Customer Reviews

Making It Big: Sex Stars, Porn Films and Me

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Oh come on and lighten up! This was a fun read.Yes, the business has a sordid reputation and Chi Chi does not really hold much back. Yes, he has a very good opinion of himself but why not? I think it was a nice companion to all that I have read about the industry. I've seen Chi Chi perform as well, and if you get a chance to catch her act on the road you won't be disappointed. Buy the book and you won't be disappointed either! I have friends in the industry and they seem to back up that this book is pretty acurate of what it is like to work for Chi Chi. It's a great book! Completely fun for fans and even people who don't particularly like porn (though I doubt you would even be on this page or reading this comment if you were not into porn!).

Okay, so our lifestyle is quite colorful. I'm insulted that people are so negative. I am in the industry and know that things in her book are quite as they are. She has chosen to market in an area that people generally find an opinion out of ignorance and have know idea what the hell they are talking about. Live and let Live!

This is a fun biography which makes a good contrast to Ecstasy and Wonderbread, the biography of Joey Stefano that portrays a very definite downside to the gay porn industry. Although LaRue does discuss the pain of Joey Stefano's addiction and death, she focuses more on her early life, her drag achievements, and her quick rise to the director's chair in the pornographic film industry, Unlike many divas, she doesn't appear egotistical or mean-spirited, and she freely gives credit to her many friends and even her enemies for their ideas and support. Furthermore, she satisfies one's curiousity about life in the porn industry and she's full of tips about making a film or putting on make-up. She discusses many of the porn stars she's directed, and she details several of her favorite films. She also discusses enough of her famous drag queen acquaintances to rival the book, The Drag Queens of New York. Making It Big is well-written (no, I don't suppose it compares with War and Peace, but still...) and fun.

Follow Chi Chi and find out the inside information: In porn films, what's the best way to shoot an orgy scene? How does big new talent get discovered? Which actors consistently deliver the best "money shots"? What really goes on behind the scenes during a movie shoot? And just exactly how did a full-figure drag queen become one of the most well-known directors in the business? Making It Big tells the classic American rags-to-riches story - with a twist. Larry Paciotti, a young lad from Minnesota traveled to California to become a part of the world he loved with all his heart: gay porn. In record time he made it big, transforming the industry with his polished, steamy movies and transforming himself into the irresistible Chi Chi LaRue. Now, for the first time, he's dishing the dirt, telling true stories that no one will want to fast-forward through. When he makes it big, there's no stopping the irresistible Chi Chi LaRue.

It's mindboggling but true: a silly drag queen--nothing wrong with really great drag either, but this isn't--has become the arbiter of what is masculine! What a twist, that all the macho gays are now immitating her masculine drag--and there's nothing wrong with macho drag either. It's just the combination that makes it all so ironic. Sad, too, that porn stars--who deserve human dignity--often disappear tragically while Ms. LaRue goes on giggling and making money.

Chi Chi LaRue certainly has a distorted picture about his fame and status. Outside of certain seedy circles, I doubt anyone has ever even heard of him, though he goes on and on about always being recognized and the downfalls of fame. A few men may know the name from watching porn, but does anyone really have a good idea of what this creature even looks like? The tales of giving blow jobs in dirty bathrooms and of people like Joey Stefano dying a drug-addicted mess paint a pretty clear picture of the life this person has chosen to lead, though he makes it sound like one big gay sex party. Chi Chi LaRue comes off as pathetic and insecure. Depressing.

Mr. Larue obviously thinks of himself as a world-famous superstar, but I doubt anyone outside the porn industry knows who he is. This book, at its best, reads like pitiful self-aggrandizement at the expense of the sacrificial, however willing they are, figures of porn, who last only briefly while directors go in search of new bodies. Mr. Larue is pictured laughing. Probably at whoever published this book.