Who am I? – Tricia Devereaux

A couple months ago, I received an email letting me know that DVDTalk.com was going to be switching it's name and getting a makeover. It's new incarnation would be called XCritic and would focus on just adult product. 

More pertinent, the head of DVDTalk asked me if I'd be willing to be one of a handful of bloggers on the new site. I was at the same time honored and terrified.  As head of PR for Evil Angel, my most difficult part of the job is writing. I used to be a wallflower, but over the years I've become very social. So networking and talking to people is not an issue for me at all. I genuinely love the product that I represent, and I really enjoy getting to work with the girls at conventions and signings.  However, when it's time for me to write a press release rather than simply call up journalists, I agonize over what I'm going to write, and 9 times out of 10, I have horrible writer's block.

Adding to my insecurity of my ability to write coherently and interestingly is the fact that three of my close friends are amazing writers, and my best friend in the world is possibly one of the most interesting writers I've had the pleasure of reading. These people are worthy of your time, but me?  Then I got insanely busy preparing for the convention, which was a very convenient (and real) excuse for me to put off starting to blog.

Well, here we go... I'm going to start with a short bio of me, so you can get a little better idea where my viewpoint on the adult industry comes from if you choose to read any of my further entries.

I grew up in the Midwest, where I graduated from college with a bachelor's degree and started graduate school. I had a childhood which was equal parts stable and crazy. My mother was overly strict and emotionally and physically abusive, but it was that which made me stay focused on my life so that I could achieve the most possible. While a junior in college, I started stripping at a DejaVu to help pay the bills. I immediately loved the attention, especially since I had been pretty much a nerdy wallflower in high school!

I met a lot of porn stars while at DejaVu, many of whom encouraged me to try being a porn performer. My graduate school learned that I started doing videos and wasn't exactly thrilled. So at their request, I left, and made the decision to move out to LA. At the time, I was married to my college boyfriend, the first guy I had ever had sex with. Although it was him who introduced me to the world of DejaVu, he just couldn't deal with me wanting to do scenes. We had very little in common, and if he hadn't been my first boyfriend, I think I would have realized that there was a difference between me thinking he was a nice guy, and knowing that I wasn't in love with him.

I was pretty naïve in general back then (sometimes I think I still am), and looking back at my career I wonder if maybe I didn't push hard enough, or market myself enough, but I was having fun at least. I fell in love again, this time to director Rob Black. We almost got married, but he told me I'd have to quit doing porn. He had already limited me to only making videos with him. Those of you know him probably know he's just not a good person at all, and while I MIGHT have quit doing porn for someone I actually considered a good person, I wasn't going to stop doing something I enjoyed for someone who didn't deserve it. So once again, I moved on to new things....

I was succeeding in the video business, stripping as dance club feature, and doing magazine layouts in the fall of 1997. I even won Best All-Girl Sex Scene with Jeanna Fine and PJ Sparxx at the AVN Awards in January 1998.

Then, later that week, I found out that I had somehow gotten HIV. I didn't know from who or where, but I was of course devastated. (It was later discovered that it was Marc Wallice who had infected at least 4 or more porn girls.) I had a lot of emotional support from friends and fans, but decided to move home to be close to my family. I stayed in touch with a few good friends back in LA. This included a new friend, John Stagliano.

John and I kept in touch over the next few months and agreed to meet in Chicago. I can't speak for him, but I think after I got over my nervous high-school jitters, we hit it off from the start. (And the sex wasn't too bad either!) Anyway, after a few visits to each other and lots of phone calls, John asked me to move back to California. I did in August 1999, and have been loving it. I work in the office at Evil Angel. I love going to conventions to meet new people and to see all of my old fans again. I also love to travel whenever I get the chance, so it works out well all around.

In November 1999 I did one last hardcore scene, with John for Buttman's Toy Stories. I think it was one of my best scenes ever, partly because the emotions were completely real. I was nominated for Best Tease at AVN, and the scene was nominated for Best Sex Scene at XRCO. The video won Video of the Year from the XRCO awards.

As for my health (since I get a lot of inquiries about that), I feel great (as does John) and see my doctor regularly, who tells me I'm doing terrific. I'm not sure what the future holds, but right now John and I are ultra-busy with work and our daughter.

For almost all of 2002, I worked on The Fashionistas, John's new 35mm film.  It's the biggest and best project I've been involved in to date. The cast that came together for the movie couldn't have been more perfect, with Belladonna and Rocco Siffredi as the stars.

I co-produced a vignette video for Evil Angel called Buttman Comics Presents... Tales From the Crack which came out in September 2004, and on DVD in January 2005.  It won Best Vignette Movie at the 2005 AVN Awards.

I directed Buttman Comics Presents... Vault of Whores, which was the first movie for me and David Lord as directors. It also won the AVN Best Vignette Movie in 2006. Over the years, I've learned how to edit, and have been consistently improving my camerawork, both on video and with still photography. I still oversee Evil Angel DVD, but there is a great staff that runs the department everyday.

The last two years, I was involved in Fashionistas Safado, directed by John, with me assistant directing.  It's even more visual than the original, and goes deeper into the S/M world.  I love being able to show that women taking part in harder sex doesn't have to be degrading.  This business is a perfect outlet for my sexuality and over the years I've learned that as long as I keep a level head, it's not nearly as difficult to balance and separate my professional life with my life as a mother and wife.

I'm trying to find time again for my own projects, which is really difficult considering that I spend so much time helping John at Evil Angel, but I keep hoping I'll find the time.

-January 20, 2008