Four-time Emmy winner, writer for The Daily Show, and one-fifth of the team behind the new manual Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk. Questionnaire answered by the "Association for the Betterment of Sex" (Scott Jacobson, Todd Levin, Jason Roeder, Ted Travelstead, Mike Sacks). Appears with co-authors 4 pm Sunday on the Powell's stage.
What are your favorite themes to write about?
The cyclical nature of history. Man's inhumanity to man. The difficulty of finding an autoclave large enough to sterilize our collection of electrified prostate stimulators.
Name three books on your nightstand or shelf right now.
The Joy of Sex by Dr. Alex Comfort. Wieners and Woo-Woos: Talkin' to Tweens Edition. Sexual Potency Through Santeria by Voodoo High Priest "Papa Juju."
What's your personal writing ritual?
We all gather around our laboratory's single Dell laptop and try to keep the chatter down so as not to disturb the couple making love inches away from us, in lead aprons, under the X-ray panel.
The most beautiful word in the English language is:
"RRRGH!" (Actually less a word than a wheeze crossed with a grunt. We hear it a lot at work.)
What authors made you want to pick up a pen in the first place?
We're of the opinion that all literary roads lead back to Judy Blume's masterpiece of domestic erotica, Wifey. Superfudge it ain't! We're also admirers of the clinically efficient sex scenes of Tom Clancy.
Name a book you think is highly overrated. Be honest.
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.
The dumbest thing I ever did is…
Let's just say it involves a female ejaculation seminar and a double-booked banquet room at Dave & Buster's!
The best piece of advice I ever got was…
"Write about what you know. Or, failing that, write about your genitals."
What's your literary guilty pleasure?
We're suckers for a good, juicy Tijuana bible.
The closest I've ever come to quitting is…
Malpractice suit 10 or 11. Once you break double digits, the medical board sets up one of those giant inflatable rats outside your clinic. :(
Most recent nightmare:
Any dream where we're not nude and in freefall.
Your cure for writer's block:
Sitting for 10 to 20 seconds on a live defibrillator paddle. (Fact: This is the same method used by the late Norman Mailer!)
A dead person you'd like to meet (they'd be alive during the meeting):
Dr. Alex Comfort. Oh, the questions we'd ask him about toe play!
What was your favorite book as a kid?
The racier entries in the Amelia Bedelia canon.
Please paste a short paragraph from a story, poem, article, blog post, etc., you're currently working on below:
Until the situation with the CDC, FDA and the March of Dimes calms down (longish story), the Association for the Betterment of Sex will be turning its attention to a study of life in the American workplace. Look for our report sometime in the near future!
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