I had so much fun attending a reading by David Sedaris last night.  I was up in the highest most dizzying section of Bass Concert Hall -row X- suffering from occasional waves of claustrophobia.  To my left was my good friend Debbie, who sent me the link to the event in the first place knowing my love of all things Sedaris.  To my right was my patient husband, humoring me with his presence since I accompanied him to an event of one of his favorite authors Neil Gaiman.

Debbie laughed hysterically, having never read anything by David Sedaris and finding his humor both offensive and alternately laugh-out-loud funny.  She was dabbing at the tears forced by her laughter the whole time.  My husband chuckled a few times, and only took away a horrible joke I would never ever repeat, even on threat of death.  Really, that was your favorite bit?  I was appalled.  David would be proud.  I laughed so hard at one point that I was unable to catch my breath and panicked a bit because I could imagine myself passing out and catapulting multiple stories to my death.  My husband said the railing 10 feet down would stop my descent.  That’s comforting.

Mr. Sedaris came out wearing culottes.  My first comment of the evening was, “Is that a kilt?”  Nope.  He proceeded to explain that these were one of his finds on a shopping trip to Tokyo.  He enjoys finding the oddest pieces on his shopping adventures.  Then he writes about them, especially pleased if he gets odd looks or comments from passers-by.  I looked up how to spell culottes and they are defined as “women’s trousers, knee-length, usually cut to resemble a skirt.”  Yep, that is exactly what he was wearing.

We didn’t stay for the book signing.  I’ve done that before and it is underrated.  He is a character, but I would rather admire him from afar than have actual personal contact.  When I met him at a book signing years ago before he got so famous, I gave him a copy of one of my short stories, merely for his entertainment.  He wrote me back, a postcard, saying he read the story on the plane flight home and found it entertaining.  I got a kick out of that.

He has many critics, I’m sure.  He can’t be politically correct to save his life.  He cusses, has absolutely no filter, reads pages of his diary that make even die-hard fans squirm in their seats, then poses questions and ideas that make people want to throw rotten tomatoes at him.  I love that he is that brave, that honest, that humble.  He doesn’t take himself seriously at all.  He doesn’t really seem to care what anyone thinks of him.  He just tells funny stories of the world as he sees it and that makes me happy.

I am nowhere near as brave, as curious, as fascinated by the macabre, or as willing to let my freak flag fly as David Sedaris, but I am certainly a voyeur who enjoys reading about his adventures.  I appreciate his humor, his opinions, his observations, and his ridiculousness, and am thoroughly entertained by it all.

This is my favorite book by David Sedaris so far.  They are all great, but I laughed out loud the most while reading this one…and have returned to it the most to share with others.