Interview with
Devon Michaels
Adult Entertainer of the Year 1997-1998

Sophie's Mentertainment® Issue Mid-June 1998

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Devon Michaels
at Hipps, Staten Island, NY

I had seen pictures of her frolicking in a huge champagne glass, had exchanged e-mails with her. I liked what I saw, I liked what I heard. I decided that given the chance, I’d go and see her perform and maybe interview her for the magazine.

I live in Linden, that’s just across the bridge from Staten Island. I have been pretty ill, anemia, but maybe I can last that long, drive there, write the review, and back home. I’ll do the interview on the phone, that way I won’t have to go anywhere...

I decide to call the club. I get their OK. I send Devon an e-mail message asking for an interview. She promptly answers, and the answer is yes. I am thrilled. I decide to go to the first show on her first day; I don’t have the energy to compete with hundreds of guys for a feature’s attention.

The decision proves to be a good one, the place is almost empty. People in New York and New Jersey don’t know yet how good she is, how great she looks, and how friendly she is.

I see the office door open, and there she is, in complete Vegas outfit, complete with pink feathers, 5 inch heels, beautiful colors, boa, flitter, glitter & gulch. I run over to say hello. She turns her cheek to me, and I kiss it... my Jewish training, no doubt. I realize it’s a mistake when she brushes off my lip-prints with the back of her hand evening out her makeup. Oops. Lucky I don’t wear lipstick.

I watch her walking across the club to get to the stage. I can’t believe that she is this tiny woman. On her pictures she “looks tall, dark, and handsome.” Instead, she is petite, dark, and beautiful.

I remember this past March she won Adult Entertainer of the Year. She has certifiably the best body. The best proportioned body. The most incredible muscular body with feminine smoothness.

I personally have a definite preference for brunettes. And surprisingly, at least half of my mail concerns brunettes.

I watch Devon’s show and think to myself: She knows how to be sexy without being vulgar or lewd. She walks slightly crossing one leg in front of the other... wow, sexy! She smiles with a vibrant, unforced smile, she melts your heart. Better yet, you feel good about yourself.. a rare happening, isn’t it?

She takes her g-string off to a roar, only to reveal a tinier one, this one is void of flitters, and is plain black.

At the third song the usual blanket comes out, flashing strobe lights add to the excitement, Devon prepares to do a “boring me to tears” hot oil or lotion show, then something unusual happens. As she is sitting on the blanket, being pretty, she squeezes a bottle of body lotion between her thighs with such force, that the lotion, white gook, gushes in the air, like a white fountain, like the semen of a horny stud after months of putting up with your no. And when finally it gets what it wants... well, this is how the scenery would look like.

The white thick stuff hits her face, and she smiles, like she is in heaven.

Then proceeds to smear it and add to the mess at all the right places. Wild thing. She looks her best when she is almost wickedly nasty... I am getting goose bumps, and so do the guys.

Interview with

Devon Michaels

It’s next day, and I am in the elevator of the hotel Devon is staying at. I knock on the door, and there she is, in workout outfit, bra and shorts, tiny tanned body, small sharp face.

She sits on the bed facing the TV, I sit on a chair I pull up to be closer to her. It’s very hot outside, high 80s, maybe 90s. We both sweat.

Sophie:

I don't have any prepared questions, I'll let the conversation go the way it wants to go. What I’m most interested is doing people interviews, not a dancer interviews. The whole magazine is about that - revealing the people behind the surface.

Devon:

Okay.

Sophie:

I thought we could point out some of the things I already know about you, that you have been a feature for five years, you lived in New York from 1990 to 1994, and mostly danced at Gallagher’s, ... at least that’s where we took pictures of you.

Devon:

I also danced at Pure Platinum, Scores and Flashdancers.

Sophie:

You haven’t come back there as a feature yet?

Devon:

No, no.

Sophie:

Where do you mostly have your bookings? Where are you most liked?

Devon:

Where am I most liked? Gosh, I don’t know. I do very well in the South. I do very well in Texas. I go to Texas quite a bit. I’m liked everywhere. Not to sound arrogant, but I am liked everywhere. I do well pretty much everywhere I go.

Sophie:

Have you ever featured in this area?

Devon:

It’s been a while. I fly nowadays and I don’t bring my props. But before, when I travelled with the bigger shows, by the time we got through Texas and North Carolina and South Carolina and Georgia, it would always be time to start working our way back to Vegas. We’d stay out for eight to twelve weeks and then we’d go back home for about five or six weeks.

Sophie:

When you say we...

Devon:

I used to have a roadie but now I work alone. There are a million clubs between here and Las Vegas and I’ve always had plenty of work without coming East.

Sophie:

What is it like to live in Las Vegas?

Devon:

It’s nice. I live on the other side of town, away from the strip. I look out my window and see mountains. It’s very beautiful. The weather is very nice, the winters are mild. It’s dry heat, there’s no humidity. The roads are nice, not these crappy roads that you have in New York. The cost of living is much lower than it is in New York, you get much more for your money. I can’t imagine living in the city and paying that kind of money for rent again. I could afford to, but it seems really silly to me now. I pay about seven hundred and fifty and I get eleven hundred square feet, two bedrooms, two full baths, one with a Roman tub, a mountain view, a balcony, parking included. You get more for your money... and the weather’s beautiful.

Sophie:

It’s like an apartment building?

Devon:

Yea, I live in an apartment. It has skylights and big arched windows, arched ceilings with windows in them. It’s really beautiful. The sunrise comes in the windows. I don’t think I could ever do that again... to spend all that money on rent and live in a box.

Sophie:

Did you live in Manhattan?

Devon:

I lived in the Bronx for about a year. A nice part of the Bronx. And then I moved into the City. I liked living in the City, I still love New York, but I don’t think I’d want to move back. I don’t like the weather...

Sophie:

What did you like about New York?

Devon:

There was always something to do. I like Broadway shows, I used to see a lot of Broadway shows. There’s good food and good restaurants. I liked that you could virtually walk anywhere or take a taxi anywhere. I had a car but I didn’t use it when I lived in the City. I just think New York is a nice city, but the weather sucks.

Sophie:

So, you originally lived in Illinois.

Devon:

Yes.

Sophie:

Why did you move?

Devon:

I was working at a club there while going to school. When I finished school I had a friend that was featuring. She had an agent here and I came here with her. I liked New York, so I stayed.

Sophie:

What was her name?

Devon:

Her name was Laura Cambridge. She doesn’t dance anymore, she has retired about five years ago.

Sophie:

I have pictures of Laura Cambridge from when she came to New York, but she wasn’t known here at all.

Devon:

Really?

Sophie:

Really. She danced regular clubs like AJ’s in Secaucus, NJ...

Devon:

No, you’re thinking of someone different. The only club she ever danced in...

Sophie:

This is when I started my magazine, the exact same year. She was promoted by Centerfold Stars, Chris. I was sitting in his living room when she came to report how her shift went at AJ’s. I didn’t know that she was a feature.

Devon:

Yea, that’s who I started with.

Sophie:

You started with Centerfold? How was that?

Devon:

It was a good starting block. And then, of course, I always did the bachelor parties in the City when I didn’t work. Actually, I liked New York. I had a good home club and I stopped featuring for a while just to live in New York. And that’s when I worked at Pure Platinum and Flashdancers and Scores.

Sophie:

So you were already featuring at the time?

Devon:

I started featuring in 1990, but I only featured for about a year, then I stopped and just lived in the City and worked in the City. I started featuring again about May of 1994, and I’ve been featuring since. I moved to Las Vegas two years ago.

Sophie:

What makes a girl want to work as a dancer in the very beginning?

Devon:

I don’t know.

Sophie:

Let me tell you a story: There was this innocent young blonde who pulled me aside one day and asked me to get her some auditions. I said fine but I never got back to her. I accidentally met her again two days ago and I started to cry. I told her I didn’t want her to do that. She has a college degree, but she wants to go back to school, cooking school, and she wants to make easy money. I don’t think she knows what it takes. I think it takes way more now than it did ten years ago.

Devon:

Probably.

Sophie:

You have to be fondled.

Devon:

Up here you do. Not at other places.

Sophie:

No?

Devon:

No. I’ve never had to be fondled to make money. And when I feature, I do things like take titty tips and stuff like that and I’ll do little playful things, like take a guy’s head between my breasts, but always something that I’m in control of, where it’s more for fun, like funny sexy, as opposed to something I have to do to make money. It’s more like I’m in charge and this is funny and I’m making this guy look kind of silly. Not degrading the guy, either, but just like. ha-ha, this is funny. And I do bath shows, where I have a guy come up and actually bathe me, but he has a sponge and he’s not fondling me. He gets to wash my butt with a sponge, and it’s more of a funny, sexy thing, than as if he were in charge and I had to be fondled to make money. I have never had to grind dick to make money. I have never had to be touched to make money. I’ve always been able to perform and dance and just be nice and funny and have a good time and not feel like I’m doing anything that goes against anything. And it’s nothing against anyone who does that type of thing. To me, that’s not being in control when someone else is giving me five dollars to fondle me or to touch me like this. Nobody does that to me.

Sophie:

So that means that when you started dancing you did not have to go through the moral evaluation to see if you could handle it or not?

Devon:

No. It was never a moral problem for me. I think I have good morals. My parents have been married for forty-two years, I was raised in a good family, and I was never abused or molested or anything like that. I’ve never actually felt like I had to dance to make money and I think that at this point in my life, had I not gone in the direction I went, I would be able to make a very good living doing something completely outside of dancing, no matter what I had chosen to go to. I’m not saying that I have all the self confidence in the world, but I do know that I am smart and when I say I am going to do something, I will do it. I think anybody has the power to do whatever they want to do if they just put their mind to it. I started dancing in college, on a dare. I liked it and I was making good money. I kept dancing and I’m still dancing. I still like it. When I won’t like it any more I’ll stop.

Sophie:

Well if you don’t have to be touched, I can even understand why you would like it.

Devon:

Even in Las Vegas, there are clubs that are grinding clubs and there are clubs that aren’t. I’ve always preferred to dance nude and not to be touched. Some women don’t like to dance nude. Everyone has their own boundaries. Some women can be touched and it doesn’t bother them and then there are probably some women who even like that, dancing like that. By the same token, I’m not going to say that every woman doing adult videos is happy doing adult videos, but there are women who enjoy doing adult videos. Look at Nina Hartley. She’s always... oh, I don’t know what I’m trying to say.

Sophie:

People are different.

Devon:

People are different. When you cross your own boundaries, that’s when it’s a problem. I don’t make judgments about anybody for what they do, I just know my own boundaries. I guess that’s what I’m saying. And I’ve never crossed my own boundaries.

Sophie:

Do you ever go to the edge?

Devon:

Do I ever go to the edge? Probably. Sometimes at some clubs I am a little more risqué than at others; if I am in a certain mood I’ll push my limits a little bit.

Sophie:

Give me an example.

Devon:

Say I’m in a nude club where the girls are a little more aggressive than I am, and even though I can still do my act, because of that atmosphere or because of whatever mood I’m in, I might just get a little more risqué than I would normally get. I might get closer than I would normally get, or do “rights for five” which I wouldn’t normally do.

Sophie:

What’s rights for five?

Devon:

They call it rights for five. You usually take the five with your boobs, or some girls simulate sex like you’re on top of the guy, and some simulate the sixty-nine position, so you’re actually about this far from him but you’re not on him. For the most part I won’t do those, but if I’m in the right mood I’ll do it and it won’t bother me. There’s a lot of that in Las Vegas and that’s fine, but it’s just not for me.

Sophie:

Do you work in Las Vegas a lot?

Devon:

Very seldom. If I’m, home because I want take a few months off, there’s always good money to be made in Las Vegas. The club I work at is nude and there’s no contact. We have a six inch rule, which is really about a three inch rule, so we get very close and it’s very erotic, but there’s no touching. I like to be erotic. I see nothing wrong with exotic dancing, being erotic and sexy, but I just think that if you’re grinding then that’s not really a tease. To me that’s more of a sexual act. So, to summarize, you don’t have to get touched to still be able to make money in this business. Just probably in New Jersey and around here, you do. Scores was always a little sleazier than Platinum. But I don’t mean sleazy in a bad way, I just mean a little more risqué than Pure Platinum.

Sophie:

Which Pure Platinum?

Devon:

The one in the City. 21st Street between Park and Broadway. I think it’s called 10’s now. I don’t know what it’s like now, but back then it was very prim and proper. It was a topless club but you couldn’t even bend over. From your knees and up, no part of your body could come over that line. It was very strict. The rules were very strict. And we made a lot of money. It was good back then.

Sophie:

I wonder if there is any club in this area where anybody can make all that money.

Devon:

I don’t know. I think, in general, the business has gone down all over the country. Everywhere you turn there is a topless bar or a nude bar so it’s not the big deal that it used to be. I don’t think there’s as much money as there used to be.

Sophie:

Did your fees go down too?

Devon:

No. My fees went up.

Sophie:

How is it normally? You start on a Wednesday and end on a Saturday?

Devon:

It depends. Sometimes I start on Wednesday and sometimes I start on Monday.

Sophie:

Was it slow tonight?

Devon:

Yea, it was pretty slow. It is usually slow the first night. The first night is a kind of “get used to the stage” night.

I like that club (Hipps). I’ve never been there before, but I like that club. My friend April Hunter recommended it to me. April and I do a lot of things together. We do fitness modeling together.

Sophie:

Yeah, I thought I saw the two of you on the same picture!

Devon:

It is possible. We don’t do a lot of pictures together because she is so much taller than me. April is 5’10”. We’ve shot fitness stuff together but it was always out in the desert and from here up and I was on a rock...

Sophie:

(laugh) Then it wasn’t you two. (Editor’s note: Yes it was them. Here is the picture for proof...)

Devon:

We were in Muscle Mag the same month.

Sophie:

What does it take to have such incredible muscle tone.

Devon:

Oh, thank you. It takes quite a bit to get here. I used to have more muscles and was leaner; I’ve actually softened up. People like my body better this way. I’m pretty casual about my fitness routine now. Because I fly, it is harder to get to the gym. When I’m home, I work out three or four times a week, when I’m on the road I work out when I can. I eat healthy, but that’s not to say that I don’t have a donut here or a candy bar there, but for the most part I eat healthy and I stay fit. I started working out in 1994.

Sophie:

Your body was different then?

Devon:

It was softer. I got in shape and started doing fitness stuff.

Sophie:

What do you need to use to have such defined muscles? I watched you yesterday and you have these small muscles in your torso, and as you moved I could actually see the muscles move, like waves in the water, and the wave goes from one group of muscles to the other. It is very attractive.

Devon:

Good. It’s supposed to be aesthetically pleasing.

Sophie:

But I’ve never seen anything like that.

Devon:

Really? I just work out all my muscles equally.

Sophie:

With a machine?

Devon:

With machines and free weights. I don’t do anything that takes a second person or a spotter because I work out by myself. I don’t do long workouts and I don’t lift real heavy weights because I’m not that strong and I’m a little person. It’s hard to explain but you have to visualize the muscles that you’re using. When I work out I make it count. I might not get to the gym for a week or two but when I do, I make it count. Every muscle gets equal attention. I prefer myself about five pounds lighter when there’s more definition, but I find that people prefer me more like this, a little softer. I visualized what I wanted to look like and I made it happen.

I did it in my head while I was working out. I said to myself, OK, what do I want my body to look like, and what do I want it to look like when it moves? I would take a copy of a Muscle Mag or Muscle & Fitness, look at the bodies and say OK this is what I like about her body, but I don’t want that, I want my legs like that. I think it’s nice to see a toned body moving. Now I’m pretty lazy about it but fortunately I have a good metabolism and good genetics, so it stays. I look better now than I did when I was eighteen, and that’s good. The only thing that’s fake are my breasts. I haven’t had anything done but my breasts. I’m pretty happy with that. Which is good because most women aren’t. Ninety-eight percent of the time I am happy with my appearance. When you’re eighteen you’re beautiful and you think you’re ugly. But yea, I’m pretty happy with how I look...

Sophie:

I noticed something last night that I had never seen before. That you probably did more than just look at Health & Fitness. What I noticed is that how you walked is somehow as if you were stepping on one line and you had to kind of swing your one leg in front of the other, and that was the most erotic walking I have ever seen.

Devon:

Well thank you.

Sophie:

Where did you learn that?

Devon:

I don’t know. I pick things up. I’ve never had a dance lesson. I’ve seen lots of Broadway shows and I used to watch lots of musicals. I don’t know. But then I don’t really know what I do onstage, because it’s like a different world.

Sophie:

You don’t practice certain elements?

Devon:

Never. The only time I’ve ever been choreographed is when I did a show in Vegas with five other features. It drove me crazy; when I’m on stage I’m in another world. I have no idea what I do.

Sophie:

Tell me, is anybody in your family a performer or anything?

Devon:

I come from a musical family. I’ve played piano since I was four and I’ve always been in some type of performance one way or another, like piano recitals. I did a few plays when I was younger. I didn’t do them in high school because they were at the same time as track season and I was doing that. I did cheer-leading. I was always in front of people, doing something. I used to do oratory contests and those types of things, so maybe I’m just used to being in front of people. So I walk well, huh?

Sophie:

If you don’t choreograph your shows, then you must have some incredible talent in space, because you occupy the space well.

Devon:

I can use the stage well, I think. But I come from a big stage. I’m also used to the customers being closer where I could bop someone in the head, or something silly like that. Or where I could pop my bra on a guy’s head. Little silly things that work. I come from a place where the stage is big and you’re the only girl on it, so you have to use the whole stage.

Sophie:

I want to talk to you about the pressure of going into hard-core.

Continued in Part II

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