HOLLYWOOD—Last night saw just about every L.A.-based transsexual in the adult entertainment business—and even some from Las Vegas and as far away as New York City—crowded into Joseph's Nightclub at Ivar and Yucca streets to attend the 4th Annual Tranny Awards, created by Steve Grooby of Grooby.com.
The evening began with a red carpet that was scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m., but early arrivals got things rolling a half-hour before that, with popular performers Brittany St. Jordan and Domino Presley interviewing as many arriving participants as they could for the EMM Report and even a live video feed that could be seen worldwide.
The show was hosted by Nicole Paige Brooks, a veteran of Season 2 of Logo TV's RuPaul's Drag Race, beautifully attired in a gold sequined dress with spikes on the shoulders. She was just what this raucous crowd needed to keep it in line, since she had the lung power to make her occasional shouts of "Shut the fuck up!" be heard over the noise of the crowd—and even more amazing, the crowd generally obeyed ... for a little while, anyway.
Perhaps the evening was best summed up by John Ed, proprietor of New York City's Tranny Strip club, whose huge entourage of trannies and others took up three tables near the stage.
"We are celebrating the life of being a tranny," he announced as he presented the Eros.com award (which included a $1,000 prize) for Best New Face to newcomer Eva Lin, who would go on to also win TrannyBox.com's award for Best Hardcore Performer—quite a feat since she was up against stiff competition that included Aly Sinclair, Amy Daly, Brittany St. Jordan, Domino Presley, Jesse, Joanna Jet, Juliette Stray, Mandy Mitchell (who also snagged Third World Shemale's Best Non-Typical Model award), Mia Isabella and Morgan Bailey.
But the evening's big winner was famed (and multi-AVN Award winning) TS director Joey Silvera, who first accepted from Brittany St. Jordan the AEBN Best DVD Release trophy for his Rogue Adventures 37 (Vol. 36 had also been nominated)—"This is for the girls," Silvera stated as he invited his stars to join him on the dais—then got called back to the stage almost immediately to accept the award for Best DVD Director.
"This is more fun than the AVN show!" he exclaimed, then, spotting AVN's reporter in the audience, quickly added, "Sorry, Mark." (Of course, AVN readers are already familiar with the recent summit held at AVN's headquarters between several representatives of the trans community and AVN's owners and editors regarding TS involvement in both the awards show and the Adult Entertainment Expo.)
A short time later, Silvera was back on stage again, this time to accept Joanna Jet's Lifetime Achievement Award as a director—"It's hard to imagine that there were once only three [trans] shooters in the industry," Silver reflected—and then, as he was headed back to his seat at the Sammy Mancini table, Joanna announced her other Lifetime Achievement Award for veteran adult actress Vaniity, whose on-screen presence she described as "unbelievable"—and which award Silvera was tagged to accept since Vaniity was a no-show at the show.
"I'm a fan of Vaniity," Silvera declared—adding to the assembled trans multitude, "I'm a fan of all your stuff"—describing Vaniity as "the real deal."
Sadly, like Vaniity, not all award winners were present, and when Foxxy tried to present the award for Best Non-TS Performer to Christian, it fell to Steve Grooby himself to accept the trophy, while asking the audience, "Will all the girls who've fucked Christian put your hands in the air?" Of course, many went up ... so Grooby followed with, "Will all the boys who've fucked Christian put your hands in the air." That got a somewhat lesser response ... but recognized the actor as one of adult's main crossover stars, doing both straight and trans movies.
Another $1,000 prize winner at the show was Shemale Yum Model of the Year Domino Presley, but if they had been giving out cash for the evening's best quotes, one winner would have been Mandy Mitchell, who, in accepting her award for Best Solo Website, thanked "everybody who did something with me this year that might be illegal," and Yasmin Lee, who accepted Kink.com's award for Kinkiest T-Girl Domme by saying, apparently to her customers, "Thank you for paying my bills!"
The show, which didn't get under way until almost 11 p.m., lasted about two hours, with an intermission that featured DJ Chelsea Malone, whom John Ed described as "the hardest-working transsexual DJ in New York," and a pair of TS go-go dancers.
The revelry continues tonight with an after-awards party at Club Voyeur hosted by Domino Presley.
The following is the list of winners, released by organizer Grooby.com:
Best Free Website
Sponsored by The UP Network
Caramel's Tgirls
Best Non-TS Performer
Sponsored by Grooby
Christian
Best DVD
Sponsored by AEBN
Rogue Adventures 37
Best Director
Sponsored by Grooby
Joey Silvera
Shemale Yum Model of the Year
Domino Presley
Best Non-Typical Model
Sponsored by Third World Shemales
Mandy Mitchell
Best Photographer
Sponsored by Grooby
Nick Milo
Best Scene
Sponsored by Grooby
TS Domination (TS Seduction)
(Eva Lin, Honey Foxx, Sebastien Keys)
Best New Face
Sponsored by Eros.com
Eva Lin
Kink Award for the Kinkiest Tgirl Domme
Yasmin Lee
Black Tgirls Model of the Year
Nody Nadia
Lifetime Achievement Award
Sponsored by Joanna Jet
Vaniity
Lifetime Achievement Award
Sponsored by Joanna Jet
Joey Silvera
Best Solo Website
sponsored by Grooby
MandyMitchell.com
Shemale Strokers Model of the Year
Delia Delions
Best Hardcore Perfomer
Sponsored by Tranny Box
Eva Lin
Best Solo Model
Sponsored by Cam4
Sarina Valentina
