SAN DIEGO, CA – At Cybernet Expo this weekend in San Diego, CA, one of the most anticipated events undoubtedly is Saturday’s “Players VIP Party,” the latest in the seven year tradition of Players Ball events; parties legendary in the adult industry for outlandish fashion, top-tier musical acts, and countless celebrity attendees.YNOT recently sat down with the driving force behind the Players Ball, D$, to talk about the upcoming VIP event, the history of the Ball, and D$’s own favorite moments from over the years.

YNOT: Do you have anything special planned for the upcoming Players VIP Party in San Diego?

D$: Yes I do, something very special, actually. Since I’ve started these Players parties I’ve always had critics. “Do a rock show, do something other then hip hop, make it smaller, make it more VIP-oriented, make it casual, get more chicks in the club…”
When I throw parties for smaller trade shows, I can experiment with the format. The budget for smaller trade shows are smaller, so I need to figure out a way to keep costs down so I can raise the money necessary to throw the event. Paying for a “big name” artist this time was not very cost effective, usually that costs more then $20k which pays for just the talent, not the venue, drinks, transportation, etc.

We have a very well-known, popular 80’s cover band Tainted Love performing. Like I said before, lots of webmasters have been requesting this type of music for years now.

And you never know if we’ll have one of our famous Players Ball friends show up to party all night with us. Too Short is a regular guest and the guys from Digital Underground like to show up as well. No promises, but we’ll see if they can make it.

YNOT: Of all the celebs or famous players to hit the PB events over the years, who stands out most in your mind, and why?

D$: I can’t really narrow it down to just one celeb; there’s a handful that all come to mind right away. Each stands out for his own reason. Here are a few for you:

Trey Parker, creator of “South Park.” He came to the first Players Ball ever, thanks to Farrell Timlake and Homegrown Video. Trey signed up for the full Players package that night. He had at least three to five women around him at any given time. He also hit our two private after-parties that night. There was live sex going on in the hotel room suite and Trey was whispering requests to my hero Farrell, who would then whisper to the ladies on the bed. For kicks, Farrell jumped into this all girl orgy, for our amusement. We were all pretty wasted too.

For the record, I wasn’t on that bed….

Mike Tyson, former heavy weight champion of the world. The owner of C2K at the Venetian told me Tyson was at the door, “is it OK if we let him in?” So, KB and I quickly went to the door and let Mike inside. We walked him in the club and straight to the VIP upstairs. He said, “Where the bitches at?” So we set him up with a bunch of drink tickets and sent over many porn stars to meet the champ. This was less then a week before his big fight overseas, Mike was still a big deal at that time. Now when I see Mike, he gives me a big hug. Isn’t that cute?

Ashton Kutcher came to the Players Ball right after he made the movie, Dude Where’s My Car. He was already pretty famous for That 70’s Show. He was playing craps with Shock G in the casino, he’s a big fan of Digital Underground, and Shock gave him passes to the Ball. He showed up, danced on stage, double fisted for half of Digital’s performance. He even grabbed the mic a few times.

Conan O’Brian once asked Ashton to talk about some of his “big time celebrity parties.” It’s funny that he talked about our Players Ball as the highlight of his cool parties.

In New Orleans we had Ricky Williams show up. It was just after he won the Heisman Trophy and started playing for the Saints. I asked him how he knew of our party; he said he met a cop down the street that told him the Players Ball was going on at the State Palace Theater. That was pretty random.

Tony Hawk showed up one night and got on stage to help me introduce Doug E Fresh. That was pretty cool too.

DMC from Run DMC came a couple of years ago. That was a thrill for me.

There’s a ton more, I can go on and on but these are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.

YNOT: What’s your favorite and/or most memorable moment from PB history?

D$: In 1999 I had Ice-T host the Players Ball in South Beach. I had never hosted my own party at that time – it was only my second Players Ball ever. I wrote down the list of Big Woody Award winners for Ice-T to read off as he gives the Woody’s away. I trusted my brother KB with this task, give this list to Ice-T. Instead, KB ended up in the VIP where every hot porn star and strippers were hanging out. Oh yeah, he forgot to give Ice-T the list.

So I’m raging in the front row to Digital Underground and Ice comes on the stage to do the awards. He says, “Who knows who these Woody’s are going to?” About 20 people started chanting “D-Money! D-Money! D-Money!” and pointing to me; I was 3 feet away from the stage.

Let’s just say I was pretty fucked up at that moment and had to get onstage with Ice-T to give away these awards, I was so nervous I couldn’t remember any of the winners as we were giving them away. Each award came back to memory about two seconds after Ice-T would introduce the title of the Woody then pause for me to answer with the winner. I was lucky as hell that the winners came to mind. No pressure, just all of your peers in your industry watching you as you’re pretty wasted, the greatest MC in the rap game is my partner on stage. No pressure at all…

So, since that memory, I’ve made sure that I can be able to handle the mic and the awards because in the end, if you want something done right, you just have to do it yourself. I felt pretty comfortable up there on stage at that time. I thought I did a great job with Ice-T. But then my video from the night came back. I was awful!! Chewing gum like it was my last meal, rocking back and forth every 2 seconds, my pimp hat was on too low, so it pushed my ears down, made me look like Dumbo in a pimp hat!

Man, I’ll never forget that.

YNOT: You’ve had some huge acts take the stage at past Balls; which performance was the best, in your opinion?

D$: Snoop Dogg was the greatest performance in Players Ball history. Not only is he the biggest artist we’ve ever had, he went all out for this performance. He brought a gang of real pimps and a crazy big entourage with him. His crew of 100 people were all suited and booted with fur coats and 3 piece suits. The performance lasted about 75 minutes, as the night went on, more pimps and porn stars entered the stage. By the end of the night, he had 150 people on stage with him. There was Snoop’s party on the stage performing for my party in the venue. Jenna Jameson gave him a lap dance during the song Stacey Adams. We gave him a Big Woody Award for “Player of the Year” during his set. Don Magic Juan presented the big dick to Snoop and Snoop gave his acceptance speech. This put my Big Woody’s on the Map and the pictures of Snoop holding a big dick are priceless.

Overall, this night was the perfect night. Everyone got into the venue without major hassles, Digital Underground gave their best performance before Snoop. There were a ton of porn stars and hot ladies everywhere, and every major player in our industry was there to enjoy it. The crazy thing is we had 4,500 to 5,000 people there that night. We gave passes out to everyone at Internext and hand delivered every major porn star and hot model at the show a pass.

That was an easy party to get a pass to. Everyone who wanted to go was able to find a pass. To this day, Snoop and Don Magic Juan play this Players Ball DVD on their tour bus all the time. They loved the party as much as we did.

YNOT: What’s the hardest part of putting on Players Ball events?

D$: The hardest part is figuring out the formula for sponsorships. First you need to have some kind of an idea of how much money you think you can raise to pay for the costs. In Vegas, I can raise the most money, so I reach for the sky and try for the highest budget with the biggest artists, then I pitch a few companies about what I have in mind. I feel out the potential sponsors’ “hot buttons.” Once I find the artist that makes the most potential sponsors interested, I break apart the sponsorship into two or three groups: Main Sponsors, 2nd Level Main Sponsors, and then the smaller co-sponsors. I try to get the main artist paid for between the main sponsors, then I price the 2nd level Main sponsors for about half of the main sponsors price, then I make a 3rd sponsorship to appeal to the smaller webmasters who get a super value on a big event. By offsetting the costs between the different leveled sponsorships everyone gets the best deal possible on a party with a budget affordable to everyone.

Included with packages are banners on the site, name on the passes (depending on their package level), passes to the party, private tables, newsletter support and branding in my chat board threads. We also like to advertise in high traffic webmaster sites, which no other party does.

In summary, the hardest part is finding the balance between what people want to see, how much they can afford, and a pass delivery method that enables all guests to get their pass or entry into the party.

YNOT: When and where was the first Players Ball? About how many people attended?

D$: January 1999 in Las Vegas at Club Utopia. We had Long Beach Dub All-Stars perform while Sublime was the biggest band on the radio. The members of this group were the original members of Sublime, minus Brad who was their lead singer that died. We packed this club with over 2,000 industry people

YNOT: What’s the biggest difference between Players Ball events “back in the day” vs. now?

D$: Everyone got passes back in the day, because we had a venue big enough. C2K closed down, so the biggest venues I’m able to get now are about 2,000 to 3,000 people. So these days, only the paying sponsors can determine who gets a pass. Back in the day, I gave passes to everyone and tried very hard to make sure that I was hand delivering these on the trade show floors, the other parties, the conference rooms, meeting in people’s rooms, and more. I was running my ass off to make sure everyone would go. Now I think it’s fairly difficult to get passes unless you win a competition on a chat board or you’re friendly with a sponsor.

I also didn’t throw parties at the smaller shows back in the day. I was only at the IA2000 and then Internext shows. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to team up with Cybernet Expo. Then we did Webmaster Access and this year we’ll also do the XBiz Forum. I’ve learned that some people prefer the smaller parties over the big ones, so the smaller shows add a new element for my events. It’s less stress, and everyone seems to enjoy the vibe.

YNOT: Thanks D$ – we’re looking forward to some more legendary moments in the making on Saturday.

D$: Thanks to YNOT for having the interest in my Players Ball story. I’d also like to thank the thousands and thousands of webmasters over the years for attending my events and sharing in the memories. And my biggest thanks goes to every sponsor who ever stepped up to the plate to help us achieve our goal of providing world-class entertainment for the last eight years.