Mike Cavaliere was terrified of becoming a dad.
“The late nights, the crying, the being-responsible-for-them-not-dying,” he said, breaking into a chuckle. “If none of that scares you, I question your sanity. Parenthood is a real-life horror movie.”
Using pop culture to contextualize true life experiences in this way is at the core of Cavaliere’s latest book, The Humorist: Adventures in Adulting & Horror Movies, which was released June 13. A collection of personal essays, the book chronicles the author’s coming of age — as a parent, person and husband — through funny (and often self-deprecating) stories that look to the history of horror cinema for life lessons.
“As a lifelong movie addict, the connections to pop culture came naturally,” said the Flagler Beach resident. “I’ve always looked for answers in movies — or looked for escape. When you’re obsessed with pop culture, you almost can’t help but benchmark important moments in your life through the movies, shows and songs that you were into during those times.”
Our most vivid memories, though, he said, almost always center around fear.
“Fear is formative,” Cavaliere said. “That’s what made horror such a perfect peg for the stories in this book. We fear the unknown. We fear loss. We change. And that’s what I’m exploring here: how we deal with those scary moments of growing up — and how, a lot of times, those scary moments seem pretty funny in retrospect.”
A 33-year Flagler County native, Cavaliere is now raising a stepdaughter, Charlotte, in town, which he says serves as a constant reminder of time passing.
“It’s surreal, the ways things change and stay the same,” he said. “One chapter in the book is all about bringing Charlotte to her first school dance at Old Kings Elementary School, which is where I went to K-5th. When you’re raising a child in the same town where you grew up, you’re forced to replay memories from your childhood every time you take your kid to T-ball or some school function. You know these places intimately, but they’re almost not ‘yours’ anymore. It gives you this really interesting forced perspective on aging.”
Cavaliere’s book is available on Amazon. Support local.
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