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Young entrepreneur opens teen dance club
JAMESTOWN — Sound and light expert Travis Hobson knows how to throw a good party — and he’s got all the gear needed to do the job right. So, he and his father, Paul, initially pictured the basement of Jamestown’s Mark Twain Manor simply as a space to house Travis’ DJ equipment.
While touring the facility, though, they began wondering if Travis, a 2007 Jamestown High School graduate, could transform the former bar into a teen hangout.
Travis opened T Studios on Feb. 15, and the parties have begun.
His only reservation about renting the basement was that half of the space was formerly used as a bar. “We thought, let’s convert it into a kids’ thing and make it into a snack bar for them. And then we thought, we’ve got the DJ equipment, we might as well set it up, have kids come in and have a dance place for them.”
Paul wanted to give Jamestown-area teens a clean, local place to go at night, somewhere they wouldn’t need to worry about drugs or about fights breaking out.
Travis has dreamed of working in the entertainment industry for about four years. Paul and Travis talked it over and created T Studios. “I just knew he could do it. He’d work at it until he got it done,” Paul said.
So, how does an 18-year-old have the confidence to open his own business?
Travis’ biggest influence was his parents. “I would definitely have to say that my parents raised me the right way enough to know that if you work hard, your results will be great. My dad always tells me, ‘I never want to stop you from doing what you want to do.’ Of course, if it’s safe for me,” Travis added, smiling.
Another person gave him a strong foundation for building a good work ethic. Travis worked for six years at Meadow Lake Campground in Westford. His former boss, Curt, taught him to work hard and to go for what he wanted.
Travis’ passion lies in his creativity. He wants T Studios to reflect who he is as an entertainer. But Travis also really wants teens to experience dancing at T Studios as an event. “I’m the different DJ. Everything I do is digital. It’s digital onto vinyl with two pole ... speakers. We have 360-degree lights. We’ve got green lasers, LED (light-emitting diode) lights, fog machines. So I try to go all-out because the lights themselves are another instrument.”
Travis wants to make the kids feel like they’re the performers by mentally transporting dancers to a different place: “It’s one thing to have music, but then if you have the whole atmosphere with the music, it makes a whole new world for them. It takes them out of the real world for a bit. They feel like the performers.”
Travis has a positive outlook for the future. “I just figured it never hurts to start early. If you start late, you regret it. If you start early, you learn from it. You can change the future the way you want it to be. But even if you get a late start, you’ve still got a start.”
T Studios offers video-to-DVD transfers, filmmaking services and DJ reservations. To learn more about T Studios or to contact Travis, visit www.tstudiosentertainment.com or e-mail travjh17@hotmail.com.
Lindsay is a Jamestown resident.
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