Tad Pole Interview: The Inside Story of TadpoleXXXStudio
Tad Pole‘s story is a classic tale of where there is a will, there is a way. The founder of TadpoleXXXStudio went from Navy vet and school teacher to veritable sex impresario thanks a combination of talent, ingenuity, sex drive, and just plain ol’ work ethic. TadpoleXXXStudio and its accompanying VR lineup make you an honored guest at a series of raw sex parties, gangbangs, and other wild sexual debauchery. Find out how it all came to be in this new Tad Pole Q&A, exclusive to the Adult Empire Blog.
What led you to the adult industry?
Tad Pole
When I was married and attending graduate school to become a school teacher back in 2009, I could never imagine being in adult films at all. After I got a divorce and quit teaching in 2015, I moved to Chicago and I started going to gangbang parties because I always wanted to experience a gangbang, as that was the type of porn that I enjoyed watching. As someone who was an organizer of events my entire life, I eventually started to organize my own gangbang parties. By the time EXXXOTICA came to Chicago in June 2018, a pornstar posted on a social media site that she wanted a well-established Chicago gangbang group to organize an off-camera gangbang, which I had no problem organizing for it. During her gangbang, I asked her about being a producer. She told me to give her a call if I ever wanted to produce porn and she would tell me everything I needed to do legally and she would give me tips on lighting and equipment. That same weekend I talked to Jill Kassidy at her booth. I told her that I was interested in being in adult films and after I bought one of her DVDs, she wrote on the cover “Clip4sale” and “Manyvids.” She suggested that if I was serious to start with those two clip sites. Later in June, a porn producer that I connected with on social media asked me if I had any gangbang girls interested in porn. I told him that I would let him know. Then one day he called and asked me if I was available for a porn shoot because he needed a male talent for a boy/boy/girl scene with MILF Nicolette Wetone for his “ISTHISMOM” series. After the shoot, I thought I could do that. Then shortly after that and still in the summer of 2018, I walked into a couple of strip clubs and met several beautiful young aspiring porn stars that changed my life forever. I felt that I had enough knowledge and skills to start shooting my gangbang parties with whoever would be willing to sign model release forms and provide IDs. My whole goal was to help the aspiring porn stars get notice and become stars. Sal Shooter assisted me from the very beginning. We didn’t change anything about our parties when shooting. I bought a handheld camera and just started shooting the action and just let everyone do what they normally do during a gangbang. I uploaded some BTS to content sites and right away we got a lot of views and a lot of positive comments. Later I uploaded to Clip4sale and Manyvids and right away the sales starting coming every single day. Someone who I met at one of my events asked if I would be interested in virtual reality as he had a VR camera and knowledge of the VR sites. Obviously that sounded pretty cool so I let him shoot VR at my gangbang parties. I liked it so much that I eventually bought my own VR camera and starting shooting VR myself. We are currently one of the most popular VR studios. Also, I am now getting hired to perform with another established porn company other than my own. Lastly, I had connected with Brazzers at New Jersey EXXXOTICA in 2019 and I showed them my content and models I did scenes with. They loved a few of them and they had Camila Cano do a couple of scenes for one of their amateurs sites (True Amateurs) which I assisted her with producing the scenes. Although the pandemic slowed things down but I am considered a scout for their amateur sites. I feel that I have done more in the adult industry than I could ever imagined and I am loving ever minute of it.
What jobs did you hold previously?
After I graduated from high school in 1989, I joined the US Navy. I retired from the Navy after 20 years. While in the Navy I did all types of work. My rate was a cook and I actually worked my way up to cooking for high-ranking Admirals including Admiral [Michael] Boorda, who famously took his life in 1996 as the Chief of Naval Operations over wearing a ribbon that he may or may not have earned. I also worked in security, hotels, and the post office to name a few other jobs that I did in the Navy. After I retired from the Navy and right before I started doing adult films I was a middle school teacher and high school softball coach. I was still married and living a completely different life than today obviously. I even taught fifth grade in the Middle East for a short amount of time. Also, I played baseball at the college level while in the Navy.
Do you remember shooting your first scene?
As mentioned before, my first scene was a boy/boy/girl with MILF Nicolette Wetone with a producer from Milwaukee for one of his sites “ISTHISMOM” in June 2018. I hadn’t even started my company yet and I had just hosted a private gangbang for a pornstar recently during Chicago EXXXOTICA. I believe that I was asked to perform because I was a gangbang organizer and we had been collaborating on possible aspiring pornstars that attended my gangbang parties. This would be the first time I ever had performed on camera with someone else shooting and knowing that the footage would be uploaded to a website. Also, TadpoleXXXStudio hadn’t even been created it or even thought of at this point. I actually busted twice and the producer told me afterwards that I did very well and that I actually performed better than previous guys who came in talking a big game. Obviously, this gave me confident when I would eventually start up my own studio shortly after this shoot. I remember the model being a little nervous when she walked in, but once we got started everyone got relaxed and had a great time. The producer just let us have fun and it took about one hour. Through this connection, Nicolette Wetone was the first model that I booked, shoot, and uploaded for TadpoleXXXStudio. It was a four-guy blowbang scene that we did in July 2018 during a live sex party.
What was the inspiration behind your studio’s name?
I’ve said for years that if I ever became a pornstar that I would use Tad Pole as my stage name. I noticed that no one else has it. I like it because I love tadpoles and frogs but mainly because tadpoles look like sperm. I knew that I could find a logo that would look like a sperm for a funny sexual innuendo. People always ask me if my logo is a sperm or tadpole. The logo gets a lot of attention and I get some merchandise requests. When I did my ever porn shoot I had to come up with a porn name for the paper work so obviously I went with Tad Pole. Later that month when I was setting up my “studio” for clip4sale I used my stage name plus studio. I added the “XXX” so people would know that it is X-rated. That is how I came up with TadpoleXXXStudio.
For viewers new to your brand, is there a movie or scene you would point to as a good intro to your overall style?
There are a few scenes out there that I think really showcase Tadpole’s style, but if I had to pick one then it would be the scene with Maria Jade busting up a pinata of a rocketship to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the lunar landing [watch here]. It was all real. No scripts. This video included my regular guys Sal Shooter, Billy Balls, and Sergio Aninal along with guys wearing masks. It was fun gangbang with 10 guys and with a model in Maria Jade who was obviously having a great time.The opening scene was with her trying to break open the pinata with a stick and she couldn’t, which broke the ice that allowed everyone to laugh and have a great time. Then the rest of the scene was intense which included a creampie, facials, and plenty of cumshots. Other honorable mentions that show tadpole’s overall style are scenes with a real baby shower for a pregnant gangbang with Luna Lips [watch here]. Another scene where we stomped on grapes to make Greek wine. Lastly, we actually celebrated Mandy Meadows actual birthday by singing happy birthday and blowing out candles [watch here]. We smashed the cake on her face at the end of the scene. All reality and unscripted.
Tell us about the casting process.
For female models I use Twitter, word of mouth, and now some agencies to book female models. I am happy to see that there are many models that want to do shoots with us. It’s been getting extremely busy lately. For the male talent, I like to use guys that I have known and met from being a party host before I started TadpoleXXXStudio. Obviously, I need a lot of good, clean, and reliable guys so I am constantly hosting off-camera parties to meet new guys. I am not looking for the perfect-looking guy with a big cock. All I care about is that you are clean, respectful, and reliable. I get guys from all walks of life and in all shapes and sizes. I get some guys only want to do this one time while I get guys that are aspiring male pornstars. A lot of my guys that started with TadpoleXXXStudio have gone on to work with other companies. Performance is secondary to reliable, clean and respectful. During a gangbang of five or more guys it’s not a big deal if one or two guys can’t perform that well. It’s reality porn anyways, which I prefer. I feel like that is one of the reasons why my videos are so popular with many people around the world. The porn viewer can relate and see themselves in that vid. I get a lot of positive feedback from guys telling me that they love my videos because the guys in the videos look like them and they feel that they would have a chance to be with the beautiful pornstar in the videos.
Give us your thoughts on virtual reality porn.
I love virtual reality porn. It feels like you are in the room when watching using the goggles. I am trying to learn all I can about VR porn because I want to give the viewers the best experience possible. I personally love the challenge of creating quality gangbang VR porn. I read all the comments and do my best to learn from any feedback that the VR viewers may want to see in my videos. We do get a lot of good comments and some great feedback as well. Of course I learn a lot by just watching VR porn too. I believe virtual reality is the future for porn and I hear that a lot of porn viewers will not go back to 2D once they experience VR in 3D.
What’s the main difference between shooting a VR scene versus a regular porn scene?
Movement. People can actually get motion sickness if there is a lot of movement. When shooting a regular porn scene one can move the camera around and it doesn’t cause any motion sickness. Unfortunately, you cannot move the VR camera too much. Therefore, moving the VR camera to get the great angle for a penetration shot is NOT ideal. They key is to get the performers to move their bodies towards to the VR camera to get the better angles. I do move the VR camera when I have to and the feed back that I am getting is to move it very slowly. I am still experimenting and I am appreciative of the feedback I get.
What pornstars and porn directors do you look up to?
Porno Dan
All my adult life I thought it would be awesome to be a male pornstar, but then again I wanted to be a shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, too. In my 20s, I bought a camera and would film, with permission, sex tapes with female friends in the same style of Ed Powers‘ Dirty Debutantes series. I would ask the same type of questions he would and try to get same type of angles and look. I was a big fan of Ed Powers because his work had no scripts and it was all real. Plus, Ed Powers was an average-looking guy. I thought if he can do it then why can’t I. This kinda of planted a seed I guess you can say. Unfortunately, there was no clip sites in 1995 when I started to rent his DVDs so all of this content that I filmed with my female friends were for private use. Another thing I liked about Ed Powers was that he was really nice to the models and he was funny at times. Later, when I started to watch live sex shows on the internet, I loved watching Porno Dan’s Fuck a Fan series. Again, all reality with beautiful porn stars with real fans. Porno Dan had charisma and all of his shows were entertaining. I loved how he use a lot of color on the walls and always knew what holiday it was as he and the performers would dress up for the holiday. I used balloons in many of my videos just to add that color. Porno Dan and Ed Powers really are two porn stars/directors that not only I look up to but I get some of my style from. I’ve been fortunate to have chatted with both on social media and I have thanked them both for their inspiration.
Did you pick up any new hobbies during quarantine?
No new hobbies. I was too busy transferring my vids to Adult DVD Empire. In the very beginning of the quarantine is when I requested Adult DVD Empire to upload my videos. I was very happy to be approved and I have been working with Ryan Wayne and he has been great. He has been assisting me since day one. He works really fast and replies right away to all of my questions. I have been a big fan of Adult DVD Empire and I am so honor to be on this amazing platform. My vids seem to be doing better each month as I have been uploading all of my older videos during the quarantine and I am now submitting newer releases. Thankfully, Adult DVD Empire kept me very busy during the quarantine and I absolutely love how my vid previews and images look on Adult DVD Empire site.
Many of your movies focus on gangbangs and group sex. What’s the key to successfully shooting a complicated scene like that?
Twenty years in the Navy with many years in leadership positions and being a school teacher I believe has taught me the skills to be an organizer. You have to plan for these events, especially now with COVID-19. I communicate a lot of with TTS [Talent Testing Service] to make sure our one and only testing clinic in Chicago has enough TTS kits. Also, I will book as many female models at the same time so I know that I will more likely have more recently tested guys. I will fly in two models in the same weekend or several models in the same week. That is one reason why I have a few lesbian scenes to my credit. The key is planning and a lot of communicating. Some of my gangbangs have five or more guys and all have to be properly tested. Doing gangbangs on top of virtual reality is not easy to do and I use my military and teaching experience to help organize some very challenging shoots. One weekend in Las Vegas we pulled off four successful gangbangs in two days. Also, one of TadpoleXXXStudio’s vids, newcummer Ray Ray Gangbang, won an award for 2021 Producer Vid of the Year on another clip site, which I was happy that all his hard work of shooting gangbangs got some recognition. Sal Shooter has been assisting me since day one and he helps me with a lot. From filming, editing, to booking plane tickets and hotel accommodations and lastly giving me that money shot.
How do you picture the adult industry changing after COVID?
I believe in the beginning that less gangbangs and large group scenes were being produced. I waited like everyone else. I used to do much larger gangbangs. One orgy we did in 2019 had at least 50 people on set. That isn’t possible right now. Ten or less with everyone recently COVID-tested is best right now. I hope one day we can plan a huge party like we did in 2019 for the Chicago EXXXOTICA after party where a lot of people were having sex on and off camera and everyone had a great time.
If money were no object, what would be your dream porn project?
I would like to host my own late night series with the same set up as all the late night hosts. With the opening stand up monologue (I would have to pay comic writers) and fly in well known porn guests. Have an up-and-coming stand up comedian performing a routine and have a band play live and all done in front of an audience and all of this would be done live. It would all be porn-related and of course would have a sex scene or two included in the show. This project would definitely take a lot of money to have the appearance of a late night talk show. Until I have that kind of money I am very happy to be producing the type of raw and unscripted porn on my current budget right now.
