Absolute Mayhem

Secret Confessions of a Porn Star

By: Monica Mayhem, Gerrie Lim

Narrated by: Mindy Kennedy

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

"Do you really want to know what it’s like to be a porn star? Brace yourself, because I’m not going to pull any punches. Here’s what a ‘busy day at the office’ might mean for me...."

So begins the no-holds-barred autobiography of Monica Mayhem - a porn star and proud of it. In her funny and disarmingly candid voice, she reveals the ins and outs of making it big in Los Angeles, the pornography capital of the world. Just how did a girl who was taunted at school because her eyes were "too big", and who carved out a respectable career for herself trading oil futures in the financial markets of Sydney and London, go on to make over four hundred hardcore adult movies (and counting), win numerous industry awards, and even land herself a role in the first Sex and the City movie? From her troubled childhood to her first show at the famous Spearmint Rhino in London to her favorite sex toys, Monica reveals how she built her empire - which now includes hundreds of films, a Web site, and lucrative burlesque performances.

Absolute Mayhem lifts the lid off the sex, rock, and mayhem of Monica’s truly extraordinary professional life and unveils the private person behind it all.

©2010 Monica Mayhem and Gerrie Lim (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Impressive

A woman with that life and career seems to have a total grasp on who she is and where's she's going, of course hind sight is 20/20 and the narrator's accent is stunning.

Enjoyable!!

Interesting to hear her perspective! Great personality! Obviously not for everyone but I enjoyed hearing her thoughts and story!!

Interesting Perspective

I found it very eye opening to learn about the other side of the screen. The impact of choices at the beginning of Monica’s career and the effect of later opportunity. I enjoyed the story.

Fun, but eventually bleh

Audible bios are generally better when read by the author/subject of the biography. Mindy Kennedy doesn't sound like a porn star, but more like a girl from next door. She reads in a way that creates unintentional humor. The story of Monica Mayhem is relatively predictable: Poor girl from a broken family turns to stripping. Stripping leads to porn. After a while the story is somewhat boring because she tries to explain her Wiccan beliefs. So, I'll give this away. She's a "witch", but doesn't want you to think it's evil. Eventually, she talks about how the porn industry doesn't make much money because so many videos are free on the internet and girls are doing it for low rates.

Not Bad.

Narration was good and it was a somewhat interesting listen. It did feel like some of the stories were dramatized or glamorized in some ways. The lack of naming names was somewhat annoying. Still, it was worth the time.

Unintentional Stereotypical Porn Star

Most of the content in this book is of a woman's story about how she was abused as a kid, tried to get a straight edge career, and left that for porn where she proceeded to blow money up her nose, and eventually decide she must be wise because of her experiences. What I wanted from this book was an insider's memoirs and a behind the scenes look at porn– where the narrator wasn't a train wreck.
This book is very good if you'd like a well flushed character study of what it's like to be a genuine bimbo. In that regard, it's pretty educational in order to understand how that fantasy can manage to function in the real world. The voice actress was well picked, and I really felt like a blonde was reading to me.

I'm picking on this story not out of hate for bimbos, but disappointment with Audible's lack of books on this subject matter/from this perspective. It's sad that this is pretty much their only book written by someone who has done porn. If this was only one book in a collection it'd be one thing, but this seems to be the only representation of this niche.

Very Interesting

I quite enjoyed this book because I have watched porn before and wondered what the whole process of production was like. Monica seems very intelligent and I envy her confidence and self-assessment. I especially related to her childhood as my mom was not very nice. I do hope she finds the right person for her.

Decent but Asa Akira covers much of this

*Free w/ Audible trial* 3/5 - Monica Mayhem popped most in porn 2002-2005 but had an 8yr run. Asa Akira’s memoirs are better or cover many of the same things, so this audiobook is just fine but improved by Monica’s Australian accent. Looking like a stereotypical blowup doll look, 80s hair and makeup, Monica has done 400+ pornos. Ironic how sweet her voice and present day is, being she was an alcoholic gang member at 12, kicked out of home after her mom hits her for running away and doing drugs instead of starving alongside her. When her mom did cook with the welfare money she didn’t use to treat herself, she’d be so wasted, she’d make dinner multiple times, forgetting she already made food. This pill-popping mom is mean beyond measure, perpetually miserable despite all her push-over husband provides or tries to pace over being politely quiet.

By 16, Monica does scantily-clad promotional work for bar raffles or car washes, which she credits getting her start in porn, because it made her comfortable with her body. Then she had many jobs, including great early ones like brokering and real estate economic estimations! Monica admits she’s always trying to run from her past in Brisbane and seeking male attention because her mom always ignored her and kept her from her father. She starts stripping at the Spearmint Rhino in NY, which requires wearing long, sheer gowns to look classier between dances.

Dancing in London, the men have to keep a six foot distance. Porn later becomes the favorite of the two because she loves sex and the virtual distance from consumers. Neither of us realized there would be AVN reviewers, one of which negatively critiques every one of her scenes. Thankfully, she doesn’t find it or the awards affect her career much; fans have their types of girls and stick to them. Her most unique scene is a long, Matrix-inspired porn where she plays a slow-mo robot—though she also was in a video with Eddie VanHalen, who directed and scored.

She gets her boobs done as soon as her career kicks off, which causes the worst pain of her life yet more confidence. They look cartoonish but drop after a year and slowly shrink over time. She says it costs her $2K a month to maintain her appearance with kickboxing classes, makeup, hair, lingerie, essential oils, tanning, massages, acupuncture, and whatever maintained makes you less sore from all the psychical and flexible activity.

She got into porn in the States to afford retiring in Sydney. In 2010, she leaves porn due to aging out in her 30s and wanting to try singing rock music. She’s done a cameo in Sex in the City where she’s just a moaning neighbor and got paid 3x she would for porn. At the start of her gonzo days, she got $1400 a blowbang vs. today’s $400 for a one- guy oral, as professional studio porn dies. Another downside of the industry is that many contracts allow companies to repackage stars’ images without permission—or some just do, even if it’s mean-spirited or an ugly shot. Though many girls aspire to be under an exclusive contract with one studio because it’s a guaranteed set income no matter how many things they actually appear in, the studio may own your stage name forever and prevent you from even changing your hair. Lots of girls do drugs at every lull in a shoot, too, so there’s a big problem in L.A. with flakey, deceptive, or simply bad people.

When she tried cam girling, she was disturbed by requests for scat, inserting panties in herself, and putting her foot up to the ankle of another girl’s vagina (the last of which she did with an unusually loose girl)! Being pretty tight herself, she has sex dolls or herself for sale. The molding process to get her bits right she said felt surprisingly arousing, tingly cold.

The last bit of the book, she discusses being a Wiccan who casts healing spells, sweeps away bad energy with a broom, and believes any good or bad act you do will come back to you three times. That part is a bit silly but all well-intentioned, like gimmicky comfort rituals. Googling shows after the book is published, she quits porn, marries an army-man, but I do not know how her music career went. Though mention is made to constantly writing pretty good lyrics and collaborating with Korn producers, it seemed too often she wasn’t taken seriously by lascivious men and strung out women to maintain her hardcore all-girl band.

very good book to read the full story was good to.

love it alot. good book to listen to. it was awesome. ..listen to it for your enjoyment.

It's okay

It's not bad nor is it all that great.It's an okay biography of someone that was in the porn business.