A rollicking, hyper-fast paced front row seat to the iconic late-night celebrity-studded party of 80s New York, Master of Ceremonies is the compelling and often tender true story of a fledgling actor whose first big break results in a two-year stint at the world's most famous and hedonistic strip club. Acclaimed memoirist David Henry Sterry was at the center of the madness as the roller-skating emcee of the nightly beefcake parade at Chippendales. The wide-eyed boy who dreams of stardom is quickly disabused of his naiveté as he is witness to the nightly tableau of desperate housewives, bachelorettes gone wild, moviestar excess, and shocking sexual shenanigans. Ultimately, though, all great parties must come to an end, and the gangland style assassination of his boss, the man responsible for the phenomenal success of the beefcake boys, marked the beginning of the end of the party-all-the-time 80s in New York City. Master of Ceremonies is resplendent with seedy glamour, dirty little secrets, hilarious backstage madness and an unflinching honesty.
David Henry Sterry
David Henry Sterry is an author, performer, educator, activist, and muckraker. David is the author of 13 books, the first of which was published in 2001. Prior to becoming an author, David was a professional actor and screenwriter.
The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published (Workman, 20100. This soup-to-nuts guide will educate and entertain as it tells you everything you need to know about how to get successfully published in this crazy new cyber-intensive world of publishing.
Satchel Sez; The Wit, Wisdom & World of Leroy Satchel Paige (Crown, 2001). Picked by the ALA as one of the best books of the year for teens.
Chicken: Self-Portrait of a Young Man for Rent (ReganBooks, 2002). A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. Sold into nine countries. Under option by Showtime for a TV series.
"Sterry writes with comic brio... [he] honed a vibrant outrageous writing style and turned out this studiously wild souvenir of a checkered past."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"Stunning... Sterry's prose fizzes like fireworks. Every page crackles... Very easy and exciting to read--as laconic as Dashiell Hammett, as viscerally hallucinogenic as Hunter S Thompson. Sex, violence, drugs, love, hate, and great writing all within a single wrapper. What more could you possibly ask for?" -The Irish Times
Putting Your Passion into Print (Workman, 2005). Based on the Stanford Workshop created by himself and his wife, former agent and author, Arielle Eckstut.
"Before you write your own book, read this one first. Arielle Eckstut and David Sterry understand the process of publishing. Their advice will help you envision and frame your work so that publishers will be more likely to perceive its value." -Jonathan Karp, Publisher, 12 Books
"This book demystifies the process of getting published and is a must-have for every aspiring writer with a dream to see his or her passion in print. With input from agents, editors, and writers, this book is thorough, forthright, and importantly, also quite entertaining."--Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Travis & Freddy's Adventures in Vegas (Dutton, 2006). Written under the pseudonym Henry Johnson.
"This is a winner."-- Library Journal
LittleMissMatched's Pajama Party in a Box (Workman, 2007)
LittleMissMatched's Fabulous Marvelous Me (Workman, 2007)
LittleMissMatched's The Writer in Me (Workman, 2008)
LittleMissMatched's The Artist in Me (Workman, 2008)
LittleMissMatched is a company dedicated to inspiring creativity and self-expression in girls of all ages. These books, created with David's wife, Arielle Eckstut, have been sold everywhere from FAO Schwarz to Toys R Us to Disneyland.
Master of Ceremonies: A True Story of Love, Murder, Rollerskates and Chippendales (Canongate/Grove-Atlantic).
"Master of Ceremonies is dizzying, tender, and... resplendent with seedy glamour, hilarious backstage madness, and unflinching honesty."--Library Journal
Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent-Boys: Professionals writing on Life, Love, Money & Sex (Soft Skull, 2009). Now in its fifth printing.
"Eye-opening, astonishing, brutally honest and frequently funny... unpretentious and riveting -- but also graphic, politically incorrect and mostly unquotable in this newspaper."--The New York Times Sunday Book Review (front page review)
The Glorious World Cup: A Balls-Out Guide (Dutton, to be published in April, 2010).
Confessions of a Sex Maniac (Kismet, 2011)
David is unique as an author in that he brings together his love for the written word with his love for performance. In his life as an actor, he performed with everyone from Milton Berle to Will Smith to Michael Caine to Zippy the Chimp. He performed in over 750 commercials, including 4 Clio winners, starred in HBO's Emmy Award-winning Encyclopedia, and emceed at Chippendale's in New York City. As a screenwriter, he wrote for Disney, Fox and Nickelodeon. After his memoir, Chicken, was published, David put his performance and playwriting skills to work and wrote and performed a one-man show based on the book. After a highly praised debut in San Francisco (the chief theater critic for the San Francisco Chronicle said, "Richly entertaining and thought-provoking... Speaks cleverly and provocatively to anyone who's ever been or had a child."), David took his one-man show to Edinburgh's Fringe Festival where it was named the #1 play in the UK by The Independent week after week.
For each and every book David publishes, he puts together a unique and robust publicity and marketing plan which utilizes his performance skills. Examples include:
A 6-hour workshop on how to get published at Stanford University
A high concept event like "The Art of the Memoir" which he's done everywhere from City Lights to the Strand to the 92nd St Y
A cutting-edge reading series like "Sex Worker Literati", which has become a sold-out monthly event at Happy Ending Lounge in NYC
David also makes sure to stay in the public eye between book publications through blogging for the Huffington Post, writing for other people's anthologies (his story in San Francisco Noir was a finalist for the Henry Miller Award), and writing for publications such as The London Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and Penthouse.
Due to his PR efforts, David has been featured in dozens and dozens of media outlets including: The New York Times, The London Times, The LA Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Details Magazine, BBC, NPR's Morning and Weekend Edition and Talk of the Nation.
David has taught at Stanford University, University of New Orleans, Reed College, UCLA, SF State, and the US Department of Justice. He's assisted lawyers, models, architects, and writers to present themselves and their ideas with clarity and passion. He's also helped many amateur writers become professional authors. He's worked as a chicken, a chicken fryer, a master of ceremonies, a soda jerk, a cherry picker, a poet, a building inspector, a telephone solicitationist, a limo driver, a barker, an industrial sex technician, and a marriage counselor. He graduated from Reed College, and loves his cat, his girls, and any sport involving a ball.
