by Vic Cipolla
2019 (Evil Genius)
Subtitled "lessons learned from being married to a porn star," readers hoping to discover some kind of confessional "tell all" of being married to performer, stripper, and visual artist Dani Daniels are likely to be disappointed in her husband Vic Cipolla´s slender book.
In fact, instead of approaching Wait for the Corn as a book, check it out as a series of rants by an exasperated old-school New Yorker, and these pages are a brief and humorous read.
One recurring rant is How Ignorant Most People (ie Men) Are, particularly in their failure to recognize that porn is fantasy and entertainment, versus any kind of realistic or educational description of how actual people have sex. Cipolla also throws up his hands at the legions of dudes who get scammed out of their money online by con artists using fake social media accounts, as well as remain convinced that Daniels is unhappily married and living with her husband in New York City.
Cipolla also has a few choice words regarding how people who work in pornography are judged, and how the industry itself is regulated and criticized while other, more dangerous issues are given a shrug. You can feel his frustration when porn movies are considered a "public health risk" while guns are considered a "right".
When not venting, Cipolla offers some broad relationship advice, emphasizing some common-sense tools (basically, communication with a capital C) towards building intimacy with one´s partner and having a healthy sexual relationship with them. There are a few details here from Vic & Dani´s life as a couple--they can play board games at home, see Broadway shows, travel to see art in museums--but for the most part the details of their experience as a couple are absent within this book.
Similarly, there are a few episodes devoted to the profession of being a porn star (including an explanation of the title, which I will not spoil here). While these scratch the surface of an unusual and fascinating industry whose daily operation is largely unknown to the greater public, I wish Cipolla would have provided readers with more--a lot more.
Cipolla´s voice on the page is conversational, sharp, and frequently uproarious. Reading Waiting for the Corn feels like talking with Vic at a big party. And, like when talking with anyone at a party, it feels like the setting doesn´t lend itself to being truly intimate, or to really get into the nitty gritty of either his relationship with Daniels, or with what he has observed from being around her and other super-successful porn stars. I longed for Cipolla to get a little more intimate with us in this book, and share something more surprisingly and revelatory.
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