Description:
Bob Smith writes about topics that are standard elements of almost any actor-humorist's repertoire: family visits, early jobs, auditions for parts, and the ups and downs of romantic relationships. The major difference between Bob and most other comedians, however, is that he's openly and unashamedly gay. Openly Bob is not, however, a collection of gay jokes. When Bob's sexuality is relevant to the joke, it comes up, as in his thoughts on how to abate right-wing fears about homosexuals using sex education in public schools as "recruitment." "Our educational system has proved," he writes, "that if a subject is taught in a boring enough manner, Americans will make every effort to avoid it for the rest of their lives. If homosexuality was taught in the same manner as trigonometry, even most gay people would have no use for it after graduation." The rest of the time, however, Bob's gayness is not an issue, but simply a state of being. His jokes aren't funny because he's gay; his jokes are funny because they're funny. "How did Tom and I come to realize that we needed couples counseling?" he asks at one point. "We had sex less frequently. Then we had sex less frequently than people in full-body casts. We stopped having sex. Finally, our relationship stopped other people, gay or straight, from wanting to have sex." Bob Smith's wit and intelligence, which garnered Openly Bob a 1998 Lambda Literary Award, will make him an equally appealing humorist to both gay and straight readers.
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