Page 44 - AVN December 2015

TECH NEWS
STAGE RITES | | By Jelena Jensen
by a venue, you
are on the clock
”When booked
from the time
you arrive
until the time
you leave.
—Jelena Jensen
After spending the past 11 years
performing in front of the camera,
I finally decided to pursue feature
dancing for the first time this year.
With all of us having a limited
“shooting life,” the time felt right to
Fan Dancer
After 11 years online, a web star hits the stage
get out there and meet/perform for my fan base.
make it to the venue on time, and then it’s show time. For me,
My first performance was booked via the Lee Network at
living on the West Coast certainly helps with the late-night
Sapphire NYC, and I had a blast. The house was packed with
shows, but I still always put another travel day on the end of
tons of fans who knew me from my on-camera work. I was
each performance for recovery purposes.
even able to meet a gentlemen who has been a subscriber to
With my current obligations to shooting and running my
my website for over a decade. I immediately saw how perform-
own website (JelenaJensen.com), I try to schedule only one
ing live allowed me to engage with my fans across the country
date per month to avoid burnout and throwing my body out
in a way that was never possible while I was primarily only
of whack. Staying healthy is one of the most important things
shooting movies and scenes.
in the business, period, so making sure I am getting adequate
For me, I always enjoyed going to the set—the same friendly
amounts of sleep, taking my vitamins, and eating healthy is
people with laid-out expectations. But as I got older, I got
imperative. Scheduling events with adequate downtime on
more comfortable with the idea of performing on my own in
both ends is preferred.
clubs. It is just a much different environment than what I was
When booked by a venue, you are on the clock from the
accustomed to. Having lots of people you don’t know watching
time you arrive until the time you leave. You must be pleasant,
you and possibly able to touch you wasn’t something I was too
engaging, and portray your excitement of performing for your
keen on early in my career, but these events are the best way to
fans regardless of the situation—which can be taxing. Because
interact with my fan base.
I often travel to performances alone, I will ask a club employee
Although I hadn’t previously received any stage/choreogra-
to help me out as an assistant to take some of the stress away,
phy training, my years of experience filming soft-core translat-
so I can focus on the performance.
ed well to my performances. Like soft-core, feature dancing is
Every once in awhile, you may come across a club that is far
all about selling the experience. Eye contact and knowing how
from packed. Don’t let this bother you: putting on an energetic
to “be sexy” can engage an audience—it’s not all about having
show and interacting with the customers who did come out
sex, but rather the connection you have with the audience.
will earn you future bookings. Fan draw and recognition at
But with all the great things that have come from perform-
club locations is a wonderful way to make you a regular at a
ing in clubs across the country, there are things that continual-
particular venue.
ly remind me that this is a job—a hard job.
One of the best things I have done and continue to do is
For those who have never performed in this capacity, there
rely on my friends and colleagues in the industry for advice
is a lot of time and effort that goes into the process before we
and tips. Because they have more experience than me, I have
ever step on stage. Between costumes (which are expensive),
been able to pick their brains and avoid stressful situations.
VIP/lap dance apparel, song sets and choreography choices,
For anyone interested in becoming a feature dancer, don’t be
there is a lot that goes into the success of a single performance.
shy about reaching out to other performers to get their take on
Making sure you are wearing something you are confortable
things.
and confident in goes a long way on stage. And costumes don’t
Is being a featured dancer an easy job? No, but it is an abso-
have to be elaborate productions; rather it is more important
lute blast. Performing for my fans across the country has been
to own your individual style. Simple is often better.
one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. Having a
The travel and performance schedules can be taxing physi-
platform to perform, as well as express my gratitude for the fan
cally and emotionally. Typically, I fly in the day of the perfor-
support throughout my career, is an amazing experience.
mance, go to the hotel, get ready as fast as possible in order to
Continued from page 42
space anymore as just something that’s creat-
ing content. You really have to do a lot of other
things in order to be a viral entity. Between
diversity and best practices, you have to create a
business plan and focus that’s going to navigate
through that. And fortunately, with Josh taking
over I’ll have a lot more time to focus in those
directions.”
Marcum’s focus is, appropriately, on “the
grind,” including the need to react to changes in
technology, such as redoing Homegrown’s sites
to operate without the use of Flash or JWPlayer.
“I think the first thing we’re going to end up
doing is streamlining to make it easier to update
and to stay up with technology. It won’t be long
before there’s 4K everything,” Marcum explained.
“To be able to stay constantly updated you have
to have a good solid backbone, a good foundation
44 | AVN.com | 12.15
to stay on par with technology.”
Keeping up is vital, he said, because consumers
these days demand more. “Everybody wants to
have the newest tech—the new iPhone, the new
Android, the new this. You have to stay with
them, because if you don’t, those people leave.
… And everything is closed source, so when it’s
closed source, you can’t update it yourself, so
you’re waiting around for a patch. And when
you’re waiting around for a patch, that could
make the difference between losing 1 percent of
your members or 2 percent of your members.”
He understates, “When you have multiple sites
it becomes a headache.”
And now, as CEO, the headache is all his. As
he ended the interview to get back to work he
joked, “I’m going to go grow some gray hair.”
Pictured: The Homegrown booth at AEE 2015