My Encounter With Mandeep

It has been a long, long time since I've written a real blog. Since the pandemic days, in fact. But this warrants it.

So there I was, going about my usual afternoon busywork at the AVN compound, when I hear a call from downstairs:

"Hello?"

I thought I heard my co-worker moving in that direction to see what was up, but then a few minutes later:

"Hello?"

Looked like it was gonna be up to me.

So down the stairs I plodded, and immediately found myself face-to-face with a short, pudgy, balding man seemingly of Indian descent, whom I will call "Mandeep" for the purposes of discretion. 

"Hello sir, is there somebody I can talk to here? This is the AVN?" he asked me.

"Well yes, what do you need?" I asked.

"I have traveled so far, I just need to talk with somebody who can help me," he implored.

"OK ... what's happening? What's your question?" I persisted.

"I want to find out how can I get into the industry?" he answered.

Oh no. Alarm bells began ringing in my head. I couldn't believe it: This was one of those "Sir, can you help me please sir to get into the industry?" email guys live and in the flesh, having traversed god knows how many miles to randomly appear before me and query me in person.

And travel he had. He pulled out his phone to show me the path. 

"I am from Asia," he said. He whipped out a Metro card. "I can use this to get anywhere. I've been going all around, looking for anybody who can help me. All of the addresses are fake."

He proceeded to show me a list of addresses he'd pulled up on the internet for the 2257 record-keeping locations of any adult business he could find, most of them in the general Chatsworth/Canoga Park area. I don't know how many he visited before he arrived at AVN's doorstep.

"I thought if these are the people who keep the records, they can tell me who can help me," he explained.

I interjected ... "Well what do you want to do? It's a very broad question, when you say 'get into the industry.'"

"Be an actor," he stated matter-of-factly. "Just get in the industry."

He then asked me, "How hard is it?"

"It's pretty tough," I told him. "Unless you just do it yourself, it's going to be hard to get someone to just hire you."

He then shifted gears. "I'm thinking of going to the AVN Show in Las Vegas."

"Yes, I would recommend you do that," I told him.

"Now?" he asked.

"Well no, it's in January," I clarified.

"Yes, in January, I will go," he asserted.

And that's when things got weird.

"You are not recording me, right?" he inquired. "This is strictly confidential?"

"Yes, yes, of course," I assured him. 

"I cannot be exposed," he declared. "You are not going to leak this? Or blackmail me?"

"No, no ... this is AVN, we don't do things like that," I told him. (And yes, I realize that's exactly what I'm doing right now, but like I said, I'm calling him "Mandeep" to protect his identity.)

But he pressed on: "I do not want to go back to my country. If I were to be exposed, I would do suicide."

Fuck. This was heavy shit. How was I gonna get rid of this guy?

"Listen, here's my advice to you," I told him. "Go get a job. Doesn't matter what. Just do something so you can support yourself and not wind up on the street, and then worry about getting into the industry."

"Yes, OK, but I should stay here?" he asked. "Are the stars all here?"

"Well they're all over," I replied.

"But they are here, around this area, or somewhere else?"

"They're all over," I reiterated. 

"But mostly everything happens here, yes, so I should stay here?"

"Well yes, this is where the majority happens," I said.

"OK, thank you sir, I will go now, but I will send you email and you will help me as much as you can, and give me the real contacts for people who can help me? I do not want to waste my time and money, I just need the people who can help me."

"Yes, I'll do me best," I assured him. 

He began to leave, but then turned back.

"So AVN invites all the stars to the awards, and they come to Vegas to get the awards?"

"Yes."

"So you probably know many of them?"

"Yes."

"OK, thank you sir, I will go now, but I send you email, and you please help me as much as possible."

"Yes, sure."

And then he was gone. Like a ghost. 

I almost feel bad for the guy. If anybody wants to give him a shot, let me know. 

Because yes, he did email me.