For National Cancer Survivors Day we are sharing an interview with comedian and cancer survivor Glenn Rockowitz.
Father and son simultaneously battle cancer in comedian’s darkly funny and deeply moving memoir
Four-time cancer survivor Glenn Rockowitz pens follow-up to bestseller, “Rodeo in Joliet”
Seattle, Washington – Four-time cancer survivor, comedian and former SNL writer, Glenn Rockowitz, is back with his highly anticipated second memoir, “Cotton Teeth” (Harper & Case, December 14, 2021).
An Interview with Glenn Rockowitz
- What made you decide to write “Cotton Teeth”? What will readers get from this memoir that you haven’t already expressed in “Rodeo in Joliet”?
After my first memoir, I got a lot of requests to hear more about my relationship with my father, especially given that we were both dying at the same time with a similar prognosis of 3 months. I see Cotton Teeth as a companion memoir to my first, with a new addition to the writing: the wisdom and perspective of a cancer patient now alive and kicking on the other side.
- What was it like to hear that you only have months to live? How did that affect your everyday life?
Terrifying. And my wife was 8 ½ months pregnant with our only child at the time. So, she was about to give birth to a boy who wouldn’t know his father beyond three months. Surviving those odds has definitely given me a very unique perspective on life that informs just about everything I do. One that is almost entirely positive.
- How did battling cancer alongside your father shape the nature of your relationship?
We were already close, but his cancer diagnosis came (coincidentally) a week after he asked God (he was an atheist, btw) to take away my cancer and give it to him. So, his final weeks were certainly laced with my own guilt about my part in his demise. I’m a comedian and he was a Freudian psychoanalyst so the conversations we had were a wild ride. To put it mildly.
- If you could go back in time and choose not to be diagnosed with cancer, would you? Why not?
I’ve thought about this a lot. I feel like the most interesting things and people in life are the ones that were forged in pain, so I would hate to lose the gift of perspective all of that suffering gave me about my own life and life in general.
- Can you tell us about The Best Medicine Group? Are you still working with them today?
I started this organization in NYC in the early 90s to bring live comedy shows to the living rooms of terminally ill AIDS and cancer patients. We essentially recreated a comedy club in people’s homes (complete with an actor playing a waiter and an actor playing a heckler) to give an emotional break for patients and their families and caregivers. The organization ended when I moved to Seattle after 9/11.
- What do you ultimately hope readers take away from your story?
Hope. That even when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, there is real beauty, real magic in the time we all have on earth, no matter how long or short. My father only had an extra few months and I’ve had over 20 years (and counting) and I think we both experienced the same amount of joy and gratitude in our respective windows of time on earth despite their vastly different quantities.
Cotton Teeth
Diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1998, Rockowitz recalls being told he had only three months to live. He was 28 years old at the time, and starting a family. His wife was eight months pregnant. Rockowitz’ psychoanalyst father, after praying that they could switch places, received his own surprising terminal diagnosis only a week later. In the weeks that followed, the two would battle cancer side-by-side.
With writing that is visceral, raw and poetic, Rockowitz dives headfirst into old memories, and tragedy gives way to a darkly funny and intensely loving experience.
Named one of Kirkus’ Best Books of 2021, this is Rockowitz’s unflinchingly candid account of the heartbreak, joy, and wisdom shared between father and son as they face their final months of life alone, and together. “Cotton Teeth” is the long-awaited follow-up to Rockowitz’s bestselling memoir, “Rodeo in Joliet,” published in 2009.
Glenn Rockowitz | December 14, 2021 | Harper & Case | Memoir
Hardcover | $24.99 | 9780578257082
About the Author
Glenn Rockowitz is an American writer, filmmaker and comedian. A graduate of Chicago’s famed Second City, Rockowitz went on to write and perform comedy for many years throughout the U.S. In 1995, he founded a nonprofit AIDS and cancer charity known as The Best Medicine Group–an organization that brought hundreds of live comedy shows into the homes of terminally-ill patients throughout the metropolitan New York area.
“Rodeo in Joliet,” a memoir of Rockowitz’s battle with a very aggressive late-stage cancer, was released nationally on April 11, 2009. By early 2010, the book became a national bestseller and was subsequently optioned by director Matt Aselton to become a major motion picture, written by Ryan Knighton for release in 2023. His latest memoir “Cotton Teeth” has been recognized as a finalist in the 2021 Foreword INDIES awards and was selected as one of Kirkus’ Best Books of 2021. Rockowitz has recently appeared on the Moth, NPR, NBC and a variety of syndicated radio programs.
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