GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

NOVEMBER 7, 1997

Evenings Out

Praise Bob!

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Before Bob Smith gained notoriety for being the first openly gay comedian to perform on the Tonight Show, he called home to see if his parents would be okay with him being out on national TV. His mother said, "Well your dad and I talked about it, and we figure there are a lot of people named Bob

Comic essays are a profound, hilarious buffet

Openly Bob

by Bob Smith

Rob Weisbach Books, $23 hardcover

Reviewed by Kalzaad Kotwal

Many comics have penned books in recent memory-Jerry Seinfeld, Paul Reiser, Fran Drescher, Joan Rivers. Most often, these books end up being little more than a collection of tried-and-true-and sometimes tired-jokes culled from years of stand-up routines and comedy sketches.

Openly Bob author Bob Smith dares to be different, and the result is extremely gratifying as comedy, and generously rewarding in its exploration of our humanity. Smith's book contains 13 diverse essays with a wild menagerie of characters and a smorgasbord of situations that are all at once intensely hilarious and deeply moving. While each story has its own cast of characters and specific plot, the book is woven together by Smith's compassion and unconditional love for the people he lets inhabit his writing.

Smith understands that if you are brave enough to shake the family tree, you are resigned to dealing with the many nuts sure to fall out. He uses his family and friends as the canvas on which he paints his profound and humorous portraits. From sex education and watching meteor showers, to couples counseling and the death of his father, to bird watching in Central Park and watching drag queens in Provincetown, Smith takes his readers on a very intimate journey.

As you read Openly Bob don't be surprised if you burst out laughing or find your eyes moistening up. After reading one of his essays, you'll feel as if you've known these characters all your life. Some of Smith's humor will make you laugh instantly, while some will bring a spontaneous curl to your lip only after you have had time to digest and relish his wise and witty observations.

Many critics have concurred that Smith is not merely a great gay comic, but a talented writer who has great promise för future penned ventures. I agree.

Anais Nin wrote that "we write to taste life twice." In Openly Bob, Smith has laid out a sumptuous buffet. Dig in and enjoy the feast.

Smith-who's gonna know?"

Smith's humor is very funny, most often with a slightly darker edge or an eye-watering glint of poignancy. In one of his stand-up routines, Smith tells his audience, "I come from a very conservative family, and it wasn't easy telling them I was gay. I delivered my carefully-worded speech on Thanksgiving. I said to my mother, 'Mom, would you please pass the gravy to a homosexual?' He pauses, then adds, "She passed it to my father."

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While much of Smith's humor is derived from those wacky people we call family and friends, he often also takes on larger issues. In another routine, Smith proposed that in order to increase gay acceptance in school, he would write a math problem that read something like this:

"Margaret came out to her parents as a lesbian in 1978. Her parents made her see a psychiatrist for 40 weeks at $65 a week." Brief pause. "How many Melissa Etheridge albums could Margaret have bought with the money her parents could have saved?"

Moving away from what he has known best, his stand-up routines, Smith has penned a memoir of sorts titled Openly Bob. He is also the star of his own HBO special and is developing a sketch-comedy series with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Showtime. We sat down for an interview at the Coffee Table in Columbus.

Kaizaad Kotwal: What has the response to your book been so far? How do you feel about it?

Bob Smith: There has been a great turnout for the readings and book signings on the tour, knock on wood. So far the book has received great reviews. I am most glad that people are picking up on the fact that these are comic essays, and they are clear that this book is not just about my jokes from my stand-up routines.

People seem obsessed with what is true versus what is fiction. Could you shed some light about fact versus fantasy in your book?

Everything is true. Once in a while I combine two uncles into one uncle and I change some names. All the details however, are true and I wanted the jokes to come out of the stories. I didn't want to impose the jokes onto the people and the stories. The only thing that is fictitious is the bit about the lesbian ventriloquist.

A lot of your humor in the book is aimed at or derived from people close to you. Why did you choose that route instead of going after “outsiders” like politicians and celebrities?

I do mock those sorts of people in my acts, but I also don't like what these losers have to say and to write about them would be to acknowledge their power and influence. My book is about the stories and the essays that emerge from my family, my relationships and other situations in and around my life. Was it your intention to write a memoir of sorts?

As I wrote and rewrote the book, it became increasingly autobiographical. [One] ex-

ample is the section about my father's funeral. When I returned from it, I started making notes in my journal and realized that even though it was a very sad occasion, there was a lot of humor there. I asked my editor, Rob Wesibach, about doing something with that. He had just lost his father as well and thought it was a good idea.

Who are your influences, both professionally and personally?

I have many influences. Joe Orton, who is a brilliant joke writer and who has a darker edge to his humor. I tend to be that way as well. Oscar Wilde for his concise, epigrammatic writing style. My work is also influenced by stand-ups like Woody Allen, Lily Tomlin, and writers like Evelyn Waugh, Paul Rudnick, and Kate Clinton.

Lily is a huge influence. I have an album of hers that I have listened to so often I know it backwards. My all-time favorite joke is one by Lily. She talks about how she bought a wastepaper basket. The store clerk put the

wastepaper basket in a brown paper bag. She got home, put out the wastepaper basket and put the brown paper bag in the wastepaper basket. That joke is so Zen!

Personally my influences have come from my friends in stand-up and other writers like myself.

What has been your most rewarding career moment to date?

One of the best things that's happened to me was HBO did this special on 20 years of comedy, and there is this clip of me from my HBO special with all these great people on it as well. There is a clip of Lily doing that joke about the wastepaper basket.

In your book, you find humor in lots of very sad and desperate conditions and situations. It seems as though people might think you are being harsh on your parents, your siblings, your partner Tom, etc. However, in my reading, the toughest criticism

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