Waiting for Godot. But Sedaris.
Earlier this week Alan and I saw David Sedaris speak at the Lisner Auditorium at GWU. If you don’t know who he is, then you must either be a) So conservative you crap tea bags, or b) Dead.
He’s one of my favorite authors of all time, because he knows how to tell a great story. Well, that, and he’s from a pretty wacky family and is willing to exploit it for my amusement. And he moved to France with a limited grasp on French, much like I did. So, he’s kind of like an older, gayer, funnier, more talented version of me. And whereas I would pass a drug test, I’m pretty sure he would fail.
Alan had never seen him before, so the night got off to a bang when Sedaris took the stage and opened with, “I hate to be a dick, but…” And proceeded to stop and watch the sign language interpreter, just so he could see her sign the word, “dick.”
Right there – that’s all you need to know. If you laugh at that, you’ll enjoy him, if you’re offended, then you should crawl under your seat and start sobbing, because your funny bone is clearly broken.
I’ve seen him many times and always, my favorite part has been the END of the reading, when he reads snippets from his diary. One of his most memorable excerpts (from a year or two ago) was about stumbling upon a documentary about a Mexican girl suffering from hypertrichosis (aka “werewolf syndrome”) in which her face was completely covered by fur. He didn’t react strongly to the fur itself; it was when her father took her to get her ears pierced that he shrieked, “NO! NO! For the love of God! Don’t do ANYTHING to draw attention to her face.”
Fair enough. Sedaris gets it.
pithypants 
Have you seen SantaLand Diaries? If not, put it on your holiday calendar. It’s fantastic.
By Sedaris? Yes. I’ve read everything by him except the latest. He makes me pee my pants.