David Sedaris is a pretty funny talker, and he’ll be talking pretty at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Hult Center.
Humorist Sedaris displays his oddly dark humor regularly on public radio and intermittently in his four books. His stories tell of his deprived bourgeois childhood and moving to France with his boyfriend.
Sedaris became well-known for reading about his adventures as a green-tights-clad elf from his story “Santaland Diaries,” a recollection of his adventures as an elf at Macy’s Department Store. The story is from Sedaris’ first book of short stories, “Holidays on Ice.” The story covers everything from group lectures (“You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn’t be here. You’re an elf, and you’re going to wear panties like an elf.”) to Santa’s race. Radio was Sedaris’ first big national exposure. It was also many people’s first exposure to Sedaris’ work.
“I remember sitting in my living room in the early morning, listening to NPR,” University journalism Professor Kellee Weinhold said about listening to “Santaland Diaries” for the first time. “I remember laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.”
Weinhold appreciates Sedaris’ uniquely dark sense of humor.
“He is the voice of the dark,” Weinhold said. “But, he really, truly is something that everyone can enjoy.”
In the late 1990s, Sedaris’ radio role expanded when he joined Ira Glass’ literary show, “This American Life.” “This American Life” is described by creators as a bunch of stories.
“Its mission is to document the everyday life of this country,” wrote Glass, the creator and host of the show, on the “This American Life” Web site.
Erin Zysett, news director at campus radio station KWVA, counts Sedaris among her personal heroes. “He’s very, very honest and he’s able to make fun of himself, which is important,” she said.
Zysett was inspired by “This American Life” to start a similar show, “Everyday Ovid.” The new program is every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on 88.1 FM.
“It started as a ‘This American Life’ rip-off, but we’re expanding it,” Zysett said. “We want to take the basic ideas of using information, humor and literature and take it from here.”
Zysett said that she thinks shows such as “This American Life” and “Everyday Ovid” are important because they do something different than normal top-10 music programs.
“This type of radio is something that we need more of,” she said.
Sedaris’ newest book, “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” is based on living in France and his experiences with the French language and people. The book tells of his unique experiences growing up in North Carolina and of moving to France with his boyfriend. In the story “Jesus Shaves,” Sedaris and his classmates try desperately to convey the story of Jesus’ death to their Muslim French teacher.
Sedaris’ earlier books are “Naked,” in which he takes the reader on his journeys to a nudist colony and through his childhood, and “Barrel Fever.”
E-mail reporter Alix Kerl
at [email protected].