Comparing the gay porn industry to North America’s fast-food industry reveals some interesting parallels. Most obviously: they’re both guilty pleasures. But a further examination reveals deeper similarities.
Both industries are big money and cut-throat and rely on a young and inexperienced workforce.
Even some of the porn houses seem to mirror the familiar “restaurants” that speckle our highways.
Falcon Studios, one of gay porn’s most recognizable and enduring brands, is like A&W: comfortable, thick patties, and it hasn’t updated its colour scheme since the 1970s.
Bel Ami, Eastern Europe’s biggest gay porn-ducer, bears a striking resemblance to KFC: lots of tasty white meat with extra skin.
Channel 1 Releasing is like Wendy’s in that both companies rest squarely on the shoulders of their founders. (Also, as time passes, Chi Chi LaRue looks more and more like Dave Thomas.)
But any comparison of fast food and porn (and I’m surprised there aren’t more) would be incomplete without comparing Colt Studios, the industry leader for more than 40 years, to McDonald’s. Both have mass appeal, a consistent product and an unmistakable brand.
Colt’s latest offering, Bulge, offers a consistent mix of muscular, masculine guys fucking. (This is where the comparison to McDonald’s ends, thankfully.) Through four scenes that alternate between duos and trios, the studio showcases a nice cross-section of men, both in terms of body type and age.
The first scene features two fit jock types (Michael Troy and David Sweet), a warehouse, a swing set and a great deal of sweat.
The second scene is a threesome between Max Summers, Nick Nolan and Thai Mattox. You know how some threesomes involve three people having sex equally, while others involve two people fucking a third? This is more like the latter, but Max Summers takes it all in stride.
Later the location changes to a rustic dry sauna in Sebastian Bronco’s basement and a visit from Junior, whose sprawling tattoo reaches from his pecs to shoulder blade, from his neck to wrist while nicely accentuating his body.
The other threesome in Bulge features somewhat beefier Greg Wilson, Jack Dragon and a second scene from Michael Troy. Troy’s performances are uniformly sexy. He’s well defined, handsome and not kidding around.
If the gay porn industry is akin to the fast-food industry and Colt Studios is McDonald’s, then Bulge is a Big Mac and Troy, the special sauce.