Making Friends in Strange Places: Comedian Drew Tarvin Releases Memoir THE UNITED STATES OF LAUGHTER

What do you do if you come across a bear while hiking in Alaska? If you are Drew Tarvin, you make up a dumb song and start singing to scare it away.

The comedian, motivational speaker, and self-professed nerd takes readers on a cross-country journey filled with quirky people and oddball experiences in his new memoir, "The United States of Laughter."

A former Procter & Gamble computer engineer, Tarvin owns Humor That Works, a consulting service that teaches organizations how to have less stressful, more productive work environments. He took that aspect of his professional life on the road after deciding to embark on an 18-month nomadic existence. During that time, he lived out of two carry-on bags while traveling to all 50 states, logging 92,358 miles, sometimes sleeping on strangers' couches or in Walmart parking lots.

"The lease was up on my New York apartment," he explained. "I was planning a six-week comedy tour, anyway, and didn't want to pay for another apartment while I was gone, so I decided to keep going. I had always wanted to visit all 50 states."

Along the way, Tarvin met a wide array of colorful characters, often under unusual circumstances:

• In California, he helped push a Ferrari and its grateful owner out of the sand, along a remote desert road under the blaze sun.
• In North Dakota, he performed an original poem at an open-mic night at a biker bar, to the delight of the rough-and-tumble crowd.
• In Montana, the simple act of eating a Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo Burrito reminded him of America's diversity.
• In Arizona, a visit to the Grand Canyon caused him to reflect on his late father's influence on his life.

"My goal was to do something different in each state," Tarvin said. "As an engineer, I have always been obsessed with efficiency, but this journey taught me the joy of slowing down and savoring the moment. You can have some really cool experiences, if you are just open to them."

See Drew Tarvin's "Cliched Meaning of Life" here

Tarvin describes his book as a cross between Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" and Tina Fey's "Bossy Pants." Bob Mankoff, Cartoon & Humor Editor at Esquire said, "In this amazing, amusing book, Andrew Tarvin goes looking for laughs in all the right places, specifically every one of these now not so United States."

"Through my journeys, I found there is still one thing that unites us, and that's laughter," Tarvin said. "We are more alike than different, no matter what state we call home. There is still a lot of kindness and courtesy in America."

"The United States of Laughter" by Drew Tarvin is available through Amazon and other outlets. For more information about the author, visit www.DrewTarvin.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.