Colby Chambers; his career and where the porn industry is heading

The following is only intended for mature audiences.

My journey to uncover the gay porn industry continues as I got the chance to speak with porn star Colby Chambers. He agreed to talk with me about both his career and the porn industry as a whole. As I continue speaking with those experienced in the industry, I began to recognize patterns.

The porn industry is heavily misunderstood and has led to consequences, sometimes deadly, as many confront an unnamed personal crisis within themselves. The fame, money, and hustle lure many young men into a seemingly easy career based on looks, desire, and youth. Based on my interviews, these assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth.

Some models can handle the life-changing necessities of being in the porn industry. This career was made for them. Chambers is one of those individuals.

Conner Tighe: When was the first time you viewed porn?

Colby Chambers: I was born in 1986, so the internet wasn’t quite as vibrant as it is today. For me, in the beginning, it was a lot of downloading jpegs and I’m talking five solid minutes per picture. Once I got past the initial amazement -- euphoria, we’ll call it -- of discovering porn and started to see the same faces popping up, recognizing porn stars and stuff like that, it had a very big effect on me because I was very in the closet. I was terrified to come out, and I was seeing these guys that were doing what I was scared to do and they were doing it publicly, in the open, with pride and they were getting everything for it, money, love, attention and of course you only see the positive of it. And I don’t think “trolling” was a thing back then as the way it is now, but it probably came in the form of hate letters, something you don’t have to see. I just saw the positives of it. It appeared to me they were doing everything that I wanted to do, that I was scared to do and they were getting positive reinforcement for it. That didn’t happen the very first time I saw porn, but with that time frame in my life, that’s the effects it had on me. I think that stuck and gave me sort of a mainstream comfort, love, and passion for porn that I don’t think too many straight people could understand, but a lot of gay people from my generation could probably relate.

CT: Where did you grow up?

CC: A suburb in Kansas City. I imagine it was in pockets but without the internet and social media, and everyone being connected, it was tough to tap into a community that’s not your own. You had to stick your neck out in a way that you don’t have to anymore. You can find people using the anonymity of the internet. I don’t want to say it was an extremely homophobic or close-minded place, but at least in the circles I ran in, I didn’t feel super comfortable coming out. There weren’t too many people where I was like, “Oh yeah, I’ll start with them.” But Kansas City is known as a pretty accepting place but back then, without everybody being connected the way they are now, you could have a vibrant gay community down the street and have no idea.

CT: How did you get into the porn industry?

CC: It started with webcamming initially in 2011-2012. I was working in a restaurant at the time and I was getting to a point where I was burned out. A friend of mine would always invite me to do stuff and I’d always say, “I’m broke.” And he’d say, “Well, you work all the time. How are you always broke?” So he floated the idea to me and I tried it on a site that wasn’t the best for English-speaking models, so I didn’t do super well there, not to make excuses. I took about a year where I didn’t mess with it. And then I had the situation where I was dating a guy who was living with me and he needed an income, but at the same time, he was going back and forth to another country all the time. So he didn’t get a regular 9 to 5 job because no one wants to hire someone leaving all the time. I had mentioned that and he got into the industry and then it got to a point where I was still working in the restaurant and I’d get home after a six-hour shift after getting my ass kicked and bitched at by rude customers. I’d be like, “Oh, it was a good day; I made about $80.” And he would say, “Oh, that’s good, I touched myself for an hour and made $200.” Webcamming is still a big part of what we do and our brand.

CT: How does one get into the industry?

CC: It’s crazy how often the porn industry changes. These days, the best way to get started is to set up a Twitter account and find similar accounts. So if you’re going for straight content, find accounts that will benefit you there, gay content, same thing. You want to build up a Twitter platform because it all starts there. That’s where everything happens now, which is crazy because it wasn’t like that five years ago. But you start there and if you need the income right away or even if not, start an OnlyFans. So those two things are the best steps in the door these days because they will get you out there. If you want to drop applications down the road, you can, and you’ve already got a body of work that studios can easily see. They don’t have to ask any questions. The easier you can make a studio to book you, the better because there are many more models than studios these days. Studios are dying off. It’s different these days and it’s great because studios aren’t the gatekeepers like they used to be. If a few people didn’t want you to do well in the industry, they could stop you from doing anything. It’s not like that anymore, but it’s more on you; it’s more on the individual. You have to hustle; you have to work more; you have to be aggressive and ambitious with it. It’s not something that’s handed to you anymore.

CT: Why are the studios dying off?

CC: Amateur content. It’s been a series of blows for the last 10 years. Tube sites (Pornhub, Xvideos, etc.) came on the scene. They would let users upload videos that exonerated them from a lot of copyright issues, or at least it bought them time, so it would be like, “Oh, nobody reported that video for three years, so we didn’t take it down.” That was how they started and their ad revenues grew so much that they got bigger than the studios themselves. So the tube sites aren’t the new “Daddy,” they’re like the corporate interest of the industry. And MEN.com is the production studio that was created by the tube company MindGeek. They own everything in the industry these days. Tube sites were the beginning and that hurt a lot of studios. Since then, MindGeek is very good about working with studios now and we have a lot of deals with Pornhub and other MindGeek affiliated sites and companies. I don’t think they’re hurting studios anymore, but they did step in and take a bite of the market share. We took a huge hit when OnlyFans came out. We’ve since adapted and found a way to make it work for us. And I think that’s the difference between studios that will survive and studios that won’t. It would be like saying, “We’ve made DVDs for 40 years; it’s always worked, so why would we stop?” Those studios are going to die. I’m not saying it’s impossible for studios to survive and thrive. New studios are starting every day. Many of the big institutional names that were ruling gay porn for a while have either folded completely or been bought by MindGeek.

CT: Were you ever affiliated with a studio or studios?

CC: In the beginning, I did go out and work for a few studios. I worked for Falcon and Gay Room a couple of times, and maybe I’m too much of a control freak, but I didn’t care for it. I didn’t like the way they did things. I couldn’t picture myself making a career with them doing that repeatedly, which is what led us to start our studio.

CT: What was it like working for a studio?

CC: It was very corporate-like, “This is our system. You either get on board, or you get thrown the fuck off.” It wasn’t warm, and it wasn’t personal. It was, “This is it, there are a lot of people that want to work for us. You’re lucky you’re here.”

CT: How do you feel about the industry when you first started vs. now?

CC: In the beginning, I had very high-minded goals for the industry. And I feel like, with youth, that’s just how it is. When you get into anything new, you think you are going to be the change. You know exactly how to do it differently, right, and better than everyone else. And you learn why things work the way they do. I don’t want to say I’ve gotten completely docile and 100 percent succumbed to it, but I’m focused more on my paycheck and how my husband and I are doing instead of trying to be some dominant, positive, changing force in the industry. That shit’s tiring; it stresses me out. It drove me insane for a while, so I had to make some adjustments to my expectations. Unfortunately, not everyone is friends because we’re gay and we’re all in this business. I don’t know why I thought it was going to be that way. But it’s quite the opposite.

A competitive field is a pretty way to say like an ugly side of people. Everyone says it’s a competitive field and everyone says they love competition and a challenge. Well, what that means is you’re going to see a side of people that you’d rather not see.

CT: What's been your favorite scene to work on?

CC: Well, I mean, my favorite person to work with is my husband. My favorite genre that we do is the cosplay stuff. We can even broaden it a bit. I like the scripted plot-based scenes. We do many scenes because models have a fantasy like that or because I wanted to do it. So I like the superhero stuff. More recently, we’ve done country boy, cowboy, stuff.

CT: How did you meet your husband?

CC: We met working together at Red Lobster. It’s become somewhat a famous tale at this point. We met pre-porn. He wasn’t out of the closet at all. He was the straight guy at work that I get on. It could’ve been me, too, if we would’ve been having our interactions during this social climate. I was a little forward with him because he was straight and we were in the workplace.

CT: How are you able to get into "character" before performing?

CC: I’ve always loved the idea of acting. It’s funny because I was always scared to do it in high school and stuff like that. Porn has given me somewhat of an outlet for it. I don’t have trouble getting myself into mindsets. Some people, I’m sure, study the lines, but we don’t do heavy scripts, even on our plot-based stuff. We create situations where we ask the models to adlib.

So I’m more convinced that I’m the ranch owner and I caught the farmhand stealing my hay or whatever the story is. I do my best to convince myself that’s actually happening and it usually works for me. It’s a turn-on to me, so it usually gives me just the right type of energy I need to knock a scene out of the park.

CT: Has this career made you more self-aware of your sexual health?

CC: I think it depends a lot on the studio. I’ve heard so much back and forth because I just don’t know. I’ve heard good and bad things about every studio out there today, so it’s hard to see where the truth is. I’ll say that PrEP is probably a good thing for the industry because nobody was doing it perfectly and I think PrEP has statistically helped save a lot of lives at the end of the day. I think OnlyFans is going in the wrong direction. Many of the OnlyFans people we talk to, it’s almost like an afterthought when they talk about testing. If you’re going to the bars and hooking up every couple of months, then sure, get tested every couple of months. But when you are as sexually active as you are in this industry, that doesn’t work. I think it could be better.

CT: Do you view this career as a job, an art, etc.? Why?

CC: Art form. It’s a little bit of everything. It’s interesting the skill sets that my husband and I have picked up doing this. It’s a pretty simple concept, film, sex, sell it. But what comes along with all that is development, accounting, editing, and photography. It depends on which section of business, but there’s art and business in the equation.

CT: Do you think this career should be something people strive to do? Why?

CC: I think people should put a lot of thought into it before they do it. Many people would filet me for saying this, but I would be OK with them raising the minimum age required to 21. I’ve seen a few people regret it. When you’re 18, 19, 20, you make crazy choices and do things you wish you had not done when you’re older. When we’ve had people that are on the fence about it, it’s funny because I give them the reasons why they would not want to get into the industry. I want them to really think about it and think about the downsides and not just the upsides they’re seeing. It’s an amazing industry and an amazing career, but many people come into it with the wrong impression. They think it’s a free ride and easy ride, so they naturally look great when they’re 18 and it is easy for a couple of years. Then all of a sudden, they don’t look great automatically anymore. They have to watch their diet, workout, and they’re not going to do that and it can lead to a huge depressive episode, huge identity crisis, shit you don’t want to be dealing with as a 21-year-old, so it’s a hard question to answer because it really depends on the person.

CT: Do people react to you or your husband in public?

CC: Over the years, we’ve noticed there’s a certain look. The look they have is if they saw a celebrity they’re not supposed to be a fan of. You see excitement and joy with a subtle shot of shame. We’ve gotten to be pros at picking up on it. In gay bars, we’ll have people ask to buy them drinks and shots. It’s not a mainstream celebrity situation where you can’t go out in public without people recognizing us. We’ll get a look now and then if we go to a Pride event or somewhere where there’s a lot of “us.”

CT: If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

CC: I’d probably be a web developer. They’re going to control everything eventually. In doing what I’ve done and worked with developers, I’ve often said that these people are like Gods on earth. I had a moment with my developer where I asked if he could do all these things and he said he could do anything. I’d like to work in video games, so at least there would be some entertaining fun to it because coding is actually very boring. Where it leads is exciting and the future.

CT: What are the biggest misconceptions people have about porn?

CC: That it’s easy and sleazy. We’ve met great people doing it. I think many people assume it’s a trashy business filled with trashy people and it’s not. It’s college kids and people thinking outside the box. To make a career of it is never easy.

CT: Do you think there's a stigma when it comes to porn? Thoughts?

CC: Yes, but I think it’s dampening. It’s definitely still there. I think it ties into women’s sexual freedom as well. The country is moving into a more progressive direction regarding our sexual freedom, which includes porn. I mention women because women have been one of the quickest rising demographics as far as customers in the gay porn industry for the past five years. We are gradually lifting the stigma because porn used to be so stigmatized that men couldn’t talk about it. Then it got to a time where “the boys” could talk about it. Now girls can talk about it too.

I feel like we were making more progress when I first started and it’s been ebbing for the last few years. I think OnlyFans is going to make that worse because it’s going to be a massive unregulated industry.

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