A few months back, Liz bought us tickets to see David Sedaris at Steppenwolf. We went over shortly after work tonight, and it marked my first visit ever to Steppenwolf.
Of all things, as we were taking the elevator up to the second or third floor… we got in with two other couples. As the elevator got going, one of the guys standing next to Liz started talking and I immediately recognized his voice – it was David Sedaris!
Liz and I looked at one another, and we both had this silly, “wait, I recognize that voice” moment. Beyond that though, we didn’t really know what to do. Interrupting his conversation to tell him who he was (“Oh wow, you’re David Sedaris!”) seemed wildly inappropriate. Although I was tempted to.
There wasn’t any photography allowed in the theater, and I was afraid of getting caught/booted out. So I tried to sneak a few near the end. This is about as good as I could get, sad to say.
He was, as you can image, incredibly funny in person. If you ever get a chance to hear him read, I can’t recommend it enough. He was trying out a lot of new material tonight, which was nice to hear – it felt like we got to peek a bit, at what he was working on.
During the reading, he’d mark places where he stumbled or places where the audience seemed to respond favorably. In part, it was kind of cool because it was literally watching him try out new work… and edit, right there on the stage.
To date, I still think “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is one of my favorite books of his. I’m particularly fond of The Late Show and Twelve Moments in the Life of the Artist.
