Calling himself "Wildman," he poses for photographs with a Japanese knotweed stem between his teeth or tries to "eat" a fist-size sculpture of a yellow morel mushroom.

Such behavior is sure to get anyone's attention, except that Brill — who lives in New York City — is serious. Deadly serious. If one doesn't follow his gospel, the emergency room might be the next stop.

Brill has thousands of disciples who hang onto his every word. Afterward, you'll probably find many of them on their hands and knees in their yard or local park, scrounging for food.

"I understand he's the new Euell Gibbons," says Sean Brady of Venture Outdoors, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organization dedicated to outdoor recreation. "He's considered the expert these days in wild edibles."

Gibbons, who died at age 64 in 1975, in Beavertown, Pa., was known to millions of Americans not only for his expertise on foraging, harvesting and eating wild plants, but became a household name and face through television commercials he made for Post Grape Nuts, comparing them to hickory nuts and offering tidbits about eating parts of pine trees.

Brill doesn't have a nationwide television presence yet, but news about him slowly is spreading across the country, particularly among vegans, vegetarians and naturalists, as well as regular folks who want a simpler, more healthful diet and a personal relationship with the great outdoors.

He's coming to Western Pennsylvania December 6 as keynote speaker for the annual PA CleanWays dinner in Blairsville. The nonprofit statewide organization helps communities stamp out illegal dumping and littering, according to Karen McCalpin, vice president of external affairs. The program is open to the public.

Many of Brill's followers have been introduced to his entertaining mode of education through one of his books. The latest is "The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook" (The Harvard Common Press, $29.95). He also recently released a video, "Foraging with the Wildman: A Comprehensive Class in Wild Food" (Canopy Media, $18), the first in a series of low-budget instructional tapes.

"Chris Allan, an incredible computer expert and video artist who is into wilderness survival, went out with me with a Camcorder," Brill says. The first video covers "Wild Edible Basics," and between Brill's roll-your-eyes jokes and cheek-tapping mouth music, there's a lot to digest. He even takes you into his home kitchen in Queens and cooks up some of the items he's foraged from nearby open spaces — including Central Park.

Speaking of Central Park, it's where Brill, 55, first made international headlines. In 1986, he was arrested by undercover urban parks department rangers while leading a wild foods tour in the park. He was charged with criminal mischief, the result of eating a dandelion.

"It was the second best thing that ever happened to me," says Brill in a telephone interview from his home in Queens, noting that the birth of his daughter, Violet, 4 months ago, eclipses all. "They put me in handcuffs."

After being arraigned, Brill contacted the media and was written up in newspapers including the New York Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times, and his plight made The Associated Press and Reuters newswires. He appeared on television with Dan Rather, Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford, eventually visiting David Letterman and Al Roker and foraging on the Food Network.

The uproar surrounding Brill's arrest — the charges were dropped — segued into a formal job leading wild edibles tours in Central Park. He continues to offer them on a freelance basis. He's cooked wild foods for ambassadors from Great Britain and France and taught at The Natural Gourmet Cookery School in Manhattan.

Brill, a self-taught naturalist and cook, got into wild edibles as a hobby. He was bicycling one day in the spring and came across some Greek women — "all dressed in black" — who were collecting wild grape leaves. "So I came home with a bag of grape leaves and stuffed them," he says. "Then I came back in the fall, and the park was festooned with fox grapes."

Autumn is the busiest time for wild foods, Brill says. "There are nuts and seeds, and it's best for mushrooms, fruits, berries and root vegetables. Acorns are the least appreciated nuts."

But if the thought of squirrel food scares you, reach for something that's likely to be within yards of your home: black walnuts. A few go a long way — use one-third as much as English walnuts in recipes, he says — and black walnuts are a source of cancer-fighting omega-3 fatty acids, too.

Brill, who has a bachelor's degree in psychology from George Washington University, is a walking encyclopedia of things wild and edible, as well as poisonous, and claims he suffers from "CCD": compulsive cooking disorder.

"I get an idea and run into the kitchen and try something that might taste good," he says. "I get a feel for what you should do, why it's wrong, what is wrong."

McCalpin of PA CleanWays says Brill was chosen to speak at the organization's annual dinner after administrators pondered the question, "How can we make this fun? How can we draw in some folks who normally wouldn't be interested in hearing or being aware of PA CleanWays?" Although the group isn't involved in foraging, she adds, "we keep those places clean so those kinds of things can go on."

"We have many vegetarians and vegans on our staff," she adds, "and they are excited (about Brill's appearance)."

Venture Outdoors' Brady thinks Brill's visit is a great idea. He already has plans to invite the Wildman to his organization's annual Japanese Knotweed Festival next April. The group wanted Brill to come this past spring, Brady says, but there was a schedule conflict. However, they did cook up recipes from Brill for Japanese knotweed — considered by many as an invasive weed — for this year's feast.

Brady says he recommends Brill's book "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places" (Perennial Currents, $21.95 paperback). "It's an exhaustive book," he says. "If something has an edible quality, it's there — the history, how to harvest it and prepare it ."

He adds that, thanks to Brill, "I eat half the weeds in my yard now. They are really yummy, especially purslane."

The purported "weeds" also find their way to the formal dining room table. "I'm feeding some of this stuff to guests," Brady admits. "Most of them don't leave my house without sampling some."