FOR
A GOOD TIME
CALL SHERMAN

The prolific artist and creator of the HORNY NEWSLETTER chats with Buds’ co-founder BEN TOUSLEY about the origins of his all-inclusive, high-profile style and his plans for horny media expansion; complete with an incoming horny book, horny podcasts, and horny home videos.

TOUSLEY: Wow. So good to see you. Tell me how's life recently? What are you up to right now?

SHERMAN: I'm working on a book. I’m working on a podcast. I’m working on photography. I'm working on porn, horny porn. I'm literally in this moment of just trying everything, exploring everything. Consulting, horny consulting. 

Luxury brands have had a performative relationship with sex and sexuality for so long because they sell the fantasy, but now they're like, okay, horniness is a part of the street. It's part of the everyday vibe. It's a part of the culture right now. The younger generation doesn’t have the same shame to seduce. How do brands catch up? So right now I'm working with some cool brands on how they are going to be horny in this new world — and I am working on how I'm going to be horny in 2025.

TOUSLEY: I love this. You're going to have a horny empire.

SHERMAN: It's the horny universe. It's world-building. World building and it's all about horniness which in the end is about sex positivity.

TOUSLEY: Incredible. Well, I would like to say congratulations on all your expanding endeavors. And the newsletter, I just was looking, I think is at issue 12.

SHERMAN: The next issue is issue 12. That's dropping.

TOUSLEY: Well, this is going to be in Bud's Digest issue 12. Isn't that sweet?

SHERMAN: So to those who are listening, we've been friends for a long time. We know each other from a past publication. And I remember when we both were caught in the pandemic and we were both in this moment being like, you know what, how do we share? How do we connect with our community? How do we support other people? All the things that we love to talk about. And I remember you being like, I'm gonna start this publication. And I thought if anyone can do it, it's gonna be you. And then I thought of this horny moment, this sexual horny revolution that we currently find ourselves in now.

TOUSLEY: So we've established that you have a horny empire and you are a singular force in this brilliant aesthetic. I also would just love to say that ever since we were connected back then, I feel like I've never really met anybody quite like you and I would love to have that on record. You have an effervescent, beautiful personality that just radiates love and support. I could see the spirit initially in your photography work but you've locked into it and you've turned it into this whole world since then. And I can imagine that you're bringing that energy out of other people, too, which is quite a feat and I think something you should be very proud of. It’s been a joy to watch.

Where did it all begin for you? What is your earliest memory of photography?

SHERMAN: I have a box of photos that I used to take Christmas mornings of my family, of all my friends in high school, of all the beautiful girls in my high school. I thought the camera was amazing. 

Going back even further than that, I kind of grew up a little bit sheltered, pop culture-wise, and news-wise. I literally thought the world was kind of like rainbows and lollipops until I kind of went into the world. One of the things we were allowed to watch, which you knew was going to come up early, is The Muppets. So to me, it was about a group of friends who were putting on a show every episode, and together they would make it wonderful -  but I also loved the camp performances. I also learned that there were two versions of people—there was the performer version but behind the scenes was the human person -  there was the diva and the leader and the comedian and the asshole and like all these different people with all of their differences working together, but on-stage there was this performance version of the self. So I always was kind of really into persona.

Muppets, Madonna, then Spice Girls. I was always obsessed with the image, and I was always obsessed with Hollywood. I didn't really understand Warhol, but I liked what I knew and saw of Warhol. I loved advertising as a kid. Like, I was a kid who collected advertising. I used to get made fun of because kids would be like, why are you spending all your money on magazines? And like, clipping out all these pictures, and I didn't know why but I just had to do it. So to me, I was always obsessed with growing up in a small town and like making it to Hollywood and making it big and making it somewhere. 

TOUSLEY: A little bit of the idea of escape, another world out there. Access to a greater world. 

SHERMAN: Escape, escape, escape. Escape was a huge theme. Growing up homosexual in a small town, and coming from an immigrant family, I had to make something of myself.

After going to university, I ended up working on a TV show called FashionTelevision, hosted by Jeanne Beker. The show was made on a Canadian budget. It was a host, a cameraman, and a producer - me- who would go to the fashion collections. I mostly covered New York Fashion Week in the early 2000s. In a day you'd have to cover three to four fashion shows - Each day was crazy; A typical day would be like Baby Phat then Anna Sui then Michael Kors then Marc Jacobs; four totally wild spectrums of the fashion world. But your job is to go there and in that moment find the story. But because you're also in television, you have to go early before the show begins, so you can catch the behind-the-scenes b-roll. And then you don't really get to interview the designers till after the show. So literally every day, three-four times a day, during the collections, I would see an idea be born in a space, I'd see the biggest show producers running around screaming, music, lighting tests, cameramen coming in, then all the celebrities would run in. In the span of 4 hours, I would see a million-dollar idea be born and killed over and over and over again. That was fashion week.

For me, it was like it was the most beautiful glitz and glamour but it also showed me the truth behind the magic and it also kind of showed me the man behind Oz. The cracks of humanity could no longer be unseen.

TOUSLEY: Wow. And you were shooting stills for all of this?

SHERMAN: I was the producer, so I wasn't even, but I would be telling the cameraman, you know, look at that, shoot this, over here. Like, I'll never forget this—we were walking out of this room, and it's the back hallway of the New York Armory. We just interviewed Marc Jacobs and it was such a great interview and then out of the right comes Lady Gaga. You grab the cameraman and tell them to shoot.  And sometimes when the host was away for a show or two I would become the floating hand with microphone asking the questions. So I was 23 - 24 years old and I literally was asking icons these questions. And then, you know, they would turn and say like, is that good? Is that a good answer? And you think, “You’re a fucking icon. You can say anything you want into this microphone.” It was like fashion is this imaginary world of fantasy that I have madly loved even from a very unhealthy place. It’s the closest thing to a world of magic. Some fashion brands still have it. But very few.

TOUSLEY: So you honed some chops there. A) You honed your ability to interact with bigger names that perhaps you might have been nervous about before, or whatever. And B) you also honed your ability to see past it, into the reality of the situation. Which are interesting traits, if I may, that we can apply to some of your work now with huge stars. I think you have a really interesting way of both like elevating them in image, but also totally bringing them down to Earth with all the rest of us. 

SHERMAN: I think my purpose is to share the knowledge that everyone is equal. I have been in these places with these world superstars and icons. And I've sat quietly behind the studio while they cry and sob over their lattes about the deep sadness in their life. Like I have to tell you, once you see the illusion behind the illusion, they're all just human beings trying to make it through. You just start to realize that we're all in this together. Every single person, whether they've been in front of a camera for thirty years or this is their first time, is unsure and is looking for comfort to know that they are in safe hands and that they're being looked after. That's what all humans are supposed to do. I didn't know it then, but I realized every human is looking for the same thing.  

Good old Oprah Winfrey. I went to the university of the Oprah Winfrey Show for twenty-five years. I watched every episode, I've seen every special. And she taught me this:  Every human wants to know do you see me? Do you hear me? And do I matter?  I try and bring that philosophy to the work. 

TOUSLEY: Yeah, I think that comes through. I really do. Cool to hear some origin to where that drive came about.

SHERMAN: One thing I'll say to you about the happiness part is, many years in… I had the title. I had the salary. I had the job. You know, a babe of a boyfriend. I had all these things… I had never been so sad. I was a super dark, bad alcoholic. I was in darkness, like very, very bad darkness. And in my mid-thirties, I just couldn't do it anymore. And I did decide to try and kill myself. And I thankfully failed. But that summer, I spent it in and out of a hospital and working with a really good team, with different resources for mental health and psychiatry. And because in wanting to die so intensely on that day and at that time, it actually gave birth to an opportunity to find gratitude, to be alive, and to find the joy. And life is pretty fucking amazing. Looking at it like in the simplest form, in the simplest of moments of life, I now see how incredible it is. And my work needs to be that celebration of being alive because I think so many of us forget the gratitude of being alive today gives us the opportunity to do just about anything. 

TOUSLEY: That's really beautiful. I'm glad that you arrived at where you have and that you're willing to share that with such joy in your work, for sure. I think that it's so worth it.

SHERMAN: I think it also helps people make sense of ‘where is this positivity coming from?’ And truthfully, it comes from a lot of pain. And it comes from a lot of pain that I've had to work on. And then when you start to heal yourself, you know, how can you help others heal? We're all together, life's a mess, let's heal together. 

TOUSLEY: Oh, I love that. I have to say I've always wondered about your positive spirit. It stands out from others. So it's beautiful to hear what's in there driving it.

SHERMAN: The first thing I literally try and do every day when I consciously wake up and my eyes open is say thank you for letting me be alive today. Absolutely. If you start there, where else are you going to go? You're only going to go up.

TOUSLEY: Wise words, wise words. So now, you’ve been living this life and you’re expanding it into this horny empire. There’s a newsletter, podcast, and erotic video all curated, shot, and produced by you. Your work is extremely sexy and always has been, but it's been nice to get to the core of that. How is that going? What does it feel like to move further into that realm?

SHERMAN: So I will tell you something, I am a proud Canadian boy from Toronto and somehow these opportunities of Hollywood have taken me to some crazy places. But I will tell you, it can be a fucking nightmare. Sometimes you're in a room with a wall of publicists who are watching you. It's the end. They change the energy in the room. I was doing a shoot with an icon, literally an icon. And, you know, it was just beautiful moment. And there was something that had been beside him and I passed it to him. And not one but two publicists screamed from behind me. “No props. NO.” Just screaming from behind and I was like… that's it. I'm done. I am not like this, like, this bullshit is just not interesting to me anymore. If you want to a hire gun, then you go and do that. And literally, in that moment, I was like, I'm going to go full throttle on porn. I've just decided a start a horny camcorder porn empire. 

I had been exploring making horny images with one of my closest friends, Zeidmoon. And then he had asked me one time if I would be interested in filming his porn shoot. I've taken a lot of sexy photographs, but I've never shot porn. It was always something that I wanted to do, but I knew that I was going to take the longest road in human history to get to making porn. Horny Home Videos started as a safe space with porn friends, it's now kind of opened up and, you know, I'm doing different productions all the time with different people, but it's really, it's such an incredible space. I have found a lot of porn actors have this level of kindness and confidence and caring that I really admire in humanity. To be that sexual you have to be at a level of freedom, and self-awareness. There's like such a level of wisdom and intellect and just life. Porn has been this incredible space of humans and creativity that's been really rewarding.

TOUSLEY: I love that you bring up the actors; that there's a real grounded and beautiful scene of people to work with there. I would love to talk more about that. 

It’s also an interesting point about the long path you’ve taken there. When you look at what you're making, it's obvious that it's really informed by a whole vernacular that you've already established. There's like an aesthetic that it's aware of itself and there's a magic to it, and it's completely not like any porn out there right now, right? You're bringing a different kind of sexiness that just doesn't exist in that marketplace. I’m curious about how you’re approaching making them.

SHERMAN: So I have done advertising and brand work for around twenty-five years. Some big businesses and CEOs hate talking about it, but I love and live for the customer. I love the client.  Advertising and brand work is so fun. You are competing against a world of incredible design, a world of incredible images, a world of incredible words, a world of incredible ideas, and the best one wins. Like if one person says to me from advertising, “Oh, I just need a viral video this season” It's like, you don't understand. That is like finding a unicorn. You need to feel the moment. You need to stretch your brain. You also need to know what the viewer is desiring in this ever evolving world.

I'm not selling porn. I'm selling desire. It might be something inside of you that's super locked away and you were like I'm going to take this shame and I'm going to lock it away for a long time. Well, honey, there's a light in the keyhole. And the other thing is, I respect your desire. I love desire, I have desires, too. And so for me, I want to feed them the best. And the same thing as I wouldn't serve you trash food for your eyes, I want to serve you the absolute best. I am making an audio version and then a book version coming out next year, and then a porn version. It's a world of desire.

TOUSLEY: Very interesting. I knew this about your background commercially, but I wouldn't have thought that you could have pitched it or brought that kind of perspective into the desire there. That's very charming and cool to hear. 

SHERMAN: In university, I also studied public relations and propaganda. I always promised myself that once I learned how they use propaganda against us, well, now I have the formula of how to use it. And that is literally like I am using the formula of advertising and propaganda. Bright colors, keep it simple, shapes, forms, simple words, but it's to spread love, joy, and kindness and not to detract or take anything away from you. I wanna add to you, I don't wanna subtract from you.

TOUSLEY: That's really cool to hear you say that directly. It kind of clicks in my mind. Obviously all of your work gives me a real feeling. But I recently noticed these slogans like “Your shame bores me.” I love it. it's like you're leaning into that further and there's a further point you want to make about it. I'm curious to hear you talk about that.

Five years of portraits by Christopher Sherman for Interview Magazine.

SHERMAN: It actually is slightly tied. So two things. Firstly, sex. We had a very open conversation in my family growing up. But then when I went through this darkness… on the other side, it was my queerness and my sexuality that saved me. 

Before that, I just felt like every day was the same. It felt like lemmings. It was like, what are we all doing here? This paper is being moved 5,000 times for what? It just didn't make any sense to me. At that time, I had a lot of shame around sex, around the desire, around all sorts of things. And in what I call sometimes Life 2.0, sex and sexuality really saved me. It was this place where sex is really creative. If you're having the right sex, sex is really freeing. I worked on my mental health and learned to quiet the talking in my mind, being more present during sex, and being present with my lovers. That really saved me.

And I'm not even telling people it's about going out and fucking. Even just to have a good couple of hugs every week that comes with a bit of warmth and affection. Like, I'm sorry, Louis Vuitton doesn't sell that warmth. That's why I'm not shopping there. As a human, that's what's interesting to me. Connecting on many different levels. Sex and sexuality have greatly saved my life. And my work is basically a biography of what I'm currently going through. And so I'm just sharing. I think about what Oprah used to say at the beginning of every Oprah's Favorite Things, these are my favorite things of the year, and I want to share them with you. My art is that. My art is Oprah's Favorite Things, corny edition. It's like self love. It's like friends with benefits. Be yourself.

TOUSLEY: Another illuminating answer. It's cool to hear you would call it autobiographical. 

SHERMAN: Sometimes the photos are just people who I think their ideas are interesting so I will go do the shoot because their ideas inspire my ideas. You know, I've shot a lot of naked men, but I've also shot Ann Carson, who is one of the greatest living thinkers of our time. I just go where the ideas are, and I go where the thinkers are.

TOUSLEY: To that point, what comes next then? Where else do you want to go with it?

SHERMAN: Well, it's funny, I'm actually working on my 2025 list of photography manifestations. It would be a dream to create and collaborate with Kate Moss, Lady Gaga, Miss Piggy, Joel Kim Booster, Spencer Badu, Bad Bunny, Pamela Anderson, Peter Do, Ernie and Bert, Aurora James, Willy Chavarria, Chef Jon Kung, Lil Nas X, Margaret Atwood, Ricky Martin. Just putting that into the universe. The dream is always Ricky Martin on the cover of Horny Newsletter. He really taught me “Livin’ La Vita Loco”.

That's what I have to say was so exciting right now about porn and working in this community. This is a community that is unlimited in possibility. Everybody's welcome and you can find everything.

There will be a new Horny Home Videos website coming soon. I'm working on a book that comes out at the end 2025 -  69 Ideas For A Horny World, and it's basically a collection of all of the horny wisdom I have collected, plus a lot of new stuff, and a lot of uncensored photos in this book that I hope becomes like a literary classic for all the ways to have a horny life.

At the end of the day, most of the work is part of my healing and it's part of my exploration and of making sense of the odyssey of being alive.