Humorist bringing new material to the stage in 'An Evening With David Sedaris'

Source: The Florida Times-Union, JacksonvilleOct.mini storage 25--Humorist David Sedaris is soft-spoken and affable during a telephone interview from his hotel room in Baltimore, an early stop in a 37-city tour that includes Jacksonville."Does 37 sound like a lot?" he asks. "I know other people who find touring difficult. But I'm fresh. I just started my show. I was thinking last night, 'God, it feels good to be back doing this.' ""This" is "An Evening With David Sedaris," which he's bringing to Jacoby Hall at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts on Monday as part of The Artist Series.Sedaris, whom Entertainment Weekly called "the pre-eminent humorist of his generation," will be presenting new material. The opportunity to share it with audiences "is still exciting to me," he said. "I'm still rewriting. I hate for it to be the same every night."He keeps a list of what he's read and where he's read it, he said. "I always do that because I don't want to repeat myself. I've been to the symphony hall in Baltimore six times now."It also helps him with the writing process, he said, and when dealing with an editor."I know things are different on the page than they are out loud, but I like to go into the editing experience with having tried the story out loud," he said. "That way I can say I know where the biggest laughs are."For my last story in The New Yorker, my editor wanted three extra lines. So I wrote them. But I would have liked to have tweaked them in front of an audience."Sedaris, 56, watched his career take off with "The SantaLand Diaries," a monologue about working as an elf in a Macy's display at Christmastime, which he read on National Public Radio in 1992. It was later published in print and it's also been adapted for the stage as a one-man show.His largely autobiographical essays tend to be a mix of wit, sarcasm, self-deprecation and poignancy. His best-selling books include "Naked," "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim." "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls" is his eighth book, and his seventh collection of essays. It became an instant best-seller when it came out in April. Sedaris is a regular commentator on NPR and "This American Life," and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.He lives in West Sussex, England, with his partner, Hugh Hamrick.Sedaris enjoys book signings before and after his appearances when possible, he said. "It gives you an idea of who's in the audience," he said. He will be doing pre- and post-show book signings for Jacksonville ticketholders on Monday in the lobby of the Times-Union Center. The pre-show sself storagegning will begin about 6:30 p.m.Here's more of what Sedaris said during the interview from Baltimore.He doesn't read his reviews. Actually, he stopped 13 years ago."Nope. The last review I read was in 2000. And it was a good review, but it screwed me up. I started to wonder, 'Is that what people would want?' I know people who read all their reviews and I admire them when they can put things in perspective. But I just prefer not to know. Sometimes, one or two people will walk out during the show. When somebody leaves the theater, I like to think it's a doctor on call."He started keeping a diary at 21 -- and hasn't stopped."I just started writing for myself. I don't know why I kept it up when other people don't. [For a long time] I made it a point not to go back and read what I wrote. I just knew that if I kept writing, my writing would get better. Now I have this master guide of what's in my diaries. I can say that by 2008 the writing is clean. I might not like what I'm saying, but at least the writing is clean. I'm more embarrassed by choppy writing. Now, I eventually do go back and revisit what I've written. Every now and then something has happened and I think, 'I bet this would work in front of an audience.' I always close the evening by reading from the diary. It's almost like telling jokes, they're just short, funny jokes. I started this tour with 10 new ones."He doesn't spend much time thinking about why he's been so successful at connecting with readers and listeners."I can't imagine why. I wrote a story about buying an owl at a taxidermy shop in London in 2008. I read it out loud for an audience, but I wondered how many people besides me and five other people could relate to this. But it got a great response. The story was really about the fact that the taxidermist could see inside me and recognize the person that I really am. And I think everybody's had that experience of meeting a stranger who's able to identify them like that."He aims for a broad audience."Sex isn't my subject, but I write about my relationship with Hugh in a way that anybody can relate to. It doesn't have anything to do with being gay. We were standing in the security line at an airport and trying to decide which one was shorter, and we got impatient with each other and Hugh said, 'I haven't liked you since 2002.' That's something anybody in a relationship can understand."David Crumpler: (904) 359-4164Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.) Visit The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Fla.) at .jacksonville.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉