Porn Valley- Steve Volponi’s one of the most successful and respected salesmen in the industry, although he tends to dress like a rock drummer, which he is on the side.
Volponi sports tattoos, wears his baseball cap backwards, rides motorcycles and has forearms the size of a bear’s – from all the rock drumming. Not exactly the image of a guy making tranny movies, you might say. But this is what Volponi through his newly formed company, Goodfellas Productions, is currently doing. And as a salesman, Volponi’s pushing a tranny movie on the basis of the fact that it’s “bagless.”
“A bagless tranny movie- it’s timeless,” laughs Volponi, a guy who’s always laughing. From the way it sounds, you figure maybe Volponi’s got an idea, here that will allow him to chuckle all the way to the bank. Besides being “bagless,” i.e., no condoms, Volponi’s movie, which is being distributed by Devil’s Film, is also billed as the first interactive TS movie. It’s titled Up Close and Virtual with Danielle Fox, a cutie who you’d never expect to be lugging a package. Yeah, Volponi couldn’t believe it, either.
In the scheme of things, Volponi basically got Goodfellas Productions rolling when he made a move over to Devil’s Film.
“I thought it would be a good time to hit the new owners and see if they wanted to do a line with me,” explains Volponi who has shot Interactive movies in the past with another company he owned called Real Interactive.
“Around the office we joked around with the Goodfellas movie- a lot of the little catch phrases- so it seemed like a natural to name that our company,” he continues. “I was talking with Sean over at Devil’s and said what do you think? You want to get together and do this. I said let’s call it Goodfellas Productions; and as a secondary production company, we named it Seven G’s Productions. [A humorous Joe Pesci reference in the movie.] Then we talked about a logo concept then nailed it down. Then we asked Dave Kaplan who’s the comptroller over there if he wanted to come in with us and give us some ideas and what not.
“I thought it would be something fun that we could do together as a company,” Volponi continues. “It’s always nice to own a piece of the company. We all make good money and good salaries but to have a piece of something, it’s very rare that a company of their stature would give anybody a taste of the pie let alone a whole slice.”
Volponi’s other company Real Interactive tackled a project in which Lauren Phoenix and Melissa Lauren had titles roles. He did very well with those projects. The Lauren Interactive title, specifically, had a bonus 3D option along with what Volponi calls “spectacular lenticular packaging.” He’s always getting his balls busted about the lenticular packaging. You don’t imagine a guy with forearms and a taste for good brew to be talking about lenticular packaging.
“That was pretty eye catching,” Volponi muses. “I did very well with that movie. But with partners back East on that thing, it’s really, really tough to keep things going 3,000 miles away and keep on the same page at all times. So I kind of wanted to separate myself from that. But I did learn a lot about interactivity over that time period.”
Not really wanting to do another 3D line, Volponi then approached Devil’s about doing something in-house.
“3D is gimmicky but Devil’s is not a gimmicky kind of company,” says Volponi. “However it was a no-brainer to own the product and be able to distribute it from the same company I’m distributing from anyway. It was a beautiful thing. And my thing was if I’m going to do this, I don’t want to compete with everybody, every week on those same hardcore shelves.”
Volponi did a little research on that end. He scouted out Le Sex Shoppe, a former employer, and a couple of other stores just to see how things are set up.
“If you want a dildo, they’re in their own section,” he says. “If you’re gay, those movies are in their own section; if you like tranny stuff, it’s in their own section. If you want to find a Devil’s movie or an Evil Angel movie or a Red Light movie, you’ve got to spend hours on miscellaneous shelves with no rhyme or reason. I felt my chances with getting some visibility, alone, was much better in a section where it was set up for that. Tranny guys know what they want. They might start out in the straight section- and I know this from experience- because many years ago- I worked in the Le Sex Shoppes in Sherman Oaks, Canoga Park and Studio City. I watched the whole routine. I was the clerk. I’m in the straight section, but I’m eyeing it up. The tranny guys start off in the straight section, and, bam, head for the tranny section. Next thing you know they’re buying $5 worth of tokens. You know they ain’t going in there to watch straight movies. That’s my take on it.”
According to Volponi, tranny guys, gay guys and bondage guys have their quirks and mannerisms.
“They never rented movies,” he laughs. “I think part of the thing was, I’m going to have to return this movie. So all they did was pile three or four movies- $59.95 apiece- credit card. Done, out the door. Bought, paid for. And they really don’t look you in the eye. They just lay the credit card on top of the pile of the movies and make no bones about it. They pretty much don’t want any abuse. They want to get their product out of there. Guys in the straight section, they rent, they break your balls, they don’t have a credit card that’s good; they don’t want to leave a deposit. It was always something. Then they look you in the eye and break your balls. The bondage guys? They would turn sideways. Basically I told them it’s $185.50 or whatever their purchase was. Then we’d swipe the card and they’d be out the door, never to be seen again until the next batch of bondage movies.
“Plus another reason why I went this route is that Devil’s has an amazing transsexual line,” Volponi continues.
“I also think there’s a much better chance of selling the movie as opposed to just renting it. People will check, yeah, I rented it 30 times- that’s cool. I sold five out of the 20 I bought. Okay, yeah, I’ll take another 20. That’s the straight stuff. But tranny stuff sells. If it’s good and it’s not crap and the tranny looks glamorous like a girl and not like you and me, I think there’s much more demand. for a quality tranny movie. And I have a quality, tranny movie.”
Before picking Danielle Fox, Volponi did a scour of boxcovers.
“I went into the warehouse which is a rarity for me these day,” he laughs. “I looked at our Transsexual Prostitutes line. Over the years I knew that Mike [Rubenstein] pretty much started that craze. Then Joey Silvera came up. And I think still to this day, that the only two lines worth a shit are Joey’s and the Devil’s stuff. Of course Vanity came to mind and I even thought of Gia Darling. Then I gathered up several movies, I took them home and I kept looking at the covers. And I spoke to my wife. For some odd reason, Danielle just kept popping out. Because in Transsexual Prostitutes 36 her boobs are so incredible on the boxcover. And I said I got to look into this chick a little more, contact her and see what she’s about. Obviously with what I’m doing, it takes more than just doing a scene and going home. You have to have a personality. You have to be very comfortable in front of the camera and seductive to the person that’s watching it.
“I knew within five minutes of talking to Danielle- who met us at a bar- that she was the one. I had talked to a couple of others. I even talked to Gia. She’s sweet; she’s awesome and she’s got a lot of stuff going on and I would still love to have her come on board down the line. I think that once this product comes out, a lot of people will be banging my doors down in the tranny community.”
Fox certainly subscribes to the gorgeous tenet. And Volponi remembers her walking into the bar and providing endless sources of amusement to him when two bankers tried hitting on her.
“They were making chit chat and I kind of slammed them when she left,” says Volponi. “I said you know that chick you were hitting on? They go yeah. I said she’s got a bigger cock than you. I haven’t seen your cock but I’ll guarantee you. They’re going get out of here! They were like in disbelief that she was a guy at one time. So you’ve got to have the look, be feminine and have the personality. I got to put it out there. After Danielle, it’s going to be tough to top her.
“She was just phenomenal the whole time,” Volponi states. “Her menu interaction was phenomenal. She is the interactive menu. She shows you how to work the video. Her blooper stuff is hilarious. Then, on top of that, her scenes were outstanding. I was watching the monitor during the shooting especially during her titty tease. I’m going, wow. I better not drink on this set or I’m going to hop into a scene and do something I might regret later!”
Needless to say, Volponi said you’re not going to find any manly, Brazilian-looking fresh out of the bush trannies on his covers now or in the feature.
‘That’s how it’s got to be,” he decrees. “It’s their movie, their feature; it’s them the whole way.”Plus the fact that it’s bagless.
Volponi says he couldn’t watch a straight movie with condoms, so why would he make a tranny movie with them.
“I don’t want to see them; I don’t want to smell them- I don’t want them on me,” he laughs. “Thank God, fortunately I’m married to a wonderful girl and I don’t have to do that. I don’t want people watching my movies with condoms, either. When I spoke to Danielle about it she said I don’t know why everyone freaks out about it. She goes I’ve been tested since I was 17. I said okay that’s cool as long as your cool with it. And I contacted several people talent-wise. I even had my Devil’s production manager helping me with male talent. We were going 100% bagless, baby. So I finally found a guy and said I have a crazy request- I don’t really think it’s crazy- but everyone else in the busy seems to think it’s a little bit wacky, would you mind working with no condom.”
Volponi decided on a male talent named Little Billy who’s worked before in Devil’s Transsexual Prostitutes line.
“Then when I talked to Danielle she gave me the name of several people that she wanted to work with,” says Volponi. “I wanted her to be comfortable. I wanted the wood she was being supplied with to be something that she would be able to work off of. I finally got a hold of Billy and got him to agree that everyone’s tested and he’s down with it.
“They mutually wanted to work together and Billy did a phenomenal job. He was really good and if I can, I’d like to have him back for every single one because there were no wood problems at all. Kind of like a machine. He stayed out of the shots, provided wood the whole time and was very good with the masturbatory stuff and he’s a great addition to the movie. He fucked hard when he needed to, and I was very happy with the interaction between the two of them and I think it’s going to really show. A couple of times I had to pat my head. I was, like, wow. That was a scene!
“And bagless- that’s what we did.”
Volponi wanted to include some other firsts which you generally don’t get on interactives.
‘I wanted a full gonzo scene with a girl,” he explained. “I also got the girl to agree to no condoms and fuck the tranny.” Which was Delilah Strong.
“I said Delilah, I have a question for you. I’m trying to do this 100% no condoms. Do you have any problems working with Danielle without a condom? She said fuck no. I saw her test. She goes I’ll fuck her with no condoms. I said good for you. I also said, listen, I’ll provide condoms for anyone who has a change of heart. Not a problem. But I appreciate everyone sticking with the program. Everybody’s happy. Everybody saw the tests. And we did it. There’s a full-on non-interactive gonzo-style bonus hardcore motherfuckin’ tranny girl scene. Full on sex. It was insane. Also along with that we have a non-interactive slo-mo shower fantasy scene. I think it’s going to be something that people will watch over and over again. Not to mention every interactive position you can think of from masturbation and self-ingestion of the cum shoot. You’re going to be able to come on command anytime you want in just about every position we have in this movie.”
Along with that is an internal cream pie.
“You as the viewer can make yourself cum inside the tranny and she will creampie and let it out of her ass,” Volponi adds. “It’s insane. The cum shots were insane in the thing. Billy was just amazing and Danielle’s scenes were just smoking. She has an interaction with that camera and did something so good for her fans that it’s going to be hard for the next one to top it.”
Judging by conversations he had with Fox after the shoot, Volponi would like to bring her back as a consultant.
“And she’s been hooking me up with beautiful T-girls,” Volponi adds. “I’m currently speaking with Vicki Richter and Jasmin Lee, so we’re setting up some other stuff.” Volponi didn’t realize what a close knit community he was dealing with.
“They have their catfights like most girls do, but for the most part a lot of them are friends and friendly,” Volponi relates. “The beauty of it was, after the shoot, Danielle came up to me and said never before on a set was she treated with such respect and treated so well. That made me feel good because we’re not there to abuse anybody. Everybody did everything of their own will, we didn’t force anything and we got the exact product we were looking to shoot and I think it’s going to be good for me because Danielle will go down the line and say these guys are great to work for; it’s fun, they’re funny, we had a great time. They were very professional and the thing we shot was beyond belief.”
Volponi’s aiming for an August 10th street date.
And it will be bagless, baby.