Your first drink was at age 11, when you stole a bottle of Wild Turkey and choked it down in the alley with your buddies. In high school, you went to dockers and made out with drunk girls in the dirt. College brought on a number of nights where you blew some coke and then couldn’t get it up for the hot sorority chicks. After college, you grew up and started blaming the drug abuse on your crappy childhood. How original.
Imagine the kind of upbringing that would compel a person to indulge in the endless nightlife, sleep deprivation, and ingestion of as many mind-altering substances as possible. What if you were the type to make a career, name, and life out of the party scene, as has James St. James, one of the leaders of the infamous Club Kid clique that ruled Manhattan nightlife with a velvet fist in the late '80s and early '90s? St. James' latest novel, Freak Show, is inspired by his own experiences. The story describes the hilariously tragic upbringing of fictional character Billy Bloom, providing insight into St. James' own backstory and the wild lifestyle documented in his most famous work, Party Monster.
St. James reads from and signs copies of Freak Show.
Sat., Sept. 1, 6-8:45 p.m.
