Review: Celebrity Series of Boston Presents Author and Humorist David Sedaris

An Evening with David Sedaris

Sunday, November 20, 2016, Celebrity Series of Boston at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA; Box Office 617-482-6661 or www.celebrityseries.org

Author and humorist David Sedaris read some of his essays and diary entries to a packed Symphony Hall Sunday night and proved that there is no such thing as a bad show when he is at the podium. Striding across the stage attired in billowy culottes (which he later referred to as "King of Siam" pants), Sedaris cut a rather silly figure, but it was merely a warm-up for the mix of funny and poignant personal stories he would share for the next ninety minutes. The final stop on his Fall 2016 tour was his 12th appearance with the Celebrity Series of Boston (since 2002) and he never fails to draw a crowd.

Thirty minutes before the scheduled start time, Sedaris had a long line of admirers waiting in the lobby for a pre-show book signing session. He repeated the action after the program in the O'Block-Kay Room where his books were available for purchase. In addition to his own published works, one could also purchase Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh. The 2015 novel, the author's first, was recommended to Sedaris by filmmaker John Waters and he has been promoting it throughout his tour. That's typical of Sedaris' generosity - he also gave an unsolicited plug to Boston retailer Sault New England on Tremont Street (as he did last year) where he suggests you can find a gift for any guy in your life.

Sedaris has written numerous books, as well as bestselling collections of personal essays. He can be found regularly in the pages of The New Yorker, his radio pieces are often heard on This American Life (Public Radio International), and he has a gig on BBC Radio 4 entitled "Meet David Sedaris." He began Sunday night's program by reading a twisted letter to Santa Claus from a seven-year old boy that he wrote for a pre-Christmas BBC podcast called "Death Knows No Season." Many of his tales feature the Sedaris family shenanigans at their vacation home on Emerald Isle in North Carolina and he detailed the fallout of his sister Amy's visit to a psychic. Introducing it as a story about nature, Sedaris next told us all about Carol, the fox that he has more or less adopted at his home in Sussex, England. She can be seen in photos on his Facebook page.

A prolific writer and observer of life, Sedaris has been keeping a diary since 1977 and always shares some of the entries in the latter portion of the program. They are often quite brief, but pack a powerful punch of humor. He announced that his next book (due in summer 2017) will be a collection of his diaries entitled Theft by Finding. During the audience Q&A, Sedaris was unguarded and aired his feelings about the election. He had some choice words for non-voters, but, after admitting to feeling devastated, he said he felt better when he realized that whatever he was feeling, Cher was feeling the same thing. We all laughed and we felt better, too.

Photo credit: Hugh Hamrick (David Sedaris)

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