“I can’t wait for this place to be destroyed,” said my friend, now an adult industry CEO, as we waited for our food at Mr. Lucky’s, a finer in the Hard Rock Hotel And Casino. Several people we knew had come down with food poisoning after eating at Mr. Lucky’s the day before (“I think the eggs were a big mistake,” said an agent, still in bed, when I visited him in his hotel room) so my friend and I figured that 1.) How likely was it to happen twice, and 2.) Alcohol would kill it. The problem with the eggs guy? He doesn’t drink.
There are two adult industry events every January in Las Vegas. One is the AVN Awards. From modest beginnings in a back room of the Tropicana Hotel in 1985, the AVN Awards have always been a delightful trainwreck of nonexistent-to-suspect-to-admirable production value (often in the same evening) and an awkward prom for adult biz popular kids, wallflowers, chaperones, gatekeepers, and Smoking Area reprobates. The AVN Awards have never been called anything but the AVN Awards.
But then there’s the Adult Entertainment Expo. Or AEE. Or the AVN Show. Or simply “AVN.” That is the multi-day convention that surrounds the Awards and needs an international standards body to step in and name, once and for all, and impose penalties on people who call it anything else.
For several years, both the AVN Show and the Awards have been held at the Hard Rock. But come February 3, the Hard Rock will be closed for eight months, gutted and, some time before Christmas, we hope, reborn as Richard Branson’s Virgin Casino, where the Porn World’s Winter Classic is scheduled to return for at the next three years.
Says adult star MacKenzie Moss, “It’s ironic that a bunch of porn girls are going to be hanging out at the Virgin Hotel next year.”
A Mr. Lucjy’s waiter tosses some hash browns at my friend. Workers throughout the faciulity seem to have senioritis. “If they can stay until the very last day,” a security guard tells me, “they get severance and a job guarantee at the new place.”
I ask my friend why she wants to see this place destroyed.
“It just seems cheap, and a reflection of how far porn has fallen,” she says, recalling conventions a decade ago at the Venetian. Me, I feel comfortable here. Every year the Hard Rock got just a little more squalid, it took just a little extra time to unstick one’s hand from doorknobs. And just this year, I walked across the street to what is probably the saddest excuse for a White Castle Burgers the world has ever seen. I feel that that the Hard Rock represents the adult business as it is, and is less exhausting that way.
I’ll be sad to see the Hard Rock go. I’ve always had fun here. But after this, my first AVN Week in several years, I’m also excited to be a part of what happens next year, too, which is a sentiment that surprised me.
Check out several dozen photos from this year’s debauchery.
Cam Girls are waiting for your call 
Tia Cyrus primps 
Caroline Pierce: Pride of Las Vegas 
April Flores 
Natalie Mars in a dream I had 
Natalie Mars 
Alison Boden, #KinkCEO and Food Protextor 
Cody Steele 
Gia Derza and Vanna Bardot 
Porn Stars Consider Gram’s Diet 
Natalia Starr and Scarlett Revell 
The guy with 30 porn star signatures on his shirt 
Tiger Lilly from Austin 
Cam Girls do have names 
Tommy Pistol: America’s Porn Star 
Wholesome Sunny Lane 
Cam Girls of Elvendom 
The assets of Spinnin Shae 
Spinnin Shae gives birth to cash Spinnin Shae rains on herself 
OMG people will pay for anything, right? 
Spain’s own Betty Foxxx 
A man can breathe out here 
Will Pounder 
Abigail Mac 
Vina Sky 
Sure Cakes from Miami.
Q. Where’d you get that great dress?
A. I don’t know.
Marcus London is sporty for his Hall of Fame induction 
Aiden Ashley
“Last year Joanna Angel brought a hard-boiled egg because the red carpet was so long. I thought it was such a good idea. AND THEN I FORGOT!”
Karma Rx looks like the symptom and the cure 
Derrick Pierce 
Bailey Rayne 
Shy and Ry(an driller) 
Damon Dice 
Seth Gamble and Kenzie Taylor 
Alexis Fawx 
Desiree Dulce 
Michael Vegas might be the future 
Joanna Angel, Aubrey Kate, Small Hands
Joanna: This year I brought two hard-boiled eggs
Lovel blue/black Emily Willis 
The world’s Angela White 
Ricky Greenwood and Whitney Wright 
Lexi Lore 
Lacy Lennon, who can SING, bought her dress at the mall JUST LIKE LANA DEL REY DID 
Jake Adams and Scarlett Scandal 
Danni Rivers looks like a sexy typo with whiteout 
Mona Wales: Grave 
Mona Wales: Humoring Me 
Brad Armstrong and jessica drake 
Gianna Dior, about three hours before winning Best New Starlet 
Quentin James 
Kenna James: Vegas by way of Missouri 
Kenzie Reeves and Steve Holmes 
Izzy Lush 
Jason Moody 
Seriously 
I mean 
The Reid Susters 
It’s just 
Ryan Reid and Riley Reid, I… 
it’s 
god, I 
no jury in the world would … 
some kind of Gram-attracting dance 
Vanna Bardot and the paparazzai 
Kristen Scott 
Glenn King of “Mean Bitches” fame, Hall of Fame inductee 
Farrell Hirsch, Hall of Fame inductee 
The gold-flecked butts of the Reid Sisters 
Magdalene St. Michaels 
I like your style, Chad Michaels (he brought beef jerky) 
Zac Wild 
Sunny Lane whips out one of her many AVN awards 
Christian Cinn 
Kiara Cole 
Ivy Wolfe is like if Tiffany and Debbie Gibson gave birth to a really hot ghost 
April Flores 
Courtney Trouble hasn’t left the red carpet since 2013 
Adriana Chechik: “You cannot touch this dress. It came in a 47-lb. box. I have to have somebody follow me around just to wipe fingerprints off it.” 
Sweet Gabbie Carter 
Phoenix Marie and Ramon Nomar 
Elise Laurenne from Toronto. This is getting to be less of a porn awards show than a really erotic seance. 
Ricky Spanish
Q> What’s your last name?
A. It’s Spanish
Q. tHAT’S ok, i UNDERSTAND sPANISH
A. It’s “Spanish.”
Q. Sorry, I haven’t been around for a while.
Violet Doll is the coolest thing to come out of Detroit since the funeral of the guys from the Edmund Fitzgerald 
Listen to the disembodied hand 
I asked Doja Cat if she worked on the video side or was a cam girl and she very calmly told me she was a rapper 
Misty Stone
Me: I haven’t seen you in a while! It’s great to see you!
Misty: I’m a MILF now, motherfucker!
Riley Steele 
Stormy Daniels and Justin 
I like that Stormy 
Tommy Pistol looks like Leonard Nimoy in the 1976 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and I have no doubt that’s what he was going for 
Cyrus King
Q. Have you … ever killed anyone?
A. Not on camera
Billy Boston
“I’m from fuckin’ Chahlstown kid!”
Kayden Kross, Manuel Ferrara, and Maitland Ward 
Reya Sunshine
(I mean: No Kidding)
Ms. Ricci and BODO, Last people on the red carpet 
Diplo 
Aries Spears 
Nikki Benz and Emily Bloom 
Alexis Texas, 
That’s Evan Seinfeld on the left and Michael Vegas two people down. What would happen if they switched careers? 
The Teleprompter proves that someone wrote this dialogue 
Emily Willis and Ramon Nomar: Best Anal Scene 
Ivy Wolfe 
Gianna Dior: Best New Starlet 
Doja Cat I really like this outfit 
Everyone paying attention at the 2020 AVN Awards
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