Richard Cerullo

The Sexless Sinner Richard Cerullo

"The Sexless Sinner" is the fictional story of Thomas Talarico who resided for years in an East Village theatre like the Phantom of the Opera House, which, in fact, it was. Raised by a bipolar mother, he spent his childhood hiding from guilt and fear, longing to vanish. Agonizing over his sexual orientation and failed relationships, he sought refuge in everything from a monastery to the military until he decided that painting, music and celibacy would be his new religion where nothing else mattered but pleasing an audience of strangers and surrounding himself with an entourage of entertaining friends. But this fulfillment backfired into sudden bouts of depression, panic, and a compulsion to escape into the same oblivion he dreamed of as a child. The recurring pattern of fleeing into another self-reinvention finally subsided into an almost ideal balance, but never totally free of the underlying dream of it happening all over again. It's the story of someone who is both examining and mocking his entire life.