Page 50 - AVN May 2015

FEATURE
AFTERNOON TEA
Convention brings mix of TS stars, newbies
FEATURE | By Mark Kernes
3-5, featured the second outing of “TEA Con,” an informal gathering set
This year’s Transgender Erotica Awards weekend, which took place March
up by Grooby Productions’ Steve Grooby to give trans fans a chance to
meet their favorite stars, buy DVDs, photos and other merchandise, and
just hang out in a crowd that shares their interest in all things transgender.
“Call it ‘TEA Con 2: The Return of TransCon,’” joked Kristel Penn, marketing
and editorial director for Grooby Productions. “This venue is a lot bigger, so things
are a lot more spread out compared to The Stockroom, which was a great venue
for us [last year], but I think having the space this way gives people a lot more
room to mingle.”
Penn said, “I’m really appreciative that the models come and donate their time.
It’s an opportunity for them to meet their fans, get their photos taken and sell
merchandise, but sometimes the performers, because of their busy schedules, it’s
a little bit like herding cats. A lot of them are not local, a lot of them have shoot
commitments.” Plus, she added, the TEA pre-party had taken place the night
before, keeping everyone up until 4 or 5 in the morning.
Still, before the afternoon was over, at least 30 models, both women and men,
were at the tables set up in the “mosh pit” area at the front of the club, as well
as some surprise appearances, including Beverly Hills-based plastic surgeon Dr.
Alexander Sinclair and financial services provider, Marie Thomasson, as well as
some familiar faces, including Hannah Rogers of Transformation magazine, and
Karly Kroft of Flirt4Free.
“Flirt4Free is loving the trans community and expanding our trans offerings
and trying to get as many models and users as we can have,” Kroft explained,
“because we are a big, loving, happy trans family. We have always had trans people
on the site, but just recently, we have really been ramping it up and ramping up
our offerings, and thinking up ways to have our trans users engage with the users
who love them. There is definitely a rise in the popularity of trans performers and
of the users who are always demanding more and more and more, and since we’ve
started pushing some quality traffic their way, we can see how lucrative it is, and
we’re really excited to tap into all of that.”
One TEA supporter that was bound to attend was Exquisite Multimedia, which
distributes Grooby Productions’ DVDs, and that table was ably represented by
salesman Edward Smith.
“The transgender community is one of the biggest family communities in porn;
it’s not cutthroat like traditional porn seems to be,” Smith reflected. “This is a big
family supporting everybody. That’s exciting, and I’m happy to see it. And there’s
been a lot of interest in our titles here at the convention. We have Transsensuals 2,
which just came out, and it’s killing it, moving big pieces. We have our Tran-Tastic
Four, that’s a cosplay movie that continues to do well in all stores; it’s a must-
stock. Tranny Vice is a great, uplifting, fun movie, everybody tells me. We have the
Aubrey Kate Superstar; we have the new Domino Presley—she kills it. And they’re
all here today, signing and having a good time at the show.”
Indeed, one of the first stars we saw was Aubrey Kate, who would take home
T-STARS Clockwise from top left, the Flirt4Free crew at TEA Con; Tyra Scott at the SheMale Strokers booth;
Jesse and Nikki Montero; the Kennston contingent, including Michelle Austin, Tyler St. Syn and Eddie Wood.
Opposite page, TS Madison, host of the Transgender Erotica Awards Show; photo by Chris King/@ReelSeduction.
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