TEA Show 2014 Winners

Venus Lux

I usually write about the Tranny Awards the day after the show, when my adrenaline is still high and I’m suffering from a lack of sleep. This year, I thought I’d give it some space so I could be a little more removed and pragmatic about the events we ran.

I think you’d find few people who would disagree that the awards weren’t a great experience for those involved and even some who came with preconceptions, I believe warmed a bit more to the event. Even though we had most of the top transsexual women and men in the industry in attendance as well as most producers, the real stars of the show and without whom this could never have happened were the Grooby staff whom I’m going to thank first. Grooby is an online adult company – we have no experience in organizing events other than this show and our staff put on a professional production doing everything from setting the tables, to managing the door and red carpet, to prepping the presenters and trying to keep everything going smoothly. Kristel has spent months preparing for this and countless hours on the phone and emails, dealing with unresponsive clubs, working to get creatives from sponsors, adding models to the guest list and promoting the event alongside her other duties and it all came together for the two nights of shows and a huge thank you should go to her. The main Grooby office staff of Alex, Shannon, Kristel, Dev and Telly moved from Hawaii, four years ago to Los Angeles despite some of them never having visited the city or barely been out of the islands and they’ve adapted and helped this company grow beyond my expectations. Danny came in from New Jersey and is invaluable in his help, Grooby Mike wanted to come from the UK on his own expense to help (and experience) the shows and endeared himself to everyone he met and Frank was his usual solid self – someone I can rely on as a friend and colleague. So a huge thank you to those guys for making the show happen.

Of course, there are many more thanks to be given. Not least the sponsors who really came through for us this year, please take a look at the whole sponsor list and as importantly as who is on it, look who isn’t on it. Consider this, when most production companies from large to small are sponsoring at various levels, providing cash prizes and the ability for us to run the show, why are there a few of the largest names missing … I’d suggest to the girls, to consider this the next time you decide who you should be shooting with or camming with.

Jujubee once again, provided us with a great host who despite a few errors from our side of things (last minute changes in presenters due to no shows or late comers) kept things running exactly on time. Thank you so much to Jordan Jay who stepped in only a week or so before the event when our scheduled performer wasn’t able to attend because of injury and Stockroom who provided the half-time show, really added to the event.

A special mention and thanks has to go to both Morgan Bailey and Michelle Austin. Neither of these girls receive payment for their participation but do it for the support of the show and the love of helping create something unique and original. They’re both great assets and ambassadors for TS erotica and I love having them as friends. Ben (Otala) and Al Tom provided cameras for the night and you will see a few selections at the end of this post, with more to follow – again, these are unpaid and do it for their support and love of the scene – so thanks to them.

I apologize if I’ve missed anyone … everyone came together to create an amazing event.

Of course, without the girls and guys who are models and performers in this industry, it would be a pretty dull event and it was apparent not only by the amount of models there, some who had traveled from as far as the UK, Canada, East Coast US and Japan but by the amount of people who came up and thanked our staff (or emailed later) for putting on the show, that we are doing something special here, something which was originally intended to honour the girls (and now the guys also!) for what they do, in the industry. As a fan, first and foremost, it’s incredible for me to see all these people together, celebrating our industry over 2-3 days and an honour to be part of what makes it happen.

I think one of the big hits of the show, for me as well as others, was the amount of transmen who came and participated. Not only were they absolutely hilarious as a whole crew and kept me laughing over three days but they were embraced by the girls (and they embraced quite a few girls) so I look forward to working with them more throughout the year and hope to expand their categories for the next show.

With any event, there are always going to be things that need to be improved upon and we’ve identified a few areas which were problematic. Despite our best efforts to get as many people seated as we could, we just ran out of space and were in danger of turning people away from the show. Nominees do not automatically get seats but those who saw me running around the tables at the start of the show, I was filling up spaces with girls where I could. Many of the guests (especially girls with shoes) were annoyed that there was nowhere to sit and I do understand their frustrations but we did do as much social networking to warn people beforehand as possible. This in mind, we are looking to move to a fully seated (with mingling area) venue for next year, which may also be fully ticketed.

This was our first year taking control of the after-party and without any disrespect, I believe we equaled last years. However, most people preferred to mingle outside, doing business, getting photos taken and having social time while the inside go-go girls, didn’t really get the attention they deserved and it didn’t really fit the theme of what this event has become. Next year, my ideal situation would be to move away from the go-go style event and change it into a more classy mix, mingle, meet and drink social event and I’d love to hear feedback on venues and how to create that.

Finally, a correction to how both Xbiz and AVN reported the event (I wasn’t over-impressed by any of the media reports bar one, as I thought they focused less on the event and more on trying to make us “weird”). I was quoted as stating, “The Tranny Awards, that was just started for a joke, and now we’ve got a nice event”, which was probably close to what I said but taken out of context of my British vernacular, let me clarify;

We started the Tranny Awards for fun (a bit of a joke/fun/caper) as an online only event, after six years we’ve developed it into a really nice (great/fantastic but still fun!) event.

I humbly, thank you all. The judges (whom are going to get a separate write up, in a new post), the fans, the models and performers, the sponsors, the producers, the staff, the hosts and each guest who took the time to come to the show – or watch online – or support our sponsors.

Watch out for next year!

Special thanks to the lovely Tranny Award winning Venus Lux! She did some awesome red carpet interviews at the After Party at Dragonfly. Here are some highlights:

Interview with Morgan Bailey

Interview with Steven Grooby

Interview with Jessy Dubai

Interview with Jane Marie

Interview with Eva Lin

Interview with Kim Bella

Interview with James Darling

Interview with Michelle Austin

Interview with Tyra Scott

Interview with Eva Cassini

Interview with Buddy Wood

Interview with Bob from Bob’s TGirls