Comedian Rob Delaney Inspired by Phoebe Gloeckner’s Work
In a recent episode of the BBC Cultural Frontline podcast, American comedian Rob Delaney explained why the work of the writer and graphic novelist Phoebe Gloeckner inspired his comedy and shaped his understanding of the power of art. Listen to the episode here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p080nm68
In a 2013 interview, Delaney discussed the impact of Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life and Other Stories.
Of course, she’s an amazing illustrator, so the images capture you right away, but then her unflinching ability to look at her childhood and the pain in it and to sublimate it into instructive art that is so helpful to its consumer is unparalleled. Her ability to transform her pain into art is on a level with Sinéad O’Connor or the sculptor Camille Claudel. Then I thought about this for this piece that we’re doing, because I just wrote a memoir, and Phoebe Gloeckner was one of my role models for this. There are no better memoirs than Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life [and] Diary Of A Teenage Girl. They don’t exist as far as I’m concerned. There’s such strength and such beauty in them that when I was in early sobriety reading these books, they were very helpful in me getting healthier mentally and emotionally. So, they’re just indefensible tomes to me and guides on how to create stuff and how to do it honestly and unflinchingly.
Rob Delaney explains why Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life is “the North Star” | AV Club