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Sam Benjamin

Goodreads author profile

url

http://www.goodreads.com/SamBenjamin

born

January 01, 1976

gender

male

website

http://sambenjamin.tumblr.com

twitter username

sambenjamin1

genre

Biographies & Memoirs, Humor

member since

May 2009

About this author

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Sam Benjamin attended Brown University from 1995 to 1999, where he spent his time deciphering post-modern theory, drawing comic books, and making self-indulgent videos.

Post-school life led Sam to Santa Cruz, California, where he discovered an impressive network of marijuana farmers but not much in the way of a contemporary arts scene. Yet it was in this town that he first hatched his pornographic destiny. A stoned midnight revelation led him to believe he would produce “feel-good” erotic films and sell them on eBay, garnering a modest fame for his efforts, revolutionizing a dying genre, and making a small killing in the process.

Sam’s first year producing “intelligent porn” was marked by low production values, financial blundering, and gene...more Sam Benjamin attended Brown University from 1995 to 1999, where he spent his time deciphering post-modern theory, drawing comic books, and making self-indulgent videos.

Post-school life led Sam to Santa Cruz, California, where he discovered an impressive network of marijuana farmers but not much in the way of a contemporary arts scene. Yet it was in this town that he first hatched his pornographic destiny. A stoned midnight revelation led him to believe he would produce “feel-good” erotic films and sell them on eBay, garnering a modest fame for his efforts, revolutionizing a dying genre, and making a small killing in the process.

Sam’s first year producing “intelligent porn” was marked by low production values, financial blundering, and generalized sexual unease. He produced his first film, We Always Want, on a dime, but sold it on eBay for even less. His next effort necessitated a last-minute “stunt penis” that was, unfortunately, his own. His search for tractable hippie actresses within Santa Cruz County, more often than not, came up empty.

Hungry to play with the big boys, Sam swallowed hard and moved down south, to Los Angeles, where he found himself living in squalor alongside of a methamphetamine-sniffing iguana saleswoman and a desultory Mexican conceptual artist. Poverty was here; but so were the big-leagues, with the real porn-stars. He sniffed of them enticingly.

Sam worked a host of demeaning jobs (most memorably as a go-go dancer in a West Hollywood bar) before catching on as a director for a major pornographic production company. At night he dreamed of sweet porno love, and creating a “new” kind of adult cinema; but by day he shot crap and admitted it his own.

For three years he climbed the ladder. Gaining riches and accruing sins, he spent a summer living inside a porn mansion in Malibu; grew his hair out; found porn love, after all; broke his heart; aged; burnt out; quit the biz; escaped to Southeast Asia; fasted; got boils all over his body; cleared his head; atoned for his sins; returned home; applied to graduate school.

Sam Benjamin graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2005, with a degree in Critical Studies.(less)

36 posts
Sam Benjamin's Blog

Bobcat Goldthwait - Better off Dead

Most people think I’m dead. At first I found this insulting. I mean, I know I look like fuck pie, but I’m only in my 40s. Eventually I realized that my problem was because of two things:1) People are confusing me with Sam Kinison (the other obese, long-haired, screaming comedian from the 80s), and 2) people assume that if I WERE still alive I would obviously be onDancing with the StarsorI Was...

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Published on May 16, 2012 11:45 • 2 views

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combine editions
Books by Sam Benjamin

Average rating: 3.33 · 63 ratings · 25 reviews · 2 distinct works

	American Gangbang: A Love Story 3.19 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Confessions of An Ivy League Pornographer 4.00 avg rating — 9 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Sam is Currently Reading

Sam Benjamin gave

to:

Fear & Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist 1968-76

by Hunter S. Thompson

bookshelves: currently-reading

My rating:

Sep 09, 2009 02:11pm

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Sam's Recent Updates

Sam Benjamin wrote a new blog post: Bobcat Goldthwait - Better off Dead Bobcat Goldthwait - Better off Dead Most people think I’m dead. At first I found this insulting. I mean, I know I look like fuck pie, but I’m only in my 40s. Eventually I realized tha... read more »
May 16, 2012 09:04pm · like
Sam Benjamin made a comment on File Under: Makes your Ears Bleed: "Amazingly, yes! I'm working to use the same non-pitch pitching technique in my romantic life, next. "
Jan 09, 2012 11:19am
Sam Benjamin gave to: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer	My rating:
Jan 09, 2012 11:15am
Sam Benjamin gave to: Fear & Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist 1968-76 by Hunter S. Thompson	My rating:
Sep 09, 2009 02:11pm
Sam Benjamin added: The Crossing (The Border Trilogy, #2) by Cormac McCarthy read in July, 2009	My rating:
Jul 24, 2009 06:53pm
Sam Benjamin added: Rock stars by Timothy White	My rating:
Jul 24, 2009 06:53pm
Sam Benjamin added: On Photography by Susan Sontag	My rating:
Jul 24, 2009 06:51pm
Sam Benjamin added: Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Jul 24, 2009 06:51pm
Sam Benjamin added: Porno by Irvine Welsh	My rating:
Jul 24, 2009 06:50pm
Sam Benjamin added: Filth by Irvine Welsh	My rating:
Jul 24, 2009 06:50pm