Sex Carnival

by Bill Brownstein

A tongue in cheek odyssey that conducts readers through the porn capitals and supermarkets of the planet, deciphering the strange and seductive world they'll find waiting there.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1550224158
• ISBN13: 9781550224153
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Eros For Sale, Reporting for Laughs

The result of a publisher asking Bill Brownstein to check out global sex hot spots, _Sex Carnival_ (ECW Press), is Brownstein?s rambling, jocular account of completing that assignment. His chapters are arranged by city in Europe, the US, and Canada; his publisher?s budget prevented Bangkok. He got to see some places that if you are like me, you are curious about, and also if you are like me, you wouldn?t get caught dead in. Take, for instance, the Porno Oscars at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The lovely Tristan Taormino picks up her award for best tape devoted to a particular sexual act. "Oh, my God! This is so wonderful!... I just want to thank my mom and dad..." The Adult Video News Award show has become so mainstream that there is now a prize for Best Non-Sex Performance. When Brownstein gets to chat with John Leslie ("The Cecil B. DeMille of Porn"), he discovers a theme that runs throughout this book. Often the people in sex businesses are very conventional. Leslie paints landscapes, plays harmonica in a blues band, grows his own food, and has a marriage lasting two decades. His wife explains that she met him in 1980, when he was famous for his performances in front of the porn cameras. "He was a huge star - well, you know what I mean..."Brownstein gets to interview the seventy-four year old Hugh Hefner at the famous Playboy Mansion. "All of what has happened in my life," Hef says, "has not made me cynical, has not made me overly sophisticated or jaded. I am still very much the boy who dreamed the dreams and stayed connected to them." Perhaps this explains his five girlfriends, the ages of four of which it would take to add up beyond his own. He has, once again, displayed great timing. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals marketing division, take note: Hef says about Viagra, "When you have five girlfriends, you need it... It's the best legal recreational drug out there." Nearby in Beverly Hills is Lou Paget who gives seminars on the themes of her best-selling books, _How to be a Great Lover_ and _How to Give Her Absolute Pleasure_. She also gives private lessons and group instruction on fellatio. This explains why Brownstein sees her dishwasher is full of latex phalluses; she takes a briefcase full of them to her classes for student use. They lie who say she uses fruits or vegetables.Amsterdam is hot. Paris is not. And remarkably, Montreal seems quite a fetish capital. It goes without saying that Brownstein has picked the less seedy venues of commercial sex for his entertaining explorations. The people he interviews make legal livings, and he'd be less amusing if he were looking at the darker side of his carnival. Nonetheless, sticking to the high end of what is now popular entertainment has given him a platform to make jokes and open eyes, and to let us in on an international and surprisingly human aspect of the pursuit of happiness.

Not for the unsophististicated.

Bill Brownstein is not for the purient either. He has an air of engaged detachment but is absorbed despite himself. He provides an overview of some interesting parts of the multi-billion dollar porn industry. But it is an interesting business. Brownstein manages to see the subtle humor in what is a serious business to most.He reminds me of Calvin Trillin who wrote for the New Yorker about which was the best chili restaurant in Cincinnati. Trillin didn't care which was best but made the reader interested in the fact that people there did care which was best. But don't belive me read the book. Be ready to have people stare at you when you LOL...