Even on non-shoot days, Michael Vegas tends to be immersed in the innumerable small tasks of production: calling agents, rustling up props and costumes, planning upcoming shoots.
“Producing never ends,” Vegas attests. “When you work for yourself, there’s always something that’s buffering in the background, or a task that needs to be completed. There’s always the next thing. We get production orders two to three months in advance, so we’re regularly working months into the future to ensure things go as smoothly as possible down the line.”
Fortunately, Vegas has a knack for juggling — literally. The award-winning director and performer also happens to be a trained juggler and fire performer.
“Juggling and flow is something that I’m super into,” he enthuses. “It has really helped unite the hemispheres of my brain and unlock movement, timing, rhythm and all sorts of other stuff.”
Exploring Options
Vegas first dipped his toes in the adult industry back in 2004, during what he remembers as an “experimental” phase. He was still far from thinking about porn as a long-term career, however. In fact, he trained to be a firefighter and graduated at the top of his class — before a serious motorcycle accident derailed that plan.
Pivoting, he enrolled in nursing school, but quickly clocked the level of burnout in the profession as unsustainable. After some soul-searching, Vegas decided in 2010 to return to the industry. His first time out, he had shot gay content. This time, it was straight studio productions.
Vegas says that he actually finds performing less taxing than working behind the camera, where the hours are longer and less lucrative.
“If you’re performing in front of the camera, it’s like doing a really good workout,” he shares. “You feel very satisfied after. Your endorphins are high, your body feels nice and you feel good physically.”
During his first few years back in the business, Vegas crossed paths on a number of occasions with a fellow performer by the name of Siouxsie Q, but it wasn’t until 2014 that the two were properly introduced.
Then, the spark was immediate. They quickly began dating, and have been in a relationship ever since. Today, they share their California home with two cats and a dog they named after veteran adult performer Roman Todd.
“We found her while we were on set,” Vegas recalls. “We were making a movie and one of our actresses pulled up and said, ‘Hey, there’s a dog outside that needs help.’ She was stuck in a rosebush out in the rain. We got her out and put up signs looking for her owner, but no one ever responded, so now we have the best dog in the world. She’s very well trained and she can do so many tricks. It’s amazing. She’s like a little circus dog.”
Collaboration Era
It wasn’t until the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, though, that Vegas and Siouxsie Q began working together in earnest, establishing a professional partnership to match their personal one.
“Adult Time needed content creators who could do stuff from home,” Vegas recalls. “At that point, I’d been working for Bree Mills as an actor for many years. So Siouxsie knew that I knew the product well enough to at least make a good attempt at creating together.”
The move proved to be a turning point.
“We did great,” Vegas says. “We basically won the science fair. It worked out very nicely, so they asked us to do another one, and then another one, etc. We’ve been making movies ever since then, and I guess they like the way we do it.”
Over time, the two have hammered out a system for dividing up the workload on set.
“When we made that first movie, ‘Quarantine With My Stepdad,’ we did every single job between her and I — writing, directing, video, sound, paperwork, everything,” remembers Vegas. “So we both know how to do that stuff. But these days, I prefer to focus on camera operation and blocking for the actors. Siouxsie went to school for theater and specializes in improv, so she’s excellent at working with actors and getting really good performances out of them.”
One of the key perks of the partnership, Vegas explains, is simply that two sets of eyeballs are better than one.
“I need somebody I trust at the monitors, watching to make sure that everything is going the way I want it to,” he says. “Your attention can only be focused on so many things at once. So it works out a lot better when she’s paying attention too.”
Does spending so much time working together ever impact their personal relationship?
“Siouxsie is such a good partner, and such a good producing partner, that we don’t really fight,” Vegas says. “But things can definitely get a little tense when we’re producing together. Sometimes, work stress can bleed into our relationship, but we help each other handle it and de-stress each other.”
Aboard the Pirate Ship
The night before a shoot, Vegas tries to be in bed by midnight. He typically sets his alarm for 7 or 7:30 a.m. so that he has enough time to shower, feed the pets, finish downloading cards from the previous day’s work and load up his car with production gear.
With a little luck, he’ll even have time to whip up a bacon breakfast burrito: scrambled eggs, shredded cheese and crispy bacon, wrapped in a flour tortilla. It’s how Vegas prefers to start his day.
“Unless I’m performing as a bottom, of course!” he quips.
He generally arrives on location around 10 a.m. Job one is figuring out the setup and setting up gear, while getting everyone’s makeup and paperwork done. The consent session typically happens by noon or 1 p.m.
Whenever possible, Vegas tries to work with the same consistent team.
“It feels like being in a band, or on a pirate ship together,” he laughs. “It’s very much like a family. We all love each other so much. I love my crew so much.
“My B-cam is a hall-of-fame director and producer,” he elaborates. “My sound girl is Emmy-nominated and has been doing mainstream stuff, so she understands all the jobs on set, and I’ve been teaching my production manager too. That way, we can all be watching each other’s backs to make sure that things go as smoothly as possible.”
The pirate band usually shoots two scenes on a given production day, but Vegas tries his best to wrap by 8 p.m. — though a longer turnaround time is sometimes required to keep cast and crew members safe.
“On a 10-hour day, we’re cramming it all in for sure,” he says.
It can be a delicate balance between efficiency and what Vegas calls “protecting the vibe at all costs.”
“Good vibes only,” he insists. “If people are having a bad time doing this, what are we doing here? Yes, it’s serious and there’s a bunch of money at stake, but it’s not that serious. Nobody’s going to die. So have a good time, enjoy people and let people enjoy themselves.”
For Vegas, that includes avoiding “trash talk.”
“I hate to call for forced positivity, but you can’t neg people or cut other people down, even small things,” he says. “A lot of friendships are formed around giving each other shit, and I get that, but other people don’t know the boundaries of that relationship and I don’t need it throwing off their flow for the day. We’re trying to make everybody feel good here.”
After the wrap, Vegas himself is usually the last to leave.
“I want to make sure everyone is out of there safely and things have been cleaned up properly,” he explains.
Occasionally, Vegas writes his own material. He says he’s most proud of “Foot in the Door,” which he wrote for Adult Time’s Pure Taboo series, and starred in with Alison Rey.
“It examines how people will exploit themselves in an attempt to get into mainstream Hollywood stuff,” he says.
Vegas does his own editing on certain projects, but when it comes to his work for Adult Time or Aylo, he hands it off to a team of editors.
“It’s been interesting to learn their styles, because sometimes you have to outsmart an editor,” he confides. “I’m not saying their editors are bad! But they don’t always know what I’m trying to do on set. They have their own vision, so it can be tricky to deliver content and make sure I’m clear about how I want it to be put together.
“I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at it,” Vegas adds. “If you create a movie as a producer or director and you have creative control, it can feel like solving a really hard puzzle, which is extremely mentally satisfying. You get to see the work all the way through to the end, and how it benefits other people.”
Downtime, Uncertain Times
When not at work or on vacation, Vegas tries to relax by turning off his brain and getting some exercise. Though he has never been much of a gym person, he notes, he does yoga to keep limber.
When their schedules line up, Vegas and Siouxsie Q will go hiking, dancing or to a concert together. They recently caught Danny Elfman performing with an orchestra, and just bought tickets to see flamboyant pop duo Haute & Freddy this fall. The also couple recently traveled to San Francisco over the holidays to visit family together.
Vegas describes himself as a romantic, and says he tries to take Siouxsie Q out on dates as often as he can.
“As nonmonogamous people, we do date and have sex with other people, but she is my rock and my primary partner,” he says. “I honor her in that way and show her that she’s still special.”
Nonfiction audiobooks are another pastime. Vegas has recently been listening to “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Dr. Robert Cialdini, so he can better understand what makes people believe “the ridiculous propaganda we get from this absurd president.”
He frequently sends books to friends of all political stripes, and hopes that his recommended reading list encourages people to vote.
“We may disagree politically, but to make the system work, we all have to participate,” Vegas says.
As for his own view of the current political situation, Vegas is blunt.
“We’ve got a fascist regime in America, and people trying to take out adult films permanently,” he says. “I’m just trying to maintain the high quality of what we do, and simultaneously speak out against fascism, and fight back.”
It’s clear that Vegas takes threats to the industry personally.
“At the end of the day, I love my job so much,” he says. “I feel so grateful to be able to be here, doing this.”
