Synopses & Reviews
If your books subtitle is Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World, you have a lot to live up toand somehow Mike Edison does . . . Edison seems to have nine lives and enjoys every moment of each of them to the fullest . . . His journey takes him around the world, but he always returns to magazine writing, and his insider scoop on these bizarre workplaces is what, finally, makes this memoir truly memorable.” Penthouse
Cooler than Toby Young and more credible than James Frey.”Bookforum
Will have you alternately envying Edison and being glad youve avoided such encounters.” New York Daily News
Gloriously told . . . Surprisingly intelligent.” SF Weekly
[Edisons] an engaging, sardonic guide to some of magazinedoms more disreputable territories.” Entertainment Weekly
Brash, irreverent, funny as hell and beautifully written.”PopMatters
"Mike Edison opens his new memoir with a money shot of himself as publisher and editor of High Times magazine, ready to fire the next person who suggests putting Bob Marley on the cover, again. Anti-establishment even at the preternaturally unrestrained High Times, Edison put Ozzy Osbourne on the cover. The dark princes image, crooning into a skull-full of weed like a half-mad Hamlet, brought the magazine into a new era of record sales. Its that flavor of confidence and nonchalance that leaves the reader laughing with incredulous glee through two decades of the willful hedonism that defines Mike Edisons pro-wrestling, pornography, pot, and punk-rock career as writer, editor, and musician. I Have Fun Everywhere I Go is a blazing hot epic of the absurd. The author embodies the dadaism of Frank Zappa, the encyclopedic pop culture powers of Chuck Klosterman, and the goofball temerity of a pro-wrestler (Edisons most influential favorite is the original Sheik from Detroit, who threw balls of fire at his opponents. Edison joyfully applies this philosophy on stage and at the office). The editorial chops of the author shine, polished as they were in the nether regions of publishing, writing for Wrestlings Main Event, Screw, Penthouse and Hustler. In his early days, before he dropped out of Columbia (but after he had dropped out of film school at NYU), Mike Edison got straight As using the same formula he applied to writing one pornographic novel a week: 'detailed outlines and lots of whiskey. Edisons insight transforms the mundane to the sublime, revealing insider secrets and bringing the reader in on all the jokes. Take for example his battles against the old editorial guard of High Times, who, comfortably numb in the quicksand of their beanbag chairs, speciously equated the hassling of potheads to the oppression of the Jews. Although rife with all the in-your-face sarcasm and attitude youd expect from a guy who performed with GG Allin and Reagan Youth, the story reveals a professional and a gentleman. His success is due, no doubt, to his dedicated study of the publishing industrys every detail: from the ancient art of paste-up, to banging dutifully on Smith Coronas (hangover or no), to the necessary evil of advertising, to the defense of the First Amendment . . . Edison writes sincerely about the people and issues closest to him, giving his memoir far more dimension than a mere trippy cartoon. The writing is unrelentingly smart and funny: 'even his hair looked alphabetized.' Edison plays with the reflective opportunities of memoir in a similarly cheeky way . . . The chapters have a delicious ache to them, not just because Edisons life is so enviably fabulous, but because he experienced the grittier, cooler, more dangerous cities like New York, New Orleans, and Las Vegas before they were sterilized. The vicarious thrill is real, and probably more enjoyable for the average reader (this one included) than they themselves 'living large as a low-budget bon vivant.' By the storys close, the reader can take 'the Edison Cure' and a deep breath. In Mike Edisons I Have Fun Everywhere I Go, even the index is funny (there are no less than four topics requiring the pointer 'see marijuana') and the notes on typography are good for a couple more laughs, just in case you still cant put it down."Mia Eaton, Brooklyn Rail
"It seems hard for a book to live up to a subtitle like the one on Mike Edison's I Have Fun Everywhere I Go. Here it is: 'Savage tales of pot, porn, punk rock, pro wrestling, talking apes, evil bosses, dirty blues, American heroes, and the most notorious magazines in the world.' But Edison, a rock musician and veteran writer/editor/publisher of such mags as Main Event (wrestling), High Times (drugs) and the Hustler imitator Cheri (porn), has done just that. I can't recall with specificity the passage about talking apes, but it's probably because I was laughing too hard at the other parts, or merely stunned that Edison is still alive after consuming so many illegal substances. The most interesting part of the book recounts his experiences at marijuana periodical High Times, which he branded 'The most notorious magazine in the world.' For the record, Edison doesn't care too much for marijuana, and that likely was a liability when running the magazine. (If he is to be believed, the staff there takes a smoke break each afternoon at 4:20 p.m.and they're not burning tobacco.) But he does, or at least did, like his cocaine and LSD, and both punctuate many insanely dope-fueled adventures and hard-to-believe tales from both the edges of journalism and music. His world is inhabited by hustlers, stoners and gluttons for food, sex, alcohol, money and punishment of various kinds."Dan Casey, The Roanoke Times
Review
“
I Have Fun Everywhere I Go is a heart-pounding, jealousy-inducing, kick in the teeth of a read. Edison has done it all and lived to write about. The perfect book for the armchair journalist—who wants to know what life is like on the seamy edge, but doesn't want to put his or her ass on the line to experience it in the flesh. Buy this book—you'll read it till your eyes bleed.” —Jerry Stahl, author of
Permanent Midnight“This book is beyond blurbs, so lets just get to the jack. If you have any interest in pot, pornography, punk rock, or professional wrestling, just buy this f*cking thing. Much more important than food for the table or the starving children of wherever.” —Nick Tosches“A laugh-a-minute joyride through the back alleys of pre-internet sleaze culture.” —Daniel Clowes
“Half the time I spent reading this laugh-out-loud saga of depravity and mayhem, I found myself wishing I'd lived this life; the other half, I was thanking sweet heaven I didn't. In a world where many would-be rebels (myself included) would like to consider themselves or their work ‘anti-establishment or 'punk rock,' Mike Edison hasnt just talked the talk, he's walked the walk. May God have mercy on his soul.” —Todd Hanson, writer and editor, The Onion
“Half-intellectual, half-media whore, (and all-man), Mike Edison takes you on the last roller coaster ride through the American counter-culture. Buckle up for a fabulous read.” —Josh Alan Friedman, author of Tales of Times Square
“Edison's book is so funny and smart and delightfully filthy that I wish I had written it myself.” —Al Goldstein, Screw founder
“Cooler than Toby Young and more credible than James Frey.” —Andrew Hultkrans, Book Forum
“Will have you alternately envying Edison and being glad youve avoided such encounters.” —Patrick Huguenin, Daily News
“The perfect summer reading companion for anyone who would rather lace their weed with the Ramones than with the Byrds.” —J.A. del Rosario, The Rake
“Fucking awesome.” —Joanna Muñoz, URB Magazine
“Over the past twentysomething years, Edison has written for and edited magazines of varying degrees of ridiculousness and decorum: Wrestlings Main Event, Screw, Cheri, Hustler, Penthouse, and High Times. What better journalistic outlets for a guy with a refined sense of the absurd and the overblown? . . . Edisons writing style is a gonzo-type rush, filled with hilariously inventive descriptions . . . [He] might never wind up on the masthead of a sunny Condé Nast publication—but why would he ever want to?” —Amy Finch, The Boston Phoenix
“Spectacularly gripping . . . While the subject matter might be lowbrow at best (covering pro wrestling) and downright sleazy at worst (reminiscing at length about penning 28 pornographic novels), “I Have Fun” is a rollicking joyride peppered with rip-roaring anecdotes that will end up eliciting unseemly guffaws.” — Lisa J. Curtis, Go Brooklyn
“If your books subtitle is Savage tales of pot, porn, punk rock, pro wrestling, talking apes, evil bosses, dirty blues, American heroes, and the most notorious magazines in the world, you have a lot to live up to—and somehow Mike Edison does . . . Edison seems to have nine lives and enjoys every moment of each of them to the fullest . . . His journey takes him around the world, but he always returns to magazine writing, and his insider scoop on these bizarre workplaces is what, finally, makes this memoir truly memorable.” —Penthouse
“They don't make guys like this anymore . . . high-spirited sleaze, overeducated yokelry, and intensely American egalitarian humor . . . gloriously told . . . surprisingly intelligent.” —Hiya Swanhuyser, SF Weekly
“[Edisons] an engaging sardonic guide to some of magazinedoms more disreputable territories.” —Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly
“Edison doesnt disappoint . . . From page one, the book threatens to burst at the seams with larger-than-life characters and dirty deeds that mightve made the late, great Hunter S. Thompson squeamish in their potency and the best part is that, unlike Thompsons work, nothing is embellished . . . The portrait of existence that Edison paints as he remembers the strange turns that his career has taken is terrifying, funny and elating all at once.” —Bill Adams, Ground Countrol
“Readers in search of a fun ride through recent American cultural and media history will do well to consider Mike Edisons stunning memoir . . . Edison is a renaissance man among drug abusers and porn peddlers . . . [He] glides along the edges of society with an intense dose of wit and a startling eye for the insane.” —Jason E. Sumerau, Metro Spirit (Augusta)
“[Edison is the] Somerset Maugham of filth . . . the Horatio Alger of trash, and if he doesnt actually have fun everywhere he goes, he does always learn something, and he reveals it in lively, vivid detail.” —Rodney Welch, Free Times
“Definitely a fun read.” —Lori J. Kennedy, Remix
“One couldnt hope for a funnier guide to the doped-up, rollicking good cheer of 20 years in outlaw culture.” —Amy Benfer, B&N Spoltlight Review
“Edisons juicy screed of a memoir is like a kick in the solar plexus: It may hurt like nobodys business, but at least it wakes you up . . . a beer-sozzled, speed-cranked nail bomb of a book—what everybodys Saturday night should be like.” —Kirkus, starred review
“This hilarious insider look at fringes of journalism and magazine publishing is written with a gleeful burning-his-bridges-behind-him vibe.” —Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
“If your books subtitle is Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World, you have a lot to live up to—and somehow Mike Edison does . . . Edison seems to have nine lives and enjoys every moment of each of them to the fullest . . . His journey takes him around the world, but he always returns to magazine writing, and his insider scoop on these bizarre workplaces is what, finally, makes this memoir truly memorable.” —Penthouse
“Cooler than Toby Young and more credible than James Frey.”—Bookforum
“Will have you alternately envying Edison and being glad youve avoided such encounters.” —New York Daily News
“Gloriously told . . . Surprisingly intelligent.” —SF Weekly
“[Edisons] an engaging, sardonic guide to some of magazinedoms more disreputable territories.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Brash, irreverent, funny as hell and beautifully written.”—PopMatters
About the Author
Mike Edison is a writer, editor, and musician. He lives in New York City.