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"Captains of Their Own Vessels include John Stagliano, Ed Powers, Max Hardcore and Patrick Collins. Why do you see these semi-elderly guys on your home screen, always doing the newest and most squeezable starlets? Because they got smart and bought their own cameras. Now they go out and seek to harvest fresh meat with their own harpoons." Jeremy Stone: "Ed Powers is a hero the ordinary guy. He's short, wears glasses, is average looking, with a dick that looks like a swollen finger. Yet Powers pioneered the pro-am genre of adult video. He gets more women to do sexual things with him than guys with twice the looks… "Powers is an active writer, producer, actor and raconteur. He created The Nasty Brothers with Jamie Gillis, later adding Randy West and Jake Steed, and they've continued to produce some of the raunchiest porn cassettes…. Powers has probably broken more porn cherries than any current male in the business. (AFW 1996 D. p. 84) Hustler's Seth Roberts has a different view. "Ed Powers has the audacity to make spirited, whackable videos that feature his train-wrecked body in every scene. It never fails: I slip in a Powers vid and enjoy some young, innocent ginch playing with her pussy. I take my dick out, preparing for a healthy stroke, when Ka-Boom! Ed Powers sticks his pock-marked face and beer-bloated gut into the frame so he can get his hamster-sized rocks off. His fat, gray ass has more pits and craters in it than the surface of the moon, and his self-conscious banter zaps all the energy out of what could be, without him, fantastic flicks. Hey Ed, you ugly bastard, there's a reason some people stay behind the cameras!" According to the book Grindhouse, Powers is part of the cyclical nature of adult films. "In sex films of the sixties, women rarely partnered with an attractive man. Rather, they had their choice of lecherous conventioneers, unkempt beatniks, paunchy businessmen, or dirty rapists." Ed boasts the smallest penis in porn, and in the New Ends series, he proves there's a method to his madness as he deflowers the backdoors of video virgins. Pat Riley ranks More Dirty Debutantes 39 and 47 as among the top twenty flicks of 1995-96. "Ed, despite his body, whiny voice and PC attitudes, delivers once again with gorgeous fresh girls including Kitty Monroe and Nikki Brantz and even when they're not fabulous (Dalny Marga) they're so at ease and friendly that you want to join the fun. "The problem is that Ed has kept up with the times," says Pat Riley. "Almost every girl seems to do an anal now - but Ed still has an intelligence with sex that others lack. Maybe it's because he's older. Consider: "Internal cum shots are believable. The only other person doing this is Randy West and his are generally not believable. "Ed has started to undress the girl from behind (see More Dirty Debutantes 47) which is not only good from the camera perspective but the "normal" way to do it. Unfortunately, there's still too much of "Take off your clothes and bend over so I can look at your asshole." "In More Dirty Debutantes 55, Ed lies down with the girl (underpants still on) and fondles her pussy and breasts and kisses her. Now you might not like to kiss Ed but not only did the girl seem to like it but I did too. Another "normal" way of having sex. "Ed still gets in girls who are attractive and never go on to anything else. When they do, they get their tits done and become hard quickly (Krysti Myst)." Riley says Ed's work generates little comment because "raincoaters miss the a2m's [ass-to-mouth shots], the glorious gooey facials, the gang bangs, the six-inch dildos, the DPs… "Ed has his share of dogs but most volumes have at least one good looking sweet innocent teenage or teenage-looking girl." Riley says that Powers' videos are probably the best sellers of the past few years, which makes them the best selling of all time. Ed became a millionaire from his porn success. "The real reason Ed is disliked is because of Ed, not his product," writes Pat Riley. "You can justify to yourself not getting the quality and quantity of girls Rocco gets to screw because Rocco has a bigger dick than you, he's more handsome, more urbane, more muscular, drives a better car… But when it comes to Ed, sheesh, he's no better than you. In fact, he's worse. He's weasel-like… He's not entitled to screw those good looking girls who would surely reject you. "Ed is not one of the boys. You couldn't bond with Ed. If you saw Ed at a non-porno social event, I bet he would be over chatting with the women rather than bellying up to the bar with the boys. This type of personality makes it hard for males to relate to, thus the constant arguments with males on a business and, I suspect, at a personal level and it's the reason many males find watching him an uncomfortable experience. "But the same qualities that some find repulsive are the very attributes which attract the cute young girls and get good performances… Listen to females about their preferences in males and you don't hear "He's handsome and buff and has a huge cock" but instead "He's kind, generous…makes me laugh…he's fun… attentive… respectful…" "And then there's those low quality production values-the camera on the tripod, the amateur lighting, the poor sound. Well, if you're a nervous young thing opening your thighs on camera for the first time would you like a lot of geeky technical people hanging around watching?" (RAME) Ed Powers fell in love in 1996 and vowed to retire from performing. He oversaw production at Sin City for four months the same year. "Ed's temper is quick and vicious," wrote pornographer Mike South on RAME on 1/30/97. "His ego has cost him a lot of money lately including a couple of award-winning video series... Ed has a holier than thou attitude yet is as dishonest as they come. I speak from experience." Dick Hertz: "Ed Powers doesn't know the first thing about photography. You don't shoot with a bright light behind the subject. Evidently this bit of physics is beyond Ed, and occasionally Buttman, because they have had some otherwise good scenes ruined by putting a bright sunlit window behind the action. "The last Ed Powers movie I rented (literally the last) had a beautiful asian girl. She was apparently being cornholed by Ed while he repeatedly transferred his fingers from her pussy to her mouth. I say "apparently" because the camera was on a tripod, her face was in the middle of the frame, some furniture was in the right side of the frame, and HER PUSSY AND ASS WERE OFF-CAMERA ON THE LEFT! YOU CHEAP BASTARD!" (RAME) Susie Bright compares
Ed to mainstream director Quentin Tarantino. "He does things like
turn to the two women he has lined up for a lesbian scene and ask, "Are
you two really into this, or is it just for the money?" "The
money!" they shriek. Ed is most famous now for his Dirty Debutantes
series, in which he tries to get laid by his performers, with varying
rates of success. But he cut his urban porn teeth in early specialty
videos like the famous Let Me Tell Ya 'Bout Fat Chicks and Best Yiddish
Erotica."
Friday afternoon (8/28/98) I talked with my buddy Ed Powers. He'd just read my bio of him and he wanted to respond to criticisms that I'd quoted from Pat Riley, Mike South and others. "Pat Riley speaks from the perspective of the raincoat crowd. It's difficult for me to place myself in a category." [Torris: " This is hilarious. If anything Riley has made his predilections very clear about his anti-raincoat proclivities. Ed Powers thanks for making my day you f---ing numbnutz!"] "I thank all the fans, critics and stores who've put my work out… The numbers speak for themselves… I am still on top. "I change. I'm different from a year ago… If I go on a diet and work out, I change. I go up and down in weight. I'm not a porn star. I'm the average guy. That's the source of my popularity. It's because of my vulnerability that people can relate to me. I'm the most real." [Torris: "No dumbass, the source of your popularity is new fresh girls."] "I'm a filmmaker. I deal in illusion and fantasy… I make documentaries about my sex life. When I first went to the bus stop, I was not a porn star. I was a nobody, a salesmen. I owned 4 Play Video (inherited from Ed deRoo aka Loretta Sterling in 1985?). "There are down sides to looking as handsome as Rocco… Not just upsides. ["Said the fox who couldn't reach the grapes," writes Torris.] "The downsides can be in the way they treat women or the way they portray themselves… Rocco is a real person, but when you get all these accolades for being handsome, and all the women throw themselves at you, you can become cocky. I'm not cocky." [Torris: " How about some more karate chop poses on your web page Ed. First porn page I looked at that didn't have naked women as the hook."] "I read where Mike South said I had a vicious temper. I don't think he's ever been in the presence of such a temper… If people want to get in my face, I will be outspoken. I'm not meek. "I've helped many people, some of whom have passed on rumors about me that are not true. That I was a heroin addict. That's nonsense. I test myself regularly for HIV and drugs. "Everybody talks everybody… That's why you're reading this now on Luke F-rd's site. You're interested in what people have to say. Well, I'm not going to down anybody. I have nothing against Rocco or Pat Riley or Mike South. Mike was probably upset with me for not taking on the lines that he wanted me to take on, but at the time I was not taking on any new lines." In 1996, Ed let go of all his distribution lines, including Randy West's Up 'N Cummers, "because I did not want to be involved with other people… I wanted to spend more time with my own product and do what I do best. I am not a distribution deal maker. I don't want to be an empire. My success comes from name recognition. "Radio was something I felt I should do. Another medium that I wanted to enter. I love my show. I don't feel that I only need controversy to keep going. I dream that it will become a weekday show and become syndicated." Ed will be shooting his radio show for TEN cable TV. "They bought 60 Debutante titles from me." Mike South says Powers is "is a f---ing arrogant hot head. and I have witnessed it, ask him about the CES show about 4 years back when I shot China Lee's first anal, at the time Ed was going to distribute my series through 4 Play. He blew up at me in front of Dirty Bob and Penn Jillette for shooting China Lee's first anal and not inviting him to be a part of it. He ranted and raved and yelled a stomped. A week later I fired Ed as my distributor...and that is the TRUTH. This is my BIGGEST issue with Ed Powers, and that is that he is a f---ing liar. Ed took my line and sat on it until I demanded that he return my masters and took the line away from HIM. Same as he lied about China Lee's first anal (He knew I got it)! Same as he lied about "Sexy Lexi" in a recent volume...He knew I shot her first...she was on my boxcover before he even shot her (She is Safire in Peaches and Cream) THAT is my issue with Ed Powers. Montdlaw@aol.com writes: " What I want to ask, at the beginning of what may be a protracted flame war, is simple and complex at the same time. Who do you believe & why? I read this and immediately chose Mr. South. Why? Because he participates [internet newsgroups]. Because he'll talk to you, and seems sincere. He can laugh at himself. Mr. South answers questions, even stupid ones with good humour and a lack of sarcasm. His topical posts are intelligent and not condescending. Mr. South will, for the most part step back when faced with unreasoned aggression, a choice I respect. I have never met Mr. South and never will. Yet from reading him on A.C.M.E and R.A.M.E. I feel I know enough about him to be supportive, in posts or silently, of most positions he would care to take. Mr. Powers has left less of an impression because I have never read his words here [newsgroups like RAME]. All my inferences about him are more filtered. (Transcripts of and comments on his radio shows, posts from Mr. Ford etc.). Mr. Powers seems to me to have a large ego well masked by his affable, stodgy old fart persona. He appears condescending in much of what he is quoted as saying, as well as ill-educated and not very well read. I have never seen evidence of what I appreciate as humour in Mr. Powers, nor any hint of self-deprecation. Pat Riley adds these suggestions for Ed Powers: 1) Stop apologizing! Saying (or printing on the screen) things like "I must work out...go on a diet..." are silly. Either you do it or you don't but don't talk about it. 2) Stop trying to get the girls to say they love older men. It makes you look foolish and reduces the value of the scene. Let it speak for itself. 3) Stop going "Oh, la, la" when the girls tell you they were de-virginized at 13 (or whatever early age). If they had waited 'till 18 they wouldn't be doing you (or by implication us) now. If you want to find 18 year old virgins check out Amish country, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Jewish girls who read the Torah and mutter to themselves on the subway, the incoming feminist class at Vassar, or the really ugly. Most of the girls you get are trailer park trash (not saying they're not pretty and even nice people) who are exposed to drugs, booze, and sex at an early age. We expect that they've screwed by around 15--probably turned a few tricks too. 4) Don't have the girl screw more than once in any one tape. By you or any other mutant who happens to be there. (Includes Jake if he's still with you.) One would think this was obvious. We don't pay to watch the guys (well...some might <g>) so Jake getting off after you doesn't add anything and makes the girl look like a whore. 5) Stop trying to get the girls to masturbate when they clearly don't in their private life or don't want to for the camera. 6) Same with g/g scenes. Unless they're experienced porno stars like Felecia or they're lesbians in real life, it's going through the motions. 7) Stop doing three (or more) ways. The raincoaters love them; I don't. 8) No facials. Again the raincoaters love them but they're not watching your tapes. And absolutely NO DP's! 9) Stop putting the girl's legs on your shoulders while doing missionary. It's unnatural. I don't care if it gives better visibility. 10) Undress the girl. Don't let her do it herself. You personally can continue to undress off camera. 11) Get rid of the gum off camera. Don't let them smoke on camera. Make sure they take a leak etc before the scene starts. 12) Make sure the girl is completely naked (including shoes) at all times during sex. (Generally you do this; just mentioning it in case there's any backsliding.) 13) If you personally must wear socks, buy yourself some white ones. Nothing worse than black socks in porno movies. 14) Do not have any monitors in the room. Don't talk to the cameraperson. Train your cameraperson on your own time. If they screw up and don't frame the shot as you would like, tough. Deal with it in editing. And don't apologize! 15) Throw out the current black laminex pseudo-French provincial furniture and take a trip to Ikea for some functional but plain stuff. The current lot is tacky. Hire an interior decorator if you can't trust yourself. 16) Buy a large quantity of white sheets on sale at K-Mart (or whatever you CA people have) and change them after each sex scene. Don't buy colors! Don't buy flannel! Plain white COTTON sheets (and pillowcases). Get rid of the FREAKIN' purple/red bedspread for Chrissake! 17) Cover the ceiling (which you will never show) in correct color temperature fluorescents. You should then be able to get rid of ALL standing lights. 18) Since you no longer have a monitor in the room, you won't need any cables! 19) Get rid of the other clutter. Get some straight back chairs (good for sex too!) and put the clothes in drawers. Piles of used clothing on the floor give a smell to the viewer. (If I see a discarded sock, I smell dirty feet.) 20) Stop taking still photos. Do the box cover off camera and take the back of the box illustrations from the videotape. 21) If you have a couple who are willing to let you videotape them screwing (this is something to encourage), don't under any circumstances talk to them after sex begins. 22) Stop asking the girl if she had an orgasm; it invites lies. We'll make up our own minds. 23) Make sure the credits are correct. If you have any input to the choice of a stage name try to get them to choose both a first and a last name, neither of which mean anything and neither of which depend on capitalization. Check to see there's no one else of the same name who has ever appeared in the industry. 6/5/00 Pat Riley writes on RAME: Despite my previous resolution to stop watching Ed's movies, unfortunately I've had to restart. The problem lies in tracking the new girls and obtaining a good description of them and Ed is the one place where I can see them standing, head to toe, and without three inches of makeup. Further if other review publications used competent people who could actually give them correct names, describe them properly, and ID their other appearances I wouldn't have to put up with watching the bloated white whale. Some observations: #125: Amanda is the ugly Amanda Rain. China Doll is not the China Doll from Hard To Swallow #8 nor the black girl but a pre-pubertal bodied Oriental. Keki D'Aire has been around for at least a year. Skylar is Skylar Knight. She looks burnt-out and says as much, complaining that she's sore from a previous g/g and from doing 3 to 4 scenes per week. #126: Blake is Blake Powers who appeared back in #89. From her looks (blonde hair now) she's reaching the bottom of society's barrel. T.Robbins has a very tight body and large natural tits but facially she's only marginal. Felony = thick-bodied woof-woof. Mesha = flabby infant damaged belly. The last is Mel (Melanie) who I first saw in The Babysitter #2 in which she has a very peculiar reaction to being praised for her body and clothing--it's like she's desperate for compliments. In #126, based on the bags under her eyes, she looks like she's heavily into the drugs. Otherwise she has a nice little lithe body with no obvious signs of being an unmarried mother but her face is only marginal. She's 18 and 5'0" tall and quite sure of herself but when Ed asks the usual "When did you first have sex?" the answer, 10, causes him to have a conniption. Since she looks 14 now, one can imagine that she looked like Jon Benet Ramsey at 10. He doesn't even bother with the "Shouldn't you have waited" but presumes child abuse (my interpretation) and starts asking her about her relationships. Surprisingly she handles herself pretty well. Well, I think 10 is the youngest in recent times (at least admitted to). Personally I'm waiting for the single digits. #127: Samantha is the married girl from All Natural #4. Nikita is a big girl with a very flabby belly. It's not Nikita Gross and she doesn't sound foreign. Trisha is Ashley Shye who's hardly a debutante having been in porn since 1995. Samantha Rivers is a typical mall girl (that means she doesn't look like a whore, you could take her home without sniggering from your friends and relatives, and she's presentable facially and body wise but she's not drop dead gorgeous). I first saw her in University Co-Eds #23 and judging from her statements in that movie she's realized her mistake and is well out of the business by now. This is the only girl to whom Ed poses the "Do you like older guys?" question and her answer is really that she has no opinion. Ed's in a talkative mode and asks her about the age of her boyfriends--a few years older than her--and then starts talking about college. She dropped out because she found it boring and Ed, quite nicely I thought, gives her a series of reasons why she should be back in college and not working. Maybe he had something to do with her decision to leave. Ed seems to have a new "Jake" as the cameraman, a young white guy with reddish brown hair, sideburns and a moustache. In #127 he screws both of the Samanthas after Ed but don't blink or you'll miss it. The guy is like Shiloh, a premature ejaculator. This isn't criticism BTW. I like premature ejaculators. They give the impression that they're so turned on by the girl that they can't hold back and probably for other reasons the girls seem to like them. Another change is that Ed now gives the date of videoing (he calls it filming) of each scene which is supposed to prove that Ed really gets them first. I like it because it allows me to date the movie but it didn't help with (for example) Trisha or Keki above.
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