An Actual Dave I Now Know I Now Know

Thanks to the roaring generosity of one Mike NTPB, Beck and I got to see David Sedaris in the Gammage Auditorium in Tempe a week and a half ago. We got down to campus at about 6:45 for his 7:30 show, and Beck joined the throngs of people who bought a book (Me Talk Pretty One Day, an absolute classic) and stood in line to get Sedaris to sign it. When Beck got to the front, she saw David Sedaris's Halloween toy screeching witch (which he used on stage repeatedly) sitting on his table along with a bowl of candy. She said something like "Oh, too bad my husband's not here; he loves chocolate candy." So naturally, after some friendly banter, David signed the book, "Your story has touched my heart, David Sedaris." Perfect.

His reading just killed. He started off with a hilarious account of his recent book-signing tour that included cases of Costco condoms and slave monkeys. He read his recent New Yorker piece on the election, and as funny / gold as that was in print, the nasal-whine in-person reading took it over the top. He read some other selections, some diary entries, a series of bad jokes¹, a rejected piece in which he makes fun of foreign accents, and some excerpts from a book by George Saunders he was pushing. He ended it by opening things up for Q&A, and while I'm sure he's had ample opportunity to practice in exactly this format, it's still impressive to see someone handle random questions from the audience - some potentially awkward - with grace.

So a great night with a funny guy. Beck and I capped things off by going over to LSA to look at the ASU collection of rattlesnakes - turns out at night they are feisty, don't like visitors so much and actually use their rattles. Hella creepy. But fun, and Beck got to see the hall of death that I occasionally have to walk through.

So thanks again to Mike NTPB. Very fun evening, and now we have an autographed copy of MTPSD in our living room.

¹For example: "A bear walks into a bar. He says to the bartender, 'I'll have a club soda... [Dave stops here to take a long drink of water] ...on the rocks." The bartender says, "Hey, why the long pause?" I mean, see? That's terrible. But Dave Sedaris nasalizes it, and it's friggin' hilarious. So much power.