International Speaker, Actor Releases Memoir to Raise Funds for the Centre for Suicide Prevention

NEW YORK - Aug. 26, 2013 - PRLog -- New York, NY –  By the time Josh Rivedal turned twenty-five, he thought he’d have the perfect life—a few years singing on Broadway, followed by a starring role in his own television show. After which, his getaway home in the Hamptons would be featured in Better Homes & Gardens, and his face would grace the cover of the National Enquirer as Bigfoot’s not-so-secret lover. Instead, his resume is filled with an assortment of minor league theatre and an appearance on The Maury Povich Show—a career sidetracked by his father’s suicide, a lawsuit from his mother over his inheritance, and a break-up with his long-term girlfriend. 

Tortured by his thoughts, he finds himself on the ledge of a fourth floor window, contemplating jumping out to inherit his familial legacy. In turn he must reach out to the only person who can help him before it’s too late. 

Based in part on his acclaimed one-man show, The Gospel According to Josh is a comedic and poignant true-to-life tale of love, loss, struggle, and survival—a gospel account of one young man’s passage into manhood—his twenty-eight-year Gentile bar mitzvah.

Published by Skookum Hill. Pre-Release of The Gospel According to Josh: A 28-Year Gentile Bar Mitzvah will be available online through EventBrite (http://gospeljoshbookcanada.eventbrite.com/) on Monday, August 26, 2013. 15 % of proceeds will be donated to the Centre for Suicide Prevention. The author will sign the first 250 copies. Full release September 24^th, 2013 on Amazon, Kindle, and major book retailers. Trade Paperback 370 pages. ISBN 978-0-9860338-0-3

About the Author

Josh Rivedal has spoken professionally about suicide prevention and mental health awareness in more than twenty-five U.S. states; in Ontario, Canada at Wilfrid Laurier University, Confederation College, Conestoga College, for the Ontario Provincial Police, and on September 11, 2013 at Centennial College; and in Alberta, Canada at McEwan University and on January 16^th and 17^th 2014 at the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Josh wrote and developed the play, The Gospel According to Josh, which has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada, and opens Off-Broadway in New York City in May 2014. He wrote the libretto to a Spanish language Christmas musical Rescatando la Navidad, opening in Miami, November 2013. Josh has been published in Personal Branding Magazine.

As an actor, Josh has lent his voice numerous national television commercials, audiobooks, and animated projects including the role of Hippo in Scholastic’s Rabbit and Hippo In Three Short Tales, the narrator of Julianne Moore’s Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully, and description for seeing impaired children for NBC’s Tree Fu Tom.