How Kiwi's watch porn: Latest porn watching information from Porn Hub. Video / Nathan Meek
Johnny Sins is perplexed.
"One of my fans has sent me kangaroo jerky. Do Australians even eat kangaroos?" the American asks.
One of the world's biggest male porn stars will soon find out about the tendency for some Australians to eat the national icon when he makes his first foray down under next month for Sexpo in Melbourne.
In the adult entertainment industry, Sins is prolific. He started getting his kit off in 2006 and hasn't stopped since.
"In 14 years, I've made between 2500 and 3000 videos," he tells news.com.au.
"I work for around 250 days of the year. But I like at least a day off a week to rest up and get horny again."
Getting hard is hard work.
Along the way he's picked up a few gongs for his schlong including website PornHub's most popular male porn star voted on by women. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers and by some estimates his videos have been downloaded 52 million times.
"There's no residuals in porn," said Sins. Which means many leave the industry with little. Photo / Supplied
He's made some coin too, raking in at least $A300,000 annually.
He puts his enduring success down to three things: "Reliability, likability on set... and a big d*ck."
But there's been a few hiccups, the shave headed and ripped actor reveals. From working for free, to how to tell his mum he was porn star — and then there's the sex scene he wished he'd never done.
The industry, which it's estimated is worth some $A20 billion a year, has also seen massive changes due to the MeToo movement. Sins says inappropriate men were being "weeded out".
Sins, as you might have guessed, is a stage name which he prefers to use in his professional life. Before he was Mr Sins, he remembers stumbling across his brother's Penthouse stash. It sowed a seed.
At university he managed to persuade his unsuspecting parents to splash out on a fancy computer. He admits his intentions were not pure.
"I did do some school work on it, but really I just wanted it for porn," he laughs.
After graduation, he began a career in construction management. For years he worked on construction sites until he hooked up with a friend who was in the pornography industry. Inspired, he headed to Los Angeles, the world centre of not just Hollywood movies but the more adult variety too.
"It took probably a good six months to find any gigs. I started at the bottom of the business, doing scenes for free. Then I moved up and met some girls in the business who referred me to other jobs."
MOST PORN STARS LEAVE WITH NOTHING
He got the swing of things and began pocketing $US100 per scene.
"I was working six days a week but the difference to construction was when the alarm went off I wanted to get up because I was doing porn.
"I worked as much as possible. I didn't have a girlfriend and I was going to have sex on my own time anyway, so it made sense to do it at work," says Sins.
$100 gradually became $800 per shoot. "Then it clocked that this is a business, I was making more than some lawyers or doctors.
"But the truth is most people will leave this business with nothing or actually in debt if they don't pay their taxes."
That wasn't Sins' plan. His goal was to make $US200,000 ($A292,000) a year just through scenes and videos. That achieved, he's now looking to earn even more producing his own content that he retains ownership of and can distribute through the major porn sites or his own Sins Life platform.
"Working for big companies you were a slave; you only made a day rate — there's no residuals in porn. Now all you need to do is upload your content and you have your own business.
"I told myself I'd be out by 40. I'm 40 now so I haven't quite achieved that but I'm ready to slow down and work more on my own stuff for the next couple of years as my exit strategy."
VIDEO SINS WISHES HE'D NEVER DONE
Now, Sins chooses the scenes he wants to do. That wasn't the case early on and there's one shoot, in hindsight, he wished he'd never done.
"I should have known because it was $200 more than my usual rate."
It was a fetish movie, and the fetish was furries. If you don't know, furries don anthropomorphic animal costumes in the style of cartoon characters. Some also shag in them.
"I had to dress up in a bunny outfit, they cut a little whole for my d*ck," Sins says.
"It was the craziest weirdest thing and I never ever want to do again. I was hot and it was logistically complicated because you can't see what's going on.
"I was like 'if it falls out you have to put it back in, I can't see where it goes'.
"Now when I see those people in these suits, I think that does not look fun at all."
'MUM, I'M A PORN STAR'
Perhaps even more awkward than having to make love dressed as a rabbit, is having to tell your mum that your chosen career involves making love dressed as a rabbit.
"My mum knows," says Sins. "I didn't tell my parents for the first year as I didn't know it would last. I would lie when they asked how work was.
"One day I bit the bullet. They were definitely a little shocked, they're small town conservatives but when I said that I was safe and not on drugs they accepted it.
"They don't really talk about it but they love me and want me to be happy. It's a better experience than a lot people have."
"We have the same fake last name," he chuckles. "We met on Instagram and after a year we did our first porn together. One day we just filmed ourselves for the hell of it and she loved being on camera and that was how (their website Sins Life) was born."
METOO IN PORN TOO
The treatment of women in the pornography industry has been highlighted by the MeToo movement, he said.
"A lot of guys think that because porn girls are not wearing much clothes they can slap their arses — that's not the case anymore.
"Girls have been speaking out against producers, directors and crew guys manipulating them into sex and people have been fired for that," says Sins.
"Some guys haven't got the memo and they're still doing it. It's good to weed out these guys."
Good directors, Sins says, now asked actors before touching them if, for instance, they want them to change position. He hopes the changes will lead to the industry being seen in a positive light.
At Sexpo, Sins will be meeting his fans, most of who are women. And maybe trying some more kangaroo jerky.
"I'll be taking lots of selfies and I'm interested in meeting other performers; I've not met any Australian performers so I'm looking forward to that."
Blokes often ask him if his job is easy. That anyone can do it is the biggest myth of the business, he says.
"It's not just going in and having sex with someone you want to have sex with, you rarely get to pick; you have a script to memorise; there's tons of people around and sometimes it's 10 hour days.
"You can either do it or you can't; there's no in-between, and that's why there's so few guys in the business.
"But I love my job, I have no regrets. If I could, I'd do it all over again."
