Book- Skin City by Jack Sheehan

Skin City's subtitle is "Behind the Scenes of the Las Vegas Sex Industry." And boy, does it take you behind the scenes and in the front row!

Author Jack Sheehan is a Las Vegas resident and has written other books about the city. In younger days he was a teacher at one of the community colleges. One of his students from back then turned out later to be a major porn star. Yes, he taught drama to Ashlyn Gere! (Side note...we have seen her perform at the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theater in San Francisco...just had to brag about that)(one more side note...one of best films is Put It In the Rear With Gere...or so I have heard! LOL!). He later did an interview with her for a magazine (that was very well received) and he was hooked. The interview does form a chapter in this book.

He starts out with attending the AVN Awards...that is the porn equivalent of the Oscars. His sense of humor sparkles here, with biting sarcasm. As he lists the names of the men nominated for best male performer, with names like John Steele or Pete Hardwood, he wonders if there is a marketing firm that specializes in these names. That just had me laugh out loud.

Sheehan is not too mocking though...he travels a fine line, as he goes into swingers clubs, strip clubs, escort services and every thing tawdry and wonderful about sex in this most sexual of cities. We meet prostitutes and strippers who each disdain what the other does for a living, as well as madams and couples that love to swing (and not in the typical playground). Even the oldest man in porn, Dave Cummings (see what he means about the names) And Sheehan makes them all real people, not just cardboard cutouts. (Side note...Cummings later produced a series called Fuck My Wife Please that is still going strong after 50 or so volumes...or so I have heard).

And his sense of humor keeps it all rolling along.

Wow, there really is something for everyone in Vegas. And Sheehan, despite his Catholic guilt, shows it to us full frontal (as well as rear and side views)( maybe even an upside down view).

This was a fun, funny and very interesting book, for anyone with an interest in sexuality and kinkiness. Not that that describes me at all! I'm just saying...

The book was a gift from my friend Paul, for a birthday a few years back. Thank you Paul, it was an inspiration! HA!