Author Event: David Sedaris

My husband and I saw David Sedaris speak Tuesday night at The Kauffman Center. He was fantastic as usual. He read some previously published essays, some essays from his upcoming new book, and also an essay that he’s still working on. Then he took a few questions from the audience. One person asked him what his favorite film is and he said when he was younger it was Planet of the Apes (me too!) but that now it was the second Lord of the Rings movie. He added that he doesn’t like to see movies in the United States because people talk through the whole movie. He prefers to watch them in France or Japan where people take the experience more seriously.

If you’ve seen David before, you know that he loves to chat with his fans while signing books and that no matter how long the line is he will chat with each person for at least a minute. Vivian, the owner of Rainy Day Books, told us that one time he did a book signing at her store that lasted until 2:30am. People were napping on the floor while waiting their turn! Even though this was my third time seeing David speak, it was the first time that we had a babysitter who could stay late enough for us to wait in line to meet him. I was so nervous – what was I going to chat with him about? I get so star-struck and tongue tied when I meet a famous person it’s ridiculous. (I almost passed out when I ran into Jessica Simpson at the mall and I’m not even really a fan of hers.)

After waiting in line an hour and forty-five minutes, it was finally our turn. I told David that it was our first time getting a babysitter long enough to wait in line and he asked me how much babysitters cost these days. I told him ours cost $17 an hour and he calculated our time spent waiting in line:

Then he asked Travis what he did for a living:

Then I told him that when we lived in New York City, we went to see one of the Lord of the Rings movies at the movie theater. There was a man sitting a few seats away who was whisper explaining the entire movie to the woman he was with. I leaned over and asked them nicely to please stop talking. The woman glared at me and said in a very thick New York accent (which I imitated), “What are we supposed to do, talk mentally?” David thought that was great and he pulled out his little notebook and wrote it down! I kept my cool until we were out of ear shot and then I squealed like a little fangirl.

My friend’s brother has seen David Sedaris several times and he said that David has a super good memory and always remembers him when he goes through the line to meet him. He said that he remembers most people. I wonder if he’ll remember me next time?

If you ever have the chance to see David Sedaris live, you MUST do it. I always laugh so hard my cheeks hurt.