Works by
Bob Smith
(Writer)

Fiction

• Selfish and Perverse (2007) -- Nominated 2007 Lambda Literary Gay Men's Debut Fiction Awards
  Nelson Kunker is trapped in his job as the script supervisor on Aftertaste, the low-rated late-night sketch television show. His life in Los Angeles has come to a halt because he’s unable to finish the novel he's writing, doesn't have a boyfriend, and, at the pivotal age of thirty-four, has reached the juncture where he has to decide whether he's really talented or just gay.
  
  One day he meets Roy Briggs, a part-time salmon fisherman/full-time archaeology student who's visiting from Alaska. When Nelson attempts to make small talk with the handsome Roy, he references an obscure but haunting story about bowhead whales that startles the science nerd in both men into suspecting that they might be soulmates. Unfortunately, Nelson discovers his soul is a bit of a slut when he also meets the guest host of that week's show, the surprisingly bookish movie star Dylan Fabizak, freshly paroled after a drug bust. When the three end up at Roy's home in Alaska, hilarity, love, and debauchery ensue. Wooed by both Roy and Dylan, Nelson comes to strongly identify with the salmon they are fishing for — another insanely driven species that will overcome every hurdle in its search for love.

Nonfiction

• Way to Go, Smith! (1999)
  After breaking up with his longtime boyfriend, Tom, Bob takes us back to figure out where all the trouble began--his hilarious, hyper-normal (and hyper-strange) family life.
  
  Here you'll meet Bob's comically unsympathetic grandmother, who treats his carsickness by stuffing him between his brothers in the backseat: "Bob only throws up because he's near a window and he can." You'll hear about his first teacher crush: "McGaffin was an odd mix of manly and fey; his five o'clock shadow could plunge a room into darkness and yet his handwriting was better than the samples offered in our textbooks." And you'll witness Bob's first brush with fame: His reaction to health filmstrips made him the only boy in the fourth grade who could faint from the sitting position.
  
  Moving, ironic, and tinged with recognition, Bob's new collection is at once bittersweet nostalgic fun and a testament to the unquestionable gifts on a highly original comic writer.

• Openly Bob (1997) -- Winner 1997 Lambda Literary Award for Humor
  A multiple-week Advocate bestseller, Openly Bob won the Lambda Literary Award and unanimous applause from reviewers across the country. Bob Smith's observations on life as a happily adjusted gay man offered a refreshingly witty dose of nineties reality.
  
  As an openly gay comic, Bob Smith broke barriers with an appearance on "The Tonight Show." Now Smith offers up his own original, whine-free perspective on being grown up and gay.
  
  In Openly Bob, the acclaimed comedian candidly, and humorously, tackles issues facing grown-up gays as they make their place in an overwhelmingly straight society. From bringing your boyfriend home to your father's funeral, to being the only gay couple at a family wedding, to surviving couples counseling, Smith's decidedly wry spin on the events of our lives resonates with keen observation and hilarious truth.
  
  "So Mom says to me on the phone, 'Just because you're coming home for your father's funeral doesn't mean we can't have fun!'"
  
  Sex education, meteor showers, lesbian ventriloquist dummies, fleamarket shopping, body piercing, pot -smoking drag queens, environmental correctness, Judgment Day,  Samuel Beckett, Newt Gingrich, Coco Chanel, Sigmund Freud--nothing and no one escapes Smith's incisive eye in this very human collection of comic essays.

• Growing Up Gay: From Left Out to Coming Out (1995) with Danny McWilliams

See also:

• Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor (2000) by Michael J. Rosen

• 101 Damnations: The Humorists' Tour of Personal Hells (2002) by Michael Rosen