When I was abroad, a friend of mine lent me Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. And let me tell you, I couldn’t put it down! I was laughing out loud! Golly! But seriously, this stupid hyperbole actually applies to Sedaris. An essayist and humorist based in New York, Sedaris’ humor can make anyone laugh … and trust me, it’s funny as all hell.
And guess what? You can see him live and in person next Wednesday at George Washington’s Lisner Auditorium.
Sedaris got his start reading some of his essays on NPR’s Morning Edition back in the mid-’90s. He spoke about his hilarious experiences working as an elf in Macy’s at Christmas time, an account later published in a short collection of plays entitled Santaland Diaries and Season’s Greetings. His comic popularity was cemented right away.
Following the 1995 publication of Barrel Fever, a collection of essays, the Washington Post hailed him as “one of America’s most prickly, and most delicious, young comic talents.” New York magazine claimed he was “the most brilliantly witty New Yorker since Dorothy Parker.” I don’t know who Dorothy Parker is, but it sounds like a nice accolade.
Sedaris takes his material from his experiences working as an elf, a mover and a number of other odd jobs he had before making it big in his 30s. His stories of growing up as a perceptive young man in Raleigh, N.C. are especially laughable.
For instance, here’s an excerpt from 2001’s Me Talk Pretty One Day: “She was referring to the athletic rivalry between the Triangle area’s two largest universities. Those who cared about such things tended to express their allegiance by wearing either Tar Heel powder blue, or Wolf Pack red, two colors that managed to look good on no one. The question of team preference was common in our part of North Carolina, and the answer supposedly spoke volumes about the kind of person you either were or hoped to become.” If you’ve ever been to North Carolina, or if you listen to Petey Pablo, you know exactly what he’s talking about.
In the same book, he writes about the time he took guitar lessons from a midget, as well as about taking French lessons and making the mistakes in translation that are so common, like “Jesus shaves.” My personal favorite is the fictional piece “You can’t kill the Rooster,” in which he describes his imagined but lovable brother Paul who calls himself “the Rooster”: “Asked how he came up with that name, he says only, ‘Certain motherfuckers think they can fuck with my shit, but you can’t kill the Rooster. You might can fuck him up sometimes, but, bitch, nobody kills the motherfucking Rooster. You know what I’m saying?’”
I know what he’s saying and you will, too, if you go check out Sedaris next Wednesday. It may be like watching a stand-up comic behind at a podium, but you’re guaranteed more than few hearty guffaws.
Lisner Auditorium is located at 21st St. and H St., N.W. Ticket information can be found at www.lisner.org or at ticketmaster.com.
