There is a house in the center of Madrid where anyone over the age of 18 and who sends a scanned ID can fulfill their darkest fantasies. A portal from which runners, neighbors with their dog, elderly ladies, and porn actresses come and go within a half-hour interval. This explains the high number of visits. On that Saturday, seven guys between 20 and 35 years old wait in front of the intercom. They are scheduled to participate in the filming of a glory hole; the scene involves inserting the penis through the opening of a booth where a girl is and see what happens. None of them have paid anything nor will they receive any money for image rights. They are not porn actors; most are there for the thrill. Although some admit they would like to pursue this professionally. In Villacerda, as that 375-square-meter apartment is known, there is only one requirement: that you get hard. Easy? Perhaps not so much.
Jaime arrives nervous. It's his first scene and it shows: he's the only one not joining in. The others aren't exactly chatty, but there's a sense of camaraderie. The knowing look of those who have shared the same experience. They've also been seen naked more times. As Santiago, one of the regulars, explains: 'After 17 bukkakes and four glorys, there's no shame left.' He says it very quietly though. Leaning against the wall of the entrance. The appointment is at seven in the evening, but this 26-year-old aircraft maintenance technician - with aspirations in adult cinema - has arrived an hour early. 'So I'm not waiting at home,' he concludes. He lives with his parents and, as he tells it, decided to try new things after breaking up with his girlfriend. A year later, it's clear he prefers bukkakes: 'You have a better angle to see and touch.'
In this other modality, the girl is kneeling on the floor surrounded by men who take turns ejaculating on her. Jaime, the newcomer, observes the group with a mix of confusion and curiosity. He had been thinking for four months whether to come or not. 'It was hard for me to decide. You watch the videos and it turns you on, but then getting naked is another thing. The good thing is that the glory is in the dark and you are less visible,' convinces himself this 31-year-old electrician. Almost all of them are single, but naturally, they all have family and friends. 'If it bothers you too much, you can wear a mask and that's it. Up there they have a few,' interjects Santiago, who is more knowledgeable.
The host is Nacho Allende, a 45-year-old man from Vizcaya better known as Torbe. The creator of Putalocura, his website where all his videos can be seen for a fee, arrives after seven. For things like today's shoot, he is known as the king of freak porn. Torbe -from Torbellino- has been opening his house -and porn- to young people, couples, and other aspirants for 14 years. The walls of Villacerda, which costs him a little over 2,000 euros to rent, are not soundproofed. But the neighbors have never complained, he assures. He had a performance anxiety issue, and that's why he's late: 'I was shooting another scene, I got overwhelmed, and bam! I went soft. But it's okay. You relax and think about dirty things that turn you on a lot, and that's it.' What did he think about, if it's okay to ask? 'About bukkakes. I really like bukkakes.'
It's not the only thing he has in common with his followers: before getting into porn, Torbe thought about it a lot. The idea attracted him, but he was embarrassed that his friends would see his butt. 'You see,' he chuckles now. He downplays this whole world; in fact, he's starting to get tired. And it shows. It's not just the dark circles he carries. There's something else. A white lock hanging from his neck that betrays the passage of time. 'I got into this for pleasure and lately it has become a job. I want to change. I've seen and done it all. I no longer see progression in terms of creativity or economics. I spend the day glued to the phone, signing contracts... It's a pain. I did this to have fun,' he confesses minutes before his living room fills with naked men. 'I wanted to be a film director, but porn crossed my path. It's been a 14-year parenthesis and now I feel like making conventional movies. In fact, I'm preparing my first regular film. It's going to be called Putero.'
While that arrives, Nora, the person in charge of the organization, takes attendance. That Saturday the trickle of attendees is constant: 29 people have sent their information. That is, name, phone number, and scanned ID. But in the end, only 15 have shown up. Twice as many as expected at the entrance. Some enter the room with their underwear on and others naked. 'Whoever brought proof of HIV can have sex without a condom. The rest, you know what to do. Start grabbing the condoms,' explains this 21-year-old girl. Upon hearing her, some hesitate. 'I have six condoms left, you can't fool me. Come on!' Despite her young age, she shows remarkable competence. 'I tell my parents that I work in an office, and it's true.'
We've been here for over half an hour. Whoever doesn't finish in three minutes should pull out his dick. Torbe is getting impatient. The shoot is taking longer than expected. It doesn't seem easy to ejaculate on cue shouting 'come on, now, cum, now!'. But Santiago, the specialist, finished a while ago and watches the outcome fully dressed. Jaime, on the other hand, couldn't get excited in the end. He's not the only one. Among those remaining, many reach their arm through the available hole to not leave empty-handed. 'This is harder than I thought. One can't concentrate with so many guys around,' laments the electrician. 'Would I do it again? Well, I don't know.'
According to the owner of Villacerda, only one out of every four passes the casting to become a porn actor. 'It's enough for you to get hard and come when they tell you. But either they don't get hard, it goes down after a while, or they don't come.' And what happens in those cases? 'Well, sometimes the climax is faked with Sánex gel.' The actors, however, don't get paid. 'The ones that generate traffic are the actresses and they get paid for it. Like webcamers between 700 and 2,000 euros per month and between 500 and 1,000 if they only do scenes. Now what makes money are the cams. Traditional porn doesn't sell anymore,' adds the ideologue of Putalocura.
In her office, there are 100 girls in front of the screen. Natalia is one of them, but this Saturday she has changed the cam for the booth. Her war name is Blondie Fesser. She is Argentine. She is 25 years old. And she started this year with Torbe and other producers. Today was her second glory hole. Before dedicating herself to this, she made locks. She earned about 1,200 euros. But she was tired of being told: what breasts, what butt, what everything. So one day - she tells at the end of everything, wrapped in a towel - she decided to take advantage of her body. Now she doesn't know how much she can earn per month. 'Maybe about 4,000,' she estimates. In cash or after taxes? No one answers. There are certain issues in porn that remain encoded. Like the total billing of the sector. Vice wanted to know the opinion of another of the most successful producers: Cumlouder. But they left us wanting more. Torbe went straight to the manual: 'You don't earn that much, especially now.'
Maybe the problem is that there is no national Porn Observatory. This is something suggested by the Barcelona Erotic Show. The former International Erotic Film Festival welcomed 17,000 visitors this year, 2,000 more than in its previous edition. These are the only official figures they handle: 'We do not quantify anything; we are a meeting point for the sector, which is also very fragmented.' The last verified data is from 2009 and was provided by this organization. The annual turnover of the sex industry was 420 million euros that year, compared to 470 million in 2008. Figures too astronomical to see through a simple peephole.