First it was going to be in Secaucus NJ, but it seemed a last minute decision because of opposition and rules trying to be placed upon the show it was moved to the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center located at the Raritan Center in Edison, NJ.  We can all debate the First Amendment, but since the article is about the show, lets gloss over that part.  While Bookspotcentral (or Mediaspotcentral) is a big website, we just were not adult film industry big enough to get press passes.  This is a pop culture event, let me in!  The fellow running the publicity end, was not really helpful in telling us that we could not get press passes before hand, and when we showed up it seemed we would be turned away at the door.  Adrian one of the people running the show, was very nice about the situation though and we made a detour for a few hours.  Pay attention though this detour will come into play later in the article.  So after a stop at IHop for breakfast, and then Menlo Park Mall to get me a new Dallas Cowboys hat we arrive back at the show when it opens at 1pm on Saturday.   We did not opt for the VIP pass this year, which allows you to have access to a lounge where the stars would come and chat with you, but next time it would not be a question, we would go VIP.

We decided to make the rounds first and look at all the booths to get a feel of the show.  What I noticed is that there were not so many companies showing items for sale, but this show was really all about the stars.  Yes there were some like Sexy-Dees, some other shops selling toys, and then some of them that were selling professional photos if you wanted to get on a bed with a few of that mid list stars.  I would have thought a show like this would have attracted more people that were selling toys and other devices.  Maybe since it was the first year they were nervous on what the return would be at such a show.  One of the booths selling items that I did purchase was the clothing line of Gina Lynn called Skin.  You can check out all of the clothing gear at http://www.skinindustries.com/ It is a safe site, nothing crazy going on there.  I bought a shirt for myself and then went back later to buy a shirt for my wife.  Something you can wear to the gym or casual.

Now it was time to do some talking and picture taking with the mid list stars, don’t get me wrong, some of these women are just as pretty and capable, they just may work for a smaller publisher, or website.  These are the women that were taking the time out to sign autographs, take pictures, and just chat about the weather if you wanted.  A nice change, I am always reminded how some of them are programmers, into sci fi and fantasy, are writers, etc…  For most of these stars, this is a second job that helps pay the bills.  Courtney Cummz, Diamond Jackson, Morgan Dayne, and Bailey Brooks were some of my favorites here, and Bailey Brooks was kind enough to actually pose for some rather interesting pictures with her workers that you can find in the PG-13 gallery.   One of the fellows running the booth that Bailey was working in was a huge Cowboys fan and since I had my hat on invited me to pose the girls anyway I wanted and then offered me a chair for a girl, girl, Damon sandwich.  It was a pleasant experience to say the least.

There were cross over stars, these are the high profile people that even if you know only a little about the adult film industry you know them.  For me I got to meet the top starts Jesse Jane, Audrey Bitoni, Arianna Armani, Gina Lynn, Bree Olson, Stormy Daniels, Sasha Grey, Kayden Kross, Teagan Presley, Stoya, Gianna Lynn, Hanna Hilton, Nikki Jayne, Savanah Sampson and many more.  These girls were doing some autograph signing, but pictures with them were usually not free (except the Vivid Girls on that list!).  Digital Playground did a rather nice promotion though  with posters of Pirates:Stagnetti’s Revenge which the stars attending were signing.  I got Jesse, Stoya, and Sasha to sign mine.  The lines for that were a tad long, but it is going to look awesome in my basement next to the poker table (no nudity on it).  It would have been a nice show if the girls were not charging for pictures and you had a little bit more time to chat with them, but since everyone wants to see them it is understandable.  I was a little disappointed that Belladonna did not attend though as she is one of my favorites in the Digital Playground Team.

The overall size of the show was good for the first year, I would really like to see it expanded a bit more though if it comes back again in 2009 with some more stars and some more booths dedicated to actual products.     We stayed for a few hours and felt like we had talked to, taken pictures with, gotten autographs from most everyone that we wanted besides Stormy Daniels, who I think we just missed.    There was some good and some bad in how they staggered the stars on the floor, it was nice because even though the show was not huge, there was new blood coming in which made you revisit some booths to see your favorite stars.  The downside was if you did not want to spend the whole day there you also then might miss some of your favorite stars as well.  The other thing I found pretty cool was that the staff had segways, which some of the random around the convention strippers used as well.  It was an easy way to find someone from the show if you needed something.  Some of the other things that surprised me was that the Vivid Booth was big but not as bustling as I would have thought.  The nice thing about Vivid though is their stars signed and posed for pictures for free.  They also gave out the Vivid 2008 sampler at the booth as well.  The lady running the marketing at the Vivid Booth was also very nice, answering any questions and helping take pictures and rounding up the stars if you wanted to talk to them.

So now we have to have our favorites of the show by yours truly:   

Coolest film star to talk to and hang with- Courtney Cummz, not a question.  She was the most fun, looked like she was having a great time, and was pretty cool to talk to. 

Favorite moment -  Obviously when my Cowboys hat got me a chair and two women on top of me

Best looking adult film star in person top 5 -  This is a tough one, I will say Jesse Jane, Morgan Dayne, Audrey Bitoni, Arianna Armani, Courtney Cummz  

Best swag- The poster of Pirates:Stagnetti’s Revenge that the Digital Playground stars were signing.

You can check out our photos of the Exxxotica Convention

For PG Photos

For PG-13 Photos

We got some others that already went out to reviewers!

The review link will be coming soon. 
Update - here is the link
http://www.fantasybookspot.com/dalerone/2008/exxxotica-new-york-2008-report/

You can see the pictures at http://greenjackets.bookspotcentral.com already divided into two albums