace safety.
When I went to my first on-set shoot after the shutdown, around the third week in July in L.A., I walked up to the location and a sign on the door stated, “Please have your mask on before entering. Do not open the door, please ring the doorbell and someone will let you in”. The second the door opened up, the production assistant was standing there with a full hazmat suit and face shield, holding a temperature gun at my forehead.
“98 degrees, you can come in,” they said. The second I stepped in, a home that I was once familiar with looked like the scene from E.T. where they had him quarantined in a room covered in plastic sheets. The production assistant then set down the thermometer and picked up a camera to ask me a plethora of questions, like if I have had any symptoms of COVID-19 or was in contact with anyone infected, etc. Once I answered the questions, I had to fill out more waivers claiming I do not have COVID-19 nor do I have symptoms, etc. Once I was cleared through this initial screening process, I then had to stay separate from the other talent and the crew until it was time for the actual shoot.
There were several “zones” in the house which were designated mask-free or mask-only, and each zone had hand sanitizer. I felt more like I was about to perform a surgery than make porn!
The most interesting thing I experienced was when we requested water during the scene, the crew, who is stationed outside of the room using monitors and verbal cues to direct us, sent the water in on the back of a remote control car. We got a little chuckle out of it. Again, a few minutes later the car squealed onto the set to drop us off some lube. That’s when it hit me what our world has come to. My mind was blown.
Suffice to say, that in just a few months, the world has changed drastically. We now live in an era where our physical health is constantly monitored, scrutinized and evaluated. The days of “normal life” are no more. Masks, temperature checks, testing, social distancing and limited capacity events are all going to become routine to our everyday lives.
Less performers are going to be risking their health to go to a porn set and spend an entire day to do a production for content they don’t own. Most performers who have established a name for themselves will continue to grow their personal brands online and through platforms such as OnlyFans. They will continue to expand outside of the adult industry and pursue their endeavors and passions that, not so long in the past, they were told was “unachievable because they do porn.”
Since the adult industry was the one to first pioneer e-commerce, online payments and even the use of DVDs, in this new age, we will continue leading the charge in content creation and innovative workplace safety!
Damon Dice is an adult star, entrepreneur and content creator who can be followed on OnlyFans.com/damondice8, @SpencerMBarrick on Twitter and @spencermichaelbarrick on Instagram.
