Jason Sechrest

Jason Sechrest is shooting his Cupid's bow - mingling and matching people - this Valentine's Day for the All Need Love Festival at Chicago's Field Museum. Known for his journalism and blogging about the adult entertainment industry for the award-winning JasonCurious.com, Sechrest will emcee the Zodiac Mixer at this one-night event dedicated to the activation of love.

JN: (Jerry Nunn) Heyyy, Jason. Tell me how you became a writer in the first place.

JS: (Jason Sechrest) I started writing for magazines when I was 15 years old. I submitted an article to Femme Fatales. I don't know if it is still around or not but it was a mainstream magazine that was focused on actresses from the horror, fantasy and science fiction genre. It would spotlight Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Fisher on the cover. They hired me as a cub reporter and gave me my own column. They had no idea that I was fifteen.

JN: That is wild.

JS: Yeah, I didn't tell them because I wanted to keep making money (laughs). I was skipping school to meet my deadlines and a published journalist. That led to me writing for other magazines like Entertainment Weekly. Sometimes they would have me interviewing porn stars like Jenna Jameson, who was crossing over into Cinemax movies. I was living in the streets of Los Angeles and I called everyone I know, including Linda Blair, who did not call me back.

JN: Oh, I met her last summer. She only cares about her 65 dogs!

JS: Yes, she didn't call me back but a lot of girls in the adult industry did. They would take me to dinner and find me little odd jobs to do. Eventually the whole industry took me under their wing. I ended up with a desk job writing full time for Danni.com. I started writing a gossip column about the girls there then left to make my own website. JasonCurius.com was born from that entire adventure.

JN: How did you get to Chi Chi LaRue and Channel 1?

JS: I met Chi Chi at the backstage of the GayVN Awards when I was doing interviews. We did not hit it off. We were archenemies for several years. We had some very public fights. I thought she was a bitch and she thought I was a snot. We were both right! We were perfect for each other and couldn't see it. One random evening in San Francisco we decided to bury the hatchet by shoving each other's tongues down our throats. Namely because there were a lot of photographers around and we wanted to shock everyone. We had a blast that night and became best friends. She is one of the most important people in my life right now. It goes to show that the amount of hatred you have for someone is equal to the amount of love. That is actually something I have learned with my work and study with Kabbalah.

JN: So now you work with Channel 1?

JS: I am outsourced to them. I do PR work for a lot of adult companies now. So I do work as Chi Chi's publicist.

JN: How long have you been studying the Kabbalah?

JS: I have been a student of Kabbalah since 1998. I now have a blog about it at KabbalahCurious.com. It is interesting how it has changed people's perception of adult stars and their interest in Kabbalah. I have two sites that are so opposite. It really shows people that you can be multidimensional. You can't put someone in a box.

JN: Your website JasonCurious has been going strong for a while.

JS: I started it in the late nineties and at the time no one else was doing anything like it. I was told that I would fail. Nobody was interviewing porn stars and I was told that no one wants to hear what comes out of a porn star's mouth. When I was on a red carpet in the late nineties interviewing porn stars no one else was on that red carpet. My whole objective was to demystify the porn star.

JN: Tell me about the Love Fest.

JS: I am so proud to be involved with it because it benefits Success for Kids. It is an event to activate the love within all of us. There are magicians, musicians and seven martini bars! You can imagine the state of fun and love everyone will be in after that!

JN: How did you get involved with it?

JS: I was at the Kabbalah Centre and I was at a class. The class is filmed and online for people everywhere. I was talking on the microphone for the class and they later called me and asked me to emcee the event.

JN: Sounds like fun.

JS: I am hosting the Zodiac Mixer. We will have games and ways to interact with each other. Everyone will have a nametag with a zodiac sign and will be paired up with other people that have compatible signs.

JN: What's your sign?

JS: I am a Sagittarius. My moon is in Virgo, which is very different. It can either make me balanced or very confused. I have an interesting dichotomy going there for me.

JN: Are you single?

JS: I am single.

JN: So we can spend Valentines Day together!

JS: Yay! I am so excited! I love your stuff and have been reading it forever.

JN: Aww I appreciate that and thank you for sharing the love!

All Need Love Festival at The Field Museum, 1400 S Lake Shore, on Feb 14 from 8:00 pm to 1:00 am. The tickets can only be purchased in advance at www.allneedlove.com. ChicagoPride.com readers may use the promo code "fieldmuseumneedlove" for a 12% on any of the level of tickets.