On The DL

Owen Egerton

by Sara Scott

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Published: Jul 18, 2007

Thu., July 19, 6 p.m., free, Robin's Bookstore, 108 S. 13th St., 215-735-9600, www.robinsbookstore.com

Sometimes it's OK to laugh when people die � in fiction, anyway. Imagine a spelling bee where wild pigs devour the contestants when they miss a word, or a church camp where every other week a counselor dies in a freak accident meant to emotionally manipulate the campers into accepting Christ. Owen Egerton created these and many more twisted scenarios in his short story collection, How Best to Avoid Dying (Dalton Publishing, $13.95), and he hopes that when he reads them to you, you will snicker.

"There are definitely some dark themes, but they're also very funny," says the Austin, Texas-based writer and comedian. "Sometimes when we laugh, we end up opening our minds to different ideas. Death and spirituality are so serious, and [when we think about them] our brows wrinkle. But when we laugh, our faces relax, it feels good, and then suddenly we're thinking about something in a new way. And it stays with us."

How Best includes deaths other than the physical loss of life � Egerton explores the death of a marriage, the death of faith and even the death of sexuality in a comical and surprisingly thoughtful story about a man whose penis talks to him.

While writing, Egerton says, he tries to channel the crowd-pleasing zeal he uses as a performer in the popular Austin improv troupe The Sinus Show. "If you're asking someone to watch you onstage for an hour, you have a responsibility to wow them," he says. "I try to bring the same energy I bring to the stage to my writing. I feel like I owe them the best fucking story I can give them."

 

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