{"id":3378,"date":"2023-02-07T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/?p=3378"},"modified":"2023-07-04T16:45:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T16:45:27","slug":"the-pain-snob-a-jerry-stahl-retrospective-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/07\/the-pain-snob-a-jerry-stahl-retrospective-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pain Snob: A Jerry Stahl Retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Jerry Stahl by Robin Muccari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

**Author\u2019s Note: I would like to state upfront that this retrospective of Jerry Stahl\u2019s life and career was done completely without his participation. I\u2019m simply a massive fan of his and since there isn\u2019t another complete chronological examination of his life and work, I figured I\u2019d go ahead and fill that void as best as I could. This retrospective was written entirely with the aid of all the cited sources<\/a>, and I wish to thank and acknowledge everyone, Jerry Stahl especially, for their work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction                                                             <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absurdity and pain are not mutually exclusive. Not even close.
                                                 \u2014Jerry Stahl, Permanent Midnight<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry Stahl is probably best known as the junkie writer who created ALF<\/em>. The fact that he had nothing to do with the \u201880s television series\u2019 creation and that he is only credited for writing three episodes (which he admits to being high while doing so and having very little memory of) is about as well known to mainstream audiences and readers as anything he has written since. This excludes, of course, his first memoir, his fictionalized Fatty Arbuckle biography, and some Jerry Bruckheimer\/Michael Bay blockbuster starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stahl\u2019s Permanent Midnight, <\/em>his first published book, is the ultimate true Hollywood\/drug tell-all of its time. The 1995 memoir was successfully marketed as a yuppie horror story: a successful screenwriter behind beloved \u201880s sitcoms and television dramas leads a double life as a heroin addict and an all-American family man. The book is wickedly hilarious, self-effacingly candid, and heartbreakingly vulnerable–oftentimes, all at once. Blunt sarcasm and hyper-intelligent self-awareness replace any and all forms of self-pity. Stahl\u2019s sardonic, depraved, and strangely (though always sincerely) heartfelt voice was subsequently born into the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talk shows, magazine profiles and interviews, and a movie adaptation starring Ben Stiller all followed within a few years\u2019 time of the book\u2019s publication. A career was (re)born. Stahl\u2019s name eventually started reappearing onscreen for titles like the original Crime Scene Investigation <\/em>television series and the afore-alluded Bad Boys 2\u2013<\/em>far cries from his early \u201880s screenwriting endeavors in surrealist hard-core pornography. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most important to him and his substantial cult of fans, however, he also continued writing books that only Jerry Stahl could write. Perv–A Love Story; Plainclothes Naked; I, Fatty; Love Without; Pain Killers; Bad Sex on Speed; Happy Mutant Baby Pills; OG Dad; <\/em>and Nein, Nein, Nein! <\/em>are the works, along with Permanent Midnight,<\/em> that make Jerry Stahl the master of his own individual genre, though it is one that is very difficult to describe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stahl\u2019s best and most personal works fit into a very specific niche that heavily appeals to addicts, depressives, borderlines, perverts, and all other forms of supremely damaged people. If Terry Southern, David Lynch, Jim Thompson, Lenny Bruce, William S. Burroughs, Todd Solondz, Hubert Selby Jr., and John Waters all pooled their collective genes into a mutant creation designed to be raised within the confines of the Neverland Ranch, it would grow up to write books just like Jerry Stahl\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not exactly unsung, though not exactly widely celebrated, much of Stahl\u2019s writing is, needless to say by now, not for everyone. In interviews, Stahl has referred to himself as a \u201cpain snob,\u201d1<\/sup> someone who is unable to relate to anyone who hasn\u2019t experienced life\u2019s harsher realities through a hypersensitive perspective similar to his own. \u201cI don\u2019t trust people who haven\u2019t suffered,\u201d1<\/sup> Stahl has admitted. Reactions to his work hold the same logic in reverse: those who can\u2019t relate will most likely turn up their noses in disgust and walk away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this retrospective proves nothing else, it\u2019s that this is probably the way it should be in today\u2019s backward-moving world, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing Up Jerry (1953-1975)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry Stahl was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 28, 1953. His father had emigrated to the States at ten years old when his mother eventually came back for him after leaving him in Lithuania with family members when he was two. Jerry’s father would often remind his children of his harsh upbringing, telling them that his family was the only one in his village who didn\u2019t own a cow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry’s father went on to work his way up from nothing, starting as a coal miner, then becoming the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, then, eventually, becoming a judge on the Third Circuit. He was sweet-natured but emotionally distant and temperamental, as evidenced by the many holes in the walls of the Stahl household that were created by his smashing his head against them. Jerry would later say that the wall damage made his childhood home resemble a \u201cmuseum of Dad rage.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry\u2019s mother was also smart and educated, as she held a degree in child psychology, but was emotionally and verbally abusive and often needed psychiatric care due to bouts of extreme depression where she did not leave her room for days. Jerry would theorize many years later that part of his mother\u2019s issues stemmed from the fact that she was fiercely intelligent but unfulfilled and stifled by the oppressive times and by the life of a stay-at-home mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry also has a sister who is six years older than him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from his troubled home life, some aspects of Jerry\u2019s childhood in Pennsylvania were relatively normal. He played and followed sports when he was young, but never considered himself a jock, as he has since confessed that he never even learned how to ride a bicycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasingly feeling like an outsider as he grew, Jerry simply didn\u2019t fit in with the primarily blue-collar surroundings where he and his family lived. The Stahls were the only Jews in their Italian\/Polish\/Irish Catholic neighborhood and Jerry was, in his words, \u201cthe only Jew in a grade school of 800. I used to get beat up for killing Jesus, which I must have done in a blackout because I couldn\u2019t remember doing it.\u201d2<\/sup> Jerry\u2019s Jewish heritage made him feel like an outcast, and his illiterate Polish grandfather would often remind him, \u201cif you ever forget you\u2019re a Jew, a Gentile will remind you.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jerry matured, he admittedly became more of a self-described \u201cloner.\u201d3<\/sup> He was first introduced to drugs at fourteen when he took mescaline with his sister. Jerry also credits his sister for turning him onto music, specifically the work of Bob Dylan. Jerry went on to also listen to bands like The Rolling Stones and The Seeds around this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For high school, Jerry attended a private boarding school, The Hill School, outside Philadelphia, which is the same school Oliver Stone attended as a youth. Jerry felt out of place there, as well, as he didn\u2019t particularly mesh with most of his classmates and their privileged, upper-class backgrounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry\u2019s already troubled world was shattered at the age of sixteen when he received word that his father had committed suicide, something that would, along with the actions of his mentally ill mother, go on to endlessly haunt him and his work. The summer after his father\u2019s death, Jerry had to care for his mother at home and recalls having to carry around smelling salts because of her tendency to pass out at a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jerry Stahl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Around this time, Jerry found solace in his newly discovered passion for reading and writing. Initially, he had wanted to be a standup comedian along the lines of his idol, Lenny Bruce, or to be in a rock band, but Jerry soon realized that that, in his words, \u201crequired talent and the ability to leave my room.\u201d4 <\/sup>The first book that Jerry has recalled being grabbed by is Nathanael West\u2019s Miss Lonelyhearts, <\/em>which was given to him as a gift by his sister\u2019s then-boyfriend. Another life-changing moment was when Jerry read West\u2019s The Dream Life of Balso Snell <\/em>and was riveted to read the words \u201cwritten while sniffing the forefinger of my left hand.\u201d5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another one of Jerry\u2019s earliest literary influences was Flannery O\u2019Connor. \u201cI love novels that are disturbing in their humor, and truer about human nature than more somber efforts,\u201d6<\/sup> Jerry explained about his affection for O\u2019Connor\u2019s work. Writing was, in his words, where you could \u201csay the things you wouldn\u2019t necessarily say to someone\u2019s face.\u201d7<\/sup> Teenage Jerry would be equally blown away by Allen Ginsberg\u2019s Howl <\/em>and went on to voraciously read the works of Charles Bukowski, Stanley Elkins, Ishmael Reed, Philip Roth, Vladimir Nabokov, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Bruce Jay Friedman, Norman Mailer, John Barth, Hubert Selby Jr., and Terry Southern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating from The Hill School, Jerry attended Columbia College in New York. He dropped out shortly after and traveled to Europe and surrounding areas, working in London as a bartender at an Irish pub and briefly living in a cave in Matala, Crete. Stahl eventually returned to Columbia and graduated in an impressively short time period of just a year and a half. Socially, Stahl considered himself to be a \u201clonely weirdo\u201d3<\/sup> at the time and threw himself into his writing and his studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While at Columbia, Jerry discovered an interest in journalism and idolized such talents as Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe. For inspiration, he read Wolfe\u2019s The New Journalism <\/em>and Terry Southern\u2019s Twirling at Ole Miss <\/em>repeatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry\u2019s first paid writing job was around this time, writing term papers for a company in San Francisco, which, in his words, \u201cwas more of a writing scam.\u201d4<\/sup> Shortly after, at only twenty years old, Jerry started writing for the Santa Cruz Times, <\/em>a \u201870s alternative weekly publication. One of his most memorable pieces involved his review of a bisexual bar called Mona\u2019s Gorilla Lounge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though he was highly productive during this time period, Jerry was still plagued by depression and his ever-increasing drug use, and even survived what he described as a \u201chalf-hearted\u201d3<\/sup> suicide attempt. He continued to work diligently, however, and went on to obtain his graduate degree from Goddard College in Vermont.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nathanael West, one of Stahl’s earliest influences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early Career: Journalism, Short Stories, and Porn (1975-1985)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving his graduate degree, Stahl worked as a journalist while living in New York City. He also wrote novels and short stories during this time period, and was sending out submissions to publishers that were consistently rejected. Over the years, he would go on to write six unpublished books before Permanent Midnight<\/em>\u2019s publication in 1995. Though some chapters and segments of these early books would later go on to be printed in magazines and\/or short story collections, their entireties have since been forever lost. Though hard to see at the time, Stahl now considers his early failures as a \u201cweird gift\u201d1<\/sup> that helped him not take his future success for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stahl found his first taste of success and validation for his creative work in 1976 when he won the Pushcart Prize for a short story that had previously been rejected by Hustler<\/em> magazine. Eventually published by the now-defunct quarterly publication, Transatlantic Review<\/em>, Stahl\u2019s The Return of the General <\/em>is about a young man whose penis becomes the reincarnation of George Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This strange predicament leads the story’s now-desired narrator to wonder, \u201cDid the ladies love me for myself, or were their thrills contingent upon the inspiring presence of The General?\u201d2<\/sup> Though conflicted, the narrator is eventually able to appreciate the situation, as he explains, \u201cWe\u2019d had a good time together, George and I. He did the dirty work and I felt the explosions in balls and brain. Not bad. His was the labor that won nations, mine the profligacy that lived off that kind of sweat.\u201d2<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story ends on an oddly positive, though equally absurd, note, with Washington giving his host priceless romantic advice: \u201cMy advice to you, Son of the Second Century, is find [a woman] you really like and stick to her. A good woman is hard to find<\/em>.\u201d2<\/sup> The Return of the General, though difficult to track down today, serves as a highly telling beginning to Stahl\u2019s wholly unique, personally revealing, and sharply hilarious brand of writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite working regularly as a journalist, Stahl still struggled to survive in New York City. For a time period, he slept under wooden seats in a dance studio. Later, he lived on the eighth story of a walk-up apartment building that had common bathrooms. Stahl\u2019s drug use continued to increase in New York. \u201cI was not a guy who used drugs to party,\u201d Stahl has since explained, \u201cI used drugs to work.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stahl was a journalist for a number of publications early in his career. He did feature magazine writing and specialized in first-person immersion stories. Amongst other topics, he wrote about a nude singles retreat called Elysium, Ronald Regan\u2019s brother, a bounty hunter, and mortuary conventions. He also found work in the porn business, a place where Stahl\u2019s candidly raunchy voice could thrive without judgment or censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The diverse group of publications that employed Stahl during his early years includes The Village Voice <\/em>(which he first started while still in school and continued to write for while simultaneously writing porn), Beaver<\/em> (which was his first porn-writing gig and for which he did a piece called Poon Tang With a Country Twang), NY Press, Club International, Juggs<\/em>, Penthouse Forum <\/em>(for which he wrote fake sex letters and answered them under the pseudonym of Ben Jarrod), R<\/em>eal World <\/em>(for which he wrote a piece called Confessions of the World\u2019s Greatest Sex Letter Writer), New York Magazine <\/em>(for which he wrote a piece about a Puerto Rican little person who became a wrestler in the Bronx), Quarry West <\/em>(for which he interviewed Marco Vassi), California <\/em>(for which he wrote ten-thousand-word pieces), and Playgirl <\/em>(for which he wrote the column, His Turn, under the pseudonym of John Andrews).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next chapter of Stahl\u2019s life began when he answered an ad in The Village Voice <\/em>for Larry Flynt\u2019s pornographic Hustler <\/em>magazine. He was hired by the publication after he successfully wrote a descriptive ad for an electronic masturbation device. Stahl was initially thrilled to be working in such a sexy environment, but soon found himself to be disillusioned when he showed up for work and saw \u201ca roomful of ladies who look like Aunt B. shoving dildos into boxes.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Larry Flynt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Hustler <\/em>job took Stahl to the then-location of Hustler<\/em>\u2019s headquarters in Columbus, OH in January of 1978. Stahl accepted the opportunity to relocate out of hopes to stay clean and quell his ever-increasing need for drugs, but that didn\u2019t last long. During his brief stay in Columbus, he lived in the YMCA, then on the first floor of a house near OSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While at Hustler<\/em>, Stahl wrote \u201cgirl copy\u201d4 <\/sup>which were cheery descriptions of the magazine\u2019s featured girls, and reviewed reader mail. He also wrote humor for the magazine, which introduced him to one of his most noteworthy future collaborators, Stephen Sayadian, who was, at the time, Hustler<\/em>\u2019s Creative Director of Humor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Stahl and Sayadian relocated to Los Angeles in April of 1978 to continue working for Hustler<\/em>. This was shortly after Flynt, who Stahl didn\u2019t particularly care for, was shot and paralyzed. Stahl was shortly thereafter fired by Paul Krassner, who had taken over for Flynt, and was forced to go on unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sayadian also left Hustler <\/em>around this time and started his own company doing posters for films, including some by John Carpenter and Brian De Palma. Stahl and Sayadian continued to see each other socially, and their creative partnership grew from there. The pair had always wanted to make a movie, so they started shooting around ideas, and they eventually collaborated on a number of screenplays. A couple of their collaborations were eventually filmed, and these productions ultimately had an indelible impact on both men\u2019s careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former CEO of Hustler <\/em>approached the now-successful Sayadian to make a porno movie for $30,000.  Sayadian wrote the first draft for what would eventually become Nightdreams<\/em> and Stahl, who Sayadian considered to be a \u201cgreat collaborator,\u201d5<\/sup> rewrote it. Their intentions for the film, according to Sayadian, \u201cwere never designed to titillate,\u201d5<\/sup> as they wanted to \u201csubvert the entire genre.\u201d5<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since they both had goals to work outside of the porn industry, Stahl and Sayadian used pseudonyms. Sayadian\u2019s work is credited as Rinse Dream. Stahl is credited as Herbert W. Day, which is the name of his old elementary school principal who used to paddle Stahl when he misbehaved. Stahl was proud to have exacted revenge on his former abusive authority figure by forever associating him with pornography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stephen Sayadian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nightdreams<\/em>\u2019 production was done in true guerilla fashion. It was shot entirely on a soundstage on 35mm film and had a crew of only six people. Scenes were finalized, rewritten, or improvised right up until shooting began. The scene where Sayadian portrays a large piece of dancing and saxophone-playing toast, for example, was invented by Sayadian an hour before shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though cinematographer Francis Delia (using the pseudonym of F.X. Pope) is credited as the film\u2019s director, it was essentially Sayadian who saw the movie through to completion, as he spent a good deal of time on its post-production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nightdreams <\/em>combines pornography with sometimes-nightmarish, sometimes-playful, and sometimes-indescribable surrealism. It opens with a woman (Dorothy Le May) who is dressed in a hospital gown and hooked up to electrodes while two doctors (Jennifer West and Andy Nichols) observe her. The woman masturbates while delivering vividly descriptive dirty talk: \u201cI know you\u2019re watching me. I can feel your eyes like fingers touching me in certain places. I can feel my pussy so open you can see inside me. I feel so juicy. I can\u2019t stop. I feel my clit so wet no one can see. I feel so dirty.\u201d7<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they progressively increase Le May\u2019s stimulation, the doctors try to get her to \u201clearn to handle pleasure\u201d because \u201cher husband says she\u2019s never had an orgasm.\u201d7<\/sup> The pornographic scenes intercut with the doctors and Le May represent her heightened and over-sexualized imagination as her brain is fed electric jolts. The more stimulation the doctors feed Le May, the wilder her fevered sex dreams become. These hard-core dreams feature, amongst other extreme perversions, a masked Jack-in-the-Box man who penetrates Le May with his elongated nose, cowgirls having a threesome in the desert, Le May being taken by a group of hookah-smoking Arabs, Le May masturbating a man and discovering a rubbery fetus where his penis should be, Le May performing oral sex on a man dressed as a Cream of Wheat box, a visit to a bondage-filled hell, and an oddly beautiful and tender encounter that takes place in a heaven-like setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the observational setting segments, the increasingly aroused Le May delivers impassioned, insightful, and oddly feminist porno poetry monologues: \u201cYou think I\u2019m a whore. You think I like to let strange men touch me\u2014that I spread my legs in dark motels and watch in the mirror while they grab my pussy and stick another quarter in the tv. You think I\u2019m cheap, but I don\u2019t do it for money. I do it because I want to. You think I do it for you. That\u2019s why you stare at me.\u201d7<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nightdreams, <\/em>though unrefined, is a bold experiment that, like most of Stahl\u2019s most notable work, is impossible to categorize. Sayadian would discover a more finessed and concrete voice in future films that he would direct by himself. Nightdreams<\/em> still showcases his potential, however, and the pure uniqueness of his still-developing voice. It is a strange, disturbing, and effectively dreamlike film that offers some truly unforgettable moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite everyone\u2019s best efforts, Nightdreams\u2019<\/em> financiers were unhappy with the final product, telling Sayadian, \u201cYou guys went too far.\u201d5<\/sup> The film was eventually a success, however, as it grossed over a million dollars through art house screenings after its release in 1981. Neither Sayadian nor Stahl owned a piece of the film, however, so they were unable to reap any of the rewards. Sayadian, at the time, was just happy to be making a movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nightdreams (Sayadian as the toast)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was around the time period of Nightdreams\u2019<\/em> initial release that Stahl, then in his late twenties, became dependent on heroin. He still continued to throw himself into work, however, and his productivity remained impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stahl had an idea for a post-atomic movie before The Road Warrior <\/em>made it to screens. This idea would eventually become the cult classic, Caf\u00e9 Flesh<\/em>. Stahl and Sayadian collaborated on the screenplay and Stahl stated that his and Sayadian\u2019s goal was to \u201cperpetrate a World War Three musical. We had in mind a kind of high-rad Cabaret <\/em>in which trendy mutants and atomic mobsters held sway over survivors bombed beyond all normal pleasures. Lots of people made movies about the end of the world, but how many showed what the night life <\/em>would be like?\u201d6<\/sup> Sayadian would be the only official director this time around, and his goal was to give the film a \u201850s-era pop feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time period of the early \u201880s was the height of the porn era. It was then easier for Sayadian to find funding for a porno movie than it was for a so-called \u2018legitimate\u2019 one, but that didn\u2019t stop him from initially trying to make Caf\u00e9 Flesh<\/em>, though intended for adults, as a non-porno. The challenging and uncommercial subject matter, however, did not make this easy. As Stahl explained, \u201cfor half a year, [Sayadian] and I made like duck-tailed pundits, foisting our forecast of postnuke greenbacks on sniffy producers who clearly couldn\u2019t wait to pry us off their sling chairs and spray the room with Glade.\u201d6<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owners of the former adult establishment, The Cave on Hollywood Boulevard, wound up financing Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>for $100,000. The financiers\u2019 terms, however, made certain that their core porn audience would get what they want. \u201cAll we had to do,\u201d Stahl explained, \u201cwas work in some poochy, so the raincoat crowd wouldn\u2019t give us a bad review.\u201d6<\/sup> Turning the film into a piece of erotica didn\u2019t stop Stahl and Sayadian from making it something that was creatively rewarding for them, however. \u201cTo nurse our integrity,\u201d Stahl stated, \u201cwe crammed in all the disturbo words and visuals we could.\u201d6<\/sup> The newly eroticized script \u201cwasn\u2019t exactly the stuff of Gilbert and Sullivan, [but] it wasn\u2019t quite Debbie Does Decatur<\/em>, either.\u201d6<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>was shot over the course of ten days on the same small soundstage which Nightdreams <\/em>had been filmed. Like Nightdreams<\/em>, the production was a strictly guerilla one. Expenses for the film were often paid with large groups of quarters taken from The Cave\u2019s peep show slots. Electricity was illegally patched in to power the equipment. Extras were recruited from blood banks and methadone clinics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After filming was complete. the financiers felt there weren\u2019t enough sex scenes in the film. Defiantly, Sayadian and Stahl decided to put in the \u201cmost repulsive, repugnant, alienating, essentially autobiographical sex scenes we could imagine.\u201d8<\/sup> When the film was finally finished, no one quite knew what to make of its challengingly individualistic, subversive, and provocative nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world of Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>is best described by its opening voice-over\/title cards: \u201cAble to exist, to sense\u2026 to feel everything\u2014but pleasure. In a world destroyed, a mutant universe, survivors break down to those who can and those who can\u2019t. 99% are Sex Negatives. Call them erotic casualties. They want to make love, but the mere touch of another makes them violently ill. The rest, the lucky one percent, are Sex Positives, those whose libidos escaped unscathed. After the Nuclear Kiss, the positives remain to love, to perform\u2026 And the others, well we Negatives can only watch\u2026 can only come\u2026 to\u2026 CAF\u00c9 FLESH.\u201d9<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Andy Nichols in Cafe Flesh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hosted by a fast-talking showman named Max Melodramatic (played by Andy Nichols, who also portrayed one of the observing doctors in Nightdreams<\/em>), the hard-core sex shows at Caf\u00e9 Flesh are bizarre pieces of surrealism and satire that entice the hungry, impossible-to-satisfy Sex Negatives who comprise the audience (one of whom is portrayed by an early-in-his-career Richard Belzer). \u201cCould anything be sweeter than desire in chains?\u201d9<\/sup> Max asks his frustrated audience early on. \u201cThe skull in the cage knows the real bars are behind the eyes,\u201d9<\/sup> he later says in one of his intermittent, wisdom-sprouting monologues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the particular night in which the film takes place, club patrons are thrilled by the announcement that the famed Sex Positive performer, Johnny Rico (Kevin James), will be making an appearance. Awakening something in the audience, Rico\u2019s upcoming presence forces many of the Negatives in the club to question themselves and test their limits. Many of the patrons\u2019 fates are locked, but one or two of them have a surprise waiting for them on the other side of their boundary-pushing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bizarre, avant-garde, and hard-core sex shows that take place on Caf\u00e9 Flesh\u2019s stage feature such oddities as a man dressed as a milk-delivering rat who takes a woman while three grown men dressed as babies rhythmically bang bones onto their high chair tables, a (literally) pencil-headed businessman who takes a woman on a desk while his nude secretary repeatedly asks if he wants her to type a memo,  girl-on-girl action centering on a woman who wears American Flag-decorated underpants, and a group sex scene that is choreographed like an extravagant musical number and is accompanied by bodiless hands that snap their fingers in rhythmic unison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cafe Flesh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While utterly warped, there is also a truly inspired and strangely beautiful artistry that is running through Caf\u00e9 Flesh. <\/em>It is an adult film that is truly unlike anything else\u2014pornographic or not. Imagine Eraserhead <\/em>with disturbingly absurdist hard-core sex and you might come marginally close to understanding what the film is. Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>is something unprecedented that has no built-in audience or market. Love it or hate it, it\u2019s a rare film that proudly and entirely stands on its own.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>premiered in 1982. Stahl, who arrived late to the premiere, saw \u201cat least six rows of Japanese businessmen [file] out to commit ritual bus boarding halfway through.\u201d6<\/sup> The film initially only lasted a week in theaters. Owners of the adult theater chain, Pussycat Theaters, relayed to Sayadian that Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>was the only movie they\u2019d ever screened where porn customers, who usually liked to remain anonymous, demanded a refund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Producer Mike Misel eventually saw the film, liked it, and partnered with Sayadian to get it seen. Non-pornographic stills were sent to theaters and the film was eventually booked by Landmark Theaters roughly a year after it first premiered. Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>became a hit with the arthouse crowd. It replaced Friday midnight screenings of John Waters\u2019 cult classic, Pink Flamingos<\/em>, at Landmark\u2019s celebrated NuArt Theater. At one point. there were over thirty prints of Cafe Flesh<\/em> in circulation. The film eventually went on to gross roughly two million dollars. Sayadian fought for the rights to his film this time around, and eventually gained ownership of the characters and story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after finding notable success in the mainstream, Stahl still supports Caf\u00e9 Flesh <\/em>whenever he is presented with the opportunity to do so. He and Sayadian were both present at the film\u2019s thirtieth-anniversary screening. There was also talk of Stahl and Sayadian remaking the film as a Broadway show or a cable series, though that has yet to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stephen Sayadian and Jerry Stahl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though being a cult porno sensation brought him other adult film offers, Stahl didn\u2019t consider himself a \u201cporno guy\u201d6<\/sup> and focused on his aspirations outside of the industry after Caf\u00e9 Flesh<\/em>. That being said, Stahl has never looked down on pornography, either. This is despite the fact that his experiences in the industry, in his words, \u201cleft me stamped with the sort of shady notoriety shared by spouses of mass murderers and Senate pages who tell all.\u201d6<\/sup> In fact, Stahl seems to take pride in his time in the adult entertainment world and has gone so far as to challenge popular thinking of the industry by describing it as, at the end of the day, just another business. Because so few people know someone who actually works in porn, Stahl states that \u201cscads of citizens never realize that most of today\u2019s thriving smutmeisters lead lives of no greater raciness than 20-year men from Mutual of Omaha.\u201d6<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stahl and Sayadian had a number of movie offers after the success of Caf\u00e9 Flesh<\/em>. For reasons Stahl can\u2019t remember, they instead decided to focus on a play they\u2019d written together called Jackie Charge<\/em>, which ran for six months in 1985 at the Gene Dynarski Theatre on Sunset Boulevard. The play was about a peeping tom \u201cwho becomes a hero, spawning peep cults all over the world.\u201d10<\/sup> The play was another cult success for the writing duo and garnered a number of noteworthy fans, LSD guru Timothy Leary chief amongst them. Stahl and Sayadian later wrote a film adaptation of the play, titled Rapid Eye Movement<\/em>, but the manuscript has since been lost because, as Stahl put it, they \u201cled disorganized lives.\u201d11<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a creatively adventurous time for Stahl that eventually resulted in great success (by Hollywood standards and not necessarily his own, that is). This success would make him an industry player–something countless people would kill to become. Stahl resisted it so heavily at the time, however, that it would ultimately play a large part in his downfall. Also, perhaps most notably, he would soon be able to afford more of the drugs upon which he was becoming so heavily dependent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pain Snob continues in part 2<\/a> of 7.

<\/em>1 2<\/a> 3<\/a> 4<\/a> 5<\/a> 6<\/a> 7<\/a> Sources<\/a> ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

**Author\u2019s Note: I would like to state upfront that this retrospective of Jerry Stahl\u2019s life and career was done completely without his participation. I\u2019m simply a massive fan of his and since there isn\u2019t another complete chronological examination of his life and work, I figured I\u2019d go ahead and fill that void as best as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3378"}],"version-history":[{"count":74,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4195,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3378\/revisions\/4195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}