Smoker

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 8/7/2016 (442 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We arrive to recordings of nostalgia cigarette commercials (listen for the guy who claims "he forgets to eat, but never forgets to smoke"), and then… we’re hooked.

There is no "smoke and mirrors" in this solid, hour-long monologue on smoking; just one man’s honest examination of how and why he began the habit, and what cigarettes have meant to him at various milestones in his life.

Writer/performer Bob Brader from New York is a dynamic storyteller, with a wonderful, strong voice — hardly the pipes of a longtime smoker — and a talent for creating visuals and clearly delineating the various characters in his story (his interpretations of his cruel father and that mocking "voice of the cigarette cravings" are standouts).

He relates things all smokers will understand (that click of the lighter, the sensual satisfaction of that first drag) while simultaneously informing the non-smokers along the way.

Never preachy or heavy-handed, and neither for nor against smoking, just — as the old commercials say — satisfying.

— Janice Sawka