Donald Currie’s knack for self-dramatization makes his audiobook “Sex and Mayhem Part One” an amusing, raunchy tale of the performer’s first love.
Winner of the StoneWall Society Pride In the Arts Literary Award for 2002, “Sex and Mayhem” begins on the narrator’s first day of college in 1964, where his crush on drama Professor Joseph Demione begins.
The story follows the young, “wretchedly virginal” student as he spends his time fantasizing about the professor and becoming his star student. Or as Currie puts it, “I was really just a lonely kid who shuffled up the aisle of the cow palace to be given Billy Graham’s blessing, only now Billy was in tight white chinos and looked like he had a darn nice rocket in his pocket.”
The story continues with an invitation from Demione to join him in Idaho for a theater camp. It seems as though all the narrator’s dreams are about to come true.
Although Currie’s bravado can be a bit cheesy at times, his overall performance is charming and humorous. The book is decorated with tales of Currie’s early theater experiences and love of the spotlight in the conservative ’50s.
Trips to the cinema with his senile grandma and later performances of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Auntie Mame,” complete with such excesses as “peeling off my mother’s white gloves (wrist length, not elbow — her set didn’t go in for such display) and flinging them with saucy abandon into my grandma’s lap,” explain how Currie ended up studying drama in college.
Currie, an acupuncturist, had been performing “Sex and Mayhem” at slam events when one of his clients, who had just purchased a large amount of recording equipment and needed an opportunity to learn the machinery’s nuances, asked Currie if he’d like to record the piece.
Currie said he plans on making “Sex and Mayhem” a four-part series. The complete story centers around the first sentence in part one: “My first lover went mad, the second went straight, the third guy turned into a Christian fundamentalist, the fourth took to drink, and the fifth became a woman.”
Currie said the second installation is almost ready to be released.
He added that the creation of the audiobooks has been a learning experience.
“I’ve learned that my life was really full of interest,” Currie said. “I’ve never really lived anywhere besides San Francisco and I’ve been front row for a lot of history. I really appreciate that. My life has been a really rich thing.”
This appreciation of life and the experiences that go along with it is something Currie said he wants listeners to take with them.
“I think everyone’s life is important and I hope listeners realize that,” Currie said. “I hope people are open to the piece. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight. It’s about busting out and wanting to live.”