Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat

by Kevin James Thornton

The algorithm introduced me to Kevin James Thornton when I started learning watercolor. His Create with Kevin videos brought me so much joy and confidence in a space that’s usually a cesspool (Facebook), that when I learned that he was also a comedian and had a book coming out, I had to click and see just what Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat was all about. When I read the book description, I pre-ordered it. When it arrived, I bumped it up on my To Be Read list. I wondered how much my experience as a mixed-race Black girl trapped in white evangelicalism might have in common with experience of this gay, white man.

While some of the nuances of our situations are different (for example: he actively chose evangelicalism, whereas I was indoctrinated), I could easily identify with his experience.

I laughed out loud at the scene in the Photography section in Barnes & Noble and how I, too, would have felt scandalous looking at a book of Mapplethorpe’s photography, and the lengths I might have gone to hide it from a youth pastor.

I wondered if all of us who don’t fit in and feel a little different find the theatre? (Though I didn’t quite find my place in performance the way I’d once hoped, this book sparked memories of what the theatre once was to me.) And didn’t all of us from small towns and sheltered lives feel somewhat lost with the more sophisticated kids whose knowledge hadn’t been shaped by the Christian bookstore (and certainly not the Photography section at Barnes & Noble)? I recognized so many similar loves and hobbies, that I had the beautiful thought that maybe creativity is the thing that all of us misfits have in common. And as long as we’re creating, maybe we’ll all be okay.

And do we all have fabulous, interdimensional black cats?

This book is a light and easy read, deeply enjoyable and told with humor. I described it to a friend as: “Brain candy, but like, an organic ginger chew kind of candy. It’s tasty and spicy and fun but then your tummy actually feels better, and your tongue isn’t covered in some weird, corn syrupy paste, and you’re like, Oh snap! Is this candy good for me?” And I would say yes. Yes, it is, especially if you’re deconstructing.

And now, I’m back to the Create with Kevin videos. I can’t wait to see what Kevin creates next, and I’ll definitely have to catch one of his comedy shows the next time he’s in town.

Get a copy of Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat by Kevin James Thornton (or request it at your local library).
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