In Person

Photo By John Anderson

Starting around 5 o'clock in the afternoon on Thursday, June 17, BookPeople began to rumble with voices. An hour before humorist David Sedaris was scheduled to arrive and a full two hours before he was scheduled to read, scores of people began filling the second floor. They carpeted the ground and peered over the bookcases, watching the flow of people coming up the stairs until the fire marshal came and insisted no more people be allowed up. Those who made the cut stood chatting with one another over their freshly purchased copies of Sedaris' new collection, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

It didn't take long to figure out why an estimated 1,200 people – guys with mohawks, women with babies strapped on their backs, students, professors, even my high school art teacher – had all convened to hear Sedaris read his work: The man is funny as hell, even more so in person. Even he admits it – "These things were written to be read," he said of his stories.

Sedaris arrived an hour before the reading and waded through the audience. He chatted and graciously signed books, looking no different in a blue button-down shirt and tie than most of the guys working in the offices across the street. "He's so short," whispered the woman standing next to me. Barely an hour later, at the telling of a fairly obvious "Pooh Corner" joke, he had the entire room doubled over in laughter.

The reading started out with a story, taken from Sedaris' new book, about his 40-year-old sister, Tiffany, who survives by rifling through trash cans at night, drives a self-made rickshaw around during the day, and got fired from her previous job for asking her Italian employer if he enjoyed his little "Woptoberfest."

Sedaris' family has been central to his work; his previous books, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, and Barrel Fever are filled with stories of his childhood that feature his parents and siblings and walk the line between poignancy and humor. "I'm crazy about my family," he said. "I think I portray them in a good way."