Where Oruba Interviews Porn Writer Christian Madsen

It started, as most thing do these days, on Twitter:

Here we go.


1. We’ll start weird. Tell us who you are. In haiku.


Chris:                 Butterfly, 
                           why use so many words, 
                           one is enough.
Okay, that really doesn't say anything about me, but I suck at haiku poems. In non Haiku – I am a writer for Whack! Magazine, a mainstream freelance writer based in Copenhagen, Denmark trying to make it out alive.

2. We have something in common. We both recently interviewed CamilleCrimson.Want to make this a meta-interview?

Chris: Meta-interviews are the best, so I'm totally down for that!

3. If you answered no, skip to #8.

Chris: I answer yes, for 500 Alex.

4. First, about writing for Whack! Magazine: what man (or reasonable woman,for that matter) wouldn’t want to get paid writing about porn? I bet there is an entertaining story about how you fell into the gig. Please say yes.

Chris:: Oh I wish there were, but it went down in a really run of the mill sort of way I guess. I was (and still am) working as a mainstream freelance writer, writing coach, screenplay consultant. But the work load was slowly winding down and the jobs I were getting kind of bored me. I had been thinking about getting into writing about the adult industry and writing for a English speaking audience – so I started doing interviews and articles on my Tumblr. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive to my surprise. After a while I wanted to switch to larger platform and was searching around for a place that would have me – with no luck.

Eventually I did a short and whacky interview with Ash Hollywood and mailed it off to Whack Mag, they loved it! Within a couple of hours – 10-15 emails back and forth – I was drafted to the Whack writing staff. The best thing about writing for Whack is, I more or less have free hands to write what I want, do the interviews I want and just go crazy! It's a great place that crosses between porn, mainstream and has a artsy vibe to it as well. However many people don't see that, and they end up thinking it's only a smut mag – which it is – but it's also more than that.

After a couple of articles on Whack, I was contacted by ZZinsider who asked if I wanted to contribute a couple of posts to their site, of course I said yes.

I've talked to Camille Crimson – who will be the guest editor of Fleshbot in May – about doing some writing there. I'm still writing on Tumblr. I've had one fan post published on Porn dot Com and I'm looking into writing for some mainstream sites in the future (are you reading this you people over on xojane?) things have been moving really fast for me, almost too fast sometimes, it's hard too keep up.

At last, I'm working a short film script with the Darling House collective, that might end up getting shot here in Copenhagen.

5. Your interview with Camille is part of a piece for Whack! on the blossoming Montreal porn scene. What first drew your attention to the city?

Chris: For years I have been watching a show on the French television channel TV5. Usually they only cover what's going on in France, but every Saturday they would have a one hour long program about Montreal – about what's going on there with food, style, fashion, film, music, art, architecture and more – I fell totally in love with Montreal watching that show.

About a year or so ago, I was doing research on the adult industry (just based on my curiosity and boredom) and I found out that a lot of people, and companies, actually aren't based in California, but in Montreal – Canada. The more I looked into the city and the adult industry, the more it seemed that something interesting is going on here, something that might make for a good article. At the same time Montreal is somewhat of a 'it' city right now in mainstream culture, it's a cool city to visit, it's a city with a growing and great fashion, music, food and art scene.

6. You also interview Sophie Delaney and VP Phil from Porn Dot Com. What is it about those three do you feel is representative of the Montreal porn scene in general?

Chris: I had a ton of emails out to get quotes from people in and around Montreal, and the pornographic business there. Sophie was a shoe in since she works with The Art of Blowjob and Pornographic Love. She's lived in Montreal for years and is well connected to the entire adult industry there – plus she gives great interviews and quotes. Porn dot Com is a big site, a big company and connected to all of the industry in North America. I thought they're perspective on my questions would be interesting and they didn't disappoint in my opinion.


7. What were your expectations coming into the piece? Were you surprised by anything anyone said? Personally, I found the link to the tech boom intriguing.

Chris:: I don't know? Tough question. I don't really have any expectations going into any interview, other than people answer my questions with more than one sentence answers (unless the question is specifically made for a one sentence answer). When they do that it pisses me off, cause I feel like they're disrespecting me, the people I work for and the readers who are reading the interview – it's completely unprofessional in my book, and a total waste of time and energy by all parties involved.

As for the Montreal article. I wasn't really surprised by any of the answers – I thought they were well thought out by Camille, Phil and Sophie, they were honest and elaborating on all the questions.

I liked the tech boom part as well. I'm not in any way tech or internet savvy (I know the basics) but that part got my attention – because I learned something new – and a good interview or article should tell you something you didn't know already, and I didn't know much about the tech part.

8. Plugs and shameless self promotion.

Chris: People should check out my personal Tumblr for photos and writings – search the archive: http://story-lab.tumblr.com/

They should read me on ZZinsider.com and of course marvel at my amazing work on Whack Magazine http://www.whackmagazine.com/author/christian-madsen/

At last but not least, give me a follow on Twitter, I'm on there all the time and I tweet a lot, so be warned http://twitter.com/Chris_Madsen

9. Finally, your command of alliteration and assonance is quite masterful, sir. How do you do it?


Chris: Whoa, thank you very much for that. I guess I've always done that – I use to write a lot of poetry in English, trying to copy the vibe of people like Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac – I'm also a huge music geek. I love Esthero a musical artist who has the same love affair with words as I do, she inspires me all the time in my writing and how I use language.

As a teenager, I was really into hip-hop & rap – both listening and writing, and performing. That probably had some influence on my writing I do today.

I think I just love language and words, I love playing around with them and finding new ways to connect them, unusual ways, entertaining ways. Sometimes I make it work, other times – it ends up sounding corny and it makes no sense to me or any other person reading what I wrote. Thank god for editors and proofreading I say!