Grammy Award-nominated comedian David Sedaris read from his works in a campus talk which professor of English Tobias Wolff introduced as “emphatically not well-behaved, emphatically incorrect.”
The Creative Writing Program hosted the event Sunday evening in Memorial Auditorium.
Sedaris, who has sold more than 7 million copies of his books worldwide, touched on topics ranging from personal childhood stories to jokes he has heard on tour, drawing laughter from the crowd. He began with a story about an airport.
“[Airports] are a forum to allow us to be our true selves,” he said. “Not just hateful, but gloriously so. Whether it is close-minded conservatives complaining about the kids these days or the true way flight attendants fart on airplanes–hint, they call it crop-dusting–there is always raw humanity at airports, and it’s not always pretty.”
Sedaris spoke candidly about traditionally sensitive topics, making fun of family members’ weight in order to divert attention from what he described as his poor swimming ability. He offered no apology for it, instead emphasizing its ease.
“Buck teeth, failing grades, it was like shooting fish in a barrel,” he said.
He also delved freely into his relationship with his father through a story published in “The New Yorker” in which he portrays his father as incapable of offering praise or approval. Sedaris recalled calling to tell his father his book was number one on The New York Times Best Sellers List.
“It’s not number one on the Wall Street Journal list,” his father said.
“My dad was like the Marine Corps,” Sedaris said. “Except instead of tearing you down and putting you back together, he just did the first part and called it a day.”
The live performance also offered unscripted insights into Sedaris’ stories after he read them, including information not present in the print edition.
For example, Sedaris mentioned a childhood acquaintance named Greg Sakas, who was a contender for his father’s attention and an object of Sedaris’s intense dislike. When Sedaris’ story was set to publish in “The New Yorker,” however, the publication’s fact-checking department discovered that Sakas was now selling sex toys in rural North Carolina.
“I won,” Sedaris said. “That’s mean.”
Sedaris ended his talk by recommending Peter Hessler’s book “River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze.” He said it lifted the veil on what life in rural China is really like. After Sedaris read a short passage from the book, he encouraged audience members to explore the book on their own.
“I would buy this book before I bought anything I’ve written,” Sedaris said. “It’s much better.”