Page 50 - AVN April 2016

Winters, Mia Maffia, Miran (“She’s at the top of
her game. She’s like the Japanese version of Foxxy.
She speaks perfect English; she’s lovely, she’s tiny,
she’s got boobs, great little face; a really cool cat.”)
and Natalie Mars, the winner of this year’s Best
Newcomer trophy.
And what of the future of transgender porn?
Grooby has a few ideas on that score as well.
“I think trans movies with storylines are a coming
thing,” he opined. “Last year, Buddy Wood did The
Tranny Chaser; that was hilarious; then Tranny Chaser
2: Adventures of a Pool Boy, that was great, and then
there was Morgan Bailey’s Bad Day, which was funny.
This year was Shemale Shenanigans, and there was
another one involving the president and First Lady
and the secret service agents, SheMale Secret Service.
“Then we have the parodies we’ve seen this
year, like Kaitlyn Gender. I loved The Tranny Bunch
from Devil’s, because Aubrey was in it and it was
hilarious, and Delia [DeLions], I thought it was
brilliant; I loved it. I’ve never seen so many features
as those that came out in 2015, and the stuff Nica
Noelle is doing is stunning; I’m a big fan of hers.
She won an award a couple of years ago for her first
trans one. I love her work. It’s not what we want
to produce, but some of the stuff River Stark will
do will be along those lines, but I think it’s just
beautiful.
“There’s going to be a lot more trans-for-trans
porn, I believe, where there are more trans girls
FEATURE
bring the event “in-house” in part because “we were
grown to the size where people were coming in from
all over, from the U.K., from Japan, and I said, okay,
we need to take over the second night and do the
after party properly, not only for the financial stuff,
but because it was our brand.”
And then, almost inevitably, there was TEAcon,
the world’s first convention devoted exclusively to
the transgendered.
“It was all Kristel’s idea, but lots of girls came
down, and it was nice for them to be able to get
together and talk before the show, and Kristel took
care of them,” Grooby explained. “Anybody who
had a ticket for the show got in for free. Otherwise,
it was $5, and the idea was, they come in, and the
girls promote themselves, sign autographs and sell
things. It’s not about making money; it’s about giving
back to the fans. We had people coming in this year
from Japan, Chile, U.K., Germany—two from Japan,
actually—and all across the states, Canada—people
book this weeks in advance, months in advance.
“Kristel’s amazing; she’s my stealth weapon,” he
added. “I send her to places where I can’t show up,
really, because I’m too big a target; I’m a cis white
male. So she goes to all the feminist porn stuff and
what is somebody going to say to her? They can’t
even plunk what her gender or sexuality is, and she’s
just five foot of girl, and everybody just wants to hug
her.”
We asked Grooby about current top performers,
and he named Aubrey Kate (“I just think she looks
amazing”), Jessy Dubai (“a great performer”), Foxxy
(“She’s been around for 13 or 14 years, and I think
she’s just getting better “), and Kylie Maria (“Look
at that face! Wow! And the body and everything,
and she’s cool, she’s fun.”) As for current “up-
and-comers,” he mentioned Chanel Santini, Aspen
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buying it, and that’s a market Grooby is aiming for, is
trans-for-trans, which appeals to a lot of those girls I
talked about earlier, who are trans but they’re really into
girls.
“I think VR is going to be massive; we’re investing
a lot of money into getting VR going,” he concluded.
“We’ve already PR’d the site, GroobyVR, but we haven’t
shot anything for it yet. Can you imagine, most guys who
are into transsexuals will never, ever meet one, but I tried
some VR with some of the girls we’ve been shooting and
I couldn’t believe it. … I think that’s going to be huge in
the industry.”
Grooby is also doing his part to help producers who
are just trying to break into the adult industry, but who
have no way to get in.
“One of the things we’re doing with David [Peskin] at
Exquisite, we have a Grooby Spotlight, so if any producer
comes to me, like a one-off producer, says, ‘I want to
produce five scenes or four scenes,’ we’ll say, ‘Well, do it
through us; we’ll distribute it; we’ll keep a percentage but
we’ll do all the marketing for it; Exquisite will distribute
it, and you don’t have to go and find a distributor and all
that.’ Because a distributor isn’t going to take somebody
with one or two scenes a year; it’s too much work. It’s a
great way for somebody to get their stuff out there, and
make their money back and they can sell it online, and it
allows them to take a risk with something as well.”
Finally, Grooby not only wants to give newcomers a
chance, he actually wants to make the entire transgender
community better—and to do it, he’s one of the founders
and main supporters of the Trans Adult Industry
Foundation, or TAIF.
“It started with Buck Angel; he and Kristel are the
directors,” Grooby explained. “When we start bringing
in money, we’ll get other sponsors. It came from when
we tried to donate money to some of the stuff in San
Francisco, the homeless shelters and other things, the
Transgender Law Center and the suicide hotline for trans
people. We sent them money; they returned the check;
said they don’t want it from a company—not an adult
company; a company that uses the word ‘shemale’ in
their name. So I wrote a big article about why a shemale
is not a shemale; that’s just a porn word. So they turned
their backs on us, and Buck Angel was just furious
about it, so we sat down and said, ‘You know what we’ll
do? We’ll start our own foundation, and five percent
of our photo shoots, the money from it, goes into this
foundation.’ Some of the money from the Tranny Awards
is going into it, and we’re taking all this money in and
we’re also going to reach out to some trans companies,
and the idea is to take that money and give it out to
trans homeless organizations, not individuals, and
AIDS research, different ones, and transgender youth
organizations. Nothing to do with porn, but it’s a way
for the adult industry to give some money back into the
community that we’re working with.”
So even though, by his own estimate, Grooby travels
more than 130,000 miles per year tending to business
and attending conventions and trade shows, he’s a lifer in
the adult transgender community.
So it’s exciting times,” he reflected. “I still enjoy
Passion for Fashion At left, TEA Show red carpet interviewer
Morgan Bailey, sporting a Syren outfit for the evening’s fashion show.
Right, Aubrey Kate, one of many stars seen on the carpet.
getting up every day, going to work. When it gets boring,
you stop, right? When you begin to hate it, you stop.
Frankly, I don’t see myself ever stopping; I’m enjoying
myself way too much!”
Who can blame him?