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Why Broward Is A Better Porn Market Than Miami Beach

Rick Stone

Exxxotica should be a familiar word to any South Floridian who regularly reads a "What to Do This Weekend" column.

It's a big sex-and-pornography convention that's been bringing fans annually to the Miami Beach Convention Center for the last seven years. But after a souring relationship with Miami Beach -- and a conclusion that Fort Lauderdale offers a much richer vein of porn consumers -- Exxxotica has moved to the Broward Convention Center where its inaugural weekend is underway.

Credit Rick Stone
TRAVELLING DUNGEON: Mistress C will flog you and then answer your questions.

"(Broward) residents are much more in our wheelhouse," said Exxxoticadirector and owner J. Handy on the 100,000-square-foot floor of the convention center as riggers and electricians prepared for the Friday night opening in a shimmer of hot pink and musk oil.

Why is Broward better? The local demographics, as Exxxotica reads them, are heavy with middle-aged, blue collar suburbanites who are much more likely to support the show than the "vacationers and young club-goers" who were Handy's Miami Beach customer base.

Moving to Fort Lauderdale also centers the event in South Florida and places Palm Beach County within its reach.

Attendees this weekend will see more than a hundred porn stars, be exposed to the latest in sex-related costumes and gadgets and they may even meet Mistress C and experience the portable dungeon she brought with her from California.

"It's an interactive, kinky play space," explained the mistress with disturbing eyes and a leather-look dominatrix dress (tip from the porn stars: PVC looks just like leather but doesn't make you sweat as much). "People can come in and get flogged and get spanked and get some of their questions answered."

But when the kinky gets old, there's more to do at Exxxotica. Exploring shared affinities, Handy is combining the sex expo with a classic car show. A dozen or so high-end hot rods, classic cars and motorcycles will be on display and for sale and car restorers will be handing out business cards.

It's a no-brainer, said Joe Schulman, who owns the Graveyard Classics car restoring business in Hollywood. "Food, women, cars," he figures. "What else do guys need?"

Also sharing space with the DVDs, sex toys and web cam displays is the work of artist Fang Ling Lee of Palm Coast. Her (perhaps NSFW) paintings are surreal and sexy. Though they're well short of pornographic, she said they seem to appeal to porn consumers.

"We did a (porn) show in Chicago and I sold my biggest piece. "It was the most I ever asked for a painting and we sold it within the first minutes of the show. We need to be around more open minded people."

Exxxotica opened Friday night and was scheduled to run through Sunday until 11 p. m. each night. 

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