Sedaris fills the house
Martha Lannan -- June 12, 2005
Audience members reveled, for the most part, in David Sedaris' sold-out performance at the Arlington Monday evening, April 25th. The jaunty, clever author, ever the keen observer of human experience, read from a variety of his work, much of it autobiographical.
Often self-effacing, even self-demeaning in his work, Sedaris also regularly broadcasts an unmistakable upbeat vibe. Although known for its humor, his writing is powerful in its poignant, reflective aspects as well.
Sedaris was very open with his audience, admitting that he found it
really difficult to concentrate on reading with Katie Ingersoll close
by, signing the performance for the hearing impaired.
The reason he found it difficult? He was dying to know how she signed some of the more "colorful" words he uses liberally in his writing.
"Does she sign 'above the shoulders he is crap?'" he wondered.
The author drew loud guffaws when he read one of his stories detailing an aggressively unpleasant woman seated next to him on a short flight. As he grew more and more apoplectic with the woman's rude insults, he took great delight, he said, in appearing to work the New York Times crossword puzzle while really filling in all the boxes of the puzzle with a wide variety of emotional, descriptive and profane words, detailing exactly what he thought of the obnoxious seatmate.
His description of his beginning French class in Paris, explaining Easter to a Moslem student, was without question, priceless. A few of the phrases used to describe the Christian holiday to the woman included, "He called himself Jesus and then he died one day on two morsels of lumber," and "The rabbit of Easter, he brings the chocolate."
In a performance that was overall, extremely entertaining, the downer was Sedaris' unwarranted inclusion of a description of a magazine in his sister's apartment. He is such a talented artist, I was surprised he felt the need to cross the line with his use of extraneous, offensive material, like his discussion of two women and a horse, in his presentation.