I just got back from the David Sedaris reading. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: this man is damn funny. He read a few stories: “Rooster at the Hitchin’ Post” (about his brother’s wedding; published in Esquire, September 2002); “The Ship Shape” (regarding a childhood summer cottage, to be published in The New Yorker this August); and a story on the theme of protest, originally written for This American Life. Go see him. Washington was his sixth stop on the first leg of his current tour, which takes him across the country and wraps up in L.A. at the end of this month.
A couple of bits gleaned from the Q&A: Ask for a translation. Publishers send him foreign-language versions of his books, which he doesn’t need or want, so he brings them on tour to give away. He explained this, and asked almost rhetorically, “Does anyone speak German?” A few people raised their hands, but the most frantic was a woman near the front of the audience. Mr. Sedaris walked downstage and gave her a copy of what looked like Me Talk Pretty One Day, or uh, Ich ein Tag sprechen hübsch. Returning to the mic, he deadpanned, “I never leave the podium.”
Also, he said that as a writer himself he recommends An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma, a novel of corruption and survival in Delhi (Times review); and Talking Heads, a series of monologues currently in performance on Broadway. The latter was first written for the BBC in the 1980s, and is available as a book-on-tape, for you tapeworms. (Yeah, he started to say, “If you’re a tapeworm, you’ll like…” It took me a second.)
4 replies on “Funny man”
Dah! I’m a fellow Sedaris junkie, you lucky bastard, you. If my rehearsal schedule allows I would kill to see him in L.A. this month. My copy of “Naked” was burgled last weekend when my car was broken into. Such genius wasted on card carrying thugs… *sigh* … again, you lucky bastard.
Oh, Paul. Sucks about the car. Dude, if I had had any foresight at all, I totally would’ve gotten you a new, signed copy. [bangs head on desk] Yes, go see David come hell or high water. He’ll be doing a few So Cal gigs—and don’t be intimidated by the “sold out” listings… there’s always extra tickets to be had at the venue. I myself had an extra ticket, and was able to sell it to a very grateful woman in the ticket line.
Wow. “Leave the car… take the copy of David Sedaris’s Naked.” Who’d’ve thunk it?
*groans* I just noticed that I TOTALLY missed David Sedaris in Austin. I could’ve made it there and seen him since I was an hour away that day, but just noticed he was there.