It was late 2003, and I had been unemployed for six months. I spent the Summer of 2003 wondering where life would next lead me. And for quite some time, I had been a porn fan. A male who liked watching people fuck? Shocking, right? At the time, I was following porn gossip sites, and one was run by Chico “Wanker” Wang. Chico made his online presence known a few years prior when he served as the webmaster for Extreme Associates. Extreme had a reputation for being a hard-hitting porn company that was the complete opposite of places like Vivid Video and Wicked Pictures. Volt (Chico’s real name) had become somewhat of an online maven. He eventually found his way, and his writing had a certain style. Eventually, he found his way into Diabolic—and at times, Anabolic Video—by being their webmaster and a director. After some time following his work, I saw that Wanker had put an online ad for a “minion,” someone to learn the business directly from him while doing lots of grunt work on set. He replied to my email, and a date was set to meet the man himself.
Not long after, in October of 2003, I showed up at the building Anabolic and Diabolic Video shared in Chatsworth. I was met by Chico and super editor Curt, aka “Cal444”. Curt drove us over to a Thai restaurant to shoot the breeze. Chico sat shotgun, and I was directly behind him. While Curt was driving around, a bottle of urine was rolling around the floor of the seat next to me. It wasn’t beer. I know that for sure. Already a bit weirded out, we broke bread, and Chico asked about my internet experience—but I had none.
Zip.
Zero.
Zilch.
Despite my total lack of experience— I hadn’t even opened up Adobe Premiere Pro or Photoshop— I was willing to learn everything needed to be around porn chicks while refilling my depleted bank account. After our meeting, I was sent home with VHS copies of some of the most recent Diabolic movies to brush up on what I’d be encountering IF I were to get the job. Now it was a waiting game.
