Author Event: David Sedaris

I was lucky enough to see David Sedaris read Wednesday night. He was hilarious as usual. He read some pieces he had written for the New Yorker as well as other pieces. He always wraps up by reading entries from his diary. This time he warned us that they would be “harsh” and that if that wasn’t for you, you could leave and get a good spot in the book signing line. Harsh was a major understatement! Some of them were raunchy and some of them were downright disturbing. The kind of thing that is so horrible, you can’t help but laugh and then you feel kind of like a bad person for thinking it was funny. I loved it and didn’t even consider walking out. There was a tween boy in the front row who is probably scarred for life.

Then – the book signing. David is famous for taking time to really talk to each person in line. So his line moves very slowly. It’s worth it though. I always get really nervous trying to think of what I’m going to say to him. During his talk, he said that he had a copy of the Japanese translation of Holidays on Ice and he would give it to whoever could speak fluent Japanese. My roommate in college was a Japanese exchange student and she and her friends taught my friends and me how to say, “You have a small penis.” in Japanese. (Can’t wait to see what kind of spam my blog gets after writing that.) So I thought I could either tell him that or mention that I missed him last time he was in town because I was in a coma. When I got up there, I decided to go with the Japanese phrase because my coma story is kind of a downer. That led to a five-minute conversation with him about different types of penises. I’ll spare you the details. He’s probably the only author you could have that kind of conversation with at the book signing table!
His show was just as funny as ever – I love him so much. I can’t wait to see him again next time he’s in town!