He emerged from the station entrance looking slightly like a lost University student, dazed; and clearly searching for me (he hadn’t yet seen what Steve looked like) amongst the great flock of people that surrounded him. Jamie was tall and slim, with slightly hipster length hair and oversized prescription glasses. There was little to be intimidated about when it came to his appearance. We made eye contact and headed over to greet him.
“At last!” he cried. “We meet!”
He spoke with a gentle northern accent. We shook hands politely.
“I’m Joseph,” I said. “Or J Matt… I know it’s one or the other anyway.”
He laughed.
“I know who you are,” he said. “And you must be Steve?”
“How’s it going?”
“Great thanks!” Jamie replied enthusiastically. “Right, shall we get down to business then?”
The three of us strolled together to a small café just a few blocks away from the station entrance where we sat and ordered coffee. We made small talk and then Jamie clarified once more the premise of the show. They’d already been filming a couple of lads by this point (which I wasn’t surprised by, I had been pretty late to respond), but were particularly interested in me and my background. What it was that had led me to camming in the first place, what a typical show was like for me, and what my peers thought about it all, or if they were even aware.
He whipped out his iPhone and started filming, as 1 by 1 I answered his bullet-point questions as best as I could. I’m a terrible actor (I failed my final GCSE drama performance with what must have been the most abysmal portrayal of Macbeth), but when it comes to just being myself, I like to think I’m pretty engaging and charismatic, even if I do have a tendency to say ‘like’ rather a lot.
I reiterated much of what we’d already gone over on the phone and via email, but went into greater detail as to what my shows involved – particularly the masochistic, kinky nature of many of them, and, of course, my passion for fetish wear. By this point I was quite enjoying the attention, and more keen to be involved than I had been before.
Steve sat next to me throughout but declined to be filmed, although he chimed in occasionally to clarify some of my answers, so his voice was on film if nothing else.
The whole meeting was over within the space of an hour. Steve only had to take me back to his flat – a 10 minute drive away, whereas Jamie had a train to catch again all the way to London. I felt rather sorry for him in that respect, he must’ve been knackered by the end of the day! I suppose he was used to cross country trips though, working in that field. There’s so much running around in the lead-up to putting a show together; so much that goes on behind the scenes in the months and weeks before the show is ready for air. And then you sit down and watch it when it’s all been polished up nicely through the magic of TV editing, thinking nothing of what went in to making it, or quite how much effort it took. I take my hat off to all of the people involved in the research and production process; I don’t think I could ever have the stamina to do what they do, and deal with how chaotic it can be at times.
When I first started camming, I never dreamt of the opportunities that might come my way, and it wasn’t until about 3 months in to working that they started to arise. First on the horizon were offers to do porn films or nude photo shoots with guys who, to me, seemed to have little to no credibility…
I’ve always been reluctant to do studio porn, having heard firsthand from others who have done it themselves how laborious and staged it can be. And as for photo shoots? I still was far from confident with my body when I wasn’t in control of displaying it, and wasn’t prepared to get my kit off in front of a man and his camera, when in fact all he likely wanted was to get in to my pants. No thanks!
For the first 9 months of my camming career, all of my photographs, videos, and any other media featured across my profiles had been entirely self produced.
I quite enjoyed being something of a ‘one man band’ though – I liked putting together little collages to advertise my cam shows and working with Photoshop. Having taken Photography at college and excelled in computer graphics it was something I was pretty clued up on.
I always enjoyed being interviewed, and wrote my fair share of articles for sites including ‘Gay Star News’ and the ‘Cam4’ blog to raise my profile. My advice to anyone looking to get their name out there would be – don’t be afraid to approach websites or companies yourself with a pitch. The worst they can do is say no, but you might be surprised to find out they’d be more than happy to interview you or have you involved in a feature. All of these things are positive strives in the right direction if you’re truly invested in making a career out of camming.
One of the most recent offers I was given was the chance to appear on a Channel 5 show called ‘Sex Pod’ with my boyfriend. The premise of the show was that the two of us would be filmed having sex in front of an audience and a panel of ‘sexperts’. For what purpose exactly? I’m still not quite sure, but needless to say I didn’t need to give that one a second thought, and both Steve and I politely declined the invitation.
Think carefully before agreeing to do anything, and don’t be blind sighted by the promise of fame and fortune. Do your research and don’t work with anyone who expects you to pay an advance in cash – it’s very likely a scam!
If you’re looking to build a modelling portfolio, I highly recommend signing up to ModelMayhem.com – a social networking websites for models and photographers to connect. It takes a little while to learn to navigate the site, but you can get a better idea of who’s legitimate, experienced and professional when it comes to capturing portraits, and who simply doesn’t have a clue.
After our brief chat with Jamie, Steve and I were both left in the dark a bit, not knowing if the execs back at BBC London head office had any intent to take my story any further. Then, whilst at home the next day, the landline rang. My mum answered, before passing the phone over to me.
“Hello,” I said, cautiously.
“Is that Joseph?”, came a voice I didn’t recognise, from the other end of the line.
“It is. Who’s this?”
“My name’s Mobeen,” the man said. “I’m the producer and director of the show ‘Webcam Boys’, is now a good time to talk?”
“As good a time as any,” I said, retreating to my bedroom to light a cigarette.
“I know that you and… Steve is it?”
“Steve, yeah.”
“Right, I know the two of you met with my colleague Jamie on Monday.”
“Mmhm – yeah that’s right.”
“I was wondering if you’d had any more thoughts about taking part. Basically we really like your story and think you’d be a really good fit for the documentary based on what we’ve seen so far. Are you still interested?”
“Umm.”
Why was I always like this on the phone? Of course I was bloody interested!
“Sure,” I said coolly. “Yeah, I’m up for it.”
“That’s great!” he said. “Could you possibly give me Steve’s number so I could speak with him also?”
“Sure.”
I relayed the phone number to Mobeen.
“That’s brilliant Joseph, and is there anyone else you can think of that’d be willing to appear? You live with your parents don’t you?”