Joe Gow
Appearances
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
These videos that we've been making completely In secret. I mean, nobody knew about that other than the people we worked on them with. I mean, no, we didn't tell any friends or family or anybody. And we thought, well, maybe we can put some videos into the world and just see whether people would like them, you know?
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
And so we started with OnlyFans and LoyalFans, which are sites where you have to join and pay. And so it's a pretty restricted space. area.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
And we weren't in it for the money. But it's kind of like if you wrote a book or you recorded a song or you did a podcast, you... want an audience for it. And so we were talking about our frustrations with the guy who edits the videos. And he is employed by a big company that's a studio that makes adult content. And he said, well, you know, the free sites, you might get more interest there.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
So we put a couple of videos on the sites Pornhub and XHamster. And the Pornhub site got a little bit of interest, you know, made a few hundred views. XHamster, that was the real shock. Ten views, a hundred views. The next day, a thousand views. Ten thousand views, a hundred thousand views. Before we knew it, in a few weeks... Like two weeks.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
We were the number two creators on XHamster for North America.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
It was this strange surprise, and then it'd be kind of like if you recorded a song and then you heard it on the radio, oh, people actually like this.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
Now, if you've been doing this as long as I have, 16 years, that's a pretty common thing. You have some things happening. I didn't know it was about me. And so I went to the Zoom meeting, and there's one of the lead attorneys and somebody from the HR office, and they started asking me about the videos.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
This was the Wednesday before Christmas. And I didn't even tell Carmen about this meeting because we were going on a trip to visit family and I didn't want to put a cloud over it.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
I was really puzzled. I mean, I thought I was going to get a phone call from the president of the system and he was going to say, Hey, these videos are a problem for us. You need to take them down or you need to just resign quietly so that we don't call a lot of attention to this. And that's the way they usually operate. You got any examples? Well, not that I can really talk about.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
In general, the big one in the era that both of us was sexual harassment, that you'd hear about, okay, a complaint has been filed. This professor is sexually harassing a student. We do an investigation. You'd find out if you have enough evidence to prove that. If so, talk to that person and they would always just retire or resign.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
It was very difficult to try to explain in a phone call, well, for the past 10 years, we've been secretly making sexually explicit videos and writing books, and now we've been exposed, and this is going to be in the media. That was quite a hectic time.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
Hello. Are you Joe? I'm Elliot. Good to see you. You can park in the driveway if you want. Would you prefer that? I'm happy to. That might be better for your car.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
The one thing I guess we would hope is that people would say, regardless of the media or the message or what have you, there's a First Amendment. And what we did was an exercise in free expression. And that has to be respected at some level.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
It is definitely kind of a period in time for us that we did this as a hobby and, you know, it will always be that.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
I guess what we wish is that the people who are so uncomfortable, hey, nobody's making you go and watch this. You have to choose to do that. So don't watch it, but don't try to take away the freedom that people who do want to see these things have. You know, we don't think that's appropriate.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
We were invited just the other week to go to the University of Minnesota and speak in a media law class. And that was just fantastic. We like to get out and meet with people and have good discussions like we're having right now.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
We would love to travel and visit university and college campuses or anywhere else where people want to get together and talk about all the issues that our situation raises and what it implies for the future.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
I get my job back as a faculty member, and there'll probably be some monetary damages to pay the attorneys who so kindly have put in the time to do this. And we're very lucky that I have a pension and we have to pay for our own health insurance now. We'd like to get that rectified through the courts and get that back.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
It's not a question a lot of people who are involved in the sex industry, you know, they have to do things because they got to make a living and pay their bills. We're okay on that count. So it's really more the principle of the thing than any kind of economic issues.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
At the outset, we'll say I've gotten a whole lot of attention because I was in the chancellor job and it was a very high profile thing and fired. But Carmen's story is equally interesting. It just doesn't tend to get told. So we're always eager to tell the full story because this is really a partnership. I mean, for lack of a better metaphor, you know, it's like Simon and Garfunkel.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
I mean, you couldn't do it alone. It's two people. making equal contributions. In some cases, like the cooking piece, that's all her. So there's a lot there that I don't think has been talked about yet. We're here to do that.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
At some point, we said, oh, what would it be like to have sex on video? And so, I don't know. Well, then we're going to need to go buy a camcorder. So we went to the Best Buy in Janesville, Wisconsin, near her campus. And we went over to the video camera area and one of the nice clerks there came over and she said, can I help you? No, we're going to buy a video camera.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
And I was just kind of like, yeah, right. Ha ha ha ha ha. And then we went home and we talked about that. And I said, all right, I'm going to call up one of these big agencies and say, you're going to be in Chicago, your people, and we want to make a documentary and interview somebody and then have a sex scene with them and we'll shoot it. And would you do that? And they were kind of...
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
well, are you serious about this? I said, oh yeah, we're on the level. And they said, all right, we'll send pictures of the two of you and we'll run it by the owner and see what he thinks. And so they did talk to the owner and we were able to book some performers.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
It really was a lot of fun, but it also clued us into, you know, you don't want to be having to worry about holding the camera and zooming and all of that. So you need to get professional people.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
The videos that we made, we made those for us. And so there's a, it's kind of like painting a painting, just, well, I'm not doing this to try to sell it. I'm just doing it as self-expression.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
We were always looking for, okay, what's the next thing we can do that we haven't done that maybe will kind of up the production values and make this more interesting? And we were in a gym. We were on the elliptical machines, and there are the monitors up in front of you on the TVs with the sound down. And I was pumping away there, and I looked up, and I saw Chip and Joanna Gaines.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
And I thought, yeah, they're an attractive couple. And I thought, you know, Carmen's is... telegenic as Joanna. Maybe I'm in Chips League. I don't know. But boy, could we do something like this, like that's more the couple is really emphasized. And then I turned my head and I saw the Food Network and said, oh, cooking. Yeah, Carmen's a great vegan cook. And so got this wild idea.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
And I remember when I pitched that idea to you, you thought that's a little wild. And
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
Some people, they don't cook at all. Other people, like Nina Hartley, who's a legendary figure, she was just all, oh, I love to cook and let's talk food and everything like that. And one of the people, a guy named Damon Dice, he actually had a culinary arts degree from a school. And so he was all about, let me get in there and chop up stuff with you.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
And I think for everybody, the food piece was unusual in a fun way. Yes.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
When I was hired to be chancellor, it was really do your own thing, develop an identity for the campus. You know, the system didn't really want to meddle in the campus affairs. And over time, there was more and more political influence.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
And then now you even have legislators wanting to talk about what we can teach or not teach on campus.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
Thankfully, another school in Western New York promised Carmen a job, but... Three or four months go by and then she gets an email and it's like, no, you're not getting the job.
Campus Files
Hot for Chancellor - Part 2
Yeah, I mean, she didn't deserve that. And so it was like this, well, hey, what else are we going to do with our lives? And that's when we started to take some chances with the videos.