Michigan Porn Star Dom King Talks ‘Crush House,’ Mencrush’s New Gay Reality Show
The Dearborn native talks sex, stigma and getting blindsided by a $20,000 reality show
Ten porn creators walk into a Baja California villa expecting a week of sex, sun and content collaborations. Instead, they find out they’re on a reality competition show.
That’s the bait-and-switch premise behind “Crush House,” the new series from Mencrush.com, a subscription-based platform best known for its documentaries on adult performers. The series, which premiered Sept. 18 and drops new episodes weekly, brings together creators from around the world to compete in a series of cheeky challenges for the title of “Most Valuable Crush,” a $20,000 cash prize sponsored by MISTR and a personalized Mencrush documentary.
Among them is Michigan’s own Dom King, whose real name is Andrew Lyon. “It’s gonna be fun, and it’s gonna be campy,” King tells Pride Source.
And yes, there was plenty of sex in the “Crush House.” You just won’t see it on the show.
That’s because the performers — including Tim James, Roxas Caelum, Kyle Krieger, Rocky Unleashed, Beau Butler and Victor Vivone — were initially invited to Mexico under the impression that they were taking a luxurious group trip where they could hang out and create content together. Only after arriving did they learn that their collab trip was actually a reality competition.
“Going into it, we had no idea what was going on,” King says. “We all had no idea what we were doing, and we had to learn along the way.”
The sex the performers had during production lives elsewhere, on their OnlyFans accounts and other adult platforms. The show itself sticks to the competition, the personalities and whatever happens when you put 10 adult creators in a villa and tell them only one can be the Most Valuable Crush.
Pride Source caught up with King about getting blindsided by reality TV and what viewers can expect from “Crush House.”
What kinds of competitions did they put together? Was there some kind of “who can have sex the longest” contest?
[Laughs.] Oh, no! It was like minigames, and each week someone gets eliminated. The minigames are kind of like the stuff you’d see on “Big Brother.” But you know, they’re sexy and cheeky.
So there’s no actual sex in the show?
Yeah, we’ll talk about our collabs on the show and how we plan them and what goes into preparing for them. But there’s no sex in the show itself. All of the sexy stuff we filmed during our time at “Crush House” is for our OnlyFans and stuff.
How’d you get into porn?
So this has always been something I’ve wanted to do, and the time finally came where I was like, if I don’t do this now, I’m going to regret it. People would always tell me, “Oh, you’re going to regret it one day,” but I’ve been doing this for like five years now, and I haven't regretted it once. I actually think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I feel like it’s also the first decision I ever made that was truly for myself and about what I wanted. I went to college and got a degree … but that’s all kind of influenced upon us. Whereas this was just something I wanted to do for myself, and I finally decided to start.
My OnlyFans started with like PG gym content, and I did that for almost two years. But then I kept wanting to go further and decided to go the studio route, which I’ve loved. Especially working for Men.com, because I feel like it’s got more of that scripted, campy vibe. I always thought I wouldn't be into that type of acting, but then I just turned it into my own “Saturday Night Live”-type of thing. I even did a musical once with Men, where we went to a recording studio and everything. I was laughing all day.
It’s also changed me financially. I used to be that millennial living paycheck to paycheck with some credit card debt, but this gave me a new life. It’s given me opportunities that, if I were working a typical 9-to-5, I never would have been able to do.
What was it like seeing your career take off?
So I’m from Dearborn, which has the biggest Muslim population, and there’s Detroit, so I wasn’t sheltered. But there were just a lot of cultures that I had never interacted with or come across. It exposed me to more cultures, allowed me to travel and really got me out of my comfort zone. Like, I probably never would have gone to southern Spain, but now it’s one of my favorite places. I think the industry has just helped mature me a lot. The industry also has so many men from so many different places, which has given me a much different perspective than if I were still living in a suburb where you’re confined to what’s around you.
In the first episode, there are some great conversations during dinner about what you go through as adult performers, and the stigma and judgment you’ve faced from family and society for your careers. Have you had to navigate that as well?
So, my family actually just found out what I do recently, and they actually weren’t super mad, more just disappointed. They’re more mad that I’m not MAGA [laughs]. That’s where their priorities are at. So it actually wasn’t that crazy. But I was able to show them my awards and show them how I’ve accomplished something. In public, I normally do have a sort of cookie-cutter answer, so I’m not just telling people “I’m a porn star.”
But especially being in Michigan, people seem to find it very interesting. So they usually will want to talk about it. I actually haven’t met anyone who wasn’t interested in what I did after I told them about it. Whereas I feel like if I lived in L.A. or New York people would be more like, “Oh god, another one.” So I do like being in the Midwest and doing what I do because it makes me different from other people.
What would you tell someone to get them to watch the show?
It’s worth the watch because you get to see more about who we are as people. I actually loved that I was able to show people more of my personality in this show. That’s something I try to prioritize in this industry. I don’t really try to create a difference between Dom King and Andrew; they’re just one person. People on the internet probably already know who I am, but I think this show can really help new viewers understand who I am and where I come from.
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