Brody's Notes... Investigative Journalist Iva Skoch: Gay For Pay In Prague

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 24 | In an globalpost investigative report, published online today, investigative correspondent Iva Skoch gained rare access to one of Eastern Europe’s most secretive industries, uncovering a world where shifting human sexuality meets rampant commercial demand. It is an industry where global economic crisis mixes with the latest web technologies, set amid the upheavals of Eastern Europe’s uneven transition from communism to a raw form of capitalism.
Entitled; "Gay-4-Pay in Prague,"  Skoch examines the complex and interlocking pieces of Prague’s booming gay porn business, from its roots in an American entrepreneur, William Higgins, to the cultural, moral and political foundations that make Prague a gay porn capital, as well as the economic necessities that drive many into the industry, and finally, the human toll it takes on workers. 

By Iva Skoch (Prague, Czech Republic) Mar 24 | The Prague film studio of William Higgins, 67, an American producer and “dean of gay porn” who moved to Prague right after communism ended to corner the gay sex market, releases one new DVD for retail sales and three DVDs for the online streaming companies each month. He also posts 13 main video scenes, 12 casting videos and two backstage videos every week online. AVI Films release up to three videos a month. Other producers, such as Michael Lucas, outsource their American productions here from time to time because, as he says, there is plenty of talent, both on the modeling side and on the cinematography side. Moreover, the production costs are about a third cheaper than in the United States. 

William Higgins    Photo By Iva Skoch 

Higgins, an Oklahoma native who went to a Christian school, says he is “very Catholic” about casting men for his films. They can be 18 or 35, as long as they are good. With that said, he rejects about 80 percent of them, typically for “not having the look” — too ugly or misshapen — or, more importantly, not being able to perform under pressure.

With 14 years in the porn industry already behind him, he left the U.S. in 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic struck and made the American gay porn business a depressing place to be. He moved his operations to Amsterdam.

When Higgins first visited Prague, he was amazed by how easy it was to get men to have sex.

“I picked up a hitchhiker once and asked, ‘Hey, you want to have sex for $60?’” says Higgins. “He said, ‘OK.’ It was that easy.”

He started a business in Prague, first the club, Drakes, and then a studio. He found it was much easier to recruit models in Prague than in Amsterdam. Unemployed Dutch men and students got generous state benefits and thought twice about “plastering their asses all over the screen” for extra cash. Czechs didn’t have those hang-ups.

Moreover, “Czechs would do it anyway,” he says, even with generous state benefits. They are entrepreneurial, he says, “always looking to make an extra buck."

The majority of the Czech gay porn models, especially the occasional models, have regular day jobs and girlfriends. Some are married. There are college and high-school students, bartenders or unemployed. It’s not unusual to see cops, firemen and nurses. They typically keep their porn alter-egos secret.

“It always starts with ads for modeling and goes slowly from there,” he says. When a guy shows up, he is always told it’s nude modeling. Some guys leave right away, some will stay. A producer will tell them they could get more money if they did solo masturbation. Some think about it and accept. Then even more money if they do a sex scene with another guy. It progresses slowly, but “you wake up and realize you are on a train that you can’t get off of.” Or, even before that happens, the producer might say “they no longer need you because you are old news.”

In porn, everyone is always looking for the next thing, the new guy. Porn is fantasy. People don’t want to keep seeing the same faces and bodies. The models want to know what’s next and, usually, end up as escorts and hustlers. They are willing to work hard, but hard work is not always the magic formula when it comes to the forces of demand.  Higgins assistant said:

“We don’t tell them they might only be here once. Most of them only come once, twice or maybe three times, and then we don’t need them anymore.” 

All they might ever make in gay porn is the $150 they made the first time, yet the evidence of their brief career will be online forever.

To read the complete article please go to globalpost.com.

Photo Courtesy of Iva Skoch

Iva R. Skoch is a freelance journalist who splits her time between New York and Prague. Her articles have been published in Newsweek.com, Slate, TimeOut Prague, AOL and other publications. She was a staff writer at the Prague Post and regularly writes for the Czech magazine Reflex. Ms. Skoch was granted a MS in Magazine Writing,  from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York.