Friday, September 12, 2008

Where The Americans Are...

My work colleague L met me at the Bloomsbury Theatre Wednesday night for an evening with David Sedaris. I was so happy that the two of us could go to the event together since she is just as much a fan as I am. The Bloomsbury Theatre is not a huge venue, but it did sell out for the event. David read “All the Beauty You Will Ever Need” from his latest collection as well as some things he had been working on and some entries from his diary. For an hour straight we laughed our heads off. He then took several questions from the audience, which revealed how many Americans had come to the event. They asked questions like what he most missed and what he most disliked about the American South, what he thought about the presidential election, and whether his family still speaks to him. His answers were all hilarious and some you probably had to be there so I’m not going to write them down here. About the presidential election though, he did comment that he didn’t really think there were undecided voters for this election. He works for NPR some and he said that they were working on an “undecided voter” show. David thought anyone who could not pick a side in this election must just be looking for attention.

He took great care in talking with everyone who wanted a book signed. I got nervous when it was my turn and just babbled I’m sure. We talked about his last visit to St. Louis. David lives in the London and asked L where she lived. She in return asked him and when he said Kensington, she told him that she used to be a librarian at the local library. He said that he visited that library often, and wrote in her book “To L, I wish you were my librarian. David Sedaris.

On the train ride home I of course thought of all the questions I would have liked to have asked.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Judith!
Just saw what you wrote about David Sedaris, and I had to share my story. Like you I was all nervous when it was my turn for him to autograph my book. I fumbled it over to him, then apologized awkwardly. He was very sweet about it, then I looked at what he'd written in my book, "To Stacy, you f***ed up" love David."
I can't help but love him more for that.

Thanks for keeping this blog, I've enjoyed following along...
stacy