“I was averaging two to three scenes a day and doing a web show at night. One week I was with 25 different girls,” John recalls.
Much of what has kept the XBIZ Award-nominated performer so busy is Erotique TV, the bustling broadcast division of his production company Erotique Entertainment.
He and his wife and business partner, the XBIZ-nominated starlet Vicki Chase, said the concept for Erotique TV is simple: high-quality boy/girl sex with top-level talent captured from multiple angles.
It’s a formula that is working increasingly well for Erotique TV, which is gaining momentum as it moves into its seventh month broadcasting daily, live sex shows for a growing web audience.
“We’ve unlocked this whole new area and it’s thriving and expanding,” John says, minutes before a recent shoot at the Erotique TV studio in downtown L.A. “And it’s a way that our company has formed pretty close alliances with talent.”
Talent such as Lyla Storm, one of the several rising stars joining John and Chase on the set today. Storm and her partner Jeremy Conway have become Erotique TV regulars.
“It’s a good workout. It really proves how you can fuck,” says Storm, who recently landed a part in “Ghostbusters XXX” for Hustler and is eager to take on more acting roles between her web shows.
The Erotique TV studio is literally built for live sex. On this Saturday evening there are eight computers lined up a few feet away from the bed and the sofa, and there are six cameras pointed at the action.
“We are multi-streaming an individual show by surrounding it with cameras and computers and capturing the sex from all different angles,” John says. “For instance, we’ll have two cameras in front of the bed, an overhead camera, one on the bed and one in a person’s hand.”
Erotique TV’s primary broadcast partner to date has been Streamate, but it also works with IM Live and CamWorld, among others.
“Our shows are two people having good, solid couples sex. There is not a host. We try to use the term web broadcast instead of web cam. But the result is high quality instead of some amateur doing it at home,” John continues.
John says that he and Chase first tried a live sex show during Labor Day weekend “and we got really good traffic.”
“The fans were really nice. Then we went on for a second day and the fans were already familiar with Vicki. They researched her overnight, and we saw a response that we didn’t really expect,” John says. “So we quickly realized this had to be a business.”
John, a former Boeing executive, explains that he already had the studio building, most of the equipment and the technical know-how. He just needed more computers to increase his potential reach.
“Pretty quickly it donned on me to do it that way,” he says. “Now we’re broadcasting seven days a week, 14 hours a day on more than one station at the same time.”
ErotiqueTV has been working with agencies such as L.A. Direct Models and Adult Talent Managers to fill its talent slots. Erotique uses a mix of well-established performers and up-and-coming girls that are building their name.
“We have a set of girls that we have aligned ourselves pretty closely with, almost like a partnership with promoting them,” John says.
In addition to being one of ErotiqueTV’s most popular performers, Chase is intimately involved with running the studio.
“On a day when I’m not shooting for Erotique TV I’m doing whatever needs to be done. I’m picking up checks, I’m buying douches, I’m getting new cables or sometimes I'm recruiting girls,” Chase explains.
And when she “plugs” herself into a web show, Chase always delivers.
“I’m a people pleaser. I like that one-on-one with the fans. I give them a show,” says Chase, who has never received less than a perfect “5-star” rating for one of her performances. “I think it comes naturally to me.”
And “showmanship” is critical to the success of live shows, says Elissa Marquette, one of the Erotique TV staff members.
“That’s what DVDs lack,” Marquette points out. “Guys want to be talked to like they’re at the club flirting with the girl. Personality and enthusiasm is key.”
Marquette formerly worked in process management at Boeing before joining Erotique TV in the fall to assist in getting the broadcast division underway. In addition to marketing and administrative duties, she’ll also frequently join the web chats.
Erotique TV also works closely with Travis Varjak, a regular videographer and performer, and Julius Ceazher on the technical side of each show.
On this day John has assembled a group of girls that each have quickly become Erotique TV favorites. Helly Mae Hellfire, who is also a DJ for the shock rock band Rock Stars on Mars, is on the set. Her first-ever adult work in 2001 was on a web cam. She is joined by the sexy Lexi Swallow, who did high-profile retail sales before getting into porn. They will share the bed with former hair stylist Allison Moore, and former flight attendant Amber Ashlee in what has been planned as a mini-orgy with John and Varjak.
Swallow, who plays Lady Gaga in an upcoming porn parody of Katy Perry, tells XBIZ, “it’s always fun to interact with fans and let them see what they want to see.”
John agrees.
“People have observed that they are happy with the changing angles. They are happy with the girls. They feel they kind of have a connection with them,” he concludes.
“We’re still in the learning phase. We’re still optimizing the way we drive traffic. The industry is different now. You’re not going to be making as much scene money, so you might as well supplement your income with something that can be a regular thing.
“I used all the different parts of my ability and reputation to launch this thing. Now it’s at the point where it’s going to have to grow past me. We sacrificed a lot to get it to this level.”
Pictured: Vicki Chase and Eric John.
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