Sober Stick Figure: A comedian’s memoir of alcoholism and recovery
L.A. by-way-of Pueblo writer and stand up comedian Amber Tozer spiels on addiction in her darkly hilarious and hilariously dark memoir.
“FYI — sometimes it goes straight to voicemail” is the message I get via Facebook from Amber Tozer, a writer and stand up comedian, just 30 seconds or so after I try to call her.
I’m calling her to discuss her new memoir, Sober Stick Figure. Out June 2016 via Running Press, the one-sheet that accompanies my advance copy of the book says it tells the ‘crazy, harsh, sometimes laughably ridiculous truths regarding addiction, denial, and getting sober.”
Which sounds about right, if you’ve ever met Tozer.
A native Puebloan, Tozer has written for for the Cartoon Network’s animated sketch series MAD and Adult Swim’s Moral Orel, as well as performed stand up comedy on stages all over the country—employing a whip smart and razor sharp playfulness in her jokes and stories that are raw and unfiltered, retaining a certain disarming charm and authenticity that pulls you in and does not let go.
The same goes in spades for Sober Stick Figure. Coming in at 272 pages, Sober Stick Figure is, was and will be hard to put down. While it may traffic in the already well tread territory of the ‘addiction and road to recovery’ memoir, there is much more than meets the eye with Sober Stick Figure. Perhaps in spite or because of the proliferation of these books, Tozer has turned the genre on its ear, crafting an exuberantly moving slice-of-life work; a raw and honest tale that doesn’t offer up a heavy handed or preachy answers to addiction, instead opting to try and lead by example. My only complaint is that it wasn’t at least another hundred pages or so.
I am not the only one who thinks so, either. The praise for both Sober Stick Figure and Tozer herself has been rather outstanding. Huge stars in comedy and film have shown their support for her writing, with critical hosannas coming from big industry names like Patton Oswalt and Tig Notaro. Hell, even ‘the Fonz’ himself Henry Winkler chimes in on the book! “He even read the whole thing!” Tozer adds. “He really is a sweet guy. I’ve been doing stand up for a really long time, and now it has paid off.”
Though entirely written and drawn by Tozer, the initial spark to write Sober Stick Figure was not exactly her idea. “I had a literary agent contact me over Twitter,” she recalls. ”He had read my weird tweets about me and my family, and asked if I had ever thought of putting down all of this personal stuff into a book.”
“I tried to keep it as simple as I could,” she replies when further questioned about the process. “Not too wordy. I always like when I can read a book that feels fast, you know?” But that wasn’t the only challenge in getting the book done. There was also a fair amount of inner critic who needed to be dealt with. But I tried not to think about it, and just keep writing. And write stuff that made me laugh. Because when you start thinking about who may read it or how they may react, you start to kind of pull back and not write what is really going on. I had to really try and not care about what other people think.”
“My mom read [the book] and she said ‘I am very proud you and I love this book but it is too much information for a mother to know about her daughter!’” Tozer said.
On the stick figures gracing nearly every page, she recalls “Initially, we kind of wanted to make ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’, but for adults. They were a pain in the ass to draw after a while. But I thought they were important. The subject matter is really dark at times, so it’s good to have these kind of funny little stick figures to cut the tension of how serious it is.” And indeed they do, with her simple illustrations offering a quick interpretation of the events unfolding on the page and also supplying some funny jokes and sight gags of their own.
Addiction is a notoriously heavy subject, but Tozer makes it approachable. When asked on whether it was difficult to write on such a potentially upsetting topic, she responds, “Writing about alcoholism and addiction were easy,” she says. “I’ve been journaling for years about all of it.” But it was hard to write about recovery. Because I’m not an expert on it, or a doctor. But I wanted to write about addiction without coming off as cheesy or preachy. I was only able to do what worked best for me. It’s hard to get help if you’re not comfortable doing it.”
When asked what she hoped people would come away with after reading the book, Amber said “I hope it connects with people, especially younger ones, who may not even know that they have a problem. And I hope that non-addicts can maybe have a better understanding of what we can go through.”
“But I really just hope it connects and people like it.”
The Release Party & Reading for Sober Stick Figure is Wednesday June 8th at Do Drop Inn West (944 E Kimble Dr., Pueblo). Admission is $15, and includes dinner buffet and entertainment from in/PLANES (Inaiah Lujan and Desi Garcia).
Sober Stick Figure is available online at RunningPress.com
