Mike Edison has a resume that will make some people jealous, and others simply blush. He is the former publisher of High Times magazine and was the editor-in-chief of the irresponsibly outrageous Screw. He is a former Hustler and Penthouse correspondent, an internationally notorious musician, and a professional wrestler of no small repute. He is the author of 28 pornographic novels and the riotous memoir, I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot, Porn, Punk Rock, Pro Wrestling, Talking Apes, Evil Bosses, Dirty Blues, American Heroes, and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World.
I Have Fun Everywhere I Go is a rollicking, high-octane, always irreverent journey through the seamy side of the publishing industry. An Ivy League dropout who’s never looked back, Edison embarked on a career that’s seen him go undercover at a religious cult; on a bender with Evel Knievel; feuding with Hulk Hogan; smoking dope with Ozzy Osborne. As the publisher of High Times, he battled almost daily with a rainbow brigade of unrepentant hippies plagued with short-term memory loss, and owners who treated their employees more like the tenants of a halfway house for potheads than a team of professional editors and writers, all while leading the magazine to record heights in sales and advertising.
Edison is an expert on Free Speech, pornography, and the American counterculture. He is a “dazzling story teller” (New York Press) and his events are legendary for being hilarious and often filthy while at the same time “proof positive that one can be both edgy and erudite, lowbrow and literate, and take joy in the unbridled pleasures of the id without sacrificing the higher mind.” (PopMatters.com)
If that weren't enough, he was the producer of one of the worst B-movies of all time and a bona-fied YouTube superstar. Edison’s life is the very paradigm of being in the moment, shaking loose the leash of a complacent society, and rebelling without remorse. He has been compared to Hunter Thompson and Lenny Bruce, and there are no signs of him slowing down. He lives and works in New York City.
For anyone who has any interest in pop culture, sex, marijuana, free speech, and rock’n’roll, or who has any interest in journalism or wants to work for a magazine (or just find out what happens behind the curtain), Mike Edison is the perfect speaker.