We attended the X3 Porn Expo in Los Angeles thanks to our guest Zoë Ligon, author of 'Carnal Knowledge: Sex Education You Didn't Get In School', founder of the Spectrum Boutique sex shop and Onlyfans content creator. We discuss her experience running a booth at the event, creating for onlyfans, and running a sex toy shop. Plus Julian gets bullied for writing poetry.
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Zoë Ligon's Links: https://linktr.ee/zoeligon/
Liv Agar: https://linktr.ee/livagar
Theme by Nick Sena, additional music by John Vanderslice. Editing by Corey Clotz.
And this is the Perverse Podcast, where we venture into horny online subcultures and take you along for the ride.
I gazed upon the Expo floor.
It was alright.
Everything was alright.
The struggle was finished.
I had won the victory over myself.
I feel nothing, I told Zoe, smiling.
It was the end of my two days at the X3 Expo, a porn convention held at the Hollywood Palladium, and I was considering starting an OnlyFans.
Two days prior, driving north towards the venue on the 101, I'd been feeling a certain amount of apprehension.
I wasn't really part of the adult entertainment fandom, nor an industry participant.
So what was I?
Just a scummy outsider looking into a giant terrarium in search of content?
No better than a hack YouTube comedian?
I pushed the thoughts out of my head and focused on driving.
The sun was almost done setting and I passed a few cars that still didn't have their headlights on.
The neon insignias of entertainment conglomerates glowed from the sides of massive buildings, seeming to brighten as the light drained from the sky.
Soon, I reached Hollywood.
At least there'd be a few people I knew on site.
Zoe Ligon, who I had met for coffee a few days prior and would have her own booth.
Ron Ecstasy, her boyfriend, who would have some time to wander around the place with me.
I found parking near Sunset and Vine and walked a couple of blocks towards the red vertical neon sign reading, Palladium.
On my way in, a young man was selling loose hoodies that said, I didn't get to investigate this further, as I found myself below the marquee, which read, I noticed a contrast with other promotional material for the event, which had billed it as, I suppose they needed both, creators were seeking to reach fans, and vice versa.
After walking through an ID check and metal detector, I was in the building.
The first thing I saw was a bar, one of the many scattered around the venue, illuminated by red neon and sporting a large sponsorship sign.
Adult Time.
Porn done differently.
I would later find out what it was.
A sort of pornographic Netflix.
High production value, high concept, scripted adult material.
In front of the bar, a woman with long blonde hair wearing fishnets, a garter belt, and lingerie was chatting with a group of what looked like fully clothed industry men.
She had a sticker on each ass cheek advertising something.
I walked past the bar area and onto the showroom floor, which was packed to the brim with a maze of booths, scantily clad porn performers, and giant banners for services like Chatterbait, Brazzers, and Fleshlight.
A large booth for Ricky's room included a satin sheet bed where men would pay to pose with a porn performer.
The expo floor was teeming.
I later attempted a taxonomy of the different types of people present, but we'll get to that a little bit later.
On stage, a giant glowing Chatterbait logo was being projected onto the big screen.
A male cam guy by the name of Dirty Drizzy was on the mic, promoting the service, alongside three female porn performers who started throwing out branded merch into the audience.
I hit my man in the head with a bra, Drizzy told the crowd after a particularly energetic toss, before continuing to explain that they were about to kick off a fake orgasm competition.
The winner would be taking home $200 cash, plus a Polaroid camera.
Out of the four participants in the fake come-off, two were men, with interesting results.
First up, we had a short king, tatted up and ripped, who took off his shirt as soon as he could when he reached the stage.
This was, I'm glad you described this because I had my back to this the entire time pretty much.
I didn't get to enjoy any of this.
Yeah, he's very like Jersey Shore vibes.
Yeah, he definitely has, he's a situation for sure.
I feel like there should be two categories here because like male orgasm, like auditorily is a lot easier to fake.
It's a lot shorter.
So it's just like, ah, you know?
Clearly not a practitioner of Tantra over there.
Or a gooner.
A gooner knows that it can last for hours.
You're right.
You're right.
Maybe this guy is a gooner.
Multiple orgasm situation.
What's your name, brother?
My name's Jesse.
I'm the Hung Homer I've always been.
If y'all got some pipes that are clogged up out there, it's your fucking guy.
Alright my man, what makes you bust a nut when you're done cleaning some fucking pipes?
I like to see the girl give me that shit back.
Alright brother, here's your chance.
Y'all encourage my man.
I'm bringing it from the f*cking gut, bro.
*heavy breathing* *gagging*
*gagging* Motherf*cker!
*gagging* I think I just can't.
*gagging* Yeah.
The testosterone level in this room is just raised by like 10 points.
That was legit as fuck.
Damn it.
He did sound like he was taking it down, but at the end he just says, get a towel.
I miss that.
I'm like, the girl has to get a towel?
Bitch, you get the towel, asshole.
And also, I guess like that's, does he, is he always just coming on faces?
He's come on himself.
He doesn't want to get up and have gravity make it drip on down his leg.
You never know.
You're right, actually.
That's very respectful.
Yeah, he turned it back on himself and he's like, go get a towel.
I got this shit on my chin.
I got this shit on my nose.
I got gum everywhere all over me.
It's actually, I'm calling out to my mother, and I'm bent over in the bathtub.
Mom, could you get a towel, please?
I've got gum all over my face.
Mom!
The Hog Plumadon did it again!
Where's my stepmommy?
Goddammit, you stuck in the dryer again?
I need a towel!
Also love that they're still using the plumbing analogy.
I feel like that's a time-old classic analogy for sex.
I think that this guy might actually be a plumber who then entered porn.
Yeah.
Seems believable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know if he's doing, like, the roleplay.
Like, the hung nurse.
Or, like, the hung doctor.
I see.
So it was literal.
He was cleaning pipes.
I think so maybe not he he kind of like spoke to me as I walked in he was uh like about to chow down on a pizza box well not the box he was about to eat the pizza inside the box yeah he was chewing on the box but he was like so excited to see my audio recorder he's like what's that you know like oh it just like records audio he's like for voiceover damn I gotta get me one of those and I was like hell yeah you can dump better on No, no.
Much respect to the hung plumber.
Yeah, respect!
Go check out the hung plumber if you're into that kind of thing.
And, uh, you know, I think he really, like, put his heart into it.
The second guy to take the mic was a bit more of a lay person than a professional.
Medium height, baggy clothes, but he also gave it his best.
What's your name, brother?
Dave L. Dave L. Where you from, Dave?
Costa Mesa.
Costa Mesa.
L.A.' 's home.
Dave, what makes you bust a big ol' sticky tongue?
Anything.
I'm sick.
Wait, I might be a breeze in the air.
Alright, this is my guy right here.
Give it all you got.
Oh, fuck you.
Oh, fuck you, dude. Just like that. Give me that shit.
Oh, fuck you. Give me that shit.
Oh!
He brought up the dirty talk. He was talking dirty. You guys heard that shit, right?
It sounds like he got punched.
Yeah, fuck yeah, give me that shit.
It's weirder without the visual, actually, because at least on stage you can see them, you know, trying to engage with the crowd.
He didn't, though.
He's just a regular guy, you know, and like when he asked him, what makes you bust a big sticky nut?
It's such a funny thing to try to like make it even more like it's like, yeah, your cum is so sticky and big when you're dropping that nut.
But yeah, he was just like, he like answered very quietly anything.
He's like, yeah, me too, man.
Just a, just a breeze coming by and I'm, I'm fucking nutting.
It's going to hump the back of your knee.
Yeah.
It's like, well, if it's really anything, then how did you end up at like a porn convention?
Like you're clearly seeking greater thrills, right?
Otherwise you'd just be at home with the breeze, the windows open and you're just nutting.
But this is the best case scenario for guys you bring on stage, is someone who, you know, makes sense, but doesn't just leave everybody speechless through the level of awkwardness of what they've just said.
Because that's coming.
There were other stage shows that were way more disastrous.
What I liked about what Chatterbait did here is basically half the people they would bring up were talent.
And this was the result of calling for, uh, volunteers saying, who wants to come up here?
And there's always like, like I know my man, the plumber here was, was with another female talent.
So they were kind of like there together, you know, not sure if they were like in a relationship or something, but they'd come together, which is lovely.
And so he was like, well, yeah, I'm going to get as much like promotional time as I can.
So I want to get on stage.
And so that's nice.
You get a bit of contrast and you get a guy, you couldn't see it, but while he was doing his like, You know, powerful nut.
He was like thrusting into the air and kind of like pulling an invisible girl towards him as well.
Miming.
He put his heart into it.
He was flexing it.
He wanted to flex too, so it's like a good opportunity to flex.
Shirt off and stuff.
So that's the men, but of course one of the two women took the prize home.
She was an OnlyFans model who had a lot of crowd support and like really put some effort into her fake orgasms.
Oh my god!
Oh my god!
The listeners at home are gonna bust a long sticky no-no.
I know.
They're gonna be like, John Howe.
Do you think he heard that when he came in his pants?
I don't know.
Like, that's what Drizzy said.
He's like, shit, that made me cum.
He loved to reaffirm female talent on stage by saying that it just made him cum.
Which is funny because I feel like that video has been making the rounds where there was a dance competition and a guy was laying down on stage and the girl was not even touching him, I don't think.
I think she was just kind of twerking.
I think there was some contact.
Okay, there was some contact, twerking, and the guy came in his pants, and then the entire arena-sized place was like, this guy came in his pants!
And they zoomed in the camera!
It's something else.
Where have I been?
Well, probably in real life.
As IRL as something like this can be.
Cause it is like, it does feel like in that maze, there's a lot of people that are representing, you know, Chatterbait or other services like that.
And they're kind of on camera at the same time as being there.
So there's, there was a lot of like screens.
Definitely.
Yeah.
You never know whose stream you're going to be, you know, an NPC in.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
The entire thing was surreal.
I felt overstimulated, uncomfortable, and immediately started sweating a little.
I'd later learned that this was a common experience for first time attendees who weren't in the industry.
I decided to wander the floor in search of Zoe and see if I could make her boyfriend Ron's acquaintance.
The Zoe in question is Zoe Ligon, aka Thongria.
Yes, that's me.
The author of Carnal Knowledge, sex education you didn't get in school.
She's also the founder and CEO of the Spectrum Boutique, all kinds of fascinating toys, and also a spicy content creator on OnlyFans.
Where did you get this bio from?
Did I send it to you?
You wrote spicy content on your Twitter.
Okay, yeah.
I tend to check people's Twitters then I get to know how they represent themselves.
Well, yeah, I would not say spicy content here because it's more just like a nod, you know what I mean?
Because it's the online censorship.
Although Twitter, I mean, it's a it's a shit show.
So I feel like I could just say, you know.
I don't.
I dildo myself on camera or whatever.
That'd be fine.
Right now, right here, you are on the Perverts Podcast.
We all self-identify as perverts.
The listeners probably a pervert.
Where can they go and find this stuff?
Oh, right up front.
Let's go.
Thongria is my username on like Instagram, Twitter, OnlyFans, ManyVids.
So if you can search those words in combination with each other, you'll find me.
And then yeah, Spectrum Boutique is where I sell sex toys.
We have been in business since 2015, but I've been on OnlyFans since 2019.
So there's a little bit of a, I'm definitely more of a knowledgeable person when it comes to sex toys and like product retail and OnlyFans is something I've only done in the past five years, really.
I don't know.
Sounds like a great back catalog.
We've been going for five years.
Go check it out.
Go sign up, folks.
If you're in search for red hot chili pepper emoji content, go there.
Okay.
I see.
I'm just going to get teased by two.
Spicy.
Well, turns out this is what makes me come.
This has been up front the whole podcast.
Yeah.
Not even just perverts, the whole five years.
I'm like, please, I just need to redirect the QAA podcast to a position in which I get to be bullied by various women.
A lot of people pay big bucks for that.
They do.
That's humiliation.
They do.
So yeah, you are our guest this week.
Welcome to the show, Zoe!
Thanks, everybody!
So can you tell people a little bit, like, in what capacity did you attend X3 this year?
It was my first time attending a adult expo as somebody who was, you know, situated at a station signing autographs.
I've been going to expo since 2018.
I've been going to AVN specifically since then.
But yeah, this is my first time going, putting on a cute little outfit and staying in one place, having set hours for people to come interact with me and specifically encouraging people to come talk to me.
I've been at AVN and been walking around and encountered people who want to take a picture or get an autograph or something like that, but that was the first time I was like, here I am, come find me, I'm at this cute little booth, I got little Pictures of myself printed out that I can sign for you.
And each shift was like four hours.
It was like just enough time to be out there.
By the end I was fucking wiped.
But it was two days back to back.
They gave me such good time slots too.
I got my schedule and I was like, they put me at the good time slots.
I was like, I was like a little bit flattered because I consider myself a pretty amateur gal in the sense that like 95% of what I've shot in the past five years has been on an iPhone.
And, uh, You know I do content with my partner but that's only really been in the past year and I just got like a nice camera so it is very much amateur and I was seated next to there was like a penthouse pet of the year near me and just some really amazing people that I look up to all around me so I was kind of like oh this is the life.
Yeah, you were in like a very high traffic area.
It was kind of like a mixed like blessing and curse because it's right next to the stage.
So you end up having a lot of people there who are there to like look at the stage.
So it blocks up the area a little bit, but then it's also a super high traffic area.
So you have a lot of people coming through.
Yeah.
How did you find like that flow of kind of interacting with a person and then taking a moment to like wait and just kind of be there?
Yeah, I was saying earlier that the one photo you got of the show floor is when I'm like dead staring out into the audience and nobody's talking to me.
It was definitely also a little bit influenced by who was next to me because a lot of the women on either side of me had long lines to see them.
I never had a line.
Maybe there'd be like one or two people waiting while I wrap up with somebody.
It was a pretty constant stream of people, but it was cool that all people were staring at, you know, the fake orgasm competition or just waiting in line to see somebody else.
It's like, here I am.
And then it's also my job to, like, decide, do I want to make eye contact and engage with this person and, like, be an inviting presence?
Or do I just let them come to me?
And, like, if they like what I'm about, so be it.
It was definitely a little bit of a choose your own adventure in the sense that I got to, like, decide how much I wanted to lean into, like, hey, Yeah, right.
And I feel like you were mentioning the women to each side of you.
Do you think that some of these larger fan bases are because they've done more commercial porn with porn companies and stuff like that?
Yeah, definitely people who have worked more with production companies or they're camming and they're a lot more frequently in person, on screen, interacting in a one-on-one capacity.
I don't really go on cam a ton.
I do go live, but it's kind of like a It's like a semi-annual thing.
But yeah, it's like I'm not a consumer of a ton of porn or like the porn I watch, it's like I have a lot of re-watch value.
I'm like re-watching the same things again and I have my faves and they haven't really changed in the past 10 years.
So a lot of the new people, and even if they're not new, it's just like I have my niches.
It's the same with like how I watch movies or whatever.
I don't know a lot of movies, but I know some specific movies really well, and I could tell you all about them.
Same with porn and me.
So I feel like I know a lot of the people just from being on the Internet and Twitter, and that's how I think of them as opposed to their content and being a customer of it.
But you should pay for your porn, everybody.
You should absolutely pay for your porn.
You've been listening to a sample of The Perverts Podcast.
To get access to this miniseries as well as previous QAA miniseries and the entire archive of premium episodes, go to patreon.com slash QAA and subscribe for just five bucks a month.
