BACK FOCUS

A reality-television insider tells all in this debut memoir.

The author, who uses the pseudonym DJ Cash Bar, was a camera operator, director of photography, and director for multiple unnamed reality television shows, including several Emmy Award winners and nominees. “Depending on the show’s popularity, I am the eyes for 15 million people, or 750,000 if it flops,” he writes. The book begins in 2007 (which he describes as “the Wild West days of reality TV”), recounting his experiences on a dating show filmed in the rural Midwest; it featured 10 cosmopolitan women competing to become engaged to a local farmer. The author’s descriptions of the outlandish scenarios of reality TV are matched only by his detailing of the shenanigans behind the scenes. While the filming of some shows were defined by monotony and boredom—one anecdote, for instance, features a paper airplane contest from the author’s hotel balcony—one show, he writes, “turn[ed] into a Caligula orgy.” The book compares the reality-show experience to the fabled rock-star life with its abundance of free food and sex, but also notes that TV people often remain in the same hotel for extended periods. Over the course of the book, the author introduces readers to a compelling array of characters, from a sex-crimes unit police officer from Broward County, Florida, to a jealous Hell’s Angels biker who fought crewmembers after his ex-wife flashed them in a bar. Multiple celebrities make cameos, including Donald Trump, who insisted on ignoring the help of an audio engineer and opted to mic himself, resulting in a “scratchy” recording. An admirer of Hunter S. Thompson, the author’s gonzo writing style effectively highlights the absurdity of his profession while celebrating the people backstage who make the television industry run. As such, the book’s narrative can be disorienting, eschewing chronological storytelling and dropping readers into events midscene, but this lively approach aptly fits its subject.

An absorbing, no-holds-barred entertainment-industry remembrance.