Jan. 26, 2025

From Porn to Purpose Vic Lagina's Journey

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In this episode of Living the Dream, host Curveball sits down with Vic Lagina, a former porn industry producer and director turned author. Vic shares his journey from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the glitz and grind of Hollywood, revealing the realities of working in the adult film industry. He discusses his book, 'Filthy,' which chronicles his experiences, the lessons learned, and the darker aspects of the industry, including mental health struggles and substance use. Join us for an eye-opening conversation filled with humor, honesty, and a unique perspective on a world often misunderstood.
www.viclagina.com
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome, um, to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. Um, if you believe you can achieve.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Today I am joined by author and producer and former director. He was a producer and a director for 20 years in the porn industry, Vic Lagina. Vic is going to be talking about his book Fealty. He's going to be talking about his experiences and everything that he's up to now. So here we go. Vic, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Vic Lagina>Thank you for having me.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Vic Lagina>Well, I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Uh, I grew up loving tv, film, video games.

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> Vic Lagina>And I wound up, uh, after graduating high school, going to Syracuse University, undecided, but then decided to work my way into their newhouse program. And after four years of freezing in Syracuse, I decided to move on down to Miami, where I got a job as a production assistant for a corporate and commercial video company. While I also got my master's at University of Miami. So I have two useless degrees in film production. Um, I did a little bit of teaching at college. Uh, but I had met a woman that I took down as a model for one of the corporate shoots down in Jamaica. And she said she was moving to la. And I thought that was a great idea because while work was stable, um, and it was a comfortable living, it wasn't very fulfilling for me. So I followed her, uh, into la and I had one of those typical crash and burn Hollywood stories where I ended up a lot in debt, mainly because she decided to stop working and wanted to become the feminine, a white female rapper. And I thought it was a great idea. And that was one of the reasons why I got myself into debt, supporting our dreams.

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> Vic Lagina>And then one day, uh, when things were getting really tough, I answered an ad on adult staffing.com and there was a guy, a young Mexican kid, who was looking to have someone direct his porn film. And I BSed him. I told him I could do it. And that was my first day in April of 2002. And I did not think that that day would lead me into a long and prolific career in the porn industry. But that's the short of, of, of who I am and how I got there.

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> Vic Lagina>What happened after that was equally entertaining and interesting.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, before we get into that, Vic Lagina, how did she come up with that name? That seems pretty, pretty interesting.

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> Vic Lagina>So I was always under the impression that the porn industry was run by the mafia, so I felt I needed an Italian sounding name, you know, so people wouldn't mess with me. Very naive thinking. That's the way the industry may have been at one point. I know it was, but I was getting into it during the age of Internet expansion.

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> Vic Lagina>And the people that I fell into were computer geeks. So I couldn't just be Vic, and I had to be something interesting.

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> Vic Lagina>So my best friend, the senator, he has a unique talent of coming up with very funny things that generally have no use whatsoever. But I thought using the name Vic Lagina was the perfect way to kind of set up how I felt about the industry. Don't take yourself too seriously. It's. It's all kind of a big joke and I just wanted my name to reflect that. So that's how it started.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, did being in the porn industry, uh, how did that affect your secular sex life?

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> Vic Lagina>That's a very common question. And I think most people think that in order for it to move the needle, you know, I need ball gags and tying women up and whipping them.

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> Vic Lagina>That's the furthest thing from the truth. My sex life is very vanilla and I have just taken it back to the basics, you know, pleasure, romance. Um, I know it sounds kind of weird coming from pornographer, but the truth is, is I tried to date within the civilian population. That's what we called regular people.

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> Vic Lagina>And it went sideways a lot of times because they felt that I was. They kind of looked at me like I was a novelty. And so I decided to start trying to find an undamaged soul in the porn.

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> Vic Lagina>And that was a very fruitless search. Um, led me to a lot of bad decisions over the years for sure.

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> Vic Lagina>But, um, I guess I found like, a lot of people think, okay, what's it like to have sex with a, with a porn star? Because after a certain point, I just dedicated myself to those in the porn industry. And, you know, the, I guess the litmus test was, do you still have anything to say or do you want to hang out with this person post ejaculate? And the truth was, is that that was like, when it was really uncomfortable most of the time. There were a couple of gems in there, but for the most part, after you, you know, finished, finish the job, uh, you have nothing to talk about with a lot of these girls. You know, they, they, some of them treat sex as a handshake and, you know, it was just, it went sideways a lot of times.

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> Vic Lagina>Um, there was the women in these films A lot of them kind of put on a performance. So I would be hearing the same exact words, phrases, noises, um, that I would hear maybe four hours earlier while shooting the sex scene. So, you know, it's all cracked. It's all cracked up to be. And that's. A lot of those stories are in my book Filthy, because I always like to lean into the bizarre and awkward. And those were certainly bizarre and awkward.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah. Well, since you mentioned your book, go ahead and tell us about your book Filthy. Tell us where we can get it and what listeners can expect if they read it.

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> Vic Lagina>So if you go to My website, Vic Lagina.com, not only is there a trailer for. For the book starring James Duvall, who was in Donnie Darko, a lot of porn stars as well. That's where you can order it. You can order the print version off of Amazon.

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> Vic Lagina>You can order the Kindle off of Amazon.

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> Vic Lagina>There is an audiobook read by me that is on Spotify, Apple Books. That's a fun journey.

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> Vic Lagina>I had a lot of time, a lot of fun putting that together. And if you want a signed copy, you go on gumroad. Those are the ways you get it. But the stories, you know, I talk a lot of, how did it start? How did it end? And I was really worried that my narrative would not sustain a reader only because, you know, look, my. My relationships were. Were train wrecks a lot.

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> Vic Lagina>And everyone loves a good train wreck. And even though that was a lot of it, I felt like it needed more.

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> Vic Lagina>So what I wound up doing was writing an additional hundred pages of material that focus on more of other aspects of. There are nine lessons of, um, Vic Lagina's school of porn that deal with, okay, hygiene. Very, very passionate topic of mine, because I have dealt with a lot of unhygienic women, both personally and in the industry. But you also learn about how to prep for anal. Is it squirt or pee, um, conduct in the industry, all of these things. And then there's the more sobering aspects of it, which is when I reminisce and talk about those who d in the industry. And it really puts a spotlight on the pain and the trauma and the sadness and the darkness that is in this industry. And then there's also the fly on the wall experiences.

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> Vic Lagina>Uh, that is the prologue and the epilogue.

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> Vic Lagina>But I really wanted to give the readers the feeling of what it was like to walk in my shoes while I was in the industry. And a lot of people have said that I really nailed the mark. It's very brutally Honest. It's raw. I'm honest mostly about myself. And I really had fun. It was a long process. Eight and a half years to write the print copy. And then I spent about 50 days recording the audiobook, which was very joyous. There's a lot of audio clips from the things that I'm talking about, and it's a little bit of like an LSD trip, if you really listen to it. And I.

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> Vic Lagina>I suggest if people don't have the time to read, the audiobook is for them.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Speaking of a LSD trip, is drug use rampant in the porn industry?

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> Vic Lagina>Um, I would say yes. There have been a lot of overdoses, which I cover in the book. There was mine. I can talk about mine. You know, I used to be a more of a hallucinogen, weed, booze kind of guy, but when I was talking about darkness, and this is when the light went off in my head about why I was medicating with the bad drugs. And when I say bad drugs, cocaine was the one. I never got into opiates, I never got into, um, uh, methamphetamines or. Or any of that stuff. But the cocaine was what I was using as a crutch because of all the darkness that I was. That was around me, that I was absorbing on a daily basis. And I think what happened was when I was started writing the book in early 2015, and I was getting it out and I was reading it, I was acknowledging what a train wreck my life had become.

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> Vic Lagina>And that's when I started pumping the brakes on the harder substances and focusing more on the. On the psychedelics, which, to be honest with you, they healed me. A lot of people are leery of psychedelics, but in a lot of ways they broke down a lot of emotional barriers that I built up over the years, a lot of it stemming from my mother's death when I was 15. And it really got me on the. On the lighter side of the fence. And then once I was out of the industry, uh, I didn't need it anymore. So I've tapered off significantly. And I thank Covid for ending my career, because I don't know if I would have survived. I might have ended up like another rest in porn that there have been so many of.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, do you. Do you feel like you. You suffered any mental health issues while in the porn industry? Uh, uh, because of the porn industry.

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> Vic Lagina>I can say that I was teetering on the line of madness at one point. Towards the end, for sure, I'd say things were starting to Wear pretty thin. In 2019 and 2020, a lot of it really came down to those who I was working for, the overlords who owned the porn monopoly such as pornhub and browsers, which I was shooting for, and they just sucked all the joy out of the job. So what I would have to do is go to a music festival and re energize myself, my soul, my spirit, so I can come back and shoot more porn for the masses. But, um, I think if I had gone further, there could have been some kind of meltdown or sort. So I have a lot of gratitude, ironically, for Covid, because in a lot of ways, it saved me.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, who. Who were your favorite performers to shoot and why?

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> Vic Lagina>Those who made their flights from LA to Las Vegas that showed up with a smile on their face, that were happy to be there, that were appreciative to be there, and didn't make it about them, that wanted to. You have to realize production is a collective job. It's a group effort. And a lot of performers made it about them and their problems and their nonsense.

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> Vic Lagina>So the answer to the question was those who were professional. Now, I can name a bunch of them. Um, you know, the Angela Whites, the Monique Alexanders, the Alina Lopez's. You know, mostly a lot of the girls from this one agency, Spiegler, uh, Spiegel girls, they were. They were. For the most part, you knew what to expect when a Spiegler girl was on your set. But, you know, Nicole Aniston, she was very vanilla, but she was so, like, a feast on the eyes that you're like, this girl could have been really anything with her life, but she chose porn. And by her own admission, she would say she was a terrible porn star, but she was extremely popular. But overall, that's who I really enjoyed because they were just wonderful to be around. And that's who I would hire again and again and again if I. Good, because I knew what to expect.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>What was the grossest thing that you witnessed while being in the porn industry?

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> Vic Lagina>The grossest thing I'd say was when there was bad hygiene. There was one girl, she was a Brazer's contract star, and it was a boy girl, girl scene, which is a man and two women, and the entire soundstage smelled like her vagina.

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> Vic Lagina>And I just kept wondering, like, how on earth do you not smell that? Are you immune? So a lot of experiences like that. There was also times, you know, when anal scenes go wrong, they don't prep correctly. Perhaps their colon is not agreeing with them. But when you have messy days like that, those, uh, would be the gross ones. And then I would also say, you know, squirting was a very big, popular, like, niche for a while, and a lot of girls couldn't squirt. So. And when they did, it was clear as day, not. Not what was coming out of them that was more yellow, that it was urine. And when you hit like a, uh, a very big urine stench, it's kind of a downer. But then, you know, the other. The other side of the coin is a lot of the women knew that if they drank an abundance of Pedialytes, their quote unquote squirt, which was their pee, was clear.

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> Vic Lagina>And apparently it tasted sweet like candy. So other performers would do a lot of kind of, uh, nasty things with that liquid, if you catch my drift. So those really were the days when. When you're dealing with human excretions of sorts.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, what are you doing now that. That you've got out of the industry?

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> Vic Lagina>So for a while there, there was a lot of existential examination. I was reading a lot. I fortunately never reproduced, so I was able to leapfrog into retirement a lot earlier than most people. And I was very smart with my money over the years, paying down my house, reducing my nut as much as possible.

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> Vic Lagina>And I had time to think. Plus, I had bought my second studio. So when I sold it, I made double what I paid for it in, like six years. And that was stability, uh, in terms of the future.

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> Vic Lagina>So, you know, writing the book and finishing the book was one project.

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> Vic Lagina>I think what I need to do now is continue writing or at least recording and talking more about those days in the trenches, because that's what I think a lot of people like to hear about, uh, especially in the way I tell it, which is brutally honest with a lot of wit and sarcasm. Um, I've also gotten better at the piano while. While Covet happened, I reached. I took it up again. Third time was the charm, because I practice all the time now.

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> Vic Lagina>And, yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what's next. I'm in a relationship, which is, uh, which is great. She lives with me, and I hang out with my girlfriend all day because she's successful in her own. In her own right. So it's. It's, um. It's almost heavenly.

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> Vic Lagina>I sometimes joke that I died, you know, because I got a bad batch of drugs a while back, and this is heaven because it does feel heavenly.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to know about.

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> Vic Lagina>Well, nothing, uh, of yet, although I'm going to stick, I think, more with the recorded entries and perhaps digital entries in the tales from the filthy trenches that will be coming relatively soon. That was my project for 2025, and I'm going to just create more content, um, the only way I know how. I mean, this was really what I was trained for. So I'm going to do it and just kind of still lean into the whole Vic Lagina thing, even though that person was conjured up to shoot porn.

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> Vic Lagina>And that's kind of what the title is about. Filthy the Rise and Pending Death of Vic Lagina.

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> Vic Lagina>Because we're all pending death, that's for sure.

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> Vic Lagina>But Vic Lagina didn't really need to exist anymore once I was done shooting it.

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> Vic Lagina>So I guess I will resurrect him in a sort of way to continue on talking about all of this insanity, because I did shoot 3,792 scenes over my career. So there's more gold in those hills for sure.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, you already gave out your website, vic lagina.com, so close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about, that you would like to touch on any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Vic Lagina>Well, I mean, I'm also on X&IG at Nick Lagina, but final thoughts. M.

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> Vic Lagina>Well, I was nominated for an AVN award that's happening in two weeks for Mainstream Project of the Year.

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> Vic Lagina>Now I don't know if I'll win it. I'm trying hard because I feel my acceptance speech will be monumental. So I hope I win in that purpose. It's kind of funny that they nominated me because I kind ofgoof on AVN a lot in the book because I always found it so silly, you know, this. This whole. This whole taking ourselves very seriously in porn, I just never understood it. It never made sense to me.

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> Vic Lagina>But a lot of people in the industry, they take themselves very seriously.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, ladies and gentlemen, there, uh, you have it. If you know of anybody that wants to know what it's like to be a porn producer, send them to viclagina.com Share this episode Follow Rate Review Jump on your favorite podcast app. Check out the show. Share it if you have any guests or suggestion topics, Curtis Jackson1978t.net is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and supporting the show and thank you for joining me.

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> Vic Lagina>Thank you. I had a pleasure and I love hearing your voice.

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> Vic Lagina>It's Amazing.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>until next time, stay focused on Living the dream.

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> Vic Lagina>Dream.