there is a mummified french clown in a glass sarcophagus
at the california institute of abnormal arts. his name was
gilles chatouilleu and he died in 1912. jack says he loves
gilles.
the main room has red and yellow striped walls, with
a red and yellow diamond pattern on the floor, and
glittery red vaudeville curtains on either side of an
old timey raised stage. there is a big black box on
the stage with holes cut in the sides and on top.
on the front of the phone booth sized box are the
elaborately hand painted words, "enter the peepshow".
the crew is milling around listlessly... theyve been
there since 9 in the morning and it is now after 7.
the male talent is waiting, texting, shooting the
breeze... sledgehammer, pike nelson, and justin syder.
down a psychedelic hallway, black lit and painted with
flourescent blue and orange squares... the director,
jackthezipper, calls me into the bathroom...
perched on the handicap rail like a sprite, ethereal
beauty jayme langford has her long legs splayed
open. her tulle skirt hiked up, her victorian granny
boots precariously balanced on the stainless steel
bar. she is a porcelain doll... petite, immaculate. her
strawberry blonde tresses uncoiling like snakes all
around her; a golden jeweled flower sparkles in her
hair.
she plays with a slim vibrator as jack holds the
canon xh from underneath, cradling it in his hands
like a 9 pound baby, shooting from below; slowly
moving from side to side. he whispers a few reassuring
little choo choo sounds to langford...
then he instructs her:
"laugh like a crazy person." he says, but reminds her
that she doesnt need to make a lot of noise because
the sound will be covered over with music.
so she pantomimes madness, throwing her head back,
then violently pitching forward... staring directly into
the soul of the lens with a maniacal grin.
meanwhile, in the bar, surrounded by the delicate
corpse of a dead fairy and the preserved skull of
the worlds smallest freemason, adult superstar
sasha grey seems right at home... listening to her ipod
while being meticulously tied in japanese rope bondage
like an elaborate gift. she is getting ready for her
climactic gloryhole blowbang scene.
minutes later, sasha is inside the box; a straightjacket
over her bound torso and impossibly high black leather
hobble boots buckled to her coltish legs. she is an
escape artist, a hardcore houdini, writhing on the floor
as notorious fetish photographer, bob coulter, shoots
still after voyeuristic still through the peep holes.
jack, who has never been photographed, cuts a
roguish figure with his deep, dark eyes and tousled
hair. an x rated artstar... he is tall and fit; dressed
in well worn bohemian black. on set this night, he
seems happy and content as he takes measurements
with the help of a lighting technician and gets ready
to start the scene.
watching sasha, he smiles and explains in a low voice,
"ive been wanting to shoot her in this predicament."
later on, after all the shooting, i ask jackthezipper
about his predicament. the difficulties of being a
filmmaker in an industry that mostly overlooks
opportunities for art and vision. he explained his
aspirations, which seem to be motivated by a singular
desire to evoke the audiences response to sex as
art as alchemy, not churning out product that is
packaged and sold to serve as a crude
masturbatory aid.
"porn is a vast industry, but its always been a
bastard art form. theres no reason why the human
race has to make a dirty secret or a bad joke out
of something so basic and intrinsic and vital to our
nature", he explained.
"xxx makes me think about life and death... just being
alive and how mysterious and precious it all is. as a
society, are we really elevating these ideals?
pornography as its defined by mainstream culture
has significance and power that goes largely
untapped in my opinion."
so fuck it... welcome to the world of jackthezipper.
"fuck the world" and "enter the peepshow" are the
upcoming titles from spice studios, produced by
playboy and directed by the elusive mr. zipper. he is
among the new breed of porn creators that are
taking venerable studios like spice in a different
direction, guided by its faustian new producer,
bob johnson.
in the sunlit quarters of playboys glendale facility,
where original vargas pin ups line the walls, johnson
is in his office having dark visions of using the bunny
to work some new tricks...
"it is a subversive, underground approach to adult
film that we feel is going to revolutionize the
business... theres a sea change coming", johnson says.
"the directors we are tapping like jackthezipper are
not the norm in the porn world. his films are
sometimes disturbing, surreal, hitchcockian... a visual
feast but always sexy... were really talking about a
new genre here".
johnson describes "fuck the world" as "unlike anything
that has been seen. i know that sounds vague, but its
also true. ftw has a post nuclear feel with a classic
burlesque undertone.... psychologically dark, intensely
sexual and explicit yet richly layered, beautifully shot...
the word masterpiece comes to mind..."
as for "enter the peepshow", jack has already given
me an extraordinary look inside the xxx circus. theres
sasha greys breathtaking gloryhole performance, and
a mind blowing girl girl between langford and
gorgeous newcomer alexandra ivy that i got to
witness in the flesh on set. jack tells me there
will also be a world famous sword swallower
committing death defying acts while receiving
a blow job worthy of the guiness book of records...
and thats just for starters.
"its quite a freak show," johnson says of "peepshow".
"that takes the viewer on this mind bending sex trip.
zipper somehow managed to cast stanton lavey,
grandson of anton lavey, founder of the church of
satan, doing a brilliant cameo as the grindshow barker.
there are so many bizarro touches like that in the
movie. zippers whole thing with peepshow is to
authentically bring the worlds of sideshow, burlesque
and porn crashing together for the very first time
on film".
not what you would typically expect from playboy,
with its mainstream persona and magazine
centerfolds that never show the pink. but as
the wily mr. johnson pointed out, perhaps rightfully
so, "adult companies can no longer manufacture
cookie cutter porn and expect to stand out in a
sluggish and bloated market".
jack told me he is also in development on a series
for playboys other major video label, clubjenna,
titled "live new girls", that will feature all fresh
talent and what he describes as a "post gonzo"
approach. it will be "fast, loose, and real; with a lot
of attitude and style." he said, and as hardcore as
his feature films, "maybe even harder".
despite all the acclaim, and unlike most other big
name brands, jackthezipper has only a handful of
titles to his credit...
his self produced breakthrough hit, "STUNTGIRL",
released in 2004, established him as an award winning
director and a commercial success right out of
the gate.
signing with hustler the following year, he made
"squealer", a horror themed homage to
"texas chainsaw" and "deliverence" that continued
the winning streak... taking best all sex release
and best director honors at the 2005 avn awards
for the second time in a row in both categories.
That was quickly followed by the lost zipper classic,
"WHITE WITCH", which remains mysteriously unreleased
by hustler.
then came the movie that for many fans, defined the
new aesthetic... "blacklight beauty", produced by pulse
pictures, it was truly a watershed moment in erotic
experimentalism... the incendiary gangbang scene,
featuring hardcore goddess faith leon, goes down as
a performance for the ages.
"BLACKLIGHT beauty" put jackthezipper in the record
books when it won best video and best director avns
for the 3rd straight year in a row. an industry first,
and a pursuasive argument for the enduring legacy
of the upstart director from new york.
next up, "RAZORDOLLS"... an indie rock and roll meets
porno fantasy, that introduced post modern icons
stoya and sasha grey to the scene in 2007.
and this year, vivid released "king cobra", a full on
biker flick starring sasha and vivid contract babe
lanny barbie in a no holes barred tribute to
sexploitation classics like russ meyers "mudhoney"
and "faster pussycat, kill kill".
even with a relatively short list of influential
films, it has been hard to fit jackthezipper into
a category. moving from studio to studio has caused
some to speculate that he is a temperamental artist
and more trouble than a mere porn film is worth.
"i think its hard to make any kind of movie, let alone
a good movie," jack said, "and that has occasionally
put me at odds with what is essentially a factory
system. i admit to being stubborn about quality
control and preserving my ideas... i answer to the
audience".
so, strangely enough, it might be that zipper has
come into his own in the house that hef built. at
least johnson seems willing to bet on a dark horse.
"i embrace the rebels and the mavericks and those
out there auteurs," johnson said, "because they
are the ones that will force the industry to
evolve."
the ideas cooking in jacks head have been simmering
there for A long time. he told me his very first
pornography experience was the great american
mens mags... penthouse, club, hustler, playboy,
high society, cheri, and oui. riding his bike through
the pine barrens and finding a moldy stack of them
rotting under an old barn, he remembers "peeling
that first one apart" revealing the lusty treasure
inside. "all those swollen natural breasts and thick,
curly pussy fur... alone in the woods... very intense".
i asked him what the most attractive thing is about
a woman and he told me, "the way she moves."
if theres one thing that stands out about jacks
work, its his ability to take the most iconic women
in the business and put them in the most decadent
on screen action, yet somehow make them even more
glorious to behold...
under his direction, they seem to transform from
porn starlets to the very personification of feminine
power.
the other signature elements... the smash cuts,
savvy art direction, atmospheric lighting, and
smoldering original music scores... only intensify the
experience.
jack admires the groundbreaking films of veteran
pornographer andrew blake (who, conversely, is also
a die hard fan of his), as well as the edge dwelling
work of hardcore legend, jamie gillis.
he once tried to pitch an idea to gillis, who is a
friend, about doing a scene around sasha grey
trapped inside a gilded cage on a rooftop in
new york city, but it never quite came together.
on the "peepshow" set that night however, zipper
did manage to at least get sasha in the box.
once out of her many restraints, with the men in
position, she begins to work the 2 stiff cocks
potruding through the gloryhole walls. she
expertly uses her mouth and her hands, switching
it up, moving back and forth; from side to side.
zipper goes in for a tight shot, the lighting
guy right over his shoulder, as grey stands on
tippy toes to reach the massive cock dangling
through the hole strategically placed above
her head. spit drooling down her chin, sweat
glistening under the hot lamps, her long dark hair
sticking to her face, she cranes her slender neck
up and up, taking it all into her hungry mouth.
finally, when the pop comes raining down from
above, she stares directly into the camera with
a burning look in her eyes that i have never
quite witnessed before on a porn set. dragging
wet fingers across her spattered face, she
smears the spilled cum all over her pale chest.
"that was beautiful." jack said, "bravo."
and that was how it ended.
joanne cachapero
xbiz magazine