David Sedaris Brings Laughs to Strathmore

David Sedaris took center stage greeted by applause from the sold out crowd. Donning a slightly over-sized bow-tie (which he said he usually despises wearing), because a normal tie would have shielded the "big buttons" on his dress shirt, he launched into his first story.

"Memory Laps" told the tale about the Raliegh County Club, where Sedaris took swim lessons back in 1966 and competed on the swim team in the following years. Sedaris's dad always praised other boys around his son's age in front of Sedaris—the winner on the swim team and even Donnie Osmand—and Sedaris couldn't understand, at the time, why his father acted as if he didn't exist. Even when Sedaris's first book was No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List, he said his dad responded, "Well it's not No. 1 on the Wall Street Journal list."

His dad seemed like a hard one to win over and Sedaris incited laughs from the audience as he explained the conversations his family would have on the way home from the swim meets, but the comedy of the story can't be reproduced here. Sedaris has a way with his delivery. When reading one of his books the reader might giggle out loud, but when Sedaris reads to an audience, he pauses at just the right spot, knowing that the laughs are to come. He takes a sip of water and continues.

Sedaris workshops his stories while on tour. He jots down notes as he reads, perhaps noting a spot that needs to be reworked, or marking a place that caused lots of laughter. He said after reading some of his dairy entries that many of the stories will be different by the end of his 34 stop tour. After a show he returns to his hotel, rewrites, reworks and rereads, and the stories slowly shape into something that might eventually show up in his next book.

Before and after the show Sedaris signed autographs for the attendees. His books could be purchased in the lobby area—and he was giving away a German copy of his newest book ("Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary"), which was translated as "Life is Not a Petting Zoo," to the first fluent German speaking person in line. He gives a book away like this after every show.

In addition to being able to buy a new Sedaris book, he also suggests a book by another author. This tour's featured book was a novella by Tobias Wolff titled, "The Barracks Thief." Sedaris said that even though he and Wolff couldn't be more different, Wolff's work has changed him and that, "I would buy this book before buying anything I've written. Seriously."

He read a short selection from the book before raising the lights to open the floor up for a brief Q&A session. One audience member asked if it's a good idea to wait for a parent to pass away before writing disparagingly or honestly about them.

Sedaris responded that it really depends on what a person wants other people to know about them. He said that there are things that both of his parents would rather other people not know about them, and he honors that. And yes, he writes about his dad sitting around in his underwear and other stories about his family, but he said he is lucky that he ended up with the family he did that doesn't really mind.

While Sedaris says he's lucky that he can write about the topics he does, the audience is lucky too. Without his stories, it would have just been another Thursday night, but instead it was an entertaining evening full of countless laughs.