The personified anti-stereotype: My German VICE magazine interview

During HustlaBall Berlin last weekend, reporter Ronny Matthes (shown with Dirk and me in the photo above) from VICE magazine‘s Berlin bureau approached me to ask me a few questions for an article he was writing about the event. I don’t speak a lick of German, so the interview was conducted in English, and then translated. Thanks to Google Translate — plus the help of my friend Troy Webb, who speaks fluent German — I’m posting my best interpretation of my portion of the article below. I have to say, though, I’m rather tickled by the following phrase: “Jesse Jackman is the personified anti-stereotype of a porn star.”

If you’ve spent even a small part of your existence consuming gay porn, then HustlaBall is like a candy shop, because there’s homosexual eye candy running around everywhere. Some of the porn stars I’ve known since my early teenage years; these days, they’re accordingly haggard-looking or overly botoxed. And some are quite out of it. When I interviewed absolute megastar Brent Everett, I have to say afterwards that there was only stammering on the tape.

“It’s such an honor to be here” won’t make it into the Olympus of coherent sentences, but the complete opposite is also possible. Jesse Jackman is the personified anti-stereotype of a porn star. When I met Jesse — who was there with his husband Dirk Caber — we had an intellectual discussion about HIV prevention and sexual ethics in the midst of dozens of drunken, celebrating men who were popping ecstasy tabs into their mouths. “I have a degree in Japanese and another in computer science,” Jesse recounted. He also likes classical music (he plays piano) and blogs for the Huffington Post about politics, art, and issues of personal importance.

But what was Jesse’s answer to this crucial question: Top or Bottom? “I do both. But in the porn industry, I bottom more, because I think there is a demand for bigger, more muscular guys who do.” In fact, Jesse is quite large [1.85 m, or 6′ 1″] compared to other performers. So far I haven’t seen a professional here of more than about 1.70 m (5′ 6″), coming up only to my shoulder. At 42 years old, Jesse is also older than the average porn star. But he isn’t planning on retiring anytime soon. “I’m doing this as long as I enjoy it,” he said, “and there’s no end in sight.”

You can find the entire article in English here, and in German here. I’m also posting a few photos from HustlaBall below… more to come, including (hopefully) some video from when Dirk and I did our live shows!