Out author and comedian Mark Brennan Rosenberg will swing through Philadelphia as part of a 45-city tour promoting his book “Blackouts and Breakdowns,” a collection of essays about his life, exploring the up and downs of his excessive drinking, cleaning up his act and getting sober.
Rosenberg talked to PGN about the tour and his new book, “Eating My Feelings,” out later this year.
PGN: How has your tour been so far? MBR: It’s been the craziest thing I’ve ever done. It’s so much fun and so much hard work. I still have 20 cities to go to.
PGN: As your book “Blackout and Break-downs” is about your struggles with alcoholism, why host your book event in a bar? MBR: Well, I know my audience: Gay guys and the LGBT community are more inclined to come to a setting that is more social than a bookstore. I was supposed to go on a Barnes & Noble book tour in 2010 and, one of the things they beat into me was that, unless you are a Jackie Collins or a celebrity author, it’s very, very difficult to get people to come to a book reading. So I tried to do something different and took it on the road like a band. It’s worked out. So far, so good.
PGN: Even though “Blackouts” is written as comedy, given the subject matter, do you find that there are some people who take the book too seriously? MBR: It’s comedy and it’s supposed to be entertaining. But my first book is about my alcoholism so it deals with a very serious subject matter in a more lighthearted way. I just got an email from a kid who was like, “I just finished your book and I went to my first AA meeting because I realized I had a problem. I realized that you, being as big a mess as you were, you could overcome your issues and maybe I can too.” And that is definitely not what the book was intended for, but when things like that happen, it’s a miracle and a wonderful thing.
PGN: What are you enjoying most on the book tour? MBR: I have a lot of people who have read “Blackouts and Breakdowns” because of Twitter and Facebook. So it’s been nice to put faces to names and see the people who have always been there. One thing that’s been amazing is each city we’ve been to has been so very different. When you live in New York for a long time, you kind of think that there’s nowhere else to go. But I’ve found that there are so many wonderful places to go and so many wonderful communities. I’ve been getting to know the people and what makes them tick. It’s been nice.
PGN: What can you tell us about your upcoming book “Eating My Feelings”? MBR: It’s written in the same style of “Blackouts” but it’s all about food and body image. When I was very young, I was very overweight. My parents always told me I was fat because I had two brothers and two sisters who were very, very skinny. So I was the fat gay one, which was not fun. It’s about overcoming those obstacles and being a gay man living in New York and living up to the certain way that everyone thinks a gay man should look and act. Everyone has a relationship with food and how they view themselves in the mirror. A lot of people should be able to relate.
Catch Rosenberg 7 p.m. March 19 at Stir, 1705 Chancellor St. For more information, visit www.blackoutandbreakdowns.com or call 215-732-2700.