Pride season is roaring toward us once again, and one of its signature Alberta events is Edmonton’s PURE Pride dance. Anybody lucky enough to attend will be treated to some absolutely stellar performances by one of CockyBoys’ favourite models: Levi Karter. To tide you over until then (and console the rest of you), we were lucky enough to get an interview that will tell us what makes this hot, young star tick

A self-confessed health buff, Karter has always been conscious of his shape when he’s in the kitchen.

"I always grew up with a good diet," he says. "My mom always had a great diet, and she really ordered that... My mom is also a runner... I guess I was inspired. I wanted to be athletic; I wanted to be the guy who was muscular, big and stuff."

Karter’s meticulous care of and attention to his body started at a very early age.

"When I started working out, I was only a fifth-grader. That’s when I got my six-pack and it never went away."

Living proof that practice makes permanent, habits that he established early seem to have stuck with him for the long haul. He described one of his earliest workout routines to us: "I had like an hour, an hour and a half before school... so I would just always turn on MTV – when they were still playing music videos in the morning – and just work out to that. I’d do crunches and push-ups and stuff like that with my mom’s five-pound weights. It wasn’t until I was a junior in high school that I got into going to the gym and lifting weights and everything."

It’s a promising sign of the times that even in what he describes as "a small college town, in the foothills of Appalachia, so it’s very closed-minded and conservative," Karter didn’t experience much in the way of hostility during his coming-out process.

"I came out at 14 – my freshman year of high school. I guess I just always knew. You know, you do the whole truth-or-dare, and it just started clicking to me in eighth grade."

"I was going to tell my friends, I’d be open about it, you know. Kind of have my mom find out when she finds out, but the thing was that my mom was a teacher at the high school. So if I tell, it’s only a matter of maybe a day before my mom [hears], people are talking about your son being gay."

Taking the next steps turned out to be easier than he had hoped.

"I told my mom and I told my best friend, and when people are talking to me I’m not actually going to deny it, but I’m not shouting in your face. If you ask me I won’t say no."

So, what was the inspiration to get into what we affectionately (and euphemistically) describe as modeling? Karter explains: "When I started watching porn ... I was like, oh, those guys that are modelling, they’re so cool, I want to be like that. It’s another reason that I wanted to work on fitness, because I want to be the guy ... that people are fantasizing about."

His next steps were very nearly the stuff of fantasy. Karter turned 18 just a few months before graduating high school. Diploma in hand, he rocketed out the door from his sleepy town of Athens, Ohio, and headed to Columbus, where he began stripping and go-go dancing immediately.

He briefly enrolled in college, studying hospitality, before realizing it wasn’t what he was looking for, and decided, "you know what, I want to take that next step. Not just go-go boys or a stripper, I want to do porn. ... I just thought that was the time. You’re not tied down with anything. ... College is like an office job to me. I can’t see myself doing it, or happy there."

Karter got in touch with Christian Collins of Helix Studios, who set him up with an online presence, where he quickly began amassing a following. By the time he had hit 1000 Twitter followers, Karter was getting offers from various studios to audition – clearly all of the morning MTV sessions and experience stripping had their intended effect. One Skype interview later, Jake Jaxson flew Karter out to seal the deal with CockyBoys studio.

Those of you with a penchant for Mark Wahlberg movies might compare Jaxon to Burt Reynolds’ character in Boogie Nights – an iconoclastic porn producer who just happens to believe that things like plot, production values, and emotion shouldn’t be optional, even in our wank material.

‘The CockyBoys manifesto’, on the studio’s main page, is replete with wisdom that recent alt-porn productions would seem to have taken to heart. Aphorisms like "Gay sex is ... a blessing like a fine wine, a great meal, or a roller coaster ride" or  "Be safe. Be smart in all that you do. When in doubt, use the head holding up your ears!" and even "Mutual respect is the path to true power" adorn the site, communicating a philosophy that seems to resonate with Karter.

"There’s this vibe, you know. Everything Jake was telling me in the interview, he was explaining how they work, and what their vision is – I just thought it was beautiful and I really wanted to be a part of it," Karter told us. "They view sex as art, and beauty, and self-expression, and not just to get off... I do express myself best physically ... I’m just glad I get to be a part of that team."

What is the best part of the job for the young star?

"When ... I get a fan where they get it, and they see the real vision behind what we’re all doing – people taking time to really get to know you as a person and not just as a sex object, you know? I really like that."

Never let it be said that Karter forgets the main draw of his work.

"My favourite scenes [are] between Hayden Lourd and me... I remember... that was my fourth or fifth scene coming, and it was the first time that I really felt 100 per cent comfortable, and more confident in front of the camera than I did in the last few shots. They really stand out to me."

Those of you attending Karter’s live show in Edmonton will certainly be seeing a more uninhibited persona.

"I know I’m more confident in front of a crowd than I would be in front of a camera," he confided. "It’s funny, if it’s an iPhone camera or a regular camera my bosses are using... but if they bring out the camera that we use for porn, I just look at it and I’m like Oh my god, that’s going to be on a website forever, so it’s like don’t fuck up!"

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Contributor V.N. Winnick |

Locale Edmonton |

Person Levi Karter |

Topic NSFW | Adult Interview | PurePride |

Photo Gallery Levi Karter |