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Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll

eric bogosian

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"Mr. Bogosian is a hilarious wit: there is one line after another that you will quote to friends. He is a born storyteller with perfect pitch for the voices of various ethnic, racial and economic backgrounds. Using every powerful means available to a theatre artist, he shakes the cages of a complacent country engulfed by homelessness to ask just exactly who, if anyone, is home." -Frank Rich, New York Times

"Greatly and bilaterally talented... spiky, stinging, caustic without cauterizing. And funny." -John Simon, New York Magazine

"Scabrously funny... a dervish of a performer, ricocheting off the walls of the male psyche." - Boston Phoenix

Eric Bogosian is one of our most innovative and provocative artists, with a unique gift for portraying the currents and idioms of contemporary society. The monologues in Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll form a composite picture of the complex, sometimes alarming state of American culture in the 1990s.

One of America’s premier performers and most innovative and provocative artists, Bogosian’s plays and solo work include suburbia (Lincoln Center Theater, 1994; adapted to film by director Richard Linklater, 1996); Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll , Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead ; Griller ; Humpty Dumpty ; 1+1 ; Skunkweed ; Wake Up and Smell the Coffee ; Drinking in America ; Notes from Underground and Talk Radio (Pulitzer Prize finalist; New York Shakespeare Festival, 1987; Broadway, 2007; adapted to film by director Oliver Stone, 1988). He has starred in a wide variety of film, TV and stage roles. Most recently, he created the character of Captain Danny Ross on the long-running series Law & Order: Criminal Intent . In 2014, TCG published 100 (monologues) , a collection that commemorates thirty years of Bogosian’s solo-performance career.

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1991

This edition

Format
136 pages, Paperback
Published
September 1, 2008 by Theatre Communications Group
ISBN
9781559361248
ASIN
1559361247
Language
English

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About the author

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eric bogosian

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Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Chicago and Oberlin College. His numerous plays include Talk Radio (1987) and subUrbia (1994), which were adapted to film by Oliver Stone and Richard Linklater, respectively, with Bogosian starring in the former.
Bogosian has appeared in plays, films, and television series throughout his career. His television roles include Captain Danny Ross in Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2006–2010), Lawrence Boyd on Billions (2017–2018), and Gil Eavis on Succession (since 2018). He also starred as Arno in the Safdie brothers' film Uncut Gems (2019). He has also been involved in New York City ballet production, and has written several novels as well as the historical nonfiction Operation Nemesis (2015).

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 20 votes)
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20 reviews All reviews
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daniel_franke
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Some of his pieces did have a nice rhythm to them, and perhaps the ironic rant was more cutting edge 30 years ago, but they just seem juvenile now...good pieces for your highschooler's forensic competition maybe?
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Kun0y
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Someone on a Reddit board recommended “Mall” by Eric Bogosian to read if you’re interested in the teachings of Alan Watts, Ram Dass, or Terence McKenna. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the book, so I picked this one up to try him out.

I could tell from the first few pages I didn’t like the style of writing (each segment is like a play or stand-up comedy), but to my surprise, the book began to quickly engage me.

I really enjoyed this. It kind of reminds me of listening to a stoner ramble on about life and their different theories or like the movie Waking Life by Richard Linklater.

I’m definitely reading more from this author!
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MM23
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Monólogos envolventes, com o tom ácido da crítica social aos dilemas da época. Uma introdução tocante, com um relato breve que nos insere no momento, na visão do dramaturgo. Uma leitura rápida e impactante.
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anonymoustien
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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eric bogosian the freak that you are... i really like watching his one man shows, his performances are funny to me and i am utterly fascinated by the landscape that is his brain. the characters he embodies are so familiar and so baked into their time, reading this feels like i'm looking into a time capsule. i think the best way to read these is to watch the show first. at least, i found it more enjoyable that way because i could hear his voice as i read, and also it was so fun to catch a lot of the jokes i missed when they were said out loud. artist is my favorite bit from this collection. i mean, what's a microwave oven, man? everybody's got one, nobody knows what it does, nobody knows how it works, everybody's got one. why? why does everybody have a microwave oven? because the tv set told 'em to buy it, that's why. like! what's not to love. i get it. soo true. he's not wrong. bring me my tinfoil hat. it's funny because his style of narrative storytelling is pretty unusual for me to like. it's a lot of cynicism and a lot of edgy humor, but he balances it nicely with the glimmers of humanity and of hope. the old man cynicism is just so brand for the late 90s though. anyways i loved this one.
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zombiesonacid
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Another one-man monologue show, similar to Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead; this one actually came first. Coincidentally, I just read a mid-'90s interview with Bogosian in which he compares the two pieces, and he says he thinks this one is broadly funnier, while the other is nastier. I guess I'm nasty? I definitely preferred Nails. This does have some excellent bits, though: I like the litany of pretentious late '80s yuppie foods (what the heck was going on with monkfish?) and the one where he's skewering a Mick Jagger type -- in, apparently, a British accent. Wish I could have seen that, and also the one where he raps (!) or pretends to be a female sex line operator.

Both collections contain moments where he barks like a dog, for what it's worth.
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ceruulean
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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This one person show is considerably different than other plays I have read. The actor performs skits in multiple personas who can be a bit cringy.
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Jutchan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Dated, but daring, these monologues make up Bogosian's seminal stage show, where he plays a dozen characters from the fringe - homeless man, loner, ruthless executive, and others.

Bogosian was the premiere monologist of his day, and these monologues show why he teetered between talented actor and self-absorbed rock star in his hey-day. These monologues tingle with the swagger of a man who knows he's hitting all the right notes.
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