Featured Director: Chi Chi LaRue
With her vivacious personality and a knack for capturing the passion of sex, Chi Chi LaRue has become an adult industry icon. Chi Chi is the drag persona of Larry David Paciotti, born in Hibbing, Minnesota on November 8, 1959. During his teen years, Larry’s obsessions were glam rock and porn. He was a fan of female porn star Sharon Kane (who later became a friend) and became an encyclopedia of porn knowledge. This would eventually help him break into the business.
Such a small town could never contain such a big personality, so Larry moved to Minneapolis, where he performed as part of a two-person “hag drag” revue called the Weather Gals. Chi Chi is among the most brash and bold of drag queens, and soon the Twin Cities weren’t big enough to keep her either. After moving to L.A. with a friend, Larry/Chi Chi went to Catalina Video and was hired on the spot to do publicity, thanks to that knowledge and love of the adult industry. In the late ’80s, Chi Chi got the chance to direct.
Chi Chi quickly gained a fan base with movies that made every thrust feel like you were right there in the room. She won her first AVN Awards in 1991, for Best Director – Gay Video (for “The Rise”) and Best Non-Sexual Performance (“More of a Man”). Through the years she has picked up several Best Director and Best Video trophies.
Even in the pre-condom era, Chi Chi was already a staunch advocate of safe sex in porn, as she still is. She makes fucking with condoms look hot, and you’ll hardly care about the fact that these cocks are in sleeves because Chi Chi is just that good. Some of her early movies include the sexy park ranger romp “Ranger Nick 2” and the muscle fest “Man of the Year” (Chi Chi appears in a non-sex role). Chi Chi released quite a few classics during the ’90s, including the hot, fetish-flavored Boot Black series. If you’ve ever wondered about the sexual adventures that a boot black in a leather bar could get up to, these movies answer that question quite explicitly!
In 1999, Chi Chi founded her own label, Rascal Video, after meeting Channel 1 Releasing studio owners Rob Novinger and Steven Walker in Las Vegas. “Steele Ranger” was the first Rascal release, starring its first exclusive performer, Kyle Kennedy. Kyle won Best Newcomer of the Year at the next GayVN Awards. Over the years, Rascal’s roster of performers has included Cameron Marshall, Jeremy Bilding, and Johnny Hazzard. Rascal Video has truly allowed Chi Chi to come into her own as a director, resulting in one hot movie after another. “Wrong Side of the Tracks” and its sequel, the pissing and extreme penetration-themed “Detention,” and the second starring vehicle for “Big Brother 10” contestant Steven Daigle, “Steven Daigle Stalked” — these are just a few of Chi Chi’s greatest hits of the last decade.
Early in her career, Chi Chi also filmed straight porn for Vivid and she only quit doing so in 2006, citing Vivid’s decision to stop using condoms as her reason. This past January she announced that she would be filming with Vivid again, doing a movie called “Sinner Takes All.” These days Chi Chi still sometimes films truly sexy bisexual porn. For fans of this niche, it doesn’t get better than Chi Chi’s work in movies like “Black Attack” (starring her friend Sharon Kane), “Steel Garters,” and “Shifting Gears.” Sometimes these movies sparked controversy, but it’s hard to argue when even a big-name gay porn star like Blake Riley can admit that he liked his first encounter with a woman in “Shifting Gears.”
If you’re in or near West Hollywood, you’ll be happy to know that Chi Chi and Channel 1 Releasing opened their first company store in 2008. The store, named Chi Chi LaRue’s, offers the entire Channel 1 catalog of more than 2,000 titles and products, as well as One Condoms brand products.
With two booming careers in porn and drag, Chi Chi LaRue became a big name in gay culture. She has appeared in some mainstream productions, including a cameo in Purple Rain and an appearance on “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List.” Chi Chi LaRue is one of those rare directors who becomes as well known as the stars and we love her.
