Delve into the extraordinary journey of Seth Gamble: From 17 years in the industry to overcoming challenges and becoming CSO of The Oh Club
Each month in 2023, Fleshbot will select and feature a Mr. Fleshbot and Mr. Fleshbot International that all of us should know more about. We will feature content creators and adult actors who go above and beyond their roles to make sure we take notice.
Mr. Fleshbot May 2023, Seth Gamble, is an award-winning performer, director, producer, strategist, and a down-to-earth cool guy! Did I mention he’s very fit, has a charming smile, and is distracting-level handsome? Anticipating our interview, I had high expectations, yet the genuine sincerity and candor demonstrated by Seth during our conversation surpassed all assumptions. His willingness to engage in candid dialogue, discussing his personal life, illustrious career, creative process, and aspirations, speaks volumes about the character of Mr. Fleshbot May. I hope you enjoy getting to know Seth Gamble as much as I did. Remember to watch the full video interview at the end of this post for a truly immersive experience.
Were you excited to hear about your Mr. Fleshbot nomination?
I was very excited to hear I was nominated Mr. Fleshbot May! Especially with Fleshbot, since they spend so much time informing the industry and the world about the work we do. I can’t imagine the hours that Fleshbot puts into looking at all the movies that are released every year, and to be recognized by Fleshbot, even somewhat, is an honor, so thank you.
Let’s go back to how this all started… When did you break into the industry?
I was working at a gym as a personal trainer, and a friend and I were having a conversation… I was just getting in shape at that point in my life, like getting serious about exercise, and I joked about how maybe I could make some extra money being a stripper. And my friend just happened to lay it on me that he was one. And long story short, I became a male stripper. I did bachelorette parties and stuff like that.
That led me to eventually get a phone call saying they were doing some tests for a male stripper adult film site, and I went to go interview for that. They felt that I looked very young because I was 18 years old, and they were like, ‘Well, you’re too small for the suit, and you’re in good shape but look very young. Would you be up for doing a MILF scene?’ And the only thing I knew about MILFs was American Pie. I was never an avid porn watcher. My history of watching adult content was that I had some Playboy magazines and like one DVD. It wasn’t something I watched.
I had a lot of day-to-day stuff, and I wasn’t watching. Once I did my first scene, it went really well, and I did another scene, and it went well. From there, I got lucky, and they offered me a contract. Working for BangBros was my first entry into the business. I got to learn my craft and work under other male performers who were very tough on me to learn how to be a good male performer. So, when I came to LA, I had the experience of knowing how to do the performance part of the job, and also, it was just something I really enjoyed. You know, I really enjoy sex, and I really love women, so it became a very obsessive thing; I just loved the job. I loved doing it, and I love doing porn. I just made it like I wanted to be the best I could be at this job, and I didn’t care what the obstacles were. I was going to push relentlessly as hard as I could to be as good at this as I could be.
What were some of those first obstacles?
I would say that it wasn’t as simple at that time to get into the industry… It was harder, as a male, at least; I can’t speak to the female experience. It was a smaller group of people, so when I moved to LA, nobody made it easy for me to get in the door. At the end of the day, I met a couple of people who took a liking to me, but I was very young, so I got that little brother type of hazing that went down for a long time. It just wasn’t easy to get to where I wanted to be as early on.
There was more work, but everyone has their people, you know? There weren’t OnlyFans or Manyvids; there weren’t these other avenues to make your income. So, if you wanted to make this a career, you had to become a performer in every roster. You had to get all the directors to say, ‘I’m going to shoot this guy and try to shoot him every month.’ So, it was a difficult ride and road to go down.
And then what ended up happening was- funny story, the first movie where people started to take notice of me was during the parody craze. I had been on a few. Not on a big scale, but I had been on bigger scale ones like in The Flintstones XXX, and I played BamBam, and it was a very iconic role, but it wasn’t like this main lead role. It was a role within a movie, but there was a casting audition for Danny Zuko in Saturday Night Fever XXX, and funny enough, they’d announced they had cast the person. I felt I looked so much like the part, and I could play the part so well that I chose to drive over to the office without saying anything.
I went in there and said, ‘I don’t know how you have anyone else playing this part. I’m the only person that should be playing this part’. I got really ballsy and just said I was playing the part. I asked them to let me read for it, and they said it was already cast, so I took a black marker and put some on my chin because I have a chin like him. I just went off and started doing the reading they gave me, and they were like, ‘Ok, yeah. No one else should play this part,’ and I got the role. It came out and was my first time getting nominated for an acting award.
I had won Best Newcomer before that, and I think the industry noticed that I had talent and potential, but I wanted to take it further. Then once that happened, what elevated me to the next level was Axel Braun casting me as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars XXX, which, to this day, is one of the most-watched adult films in the history of porn. So that was such an honor and a big responsibility for me. Especially with the budget and working with Axel was a big deal. At that time, I was 3-4 years into my career, and I was very young. During this process, as I’ve been very open about, I wasn’t sober and partied a lot. I was really good at getting myself together when it came to something big, but I wasn’t my best self during the process. I was able to succeed to a ceiling, and I wasn’t really able to do it. And when I got sober, it was like, let me see what I can really live up to.
Did you plan to make this your career?
No. Not at all. It was a complete accident. I had a very tough upbringing. There were good times, but there were a lot of hard times, and I’ve been working since I was very young, taking care of a lot of things that I probably shouldn’t have had to at that age. I led myself into some trouble when I was younger, and when I worked at the gym, it kind of just snowballed, and I ended up doing it. It was never some goal, but everything happens for a reason. And I feel this was just the road I was meant to be on because it changed my life. It actually saved my life in a lot of ways because before I found the adult industry, I wanted to go to college. I was in college when I was about to get in, but at the time, I didn’t have any direction. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. So, this gave me a direction and a good one because I’ve done pretty good.
I think that two different backgrounds set you up for success. One is the traditional ‘gain experience through work,’ and the other is life lessons. These can show you where you don’t want to be and make it easier to plan for where you do. Do you feel that these experiences have led you to understand what success means to you?
Yeah. I don’t know if there’s any other option for me than to eventually get to a point where ‘I did everything I can to get the most out of everything I have or everything I can have’ and find gratitude in what I’ve been able to accomplish. I want to succeed at the highest level that I can succeed at. I don’t believe in not doing everything 100%; it’s just not how I operate and how I’m built. I’m physically in pain most of the time, so it’s just one of those things. I don’t just want to do ‘good enough’; I want to be able to succeed. And I think my life lessons have taught me that because I don’t know how many runs you have in life, so if you have one, you should take it.
Do you remember when you decided to strategize and work towards having longevity in the industry?
To be frank, I’ve been doing this my entire adult life, and once I was in and made this my career, I didn’t see any other way. But I would say that about strategy on how to operate in the business- I got the most strategic when I got sober. So, when I got sober in 2017, I decided to take this very seriously. I’ve already accomplished a lot; I had miraculously gotten myself to a point without being 100%- I say mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically I wasn’t at 100%. I was doing my best with what I had and what I was doing, but I was young and focusing on having fun all the time and was like, ‘Let’s have fun’- that’s what it was.
I think that once I got sober, I still have fun, but at the end of the day, my priorities come first, and I’m building a career. So, my career started expanding and expanding as it does now, and around that time, I decided to get really serious about this.
About six years ago, I decided to iron it down, but even before that, I was in the business for 11 years, so I just saw this for what it was. It became my life before that, so I love the industry itself and the whole idea of being a part of it. When I was younger… I felt like a part of something… I got sober after having been in the industry since I was 18 to 29, and I don’t know if I strategized that... I think I just kept going and kept doing it. But I got sober when the industry got to where I felt I needed to take it seriously. I did that for my own well-being, and some people found it inspiring to some degree- but I did it to save my own life. Once that happened, I try to help others because I knew that if I could do it, other people could.
At that point, I took the responsibility to be like, ‘Hey, there are some darker spots in our industry, and obviously, there are light spots in the industry.’ So, there are highs and lows, and if I can be a beacon of anything good that our industry has to offer- I felt that was a responsibility to myself and to everybody I was close with. So, I think the strategy came in around 2017.
Do you have any advice for people in or outside the industry struggling with their health or mental health?
My only word of advice is that you have to be willing to put in the work to go through what’s tough and why you’re going down those roads, and you have to be willing to look at yourself and look at what’s going on and seek out the help you need to clear yourself even though it’s really hard. You have to be able and willing to take the hard road to be free of whatever you’re dealing with.
Whatever type of mental health or addictions or anything you have, you have to be willing to be honest- rigorously honest with yourself and reach out to people with experience and who know more about it than you do. That’s the only advice I can give because it has to be within you to be willing to do it. No one can fix you. You have to work on yourself. But you can reach out to people who have experience with any type of mental health and addiction to help you heal.
Are there things you do or rituals you keep daily that help you stay in the physical and mental condition you need to perform?
I have to say I’m not perfect at it. I think that over the past few years, I’ve realized that, as a male performer, especially if you’re performing with the rigor that I do, it’s changed. From 18-30, I could go to the gym, eat healthily, and do whatever I could to stay calm and remove the anxiety from my life so it didn’t affect me. I don’t know if it's common knowledge, but when you’re a male, and you want to accomplish good sex, you have to stay calm and be able to have adrenaline while being calm. It’s a very interesting kind of meditative state that you must be in to do this.
But as I’ve gotten older, there’s more work that goes into it, like getting massages and hitting the chiropractor, and I have to keep free of any negative energy so I can focus on what I need to take care of. That way, I don’t get too lost in stuff that doesn’t matter. I have to be able to keep my physical body flexible, in shape… but it has to be movable. When I was younger, I wanted to get in good shape and look great and be strong, and then as I’ve gotten older, I need to be more flexible and I need to be more movable. It all changes, you know what I mean?
So, I think it’s about keeping a positive mindset and surrounding yourself with people that keep your mind in that space because you are whom you surround yourself with. Meditation is great, so getting some meditative state and taking time for yourself to keep your body healed. As I’ve gotten older, I work in jobs that I feel are well-produced and that I want to do; I don’t overwork myself anymore.
That’s surprising to hear, considering how busy you’ve been performing, directing, and now as CSO for The Oh Club.
What I do is very visible… I have built and worked and put myself in a situation where I take jobs that are around people who are visible, and I’m fortunate for that. I have 17 years of experience and put everything into the industry. As a performer, I don’t work more than 10-12 days a month, which isn’t a lot of performing… In 2019 and before, I was shooting 25-40 scenes a month… It’s not how much you do; it’s what you do.
Directing is a lot of work. The effort I put into directing is sometimes mentally draining because I care so much! The goal for me is to give every female performer an experience they want to be a part of and think is cool and different. I’m not a firm believer in originality. I believe that if anything, in this business, as a producer/director/writer and creative, I’m doing my best to change some of the chemicals in the periodic table to make something new… everything’s been done so how do you move the pieces around to make it feel newer and more exciting? It’s just gratifying to see other performers- as I also get behind the camera- be excited about the project.
How would you describe your creative process when it comes to directing?
So, I have the perfect example. I shot Reckless before Goddess. And two of the girls were on set for Reckless on the same day, wearing some silk stuff off set… they just looked like goddesses, and I thought, ‘I want to make this movie.’ I saw the shot while I was making another movie. Conceptually, I wanted to give people a look at mythological goddesses… with girls that you’d consider goddesses in our business and be able to tell that story.
When I started doing my cinemacore projects, I thought, ‘I have a knack for storytelling as an actor and as a gonzo performer,’ so how can I mix them? I feel like that doesn’t get done very often, so I wanted to combine the two genres. With Goddess, that was what it was. I looked up goddesses and went down a rabbit hole thinking, ‘This girl could play this one, and this girl could be that one,’ then I thought about set design and that the costume designer could make this; I could find locations that look like this, and weirdly enough, it had a lot of traction. I’m really proud of that movie.
I wanted to be able to tell visual stories that were like silent films/ music videos and lead them into gonzo sex. I feel like a lot of times when we’re doing storytelling; we are so married to the characters having sex that we don’t ever tell stories where people get to have great animalistic sex that isn’t so character driven. I want to marry the two so that fans who love that unbridled raw sex can also have some theme or story element. So, it’s story drive, but you get both ends of the spectrum. That’s how all those cinemacore projects came to life.
I’ve noticed that many performers who have transitioned into directing prefer shooting what I would describe as ‘organic’ sex. Would you say this is what you prefer for your movies?
100% In my opinion, it should be the preference of every scene you’re in. Even if you’re in character, how do you authentically have sex as that character? The idea is suspending disbelief, right? We’re going there as professionals to have sex, so how do you get the audience to believe that two people genuinely have chemistry and genuinely want to have sex with each other?
In general, what makes a great scene? If it feels natural, you can see everything, and you feel like however many people are doing it are unbridled, and you’re watching something that is shot very well, that, to me, is the best content. I think performers have more of a notice for that than anybody because we’re in the act on a regular basis.
Can you tell us about your new role in The Oh Club?
Yes, my new role is Chief Strategy Officer and part owner. I have a friend whom I’ve known since he was very young and whose family is attached to the business to some degree. He had started the inception of this company, and as I progressed, he felt he wanted me to be a part of it. It’s a good platform, and the toys are good… I’ve given out some products to girls, and they’ve enjoyed them, so I felt that as a brand, it’s a place where we can educate and bring liveliness to the idea of sexual wellness. We can have real discussions about it, and it’s another place where I can destigmatize the industry on who we are and what we represent to be able to tell the story about this company. We’re going to be working with amazing people, and The Oh Club represents that very well.
It's always going to be a tough road to get sex to be more open and sexual wellness to be more openly discussed… there is a high amount of people who are scared of sex, but how do we alleviate that fear so that we can have real discussions so that younger people can view sex in a healthier way? In my opinion, the way to do that is to stay proactive in being able to open discussions regardless of any form of backlash and censorship. To be relentless but do it in a way that is respectful and honorable to society, just not in the way that they’ve tried to condition it. I want to play a part in that, even if it’s a small one, in being helpful to any degree. So, The Oh Club is a good platform to elevate that to the best of our abilities.
Can you give your fans three tips on how to please a woman sexually?
Porn has never been made for education; it’s made for entertainment purposes. So, if you watch scenes, you might be able to pick something up, but it’s under the guidance of consensual acts. Make sure:
- CONSENT! Let’s start there. What is your partner good and not good with?
- Listen to your partner.
- Don’t make it about you. Focus on the pleasure of your partner.
- I feel like that’s how you have great sex and a great sexual experience.
Do you have a message for your fans?
I just want to tell you that I love you. Thank you for keeping me alive all these years, and thank you for continuing to watch me, root for me, and enjoy me and what I do and the people I get to work with. I love what I do, and I hope you love watching it. Thank you, you’re amazing. I love all the fans! You’re the reason I’m here; I wouldn’t matter in this industry without you.
Where should fans follow you to keep up with all your projects?
- Twitter: @sethgamblexxx
- Instagram: @sethgambleps
- Wicked.com
- Adult Time
And something else is coming soon!
Watch Seth Gamble's full exclusive interview!
And remember to stay tuned for another Mr. Fleshbot post next week!