Skin City

October 3, 2005
Sheehan (Above Las Vegas
) migrated to "Skin City" in 1976 in pursuit of "adult fun," and asserts that Vegas is where America goes to be legally licentious. Yet despite sweet little dice imprints throughout this work, the only gambling he describes is the gambling men (and sometimes women) do with their bank accounts: Vegas's nubile beauties don't come cheap. An hour in a strip club's VIP room costs no less than $400; a hotel room "escort" starts at $500 and ranges upward. In chapters that read like snappy magazine pieces, Sheehan tours the Strip as well as the strip clubs, swingers clubs, massage parlors and porn conventions. He interviews porn stars turned soccer moms, soccer moms turned dominatrixes and young couples funding their futures with for-profit swinging sessions. Interpolated throughout are tips for sex-driven travelers: how to choose a strip club, what to expect in a lap dance, what to look for in a swinger's club, how to avoid being arrested and even where to go for a good meal. This often tame and oddly old-fashioned erotic travelogue affects an "oh, my gosh!" attitude that's both endearing and perplexing, given Sheehan's lengthy tenure in the town, but it's an engaging and occasionally shocking voyage.

November 1, 2005
Like travel guides, these sex tourism guides deliver for armchair wannabes as well as visitors. According to deMontmollin, a Las Vegas marketing manager, too many guys drop big bucks and waste countless fur-brained hours ad libbing Vegas. Better, he says, they should tag a type-A friend to pre-plan and pre-book, using these excellent and comprehensive instructions regarding accommodations, dining, gambling, bars, ladies peer and pro, plus male fun like golf, roller coasters, shooting ranges, and 1930s-style barber spas. Checklists, mini-maps, sample itineraries, and charts are plentiful, and numerous sidebars describe -classic Vegas mistakes, - like taking advice from cab drivers -usually paid for by hotels and clubs to procure customers. Sheehan, author and screenwriter, takes a slightly different tack: he interviews porn actresses, prostitutes, strippers, a madam, swing club hosts, and vice cops for his entertaining, behind-the-scenes tour of Vegas adult industries interspersed with customer tips. He also covers the porn Oscars and pro-sex service for women and gay men. This is not a scholarly work or -balanced - journalism. Contrary to the -sex workers are messed up - style of rhetoric, Sheehan portrays almost all the people he talks to as savvy, more or less likable, and enjoying their work. His tips are more sex-specific and sometimes more detailed than in "A Guy's Guide". Although both could have used indexes, deMontmollin is recommended for travel collections where appropriate and Sheehan for larger sex collections. For broader-scope sex customer advice, the most detailed and frank -if repetitive -resource is "Paying for It", written by sex workers themselves." -Martha Cornog, Philadelphia"

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2005
A 2004 British book making its U.S. paperback debut, Sheehan's examination of sex-based businesses in America's mecca for hedonists depends on interviews with a variety of sex workers and entrepreneurs. Consequently, the line between titillation and reportage is heavily trod. Nevertheless, Sheehan conveys a plausible sense of what services are actually available, regardless of various disclaimers and legal descriptions. The interviewees defend their occupations on comparative moral grounds, and they offer insights into, say, the kind of customer who spends big bucks on a no-contact lap dance. Sheehan is also a helpful tipster who includes lists of "Off-Duty Hangouts for Hot Bodies" (i.e., where to find "smokin' strippers after hours") and the top 10 "outlandish requests" put to strippers (from "No, no . . . keep your top on" to "How 'bout I give you a lap dance?"). To prospective Vegas conference attendees, Sheehan's effort well might prove invaluable, descriptions of sexual situations and all. For stay-at-homes, it's a good read-alike to Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osborne's " The Other "Hollywood (2005).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)