Kiki D’Aire’s own private “Camp Erotica” [interview]

Kiki D’aire has returned to porn after a lamented but not unexpected hiatus. Now in her mid-30s, she remains all the things her fans love and fear: she is dirty, frank, friendly, fierce, Southern, and never your standard-issue porn star.

Kiki was about 22 when she got into porn in 1998, and quickly established herself as a fearless NHB (No Holes Barred) performer, like a cross between Christina Ricci in “Black Snake Moan” and everything you ever wanted from Ashley Judd.

Earlier this year JM Productions re-released a series of movies from the late Mondo Family, of trippy freakout video store Mondo Video fame (Mondo Video closed in 2007). One was “The Brides of Princess Reckula,” featuring, among other things, pissing midgets, and “Camp Erotica,” which in 2000 gave us Kiki D’aire in full Country Trash mode.

Gram Ponante: What do you remember from filming “Camp Erotica”?
Kiki D’aire: Whoa. It was a sideshow. It was made by Colonel Rob of Mondo Video, and the type of people who went into that store were in his movie.
Gram: The idea of “the video store” is one that you’re going to have to explain to people in a few years.
Kiki:…and the freaky people who hung out in places like Mondo. I loved them. But I remember driving out to Temecula to film it, with Slain Wayne—my boyfriend at the time—and we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing. Lucky, because no one knew what the fuck they were doing. But I do sing on the soundtrack.

Gram: “Camp Erotica” definitely fits into the “So Bad It’s Good” category and, since it’s porn, there’s always something to watch.
Kiki: Like the guy fucking the corn, or the creamed corn. And then, when the movie was done, they had a screening at the store for all their loyal customers.
Gram: What was it like watching yourself with those guys at the back of Mondo Video?
Kiki: Well, we certainly got each other…

Gram: You’re kind of a fearless performer, to watch you. But is there a place you draw the line?
Kiki: Yes. I grew up in the adult industry. I learned a lot of things here. You can really experiment in a controlled environment. But I learned I do not like 6-guy gangbangs because I have Cock ADD: once it gets past two dicks I have no idea what to do.

Gram: Name some movies that give viewers the Full Kiki D’aire Experience.
Kiki: I’m really proud of “White Trash Whore 19” (aka “Kiki D’aire Is A White Trash Whore”) and “Captain Mongo’s Porno Playhouse” by Antonio Passolini. I really wanted to fuck a clown. And Evan Stone was the clown I fucked in that movie.

Gram: So now that you’re back, the world has changed a little. You’ve been in some gauzy girl/girl movies.
Kiki: Who the fuck thought of “tribbing”? Do people really do that? But I keep all options open. I am not too proud to do PA [production assistant] work; I try not to turn things down.
Gram: Because now you live here (again). You’re not going anywhere?
Kiki: I’m staying right here, sweetie.

Gram: But in addition to those departures, you’re also doing some POV stuff for Evil Angel, which must be right up your alley.
Kiki: Yeah. I just filmed with Mike Adriano. That was filthy. I never had so much butter up my ass. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had butter up my ass. I was just covered in butter and come at the end. It was great.

Gram: Among the other things on your plate, you’re running an agency. Lisa Ann no longer runs an agency, and Shy Love isn’t performing, so that makes you the only female performer head of a talent agency in Porn Valley.
Kiki: The X Agency still does things the old fashioned way. I get on the phone for the girls, and I’m there for them. I mean, say what you want about [former performer and manager of defunct Porn Valley STD testing center AIM Healthcare] Sharon Mitchell, but performers could always talk to her. I want to be someone the girls can talk to if they need to figure something out.
Gram: Yes. The administrative stuff might not have been Sharon Mitchell’s strong suit, but she was there for the performers. But you were especially wild when you were starting out; do you expect any hot 18-year-old to listen?
Kiki: Talking to an 18-year-old is hard. We all think we’re invincible. I know I did. We think we know everything, but we don’t. I was the same way. So all I can say is “This is what you’re facing. You don’t have to believe me, but I’ve lived it.”

Gram: So how do you prepare a new model for her first “Go-See” with directors and producers?
Kiki: I tell them to wear light makeup, a cute outfit, to say please and thank you. On set, they should never show up high or drunk, they should always bring their ID, they should never show up late.
Gram: Simple stuff…
Kiki: It’s amazing what you forget when you’re 18.

Gram: So you were pretty Ready To Go in your 20’s, but now you say you’re in your sexual prime.
Kiki: Damn right.
Gram: How’s that going off the set?
Kiki: I get a little frustrated when guys in their 20s can’t get it up.
Gram: That is shameful. Why do you think that is? Are they overmedicated?
Kiki: This has happened a few times, but never so much as now. I think they’re intimidated. They want to be with a porn star, and there I am, and then: nothing. One guy at least had the balls to admit he was intimidated. But it’s God’s Little Joke.
Gram: I’m sorry for your troubles.
Kiki: Thank you. On set it’s better. I really like Danny Mountain.
Gram: He seems nice. If you look on either side of your age range, do you see people you’d like to be, or people who remind you of yourself?
Kiki: I love Nina Hartley. I just worked with her. She embodies what it is to be sex positive. And I recently worked with Chastity Lynn; she was really sweet and really dirty.

Gram: It’s important you plug your website and places where people can get in touch with you in a non-stalker way.
Kiki: The Official Kiki D’aire is under construction but it will be fully up soon. You can see the real Kiki there, the classic stuff as well as new material. And @Kiki_Daire is where I am on Twitter.

Gram: Finally, at the end of this interview I’m running the review of “Camp Erotica.” It’s the type of movie that just can’t be made anymore, for good or bad. But you’re in it and it’s the type of movie I wish I’d seen when I was 14. Any final words about it?
Kiki: I don’t know what the fuck was happening in that movie and I’m in it.

Studio: Mondo Family
Director: Colonel Rob
Starring: Kiki D’aire, Maren Beautte, Rikki Lixx, Ariel, Francois Lurid, Dave Hardman, Pie Dog Savage, Thrill Kill, Fritz Deus Kat, Melinda Strange, Jonee Armstrong

The Mondo Family (which also brought us “The Brides of Princess Reckula”) is responsible for some of the worst-shot pornography in history. But it’s impossible not to watch it because even they didn’t know what would happen.

How can you add nuance to a simple, timeless story about a camp that resorts to a blowjob derby to keep its creditors at bay? Well, to 2000’s “Camp Erotica” you could add morbidly obese pedophiles, the hot “American Pie”-era sodomy of food, faux-bestiality, plenty of urination, consumption of actual narcotics, and ample footage of schizophrenics and emaciated Polish crack whores.

And waltzing into this mess—(Oh, and women sticking hot dogs into their vaginas)—comes the then-24-year-old Kiki D’aire, sassy as a naked Ashley Judd.

If any survive in your town or your memory, video stores are havens for VHS endeavors like these—that have no right being transferred to DVD. Yet this one has, and I found myself grateful, because there was a time when loopy trainwrecks like “Camp Erotica” could be made and sold, and muttering old raincoaters would buy it for $60 a pop. That time is gone.

This is a movie as endearing as it is indecipherable and gross. The JM Productions re-release also comes with a director’s commentary that is as slipshod and entertaining as the movie, though 12 more years sadder, if not wiser.

“Every drug is real,” maintains director Colonel Rob, and we believe him.

· Buy “Camp Erotica”

Previously on Porn Valley Observed: “Corking” and other porn terms tastefully explained; Her name is Chastity, for some reason
See Also: Kiki D’aire, X Agency