'Sex and Mayhem'
Donald Currie
cdbaby.com/donaldcurrie
Grade: A-

Those of you who love the raunchiness of "Sex and the City," but are disappointed by its celebration of heterosexuality may want to give "Sex and Mayhem" a try. In this CD, writer/performer/director Donald Currie works with producer Jason Gorski to create a hip, witty bravado about a gay youth discovering his homosexuality in San Francisco before the sexual revolution.

This book is more than a diary of some teenager fighting the demon in his pants, but examines the sexual constraints of America in the '60s, which is not completely extinct even in today's society.

As Currie eloquently puts it, "This incoming class was coming out of '50s America with an itch that needed some serious scratching. We had all been raised in the hellish rompus rooms of Squaresville, and now that we were finally out from under the oppressive parental tether, a hunger for riot, debauch and raw, raunchy sex was palpable in that sterile lecture hall."

Tales of his parents snooping around in his room for homosexual evidence and of his illegal curiosity toward gay bars make the book quite poignant in places.

The narrator jumps out of the closet in the first lines of the story: "My first lover went mad. The second went straight. The third guy turned into a Christian fundamentalist. The fourth drank and the fifth became a woman. I obviously have a devastating effect on men."

Currie appeals to a wide audience, not just limited to the gay community, and his George Michael - writes - "Bridget Jones' Diary"-type humor should bring many people to laughter. Behind all his bantering about blond, well-built men and his love for musicals, the narrator is simply telling a story about the awkwardness involved in the metamorphosis of a virginal boy growing into an experienced man.

The focus of this audio book is not on the plot, but the psychological journey of this boy from his birth in Lavender Bermuda Triangle. The climax of the story, so to speak, is the narrator's long-awaited trip to a summer stock theater with his drama professor, Joseph Demian, where we expect him to finally satisfy his built-up desire.

Donald Currie narrates with such passion and humor that it makes the story an engaging and spectacular experience. He embraces popular culture and performance arts by making numerous references to movies and stars, from his classmate who looks like a Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte lovechild, to his dream "to be Sal Mineo in 'Rebel Without a Cause' but without that nervy Natalie Wood getting in the way."

Currie reveals his own performing talents through his manipulation of accents and sound effects. There are numerous teen magazine clichs woven into this story that serve to reenact real-life memories in the mind of the listener. The narrator reveals sensitivity in his humiliating anecdotes of his pubescent anxieties and his sexual infatuation.

From the opening introduction featuring a grand orchestra, this story is told with much melodrama and full-blown flamboyancy. As the orchestra fades, we hear sounds of a phone ringing, someone screaming, and a door opening, all of which symbolize defining moments in his 'grand awakening.'

It is only at the end of the audio book that we realize that Currie is not just talking from his own experiences, but consciously and professionally creating a piece of art, as the narrator suddenly ends the narrative with "Who wrote this script?"

It is of no surprise that Currie has been selected as the Best Literary Performer among the Stonewall Society. After his career as a performer in the Gestalt Fool Theater Family and founder of a singing-telegram company called the Western Onion, Currie put his aspirations aside to join the S.F. AIDS Foundation and study ancient Chinese medicine.

This guy is no ordinary performer riding the wave of popular culture with this sexual oeuvre. Although the weak-hearted may be shocked by Currie's shameless vulgarity and overtly graphic descriptions, Currie's employment of such techniques is justified by his mission -- to portray the oppressiveness of the '60s for the sake of those like him, who "didn't make it to this shore.