Last night David Sedaris read part of his book at Sam Wellers and then signed books. The reading took about 45 minutes, and it was hilarious. He read portions of an unpublished story about some flies that ate vomit, and how one of them was so stuck up and pretentious because she had eaten the deputy governor's wife's puke. It was genius. He then did a Q&A, and some of the questions were so stupid that they made me cringe. Some examples were:
- How's your sister?
- How's your brother?
- If you could be a mythological animal, what would you be?
- Have you gone to the Louvre?
Painful.
He was good, though, and gave great little monologues loosely based on the questions, so he fixed the awkward moment and made it good.
The signing went really smoothly. He chatted with everyone for a few minutes and was very gracious. If I had to mention my one complaint, it would be the jokes. When he did the reading, he read some jokes that people had shared with him, and that was all good, but when he was signing people's books he started telling us jokes, and I wasn't crazy about that. It just felt very juvenile. It all felt like a desperate attempt to be funny and charming. I understand that it is hard to come up with funny stuff to say all the time, but then, he didn't have to. Just being there, saying hello and signing my book would have been perfect. But, oh well, the guy did an awesome show and that's what we went there for, and it was exciting to actually talk to him after hearing his voice on tape for so long.
Here's his answer to the question "Have you ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?" Sorry about the crappy audio. I'll probably add subtitles eventually.
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