David Sedaris

Last night David Sedaris, the writer and humorist, gave a reading in Sacramento.

I have been a fan of his since the Santaland Diary days on NPR, but had not heard him live before. I must admit I didn't have very high expectations of the event - its just a guy on stage reading from a book for heaven's sake - how interesting can that be? However, he is seriously funny and he had the audience rolling in the aisles. I love his deadpan style of delivery and his almost whimpy nasally voice and he certainly is the master of his craft of a humor writer.

He gave some readings from his own works, most of which, I think, were works in progress, all of which I had not heard before. You could see him penciling in notes as he was reading - I guess he fine tunes his work by reading it over and over again to audiences and then goes back and edits it each night until it is ready for publication.

He also read from a book by another author George Saunders' The Braindead Megaphone. To give a reading of your works and then to branch out for 10 minutes to read someone else's work was unexpected and probably a little unusual. Nevertheless, he had high praise for the author and the book and it too sounded well written and funny.

This was the third performance event of the week - Eliza Gilkyson on Sunday, Laurie Anderson on Wednesday, and David Sedaris on Thursday. Just like London buses, they all come together, now there will be nothing happening until next year.