Ledger

Issue date: 5/3/06 Section: Campus News

Author and social humorist David Sedaris shares his life with an adulatory crowd at the Paramount on April 24.

David Sedaris has a skeleton, out of the closet, dangling in his bedroom. He found one of its fingers one morning, while rooting around under the bed for a sock.
Actually, the skeleton belongs to his partner, Hugh Hamrick. Hamrick hinted that he'd like a skeleton like a former art teacher owned, and so Sedaris found him one. Rather than living in Hamrick's art studio in the basement, the thing dangles from their shared ceiling, acting as Sedaris' conscience.
This story, hilariously retold by Sedaris himself to a packed crowd on April 24 at the Paramount theatre in Seattle, will soon be published in the New Yorker magazine.
Sedaris narrated another New Yorker-published piece about his family, as well as one called "Town and Country," which encapsulated Sedaris' ability to pick out a series of mundane moments and amplify them to depths of profound meaning, inclusive of foul and sexually explicit language, and wrap those moments in pink, coconut-smelling packaging.
He imbues today's cultural values, human foibles and frailties, and his own cynical socio-cultural commentary and psychological insights into his hilarious walks down memoir-lane in his books, magazine articles, and spoken-word pieces on National Public Radio.
It's the latter forum that gave him his break, in 1992. Ira Glass needed a Christmas piece for his program,"Morning Edition," and asked Sedaris to read his "Santaland Diaries" essay. His books, several of which hit number one on the New York Times best seller list followed, as well as more work on National Public Radio. In 2001 he received the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and was named "Humorist of the Year" by Time magazine.
Now his readings are selling out theatres the size of The Paramount, where his upcoming show had been sold out since November of last year. The Paramount brought him to Seattle in association with Foolproof, an organization with a pragmatic approach toward lofty goals.
Marilyn Raichle, executive director for Foolproof's "American Voices," explained that her organization aims to "articulate, amplify and advance progressive thought."
"Foolproof is a non-profit organization serving the Greater Puget Sound region and beyond by working to articulate and energize progressive thought in America," Raichle said. "We began in 1997 with a focus on humor, believing that laughter is not only one of the most positive experiences people can share but also provides a direct line to the truth..."
The crowd erupted in loud approval when she urged the audience to keep the government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" at the end of her introduction. And then the star walked onto the Paramount's stage, after two teen-aged audience members, handpicked by Sedaris himself, introduced him.
When considering what usually sells out at the Paramount, it seems surprising that a height-impaired, self-effacing man with a less-than-imposing vocal presence could be such a hit.
Bully for all of us that he is.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools