There, I said it. He's unfunny, overrated in a way no one has ever been, and his voice makes me want to shoot him up with steriods and force him to do 72983794 push-ups.

his books have me consistently chortling

The pieces of his books that I've read were alright. I've never heard him speak, but I've got no problem with him.

I'm currently reading Me Talk Pretty One Day and I'm thoroughly enjoying it

I can't vouch for his voice though

I dunno about flat-out "unfunny" - I save that particular word for stuff that could never make me crack a smile, no matter what. Stuff like 99 % of what's on TV.

But I totally agree he's overrated. Mrs Dawg loves his stuff, but her tastes lean toward that NPR vibe... which is pretty much the exact opposite of my taste.

Plus there's a little of the "it would be wrong if we didn't think the homosexual was funny" thing in there, too. IMO.

i've liked his books and stories. i've heard him twice and was way disappointed the second time. i also don't think he's very good at dealing with people during signings. though, that may be a side effect of hundreds of people saying they love him for hours on end.

wow, his reputation in boston - brookline in particluar - is practically befitting a person of royal lineage.

i've always enjoyed his pieces on TAL and ATC, the way he ties light humor together with introspection and genuine affection for his characters, often with real emotion, as his stories are all autobiographical. i haven't felt the need to make the leap to reading his books or attending one of his in-person events, but i hardly have anything against him.

as an aside, i can count 4 friends who work for NPR here in Boston, so...i'm clearly in the pro-NPR camp.

KPH

Hmm. That's an interesting comment, but I can't say that's ever been the case for me. In fact, to a certain extent, there's always been this weird kind of straight man guilt I feel about, you know, laughing at the stereotypical gay man.

The best thing about riding the NYC subways is watching people trying to hold back laughter while reading his stuff.

I agree that he's overrated. After reading the 20 pages of blurbs by famous authors who laughed themselves hernias reading his books, I was disappointed to have only laughed out loud maybe twice in the course of reading 2 of his books. But his stories are still entertaining, if not nearly as funny as everyone seems to think.

It's SEdaris.

while I do love NPR, David Sedaris gets on my last nerve. I don't get it. I have read (started to read, been lent and went through) almost every one of his books and I mostly end up going "huh"? I think I a lot of it is forced and stupid.

Fine, fine, whatever.


OK, I overstated. I love the NPR as much as the next pretentious asshole, and while he´s on there entirely too much for my liking, I have giggled at a couple of his lines. I just don´t like it when I´m all geared up to hear This American Life and there he is ruining 20 good minutes. Mostly I´m just disgusted by the deification of him.

Hee... I figured that comment wasn't gonna skate by 100% unnoticed.

What I meant was this - I think with a lot of left-leaning people ( & I kinda doubt Sedaris has many hardcore right-wing fans ) there's this element of going overboard in praising someone's stuff if they're a "minority". Or assuming that someone must be a good person for the same reason.

For instance, Mrs. Dawg is about as prototypical liberal as it gets. In our old apartment building she was friends with this gay dude - who I thought had the smell of "trouble" the first time I met him. I never said anything, though, cuz she liked him.

Of course, he turned out to be a major league prick. But since the Mrs kinda backwards-prejudged him, it took her 2 years to find that out. I remember saying "You know...gay people can be assholes, too."

Anyway...I'm sure I still haven't clarified myself well. Me not so good with the wordings.

Since I generally don't read anything written post 1950 I have no idea who this Sedaris fella is. Though apparently he is a gay author.

I do have a gay author story but it's about Armistead Maupin. That a prick that guy is. 8 years later and I still want to kick his face off. Ugh, I'm mad now. (screwing face up, clenching teeth) I'm going to get you Maupin! If it's the last thing I do! (shaking fist, stomping).

And he doesn't even share the story.

I have no idea who David Sedaris is either. I'm so uncool.

He's funny or he's not funny.

I think he's funny, legibly and audibly.

Beyond that, he's just a humorist as an observer being a self designated outcast; albeit, an outcast of society by being who he is.

Precisely.

I think Naked is the best at showing the above.

The stories he told in that book were incredible and heartwarming. I not only laughed as I read them but I cried because the odd and the agony that he went through was all too possible.

I think he's a great storyteller in the written sense. I've never seen him live so I can't chime in on that one.

I love David Sedaris and would be ever so happy to make him my wife. Erm...

He is first and foremost a humorist. However, rather than just making his stories out to be dry observations of idiosyncracies (see David Rakoff), he always manages to neatly end his stories with a grander theme that never feels sappy (see Robert Fulghum, Calvin Trillin).

I saw him a few months ago at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square and he was extremely entertaining, self-deprecating, and gracious. He made sure that everyone who wanted his signature got one and seemed genuinely surprised whenever anyone paid him a compliment.

Liked Naked quite a bit. Haven't read anything else. I remember some years ago describing him: "Well, he would be like OPA if OPA was gay." IIRC, carnvalkid agreed with this assessment. Not sure how to revise it at this point.

i don't really care much for him, but i think that his sister is one of the funniest people on the planet.