Photos from Behind the Scenes of the Oscars of Porn

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Photos from Behind the Scenes of the Oscars of Porn

If you imagine the entire porn industry stuck in a hotel together, then pour booze and cocaine on that, throw a bunch of rich Vegas douchebag money on top of everything, you get exactly what you would expect.

The first time I traveled to Vegas for the so called "Oscars of Porn" was back in 2008 when a couple of friends of mine were nominated for AVN Awards for an Exorcist porn parody called The XXXorcist and I went along for the ride. A year later I had just been laid off of my last real job and I decided to go back this time as actual credentialed media—from then on, porn was my beat.

Eight years after my first AVN Awards I returned to Vegas and my friend Joanna Angel, who lost her nomination for The XXXorcist back then, was hosting the whole show. Joanna and an ex-girlfriend of mine were both inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame, so AVN feels as much as a family reunion as it does an assignment.

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The AVN experience is a lot more than just an award show. It's four days of total madness that includes the Adult Entertainment Expo, the actual awards show, and more parties than you could imagine with non-stop weirdness going on in the rooms, casinos, and bars of the Hard Rock Hotel.

If you imagine the entire porn industry stuck in a hotel together, then pour booze and cocaine on that, throw a bunch of rich vegas douchebag money on top of everything, you get exactly what you would expect: a four-day orgy of sex followed by emotional breakdowns and 75 percent of the industry sick in bed for the next week.

See you all next year.

All photographs by Nate "Igor" Smith. You can follow more of his work here, and grab his new zine and other goodies here.