Page 20 - AVN February 2017

WHO’S WHO
AN X-RATED LIFE
Tyler Knight pens ‘Burn My Shadow’
takes a more literary approach. It reads more like a
novel as opposed to facts of who, what, when, where,
how and why. It’s much more entertaining than a
simple regurgitation of facts. It’s all first person, and
the difference between this and a lot of memoirs
is, memoirs are by definition an accounting of the
past so they’re usually written in first person past
tense. But I made an artistic choice to write in first
person present tense, so that it feels like the story
is unfolding for the reader at the same time it’s
unfolding for the narrator, which is obviously me.”
Of course, writing as if the reader is looking over
your shoulder has its drawbacks, such as a linear
storyline that may feel a bit claustrophobic, but
Knight fills out the narrative with flashbacks to his
life before porn and the early months of his career.
“For the most part, the narrative starts 14 years
ago and just drives forward to the finish line, which
ends up roughly in 2014,” Knight noted. “I would
have written more, but see, the funny thing is, with
books, it takes a long freakin’ time to get published
and by the time I turned in my manuscript two years
ago, it took that long for the darn thing to finally get
published, which was on November 15. I had a book
release party on November 4 at a local bookstore,
list and how some companies completely ignored
the moratorium and how some performers ended
up price-gouging their rates because that was the
market it was, during the moratorium when nobody
should have been shooting anyway! And then there
were the moments of self-reflection about what I’m
doing with my life and how that forced me to be
more cognizant of safety protocol, not just for myself
but for my fellow performers when I’m actually
working with them. And also the Tiger Woods
scandal and how I ended up satirizing him several
times.”
There’s plenty of that and more in the 328 pages
that comprise Burn My Shadow, which veteran player
Stoya described as “poignant, gritty and blunt,”
and with retired star Ashley Blue commenting,
“Tyler has never fit the typical mold of ‘porno guy.’
He’s great looking but he isn’t a meathead. His
sensitivity, curiosity and introspectiveness are what
make him so appealing.”
But perhaps the best compliment came from
fellow author Jerry Stahl, the screenwriter for
such classic Rinse Dream XXX hits as Café Flesh,
Nightdreams and Party Doll A Go-Go: “Tyler Knight’s
scalding and eye-opening memoir, Burn My Shadow,
may well do for the sex industry what Upton
‘IT READS MORE LIKE A NOVEL AS
OPPOSED TO FACTS OF WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW AND WHY. IT’S MUCH MORE ENTERTAINING THAN A
S
SINCE JOINING THE ADULT INDUSTRY IN 2003, Tyler Knight
has racked up an impressive résumé of over 500 videos,
working for just about every major producer in the state,
not to mention three AVN Awards and even Heartthrob
of the Year from the Feminist Porn Awards in 2009—and
SIMPLE REGURGITATION OF FACTS.’
he’s still at it, having appeared in what he describes as
a “White House orgy thing,” perhaps better known as
the Brazzers web scene “ZZ Erection 2016 4,” as well
as Jacky St. James’ Interracial Family Needs for Mile High,
Seduction for Penthouse, and Republican Candidate Wife
Swap for Hustler.
But sometimes, even porn performers get the urge to
set down their experiences in writing—and that’s why,
in between all his work between the sheets, Knight had
been toiling away on his memoir, Burn My Shadow: A
Selective Memory of an X-Rated Life, for the better part of a
decade.
“I actually started writing it back in the ’00s, and
frankly, my writing skill and my craft wasn’t anywhere
near as developed as my acting talent,” Knight admitted,
READING LIST | By Mark Kernes
“so the fortunate thing was, by the time I finally found
the literary agent who actually sold it, my craft and my
writing skill caught up and it was pretty darn polished at
that point. But it took ten years of writing and revising
and revising, you know.”
In a way, the book is almost a virtual reality version
of Knight’s life both in and out of porn since the early
2000s.
“It’s about my almost 15 years in the business, and the
experiences I’ve had in the business,” Knight explained,
“and instead of it just being a typical memoir which is
‘On this date I did this, and this is what I had for lunch
and I met this person and this is what happened,’ it
20 | AVN.com | 2.17
Skylight Books, which had a great turnout, and we
had a few advance copies that we sold out of quickly.
It’s tracking very well, and the preorders were
extremely high.”
Knight didn’t begin Burn My Shadow with his first
on-camera appearance, which was for Veronica
Hart’s Barbara Broadcast Too for VCA, but rather with
the scene he did for the man he calls an “evil genius,”
Jim Powers.
“The story actually begins on a bukkake set—ah,
the notorious bukkakes!” he recounted with a sigh.
“It was Mr. Jim Powers’ bukkake set, and it was
quite a bit different from being on a set with a VCA
contract girl. Oh, God, it was a Fellini-esque circus,
and Mr. Powers has a very dark and twisted sense of
humor and I love him.
“I also talk about the HIV crisis of 2004,” he added,
“how I was one of the very first people quarantined as
first generation, and what that’s like, living through
that, and how it affected the people I care about,
my off-camera sexual partners, and the challenge
of having to call people whom I worked with who
weren’t even notified that I was first generation and
telling them that they had to get themselves checked
and how some of them shot the messenger; how
some companies completely ignored the quarantine
Sinclair’s The Jungle did for meat-packing—with the
difference that the author, a porn actor who writes
like a cross between Ralph Ellison and Celine,
actually packed his own meat. At once a full-frontal
meditation on 21st Century American celebrity and
an up-close, blow-by-blow of life as the ultimate
first person shooter, Burn My Shadow’s real shock is
not its Triple X-centric content, but the deep heart,
wild-ass humor and fearless humanity of the writing
itself. The perfect anecdote to literary memoir
fatigue, Burn My Shadow is a truly unique, genre-
defying, un-put-downable triumph.”
Burn My Shadow is available from Amazon.com
and many other online retailers—but Knight would
prefer if you didn’t buy it there.
“I am a staunch supporter of bookstores,” Knight
said, “so there’s a website called IndieBound
[IndieBound.org], where you can type in the name of
my book, and there’s a little box next to the listing
where you can type in your zip code and it will show
you every single bookstore in the U.S. that is selling
my book within 20 miles of you.”
That’s Tyler Knight: Classy to a fault!