Sara Benincasa’s comedy is uplifting, deeply personal, and very funny. As difficult as her agoraphobia is to manage, she’s pulled through it—beautifully. Agorafabulous! manages to make you laugh even as she’s peeing into cereal bowls and hiding them under her bed.” — Rob Delaney
“Agorafabulous! is laugh-out loud funny, even as it’s taking on deadly serious issues.” — Feministing.com
“Funny and unflinchingly honest…. Benincasa discovers her gift for comedy and storytelling, and finds tranquility.” — Publishers Weekly
“A blisteringly funny yet affecting debut memoir about a young woman’s struggle to overcome panic disorder and agoraphobia. Comedian Benincasa recounts her adolescent devolution into a ‘full-on, obsessive, cowering, trembling agoraphobe’ [who] discover[s], by accident, the healing power of stand-up comedy. Fabulously quirky and outrageous.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Hilarious. . . . With expert pacing, the stand-up comic mixes humor and poignant anecdotes from her teen, college, and young adult life. As her empowering tale makes clear, she survives and thrives (with a little help from family, friends, and Prozac).” — Booklist
“Sara’s story of overcoming a debilitating fear is told with such honesty and hilarity that all I want to do now is hang out with her in a tiny room and not let her leave until she tells me more stories.” — Sarah Colonna, author of Life as I Blow It
“If I ever get thrown in a mental institution, my only hope would be having Sara as a cellmate. Her funny and poignant perspective makes Agorafabulous! a stellar debut.” — Julie Klam, author of You Had Me at Woof
“Sara’s comedy is uplifting, deeply personal, and very funny. As difficult as her agoraphobia is to manage, she’s pulled through it beautifully. Agorafabulous! manages to make you laugh even as she’s peeing into cereal bowls and hiding them under her bed.” — Rob Delaney, comedian and columnist, Vice magazine
“With storytelling that is hilarious, honest, raw, and absurd, Agorafabulous! puts you in the body and mind of an extraordinary individual who accepts and embraces her full self.” — Baratunde Thurston, author of How to Be Black
“Sara’s blunt and quirkily humorous take on the crippling anxiety that held her hostage in her own home will have you laughing out loud one minute and wanting to hug her the next.” — Kambri Crews, author of Burn Down the Ground: A Memoir
“The abridged list of things Sara Benincasa has been afraid of includes leaving her home, having a wet head, driving…and sex. But her memoir…dissects all of these fears with so much verve and humor, you’ll be amazed at how much fun it can be to read about such difficult circumstances.” — Bust Magazine
“Benincasa informs and entertains while relaying this story about mental illness. Without glossing over the seriousness of her ordeal, she mines it for laughter, which, someone once said, is the best medicine.” — Penthouse
“Often poignant and always funny…. [Sara Benincasa’s] matter–of–fact, unselfconscious delivery allows readers to be entertained without having to feel guilty about it; further, it may just inspire them to make a few changes of their own. [A] story of triumph over adversity…you’ll be better for having read it.” — Examiner.com
Sara’s blunt and quirkily humorous take on the crippling anxiety that held her hostage in her own home will have you laughing out loud one minute and wanting to hug her the next.
Sara’s story of overcoming a debilitating fear is told with such honesty and hilarity that all I want to do now is hang out with her in a tiny room and not let her leave until she tells me more stories.
If I ever get thrown in a mental institution, my only hope would be having Sara as a cellmate. Her funny and poignant perspective makes Agorafabulous! a stellar debut.
Sara Benincasa’s comedy is uplifting, deeply personal, and very funny. As difficult as her agoraphobia is to manage, she’s pulled through it—beautifully. Agorafabulous! manages to make you laugh even as she’s peeing into cereal bowls and hiding them under her bed.
With storytelling that is hilarious, honest, raw, and absurd, Agorafabulous! puts you in the body and mind of an extraordinary individual who accepts and embraces her full self.
Hilarious. . . . With expert pacing, the stand-up comic mixes humor and poignant anecdotes from her teen, college, and young adult life. As her empowering tale makes clear, she survives and thrives (with a little help from family, friends, and Prozac).
Agorafabulous! is laugh-out loud funny, even as it’s taking on deadly serious issues.
Hilarious. . . . With expert pacing, the stand-up comic mixes humor and poignant anecdotes from her teen, college, and young adult life. As her empowering tale makes clear, she survives and thrives (with a little help from family, friends, and Prozac).
Benincasa informs and entertains while relaying this story about mental illness. Without glossing over the seriousness of her ordeal, she mines it for laughter, which, someone once said, is the best medicine.
The abridged list of things Sara Benincasa has been afraid of includes leaving her home, having a wet head, driving…and sex. But her memoir…dissects all of these fears with so much verve and humor, you’ll be amazed at how much fun it can be to read about such difficult circumstances.
Often poignant and always funny…. [Sara Benincasa’s] matter–of–fact, unselfconscious delivery allows readers to be entertained without having to feel guilty about it; further, it may just inspire them to make a few changes of their own. [A] story of triumph over adversity…you’ll be better for having read it.
The lowest point for award-winning comedian and recovering agoraphobe Benincasa in her funny and unflinchingly honest account of her lifelong battle with panic attacks comes in college when she’s too terrified to use her bathroom and is left to urinate in Le Creuset bowls. She starts having attacks in early childhood and by 16 is on a diet of antidepressant and antianxiety medications to deal with a long list of fears including driving and being a passenger, wet hair, and riding the subway and bus. When she gets to Emerson College, everything completely unravels. Rescued by her very understanding parents, she recuperates at home in New Jersey, seeing a psychiatrist and getting on the right drugs like Prozac and Xanax. The healing comes slowly, with baby steps like graduating from smoothies to solid food and being able to drive alone with the help of an inspirational mix tape. After surviving her first big test—moving 11 hours away to school in Asheville, N.C.—with only one small crackup, she decides she is ready to handle New York City, where “most people are even crazier than I am.” Using humor to help her overcome the anxieties that once dominated her life, Benincasa discovers her gift for comedy and storytelling, and finds tranquility. Agent: Scott Mendel. (Feb.)
A blisteringly funny yet affecting debut memoir about a young woman's struggle to overcome panic disorder and agoraphobia. Podcast host and award-winning comedian Benincasa recounts her adolescent devolution into a "full-on, obsessive, cowering, trembling agoraphobe." She suffered her first panic attacks when she was 11 and was taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs to control her condition by the time she was 16. Her phobias continued to intensify to the point where even short trips to the hair salon became difficult for her. Benincasa, however, ignored the signs that her "weird problems" were getting worse until she got to college. During her junior year, she broke down completely. In the terrible omniscience born from madness, she woke up one day "knowing" that to leave her apartment meant certain disaster. The comedian then began a slow and painful surrender to the phobias that had dogged her from childhood. Her bed became her refuge, cereal bowls her toilets. Therapy, homemade smoothies, "Zentastic, organic, free-range, fair trade, sustainable, sage-scented self-help books" and the timely intervention of friends and family pulled Benincasa back from the edge of her agoraphobic abyss. But she continued to wrestle with her demons through college, teaching jobs and graduate school until she discovered, by accident, the healing power of stand-up comedy. "I subscribe to the notion," she writes, "that if you can laugh at the shittiest moments in your life, you can transcend them." Fabulously quirky and outrageous.
