Last Saturday, UCLAlive closed its ’07 – ’08 season with one of the most endearing humorists of our time. More than anything else, David Sedaris is, what can be described as easily funny. Like a good musician or a superb chef, Sedaris’ comedic skills feel natural.
From the several essays he read on throughout the evening on Saturday, to his concluding, off-the-cuff question and answer session, Sedaris’ remarks had Royce Hall in stitches and it was like he wasn’t even really trying.
Whatever he is doing however, seems to be working. Sedaris is the author of five best selling books including, “Naked” and “Me Talk Pretty One Day”. He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album and Best Comedy Album, and he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and Esquire magazines. My favorite venue for Sedaris is his original radio pieces, which air often on Public Radio International. Sedaris’ new book “When You Are Engulfed In Flames” (Little, Brown & Company) was published this month, and the star-studded crowd at Royce Hall on Saturday (Jodie Foster was sitting close to the stage) was eager to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
One of the reasons Sedaris might be so natural in his comedy is that he is simply explaining to the audience how he experiences the world. Anyone can glean from Sedaris’ books that his childhood held moments of deep pain, and it seems Sedaris learned to see the darkness through a lens of humor. Now, in his adult life, Sedaris is still looking through that same lens. For example, near the end of his reading he turned to his personal diary for material. Reading to us quips that he jotted down on his traveling book tours, it becomes clear that, for Sedaris, the world we live in is indeed ridiculous and it iis his job to point that out to us.
My guest this night commented that Sedaris was actually a bit like Jerry Seinfeld in his choice of content. While part of Seinfeld’s shtick is exposing his own will to be funny, and Sedaris thrives on his own naiveté, both comedians use the little things in life for their material. For example, Sedaris read to us an advertisement he had seen for a cookbook entitled, “Cooking with Pooh” (as in, Winnie The). The comedian found this remarkably funny and giggled along with us – his own joy at his discovery making it all the more easy to laugh.
But I think there is a distinct difference between Sedaris and the many other comedians who poke fun at the banalities of every day life. One could never turn on the TV and watch Jerry and his cohorts darkly poking fun at suicide or people who have lost a loved one. Sedaris, on the other hand, goes there. And he does it by turning the taboo topics into banalities as well. If everything is mundane, everything is fair game for material. For example, Sedaris’ opening story described his airplane seatmate crying uncontrollably over the death of his mother. Sedaris described how off-putting this was to the flight attendants who thought the man’s sobs were “disturbing the other passengers”. Sedaris went on to argue that most people are actually proud of their grief and use it to show off, admitting himself that he too had several times made a showmanship out of tragedy.
Sedaris knows that making an audience feel uncomfortable for a second is worth the bond that forms between he and the reader by the end. After guiding you through a normally hands-off topic, the audience feels more personally connected to Sedaris. This transcendent quality in Sedaris’ writing is apparent in his enormous fan base. Indeed the comedian has quite a following. The quite large Royce Hall was completely full, and the subsequent book signing line a good two-hour wait.
Sedaris’ plans for the future include continuing on his extensive book tour, polling his audiences on whether or not Barack Obama is circumcised, and publishing a book about animals, “with pictures in it”. Sedaris read us one of the stories to be included in the animal book. It was about an Ugly Fox who tries, along with two other fellow forest members, a doe and a mouse, to commit suicide by throwing themselves in front of Sports Utility Vehicles. While the story was startlingly different from any other Sedaris material, after a few paragraphs one is able to see parallels to the human world in Sedaris’ animal one. And, perhaps the young fox’s story contained moments of veiled auto-biography. Either way, whatever Sedaris chooses to write about is sure to be very funny. A simple yet deeply sophisticated witticist and storyteller, David Sedaris is sure to please either on paper or on the stage.
The upcoming season at UCLAlive is filled with world-renowned talent as well. Check out their website at to find out more about season tickets and the fabulous events beginning this fall.
