There's no way around it: Sedaris fans are going to have to buy both her lavishly illustrated book and her audiobook adaptation. No one should be forced to decide between enjoying the visual delights of her kitschy photo-filled book or the aural pleasures of Sedaris's wonderfully exuberant narration. The rubber-faced comedienne proves equally limber vocally with her quicksilver changes from perfect deadpan to goofy dialects. The jaunty musical score and quirky sound effects enhance the production and complement her narration. Sedaris sounds like she's throwing a party in the studio and listeners would be foolish not to RSVP.
If you are driving, pull over. If you are at work, close your door, unless you don't mind your colleagues seeing you doubled over, in tears, on your office floor. With this recording, taped before a delirious sold out audience at Carnegie Hall, you are there as David Sedaris performs new stories from his upcoming book. A parrot who mimics an ice maker, lovers quarrelling over a rubber hand, and a Santa Claus who moonlights from his job as bishop of Turkey, the cast of characters in these stories is like no other. This new work will appeal to David's loyal fans as well as admirers of the classic comedy albums of George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Steve Martin.
David Sedaris' new collection of essays - including live recordings! - tells a most unconventional life story. It begins with a North Carolina childhood filled with speech-therapy classes ("There was the lisp, of course, but more troubling than that was my voice itself, with its excitable tone and high, girlish pitch") and unwanted guitar lessons taught by a midget. From budding performance artist ("The only crimp in my plan was that I seemed to have no talent whatsoever") to "clearly unqualified" writing teacher in Chicago, Sedaris' career leads him to New York City and eventually, of all places, France. His move to Paris poses a number of challenges, chief among them his inability to speak the language. Arriving a "spooky man-child" capable of communicating only through nouns, he undertakes language instruction that leads him ever deeper into cultural confusion. Whether describing the Easter bunny to puzzled classmates or watching a group of men play soccer with a cow, Sedaris brings a view and a voice like no other to every unforgettable encounter.
