Humorist bares all for Lasallians in Jersey

By Kylie Jane Wakefield
Collegian Editor
April 4, 2007

I’m convinced that David Sedaris is the funniest writer alive. His works are not only hilarious, but they’re relatable and profoundly humane. On Friday, March 30, La Salle’s Grimoire hosted a trip to see Sedaris live at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, N.J.

The author, who is most famous for his SantaLand Diaries stories and the autobiographical Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day novels, began his bi-annual tour last Friday, the first stop on a 32-city journey. The State Theatre was filled with hundreds of Sedaris devotees, packing almost the entire place.

Sedaris began the show by reading a story about his love for spiders, as opposed to most people’s affection for dogs or cats. He pointed out that while many of his friends felt sympathetic for the poor puppies and kittens in need during the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, he worried about the fates of all the spiders that might have drowned.

Sedaris then read a story titled “All the Beauty You’ll Ever Need” that appeared in The New Yorker, where he is often published. He talked about life in Normandy, France and how the officials fail to alert their citizens when the water is going to be cut off. To the disgust of the audience, he said that he would shave with chicken broth or fill the toilet with “orange juice, milk [or a] lesser champagne” to adapt. Throughout the show, the writer frequently discussed living in Japan, France, New York City and even his hometown, Raleigh, N.C. In this particular story he took us from France back to one interesting week of Christmas fun he experienced.

He isn’t afraid to talk about the most intimate details of his life, from his relationship with his boyfriend Hugh to his fondness for marijuana.

According to Sedaris, his first priority when returning back to Raleigh for Christmas was “to get high and stay that way.” And this is what he did. He and his brother Paul visited a shady drug dealer’s home (a trailer to be exact) to purchase some pot, and ended up having an uproarious confrontation with Mrs. Shady Drug Dealer. The less-than-charming woman sprinkled the conversation with obscene outbursts towards her husband, which weren’t meant to be funny, but somehow ended up very entertaining, especially through Sedaris’ rendition.

For the rest of the show, Sedaris told the audience some jokes he had randomly encountered and talked about his future touring plans. During his readings he was notably nervous, losing his place a few times to mutter curse words to himself, but quickly recovering from his mistakes. Since New Brunswick was his first stop, he wasn’t completely prepared, but the audience didn’t seem to mind.

He even allowed a question and answer session, to which he always delivered clever replies. When a man shouted, “Who’s funnier, you or your sister [Amy]?,” Sedaris replied, “My sister, of course.” He went on to talk about his love for Planet of the Apes and asked some questions of his own to the audience.

When the show was over, Sedaris stopped by the lobby for a meet-and-greet book signing. He gave away three copies of his books in Italian and Swedish to anybody who could speak to him in one of the two languages. Unlike other celebrities, Sedaris took the time to talk to his fans and answer their questions, which added to his charismatic appeal. It was more than delightful to see his show on March 30, and I can only hope that he will return to the area sometime in the near future.

wakefieldk1@lasalle.edu