Tap Water & Whiskey is a bold, irreverent comedic satire that follows Joshua O’Leary—a man who has known for most of his life that he is not ordinary. In fact, Joshua is absolutely certain of one thing: he is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The problem isn’t belief—at least not his own. The problem is everything that comes after it. Because knowing who you are and knowing what to do about it are two very different things.
Raised in South Boston with a grounded, no-nonsense worldview, Joshua doesn’t see himself as a divine figure in the way history—or religion—might expect. He doesn’t speak in parables, he doesn’t carry himself with reverence, and he certainly doesn’t have a grand, clear plan for humanity’s salvation. Instead, he’s stuck trying to reconcile an overwhelming sense of purpose with the reality that modern life is chaotic, skeptical, and largely uninterested in listening. He understands the weight of the message he’s supposed to deliver—but not the method, not the tone, and definitely not the timing.
As Joshua begins attempting to share his message, he quickly discovers that the world isn’t exactly waiting for him. People don’t respond with awe—they respond with doubt, confusion, or outright dismissal. Institutions that once defined belief now feel distant or performative, and the idea of someone claiming to be the Second Coming lands somewhere between offensive and absurd. Joshua, for his part, refuses to become something he’s not just to be taken seriously. He won’t soften his language, won’t adopt a persona, and won’t play into expectations of what people think he should be. Which, of course, makes everything harder.
What follows is a sharply comedic and often chaotic journey as Joshua tries to communicate something deeply meaningful in a world that filters everything through noise, cynicism, and spectacle. His attempts to connect are raw, unpolished, and often hilariously misaligned with what people expect from a figure of his supposed significance. Whether he’s navigating conversations that spiral out of control, confronting people who challenge his identity, or wrestling with his own frustration at being misunderstood, Joshua becomes a lens through which the story explores belief in the modern age
At its core, Tap Water & Whiskey is a satire about faith, perception, and the gap between message and delivery. It asks what it would actually look like if something profound entered a world that no longer knows how to recognize it—and whether truth matters if no one is willing to hear it. Through Joshua’s voice—blunt, self-aware, and often unintentionally funny—the novel balances irreverence with deeper questions about purpose, identity, and the difficulty of being heard in a world that has already decided what it believes.
Blending sharp humor with underlying emotional weight, Tap Water & Whiskey is ultimately a story about the burden of knowing who you are—and the far greater challenge of convincing anyone else.