He's Got Everything, That Sedaris
He is . . . the world’s most interesting man!
No, not the beer guy. David Sedaris, our best and most delightful humorist
and storyteller, who will be touring through our region early next month.
Speaking from the comfort of his living room, “his feet up,”in Paris, where
he spends much of his year, Sedaris is as easy to converse with as someone
you’ve known all your life. And if you haven’t known David Sedaris, read his
books or New Yorker articles, or heard him on public radio’s This American Life,
you’ve been missing out on some serious fun.
His stories are amazing, giddy montages of his peripatetic life – caught in
his underwear in a French hospital waiting room, watching flaming mice dash from
a pile of burning leaves, or shopping for a taxidermy owl for his long-time
partner, Hugh. Sedaris is master of the odd juxtaposition, the telling detail,
and the surgical observation of human silliness.
His latest book, due out in April, is called, in typical Sedaris
stream-of-consciousness fashion, “Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls.” Sedaris
describes how he came up with the title in his breezy, slightly nasal voice.
“Every now and then you sign a book and the person will be sort of pushy. I
don’t want people to tell me what to write. I’m the professional leave; it to
me.”
One time, he continues, “A woman came up to me and wanted to me to write ‘to
my daughter, explore your possibilities.’ I thought I could work with
‘explore.’ So I wrote, ‘Let’s Explore. Diabetes. With Owls.’ And then I’m in
love with it. It’s got everything, that title.”
Is there an actual story about diabetes and owls? It didn’t get in the book,
Sedaris says. But the one about owl-shopping, “Understanding Owls,” did, and
this week he is being interviewed by “the number one diabetes magazine in the
U.S. I mean, how often do you get asked to do that? I couldn’t say no.”
For his upcoming tour, Sedaris has already written at least a half-dozen new
stories since he completed the book, some of which will have appeared in the New
Yorker and others that will be heard for the first time. Because he travels so
much, Sedaris thinks a lot about “places versus the idea of place.”
For example, “I had a friend who came to visit me in Paris. Like a lot of
the guests who come she wanted to see the ‘real’ Paris. So I took her to the
supermarket, to a store here where everything is frozen (we have nothing like it
in America). Everywhere I took her, she complained it wasn’t ‘real.’ On the
last day we went to an outrageous, touristy restaurant. ‘Now this is
real,’ she said.”
Sedaris is an obsessive diarist who writes almost daily in his journals and
constantly re-reads and sorts through them. Perhaps that is one reason he
collects such a cabinet of curiosities of human behavior, though how to explain
things like this?
“I had a driver one day in California, and we started a conversation. She
just told me, kind of in passing, her cousin was raised in a farm in Mexico, and
when he was a year old, pigs chewed both his arms off. Now he’s a lawyer.”
More grist for Sedaris’stories, like the snippets of conversation he wanders in
on when a friend of Hugh’s is staying in their guest room. Something about the
merits of camel’s milk, for instance, or, “Don’t you just love the feel of an
iguana?”
Many of Sedaris’ stories have an almost dreamlike quality, he admits, like
this classic from 2006 (and my personal favorite), “In the Waiting Room,” in
which his use of a single French word ends up with him sitting in his skivvies
next to well-dressed adults. (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/09/18/060918sh_shouts)
As fun as it is to read Sedaris, however, it’s infinitely more enjoyable to
hear him in person, which is why his touring through our region is a hot ticket
not to be missed. He will be at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on Friday, April
5, the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on Saturday, April 6, and back in Albany at
the Egg on Thursday, April 11. All shows are at 8:00 pm. For tickets and
information: www.bardavon.org or (845) 473-2072; www.mahaiwe.org or (413)
528-0100; www.theegg.org or (518) 473-1845.
No, not the beer guy. David Sedaris, our best and most delightful humorist
and storyteller, who will be touring through our region early next month.
Speaking from the comfort of his living room, “his feet up,”in Paris, where
he spends much of his year, Sedaris is as easy to converse with as someone
you’ve known all your life. And if you haven’t known David Sedaris, read his
books or New Yorker articles, or heard him on public radio’s This American Life,
you’ve been missing out on some serious fun.
His stories are amazing, giddy montages of his peripatetic life – caught in
his underwear in a French hospital waiting room, watching flaming mice dash from
a pile of burning leaves, or shopping for a taxidermy owl for his long-time
partner, Hugh. Sedaris is master of the odd juxtaposition, the telling detail,
and the surgical observation of human silliness.
His latest book, due out in April, is called, in typical Sedaris
stream-of-consciousness fashion, “Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls.” Sedaris
describes how he came up with the title in his breezy, slightly nasal voice.
“Every now and then you sign a book and the person will be sort of pushy. I
don’t want people to tell me what to write. I’m the professional leave; it to
me.”
One time, he continues, “A woman came up to me and wanted to me to write ‘to
my daughter, explore your possibilities.’ I thought I could work with
‘explore.’ So I wrote, ‘Let’s Explore. Diabetes. With Owls.’ And then I’m in
love with it. It’s got everything, that title.”
Is there an actual story about diabetes and owls? It didn’t get in the book,
Sedaris says. But the one about owl-shopping, “Understanding Owls,” did, and
this week he is being interviewed by “the number one diabetes magazine in the
U.S. I mean, how often do you get asked to do that? I couldn’t say no.”
For his upcoming tour, Sedaris has already written at least a half-dozen new
stories since he completed the book, some of which will have appeared in the New
Yorker and others that will be heard for the first time. Because he travels so
much, Sedaris thinks a lot about “places versus the idea of place.”
For example, “I had a friend who came to visit me in Paris. Like a lot of
the guests who come she wanted to see the ‘real’ Paris. So I took her to the
supermarket, to a store here where everything is frozen (we have nothing like it
in America). Everywhere I took her, she complained it wasn’t ‘real.’ On the
last day we went to an outrageous, touristy restaurant. ‘Now this is
real,’ she said.”
Sedaris is an obsessive diarist who writes almost daily in his journals and
constantly re-reads and sorts through them. Perhaps that is one reason he
collects such a cabinet of curiosities of human behavior, though how to explain
things like this?
“I had a driver one day in California, and we started a conversation. She
just told me, kind of in passing, her cousin was raised in a farm in Mexico, and
when he was a year old, pigs chewed both his arms off. Now he’s a lawyer.”
More grist for Sedaris’stories, like the snippets of conversation he wanders in
on when a friend of Hugh’s is staying in their guest room. Something about the
merits of camel’s milk, for instance, or, “Don’t you just love the feel of an
iguana?”
Many of Sedaris’ stories have an almost dreamlike quality, he admits, like
this classic from 2006 (and my personal favorite), “In the Waiting Room,” in
which his use of a single French word ends up with him sitting in his skivvies
next to well-dressed adults. (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/09/18/060918sh_shouts)
As fun as it is to read Sedaris, however, it’s infinitely more enjoyable to
hear him in person, which is why his touring through our region is a hot ticket
not to be missed. He will be at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie on Friday, April
5, the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on Saturday, April 6, and back in Albany at
the Egg on Thursday, April 11. All shows are at 8:00 pm. For tickets and
information: www.bardavon.org or (845) 473-2072; www.mahaiwe.org or (413)
528-0100; www.theegg.org or (518) 473-1845.