Black Irish : Not Your Average White Boy - From the South Bronx to Hollywood

Irish by Blood, American by Birth, Bronx by Upbringing; Nine Lives and Counting

With a foreword by Kevin Sorbo.

I was born in the South Bronx to Irish immigrant parents. I learned to fit in everywhere.

I became a 70s radical, searching for truth in all the wrong places. I became an oral historian at Lehman College and sat across from the legendary Studs Terkel. I walked barefoot over burning coals more than a dozen times with Tony Robbins and, years later, crossed a bed of broken glass. Then I built a Hollywood career, starting first as an actor and then as a producer on more than 55 feature films, and I also became a film professor. And to keep challenging my fear, I went skydiving.

Along the way, I became a husband and a father, fell in love, lost people I couldn't live without, and found my way back to faith. I also found my way back to my Irish family and a small church in Foxford, Ireland, where all of my lives finally made sense.

Black Irish: Not Your Average White Boy is my true story as a kid from the South Bronx who refused to stay in the box the world built for him. It's funny, raw, and honest about the mistakes, the reinventions, and the second chances (and the third, and the fourth).

Courage isn't something you're born with. It's something you choose, again and again.

This book is for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, started over, or wondered if it's too late to live the life they were meant to live.

Inside, you'll discover:

• How a kid with Irish immigrant parents learned to fit in everywhere in the South Bronx, and what that taught me
• How I went from fifteen-year-old dropout and junior kung fu instructor to 70s radical, oral historian, Hollywood actor, producer of 55+ films, and university professor
• The night I walked on fire with Tony Robbins, then years later walked across broken glass, and how it changed what I believed I could do
• The long road back to faith, and to a small church in Foxford, Ireland, where all my lives finally made sense

If you've ever been told who you're supposed to be, this book is for you.