David Sedaris at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield

It's an all-too-rare treat when David Sedaris comes into our neck of the woods and for booklovers and Sedaris admirers, it's a can't-be-missed event. So it was no real surprise that Sedaris read to a sold-out audience at Pittsfield's Colonial Theatre on Wednesday, September 30, nor too surprising that the audience seemed to love it. Along with reading all new material for over an hour, and not a clunker in the small bunch of five or six stories he read, Sedaris also shared some hilarious short 

vignettes from his journals, mostly written while on book tours like the one he is on now. Sedaris said this was merely the start of sixty-something stops now in front of him, and when audience members groaned he said he didn't really mind it. That there was nothing bad about it at all, and it "sure beats your job."

After reading, Sedaris patiently answered questions which somehow led into an anecdote about Phyllis Diller, 91, who, Sedaris said, met him for lunch. She was wheeled in on a wheelchair, not he said because she couldn't walk. "Oh, she can walk," Sedaris said, but the wheelchair saves time. He also promoted another book, Our Dumb World published by the humorists at the Onion, calling it "so naughty," and then reading aloud from it to prove it, often cracking himself up as he read, which he never does when reading his own work. He then said quite bluntly that, "If I were you, I'd buy this book over anything that I've written....If you don't find this stuff funny, then there's something seriously wrong with you." 

If there is a humorist or short story writer for that matter who is more on his game than Sedaris, please tell me who that is. Of course, hearing Sedaris's work in person, or even on CD or on your Ipod as an audiobook always improves it, but this hardly seems a reason to fault the guy. Yes, he's an excellent reader. Yes, his voice comes through even better and funnier in person. But reading aloud also often exposes faults of writing that don't show up when reading it on the page, which is one of the reasons why Sedaris has a rep for scurrying back to his hotel room when he's on the road to rewrite what he's just read, now that he's heard it himself in front of an audience. While it may sometimes seem like the man can't be uninteresting or unfunny (and it sure seemed that way tonight), when you start to look at his writing more closely, you realize what a tireless craftsman he really is. Despite an abundance of pure talent, writing as good as his doesn't shine without loads of polish. [September 30, 2009]