Mask My Race Through the Belly of Hollywood to Self-Discovery

:	Eli Wehbe
:	Mask My Race Through the Belly of Hollywood to Self-Discovery
:	Houndstooth Press
:	9781544527758
:	1
:	CHF 10.50
:

:	Biographien, Autobiographien
:	English

:	234
:	kein Kopierschutz
:	PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:	ePUB

Eli Wehbe lived at the white-hot center of Los Angeles nightlife. More than a decade of hustle, scramble, and hard work put him at the pinnacle of the life he always wanted: celebrity friends, beautiful women, fast cars, popularity-and plenty of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He achieved his dream-and it left him empty. Then, a tragedy threatened to destroy him and everything he worked for. In this raw, honest, and vulnerable memoir, one of America's nightclub greats-a man who literally had his name in lights in Hollywood-shares his story and reveals the naked truth behind Los Angeles after dark. Riveting from first page to last, Mask describes the backstabbing, insecurities, and hollowness that drive the nightclub business and the people within it. After plunging to the depths of despair, Eli refused to give up, embarking on a profound journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Mask chronicles his ultimate odyssey from teen outcast to Hollywood mogul to extreme athletic achievement-an inspiring American story of creation, failure, and redemption.

Two

2.The Vision

“I like entrepreneurial people. I like people who take risks.”

—Billie Jean King

The downtown Hollywood nightclub that was my Mecca had everything.

There was afull-service Asian fusion restaurant with a carefully crafted menu, a basement with live entertainment and a dance floor, athird-level banquet and event center with food service, and amain-floor dancing and live entertainment space.

The best part was a spectacular,design-driven rooftop lounge. There you’d find cabanas, a bar and bottle service, and stunning 360-degree views of Los Angeles, including the legendary Hollywood sign.

This was Kress, a club right on Hollywood Boulevard.

One night in early 2009, my girlfriend Melissa and I approached Kress’s doors for the first time with a friend who knew a promoter hosting an event on the roof. The team at the door whisked us past the line of people trying to get through the velvet ropes and straight upstairs.

I loved that feeling ofgetting in. It is the rarest of currencies in Los Angeles after dark, the thing everyone wants. It gave me a thrill.

On that perch above the city, I ordered asugar-free Red Bull, gazed out at the Hollywood sign, and turned to Melissa with a huge smile.

“This is it!” I declared. “This is where I belong! I have to find a way to get in here and get hired. I can get my career in Hollywood nightlife started up right here, right now!” In that moment, I made myself a promise.

By the time you aretwenty