Readings are often long, drawn out evenings, in which the audience is forced to sit and listen to a writer spout off about the tiniest details of writing and their own personal craft (or crap, as the case may be).
I tend to stray away from actually going to see the author in person, for fear that the greatness of their work will end up being crushed by the weight of their terribly huge egos. The exception to this rule is author David Sedaris. Having attended a reading of his, last week at University of Buffalo, I found that he was one of the most down to earth “celebrities” I have seen thus far. In fact, his demeanor is sheeplike and nervous and he rarely affords himself a compliment. Even during the question and answer session at the end of the evening, he seemed thrown when given praise about his work.
This gives him a buddy kind of feeling with the audience, which he most likely regrets in the long run. He is more of a David, then a Mr. Sedaris. Part of the reason for this is his style of writing. He writes mainly about his family, calling them each by name, but has the best spin on this style of anyone writing today.
David’s appearances on NPR (where he got his start) have been memorable and he currently lives and writes in France when he is not on his reading tour across the states.
The bulk of the reading last week was new material. David basically used the audience as guinea pigs, which we were happy to comply with. He hasn’t lost his touch and will hopefully be coming out with a new book of short stories soon.
Until then, click the links below to learn more about David. I also threw in one link on his sister Amy, who is equally talented and funny, concentrating her wit more on television and sketch comedy.
Peace –
Hippiegrrl