In a lot of areas I think porn agents have gotten a bad rap, some may deserve it to some degree at least but in the end there is a reason why agencys became successful. There was a time when porn was small and Jim South was THE agent, there was one other, a slob of a miserable human being named Reb but he was a more of a pimple on the ass of porn, South and World modeling were it. Porn was a lot smaller then and if a girl didnt mind the leg work she could get along well enough without and agent I know I used to tell girls (like Felicia Foxx) that an agent cant do anything for you that you cant do for yourself. Jim South faded out as an agent and most girls became independents.
That’s not so much true anymore.Shy Love recently sold her stake in ATMLA, she has been out a lot longer than just a few days as some would have you believe but for what its worth I never had anyone complain about Shy to me. I know that Shy didn’t like her girls to “escort” she said to me more than once, “why do they do that? When you sell it to anyone like that there’s nothing special about you anymore.” Any idea that Shy was involved in setting up a prostitution meet for Richard Nanula is ludicrous to me. Samantha’s flimsy story about Nanula being the talent all along doesn’t match the story from Shy but Shys story matches that of others involved, they did change the male talent. But I digress.
Lets look at Brett Rossi, for the record I have nothing against Brett she seems to be a nice person and I am not beating her up here, but do you think Shy or Derek or Speigler would have let her shoot a “test scene” for Digital Playground without signing a contract? Mark Speigler would have been a far better career adviser than Scott Justice, that’s for sure.
But the real area where agents have become a necessity is dependability. In the past girls in this biz, guys too, were notoriously unreliable, you book them they may or may not show up on set, or they may show up hours late, they may double book themselves then just go to the highest bidder and no show on the other one(s).
Agencies…particularly L.A. Direct put a stop to that, if you booked a girl from L.A. Direct you knew she would be on set, with paperwork and proper attire on time even if it meant Derek himself had to drive her there. if you are a producer, that’s valuable because you aren’t paying your crew to wait around for her to show up, you don’t have to make frantic last minute calls trying to get someone to replace her.
Now when you buy your groceries do you buy your milk at one place, bread at another, beer at another, cookies at yet another….you get the drift here. Agencies provide a one stop shopping so to speak, with on time delivery.
I’m not saying agencies haven’t created some problems, but most every producer I talked to said they solved a lot more than they created, and that’s how the free market works.
Could a Union or guild or something accomplish the same thing, yes it could, but more likely it would just end up as another layer in between the talent and the agent, which wouldn’t necessarily be all bad but it hinges on the talent joining and both talent and producers supporting it something I find unlikely if for no other reason than it has failed many times in the past.
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Why Porn Agents Became The Norm http://t.co/EiMw9hv7tQ
YOUR POP WAS MY AGENT BACK IN THE YEAR B.C.
I like Reb.
btw..usually a production company that didn’t like agents tended to be one that bounced checks..least in my experience.
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C’mon, South – you spelled Felicia Fox wrong – you know better! Felicia Foxx is a different girl…and we know you meant Fifi. And, like JR, I also liked Reb – he was OK.
A question for Mike South, what do you have against Reb Sawitz?
Dealings with Reb and mostly others experiences with him.
HAHA it wasnt his real last name nor is it mine. I met Jim a few times but he is no relation Jim Jr is his kid
HAHA it wasnt his real last name nor is it mine. I met Jim a few times but he is no relation Jim Jr is his kid http://wp.me/p7v9m-22Z#comment-9664
It never is our real name….. hehehe
WTF? Reb and Jerry were AWESOME!!!! Though I was officially with Jim South, Reb and Jerry were like family to me and they took in Shailar Kobe and his wife when they had nowhere else to go!!! Not just them, either!!! Reb really cared about his talent and NEVER tried to take advantage of ANY of them (neither did Jim) …Hey Mike, if you can tell me why Reb wasn’t open on friday’s I’ll read about your opinion of him.
Nick…I do remember reb being closed fridays but for the life of me cant remember why may have been dialysis day or something…really dont know…. I had too many bad experiences with sending talent to Reb back in the day thats what my opinion is based on, your milage may vary of course but there are far worse people in porn theses days I will give ya that
Dude. Your version of porn agent history is flawed. And who the fuck is Brett Rossi? I may not be too active these days but I was there, in a big way, through the entire period you’re talking about. And btw, there was never a major problem with girls being dependable. I’m not saying it didn’t sometimes happen but, for the most part, they didn’t need drivers because they got themselves to sets. The problem regarding flakes being a big problem didn’t start until there were a bunch of agents, the very people you credit with solving the problem of dependability.
And just for the record, Reb may have been a really bad businessman and not the best agent but he helped a bunch of people in very caring and concerned ways. Shailar and Catherine being just two of them.
Now! Who was the two husband and wife that took over after
Reb and fucked up pretty girl international?
They sure had alot of homeless looking Talent there and
also a BIG time Meth-head booker that worked in that office. Who was he too? and what happen to him? Died? still in the Biz?
The reason Reb was closed on Friday’s was because Jim South had a nasty habit of sending the police to his office and arrest him for pandering ON FRIDAYS! That way he would be forced to spend the entire weekend in jail before he could see a judge on monday morning. True story. Reb and Jerry were very good people and they do not deserve to be lambasted here or elsewhere, period!
Jim would do that? wow thats crazy….Like I said I only judge Reb from my personal exp3eriences with him, he didn’t much like me either but if your opinions differ thats OK I aint tryin to change anyones mind. he is long gone and very few in porn today even have a clue who reuben Sturman was much less Reb Sawitz/Schwants
yer experiences are respected JimmyD but you are about the only director who has told me he didnt have an ongoing issue with talent making call times….says a lot about how the talent felt about you I expect….kudos on that….as for Reb, we didn’t like each other…its cool neither of us is universally loved LOL
I guess the issue of a union or guild is that in an industry that is already suffering from a severe downturn and loss of income, the last thing you need is another group with their hand out every time someone works.
When the margins on a porn shoot are already getting to be very small, adding another $100 here or $100 there of expense isn’t going to make anyone happy, because it comes very directly out of someone’s pocket – and likely the performers.