The Rogue
(David Ury is an actor, writer and magna specialist. His most famous role was being crushed to death by an ATM on Breaking Bad. We here at the Rogue loved that show, so we jumped at the chance to read Everybody Dies, the book he wrote with Ken Tanaka (are they the same person? Hmmm). Yeah, it’s a little odd, it’s a little twisted, but darkly hilarious. Even more, it brings up the question, why do we avoid the conversation about death?)
Western Culture avoids the topic of death. Why do you think that is?
Because it scares the #@*! out of us.” I think we’d all rather not deal with and not be confronted with the fact that it will eventually come for us and all who we love. But death is indeed coming. The idea that death is taboo and shouldn’t be talked about has always seemed very strange to me. I suppose this is true of sex as well….sex creates life, and life eventually ends in death, and yet for some reason we don’t feel comfortable discussing the beginning or the end….but we sure do love the middle part.
Why is it important to have a sense of humor about dying?
Part of the idea of “Everybody Dies: A Children’s Book for Grown Ups” is to help start a conversation about something that we tend to avoid talking about. The easiest way to do that is through comedy, and humor is also a great coping mechanism to help us human folk deal with the difficulties of life and the inevitability of death.
Why did you choose the medium of a Adult/Kids book ala Go the Fuck to Sleep?
Allow me to defer to Ken Tanaka’s introduction to the book:
Sometimes people ask me why I wrote a “ children’s book for grown ups” about death. People seem to think that children need to be sheltered from the idea of death, but most children I have met are not afraid of death, or of this book. It is the grown ups who shake in fear when they read the words “Everybody Dies”. Grown ups are afraid of death. Grown ups know that it is coming, and it can’t be stopped.
When we are truly overcome with fear, we are still children on the inside, no matter our age. We still want our mommies. Sometimes a grown up needs to be treated like a child for his own good. And, so I here it is, Everybody Dies: A Children’s Book for Grown Ups.
Although meant for adults, this book may be most effective when read aloud to frightened parents by their children.
Do you have any perspective on what comes after death?
Everybody Dies: A Children’s Book for Grown ups deals only with the facts. I’m afraid that, not having yet experienced my own death, I can’t really provide any perspective on what may lie beyond. However, if this book sells well enough, Ken Tanaka and I hope to do a posthumous memoir about our experience with death and dying.
What projects do you have coming up?
I have a fun role in a film called “Little Boy” starring Kevin James and Tom Wilkinson. I play a giant snake….sort of. It should be out later this year. Ken Tanaka has a museum show opening June 8th at Pasadena Museum of California Art. Ken and I are always busy creating new online content. We have a couple recent videos we are excited about one is called “Asian Stereotype Police” which is based on a concept from Stella Choe, the star of our viral video “What Kind of Asian are You?”. We are also working on a follow up book. Please keep abreast of our activities by following our twitter and joining our mailing lists.
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