Selfish and Perverse: Bob Smith

September 28, 2007

Stand-up comic and author Bob Smith (Openly Bob, Way to Go, Smith) may have just written my favorite gay love triangle/Alaskan fisherman novel ever! It’s called Selfish and Perverse and it’s about an struggling writer named Nelson who finds himself—both physically and emotionally--in the Alaskan wilderness, torn between his hunky fisherman boyfriend and a sex-dripping tag-along actor who is supposedly there to research a role but seems more interested in banging everyone in sight. I caught up with Bob, who is in the middle of a whirlwind national book tour, for a game of Five Questions.

DENNIS HENSLEY: I was once in Anchorage for one night once and it happened to be the night of the biggest gay event of the year--one of those big gay royalty balls that are popular in lots of places. I got my picture taken with Mr. Alaska Leather. He was both nice and leathery. What surprised you about gay life in Alaska?

BOB SMITH: Well, first of all, that there actually is gay life in Alaska. I’ve performed at gay prides in Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks. My all-time favorite pride, Juneau’s was held in a six-car parking lot. Gay Alaskans are very cosmopolitan--as well traveled as gay Australians--but they’re also unlike other gay communities. For example, I once I saw a drag queen in Anchorage who had grown up in a small native Alaskan Aleutian village. He could butcher a walrus and Diana Ross.

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Star Sightings of Summer

September 10, 2007

When I first moved to LA, I lived with a friend named Alan who had a very unique, methodical way of cataloguing celebrity sightings. He wanted to know everything; from what they wore, to what they had in their shopping cart, to what they smelled like. There was a whole checklist with categories and subcategories. If you ran into say Marilyn Manson at Bed, Bath and Beyond, like my friend Shane did one time, Alan wanted to know what kind of sheets he was buying and whether or not he smelled like he had just come from El Pollo Loco.

I don’t log my star sightings in as much detail anymore but can still be fun to run into famous person. This summer had a few memorable celeb encounters.

I hobnobbed with Homer Simpson when I visited my local 7-11, which was converted into a Kwik E Mart to promote the release of The Simpsons movie. Homer was nice enough but he seemed a bit plastic.

Even though I’m not a regular viewer, I bought a bunch of Simpsons junk food because I can’t resist a hard sell. My boyfriend John Michael had to explain to me what have of the stuff was and how it figured into the show. I don’t need to know the back-story of the pink donuts to eat about six of them.

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