Page 42 - AVN April 2018

OUT TO LAUNCH | By Brady Jansen
GAYVN
THE LIFE EROTIC
YouTube star Davey Wavey launches Himeros.tv
Davey Wavey giving the keynote speech during GayVN@Internext. Photo by Rick Garcia/@IndustryByRick
that’s when his boyfriend leaned in …
“When you’re 19 years old and you’re covered in cum in your college dorm room
and your boyfriend says, ‘We need to talk,’ it’s generally not a good thing,” recalls
In a college dorm room. Nineteen years old. With his boyfriend. Covered in cum. And
Davey Wavey. “Very dramatically, he leans into me and he’s like, ‘Dave, when I have
sex with you, it’s like being in a porn.’ And my whole face just lit up. I was like,
‘You’re welcome! That’s awesome!’ And he was like, ‘No, that wasn’t a
compliment …’”
With that relatable story of awkward youth stumbling through their early days of sex, the
YouTube personality built an immediate personal connection with an audience of A-list gay
porn performers, producers and business owners—whose laughs immediately welcomed the
engaging speaker into the family. They were packed inside the Vinyl nightclub at the Hard
Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on January 21 to hear him deliver the keynote at the GayVN
Brunch sponsored by Flirt4Free, MrMan.com and CCBill.
The YouTube icon—an advocate for sexuality and gay pride—was there to talk about his
about-to-launch Himeros.tv, an erotic playground for men who have sex with men to enhance
their experience of sex and sexuality. Himeros.tv seeks to build a community around sexual
exploration, connection and ecstasy via weekly video updates, members-only live video chats
and much more on the full website.
But just before he took the stage, Davey admitted to some nerves about how he would fit in.
“I’ve met a lot of the talent though different YouTube things that we’ve done, filming and
interviewing, but I haven’t met the people behind the scenes, so it’s nice to meet the directors
and the studio owners. It’s funny because it’s a very small community where they all know each
other—and I feel very much like the outsider coming to small town. They’re a little bit like,
‘What’s this? Who’s this new girl in town?’ It’s all these people who have made this content that has
shaped a big part of my life.”
With nearly 300 million followers in more than 160 countries worldwide, Davey has built his
brand around spreading messages of love and acceptance—using humor and sex as vehicles—in
a library of 800-plus (and fast growing) videos.
“I went to Catholic school, and I wasn’t going to learn about gay sex from Sister Mary
Francis,” continued the Rhode Island native on stage. “I remember when she was teaching our
health class, she pulled down the anatomy chart and she pointed to the dick and was like, ‘This
is your danger zone.’ I couldn’t ask my parents about it; they’re straight, cis gender. I can’t ask
my mom about anal douching … so I think like a lot of gay boys, I learned about gay sex from
kind of a strange combination of trial and error, and then watching gay porn.”
But everything changed years later when he was living in Toronto after graduation.
Davey looked out his window into another apartment three floors below to find a beautiful
20-something man completely naked—feet up and straddling both sides of his computer—going
at it.
“It was super hot; I was totally enamored,” he recalls. “I did what I think any rational
adult would do: I took out my webcam, and there was this new website that had just started
up called YouTube. I made a video about it. It turns out a lot of people apparently search for
‘masturbating neighbors’ on YouTube, because very quickly the video
got millions and millions of views, and people started subscribing to
my YouTube channel.”
He quickly realized that he had a growing audience, and that maybe
there was—at the very least—some opportunity to do something with
it other than make videos about his masturbating neighbor. And for
the next 11 years and counting, that’s what he’s been doing.
“The reason I am so excited to speak to you guys today is that
so many of the people in this room and at this conference have
been a part of my own journey of sexual exploration and discovery,
particularly Jake Jaxson with CockyBoys, Flower at Helix, and there’s
been amazing models we’ve worked with including Blake Mitchell,
Joey Mills, Trenton Ducati, Calvin Banks, Josh Brady, Sean Ford … not
only have you inspired and motivated me, you guys have also inspired
and motivated my audience, so I’m really thankful for that.”
Off stage, Davey easily recalled his first experience with gay porn:
Centaur’s Navy Blues: Deeper in the Brig, starring Brent Everett. “It’s
funny, because in Toronto last summer, I interviewed Brent and we
watched that porn together—he had never seen it, he doesn’t really
watch his stuff—and it was really fun to watch the video with the guy
who was in it. It was the first porn I ever saw, so it came full circle.”
His messages have been communicated through gay erotic
content—initially one-off programs that led to the launch of
Himeros.tv late last year.
“Our mission is to enhance gay men’s experience of sex and
sexuality through exploration, connection and sexual ecstasy, so while
I wouldn’t say in our outward messaging that we would ever say ‘this
is education content,’ the reality is you do learn about yourself and
techniques—how to have full-body orgasms, guided masturbations,
stuff that I as a kid growing up in a gay world would have loved to
have had communicated to me. There really wasn’t someone doing
that.”
OUR MISSION IS TO
ENHANCE GAY MEN’S
EXPERIENCE OF SEX AND
SEXUALITY THROUGH
EXPLORATION, CONNEC-
TION AND SEXUAL ECSTASY.
—DAVEY WAVEY
Davey said they have been traveling all around the world working
with sex coaches, tantric gurus, directors and cinematographers
to try to communicate these messages through erotic content—an
experiment that he’s still learning about.
“As much as I would like to say I’m doing this content for my
audience—that’s part of it, that’s true—but I’m also creating this
content for myself. In particular, I’m creating it for the 19-year-old
version of myself who is in his college dorm room, laying with his
boyfriend, covered in cum who just really doesn’t get it.”
Affiliates can participate in Davey Wavey’s new vision for gay erotica
at Himeros.tv/affiliate. Billing and affiliates are handled by CCBill.
For more information, email marketing@himeros.tv.
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