September 19

David Sedaris: Gay Humorist

David Sedaris (born 1956) is an openly gay author who was raised in North Carolina. He began his career by reading essays on National Public Radio (NPR), which aired in the U.S. and Britain in the mid-nineties. He developed his knack for making people laugh by humorously telling of his own experiences, mostly centered on family, jobs and relationships. He published his first collection of essays and short stories in 1994. His essay collections have sold millions of copies and have become New York Times best sellers. Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and he writes openly about his homosexual relationship with his long-time partner, Hugh Hamrick.

Excerpt from a New Yorker magazine essay (June 26, 2006), which was a fake commencement address to the graduating class of Princeton University (Sedaris did not attend Princeton):

“Stuff comes up. Weird doors open. People fall into things. Maybe the engineering whiz will wind up brewing cider, not because he has to but because he finds it challenging. Who knows? Maybe the athlete will bring peace to all nations, or the class moron will go on to become the President of the United States – though that’s more likely to happen at Harvard or Yale, schools that will pretty much let in anybody.

There were those who left Princeton and soared like arrows into the bosoms of power and finance, but I was not one of them. My path was a winding one, with plenty of obstacles along the way. When school was finished, I went back home, an Ivy League graduate with four years’ worth of dirty laundry and his whole life ahead of him. ‘What are you going to do now?’ my parents asked.

And I said, ‘Well, I was thinking of washing some of these underpants.’

That took six months. Then I moved on to the shirts.”

Link to the full essay:
www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/06/26/060626fa_fact?currentPage=1

Sedaris is a frequent contributor to This American Life, a popular Public Radio International feature. Dozens of his essays have been published in Esquire and The New Yorker magazines, and several of his works have appeared as audio books, read by Sedaris himself.

His books include:
Barrel Fever (1994)
Naked (1997)
Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (2004)
When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2008)
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modern Bestiary (2010)



Note: David’s sister Amy is a celebrated actress, comedian and author. She has co-authored several plays with her brother David under the pseudonym “The Talent Family.”


On to the tan lines: