Title: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz Author: Ron Jeremy w/Eric Spitznagel Publisher: Harper Entertainment Publish Date: 2007 Pages: 343 Genres:: Autobiography, Non-Fiction, Pop culture Reviewer: Scott Axelrod

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Ron Hyatt has had more than 4,000 sex partners, and has appeared in a world record-breaking 1,750 porn films. Endowed with a 9 ¾ inch schmeckel—“How big is your penis?” “Oh that. It’s two inches…from the floor!”—and hirsute, he’s affectionately referred to as: “The Hedgehog,” “The Manatee,” and “The Chupacabra.” As a classically trained pianist and violinist, a Kung Fu brown belt, stand-up comedian and auto-fellatist, he’s performed at the behest of crowds large and small, onstage, on-screen and improvising in front of friends. Do you really need a complete rundown of his multi-faceted achievements to recognize this cult hero and the most famous of males in adult entertainment history as none other than Ron Jeremy?

In his funny, entertaining and fast-moving autobiography The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz, Ron regales readers with many an interesting and insightful anecdote, as he time travels from his scandal-free upbringing as a nice Jewish boy from Queens who honed his boning technique with married women (“Borscht Bunnies”) as the maitre d’ of a posh Catskills resort to becoming an internationally recognized sex star and beloved friend/acquaintance of A-list celebrities and rock stars who will often part crowds just to shake his hand and have pictures taken with him.

Without much of the stereotypical crassness many would automatically assume to be the only way a schlub like Ron would communicate, the Master’s degree-holding, former teacher and recurring university lecturer, waxes philosophical on the adult industry through the years; his friendly feuds and crossing of swords (so to speak) with the like of John Holmes and Jamie Gillis; and, what it takes to be a porn star/director/producer while simultaneously seeking that always just-out-of-reach penetration of mainstream media—he’s had cameo and small-speaking roles in dozens of Hollywood and indie films and network TV series’, besides appearing as a subject of song lyrics and in/on numerous talk shows, game shows, music videos and most recently, the reality series The Surreal Life. “I don’t have any illusions that I’m going to be the next Brad Pitt. I’m just another actor who wants to take his shot,” he quips.

In the laidback, conversational style of a buddy sharing war stories and conquest specifics, he weaves family history and personal feelings about failed relationships, before moving on to the more lighthearted details of his dalliances in the swinger’s scene. Tales of excessive harassment and conspiracy at the hands of vice cops, and the ensuing legal battles, depict him as a sympathetic character—a hardworking everyman trying to eke out a legal living in a country that even today considers porn an anathema plaguing society. The man doesn’t even touch cigarettes or other harsher components and readily confesses his true vice to being a well-stocked buffet.

As an advocate for safe sex (besides being a spokesman for PETA and other charitable causes), he proudly declares to have never been plagued by STDs. Ron even provides male readers with a step-by-step guide to keeping their penises clean and relatively disease free—the same post-sex ritual that’s kept him healthy through many a condom-less encounter. Tips on erection-sustaining and proper anal sex procedures are also included free of charge.

Many on-set, off-set and behind-the-scenes stories find Ron in bizarre situations. His frustratingly flaccid directing of John Wayne Bobbitt and his reattached penis in their porn debut is an interesting one. Another has him reluctantly breaking his own rule of non-porn personnel watching him perform, as he takes the female stars of Boogie Nights on tours of authentic porn shoots while working as a consultant for the film. Ironically, he’s become the go-to guy in the film world for anything porn-related, and his expertise has been called upon during the production of several other Hollywood movies including 9 1/2 Weeks and 52-PickUp. Don’t even get him started when it comes to name-dropping his famous friends, though, as he swiftly squirts through page-after-page of encounters starring plenty of well-known names, and even going so far as to acknowledge those that have gone out of their way to snub him.

At the heart of things, Ron comes across as an extremely kind-hearted, generous and loveable guy with a great (dirty) sense of humor, a big penis and a nothing-too-far-from-ordinary fondness for sex. Whether he’s in self-promotion mode in an attempt to score points with those in a position to bring him directly into your living room, or self-effacing—"I've given confidence to millions of men across the world. They look at themselves in the mirror and think, Y'know, compared to Ron Jeremy, I'm not that bad-looking at all.”—his story is rife with more highs than lows. It’s by no means a cautionary tale overflowing with excess and depressing melodrama, but rather one that presents a man who’s happy with who he is and doing all the things that he does but seems to wish that his name and talent garnered him a slightly different species of fame.