The world may be on pause right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little award show fun. The Grabby Awards are back this weekend and longtime hosts Chi Chi LaRue and Honey West are set to return as your ringleaders for the evening. The virtual ceremony will be a must-see porn event featuring your favorite stars, special performances, and surprise appearances.
When LaRue isn’t busy preparing for The Grabby Awards, the famous porn director has been filling their time by hosting their own Instagram chat show, Trainwreck. LaRue goes live every day, Monday through Friday at 1:00 PDT, to gab with friends and colleagues about everything from quarantine to porn to the latest industry controversies.
We caught up with LaRue for a quick chat right before they were set to go live with their chat show. We talked about the 2020 Grabby Awards, directing porn in the quarantine era, and who LaRue wants to win the latest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Check out our interview below and be sure to tune into GayVN Stars to see LaRue host the Grabbys this Saturday, May 30 at 7:30 pm CDT.
Greer: How’s your day going so far?
LaRue: It’s going okay. There’s a lot going on. For being locked in my house like a fugitive, there’s a lot fuckin’ going on. I’ve got a scene I’m shooting for Falcon. I’ve got two scenes for Noir. I’ve got The Grabby Awards coming up. There’s a lot!
What is it like directing porn virtually? How does that work? Are you giving feedback through a webcam?
The boys are filming themselves on their iPhones and sometimes they have other equipment, like they have a camcorder or they have more than one iPhone. As many recording devices as they have, the better. I mean, it’s okay to have two, but if they have four different angles that makes it great to edit together. I did a virtual scene; Pam and I worked on it. Pam helped me with the technical aspect, because I’m very not tech-savvy. The boys, the Let’s Eat Cake boys on Twitter, they’re just the greatest. That was the first time they’ve ever done anything for a studio. They set up their cameras and we watched it on Zoom and I was able to direct them through Zoom.
The Grabbys are this weekend and they just announced they’re fully moving online. How does an online award ceremony work? What should we expect from watching it?
Well, there will be a guest performance. There will be Honey and I bantering and giving away the awards. Maybe there will be some special surprises. Hopefully, people will log on so they can accept their awards. It’s going to be kind of informal, kind of just keeping it going. Things like this are sad when we all can’t go to Chicago for our Grabby week, something that we all really look forward to. This is a way to keep it going and not abandoning it and just try to keep everybody happy. …And giving away the awards. We don’t want to get rid of the last past year of how great people were, the great performances, and the newcomers, and all the people that worked really hard this past year on really good movies. There were really good ones that happened this past year. We don’t want to negate those or get rid of those.
You know, it’s not going to have all the glitz and glamour and flashes and red carpets and all that, but you know, it’s going to be a little more intimate. The fans get to watch it as it happens and comment and the boys can come on and accept their awards. I mean, we won’t be having people give away awards. We won’t be having trophy boys and our male cohosts that we usually have. We just want people to have a good time for a couple of hours.
I’m glad you and Honey are able to come back and host the show even if it’s just virtually.
You know what? I’m set in stone at the Grabbys. I don’t think they’re ever gonna get rid of us.
Some other big things that have happened during quarantine – Circus of Books dropped on Netflix.
So good! When I watched it, I thought it was just going to be a documentary on this book store that was run by a couple of older people that were just business. And it turned into a very heartwarming, touching, family dichotomy documentary. The dirty bookstore part of it was kind of, you know, secondary to this beautiful family. I love it. I think Rachel did such an amazing job. Her dad? What a sweet man. My gosh, and that whole story of her brother coming out. It turned into something that I don’t even think Rachel knew that it was going to turn into.
And the last big thing that’s happening this week is the Drag Race finale on Friday.
Yes!
I’ve been seeing you retweet some things that are team Crystal. Are you a Crystal Methyd stan?
I am team Crystal! The reason I’m team Crystal – listen, I’ll be happy with whoever wins, because I think they’re all deserving and all great – but the reason why I’m team Crystal is because I’m always down for the freak. I was down for Yvie Oddly last year and I just think the creativity of Crystal is through the roof. I love the fact that some of her clothes were made by Jessie Colter – kinda brings it back to the porn industry a little bit, funny. I just really like his energy and I love how cute he is and how sweet he is. And I’m hoping to God he’s that sweet in real life.
I think his makeup is brilliant. It’s crazy, but look at the intricacies of it. It is a masterful painting on his face every time he goes out. I mean, both of the other boys are beautiful, but they have beautiful boy faces that are gonna go into drag perfectly. Crystal, on the other hand, takes his cute boy face and creates this work of art every time.
I love it.
I think Miss Congeniality will definitely be Heidi.
Oh, has to be. You had her on your show, right?
I did! Yeah, I did. She’s amazing. So sweet. What was funny is that these queens who know who I am and have been fans of me and they go, “You’re a legend.” And I’m not thinking about myself. I’m not thinking about the fact that I’ve been doing drag for so many years. I’m thinking about the fact that I’m talking to Heidi because she’s so fabulous and I get to know her and hopefully be friends with her and hopefully perform with her at some point.
