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Rhymes with Paris
By briantologist | June 20, 2005
Good god, what a week. And weekend.
So I found out Tuesday I’d be interviewing David Sedaris on Thursday. He’s only like my favorite living writer ever, so you can imagine how well I kept my shit together in the two days in between. I pretty much dropped everything to concentrate on fretting and playing Timesplitters: Future Perfect on Playstation 2, which I think nicely illustrates the mixture of ineffectual anxiety and utter denial I like to use in dealing with the challenges life puts my way.
Did I mention I’d already been asked to introduce Mr. S. at the reading/signing he had planned at Barnes & Noble the following weekend? True story. So now there’s this great double-whammy effect going on: If the interview were to go terribly, I’d have that fine precedent in mind going into the introduction Sunday, and did I mention I haven’t got much experience doing interviews? Just checking, but again, no pressure.
Of course it was all for naught; the interview went marvelously, and the signing went even better. It occurred to me as I awoke Sunday morning, from a dream in which a female moose sang a hauntingly beautiful song that caused me to forget my obligations, that I ought to find a biography of John Grisham online, then replace his name whenever it occurred with David Sedaris’s, and just read that for the introduction. (You can read the text here, assuming you’ve got MS Word. Or just Multiple Sclerosis.)
They loved it. More importantly to me, he loved it. There are few things more gratifying to me than making people laugh, and as my esteemed sister pointed out, it’s that much more gratifying when it’s someone who’s made me laugh as often and as hard as he has.
I’d also like to state, for the record, that David Sedaris is one of the kindest, friendliest people I’ve ever met, and he absolutely could not have been more of a pleasure to interview or to … I wanna say “work with,” but that sounds kind of ridiculous, so let’s just go with “meet.” He’s the kind of person you’d feel dumb for wanting your favorite writer to be like. A capital human being, this guy. I was a little miffed they didn’t let him smoke in the store.
In closing:
And:
And:
(I asked for this one.)
Topics: Fucking Awesome | 18 Comments »
June 20th, 2005 at 10:24 am
“victim’s compensation fund”….brilliant.
June 20th, 2005 at 10:54 am
I love his books. I caught about the last 2 minutes of the interview. I kept thinking: who is this 80-year-old chain-smoking women and why is she so obsessed with making change? Then when you said his name I completely cracked up. Fitting.
June 20th, 2005 at 10:56 am
eh, I mean “woman”
June 20th, 2005 at 11:05 am
AWESOME idea for an intro, and a great story! Congrats, that’s fucking rad. :)
June 20th, 2005 at 11:38 am
Why couldn’t my father be dead? My lunch with him, on stupid Father’s Day, was what kept me from hearing your intro live and in stereo.
I’m glad to hear he was cool, too. So often my heroes (Hitler, Atilla the Hun, you) turn out to be dicks.
June 20th, 2005 at 11:48 am
Wow. I am so jealous. I have no doubt you did a fabulous job. Everyone should love you, and if anyone doesn’t, I don’t want to know them.
June 20th, 2005 at 1:09 pm
The envy is oozing! HOW FUCKING COOL!
June 20th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
wow, you really did your research! i didn’t know any of that stuff about sedaris.
i want a female moose to come and inspire me similarly in my dreams. send her over when you’re done, will you?
June 20th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
his signature cracks me up, especially the trailing off of “edaris” in the first one.
in absolutely no way can i make his signature be what i know it is.
and those are the best kinds of signatures anyway. makes the paper trail harder to follow.
June 20th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
I saw Mr Sedaris at the local venue a couple of months ago, and the laughter, she nearly killed me.
Nice intro. Also nearly killed me.
Hmm, maybe I’m just in fragile health?
June 20th, 2005 at 7:52 pm
OMFG! That is so cool that I can’t even feign being nonchalant about it. Did I mention, OMFG?!
June 20th, 2005 at 10:27 pm
Dude, I feel pretty fucking chalant about it. Like, it sounds corny, but it was a genuinely uplifting experience.
June 21st, 2005 at 8:55 am
Bravo, Mr. Byrne, bravo!
June 21st, 2005 at 9:10 am
Thank you, thank you all! Truly, I would rather be here with you people than with the greatest people on earth!
(thunderous applause)
(pause in thunderous applause)
Thank you!
(applause resumes, though less thunderously)
June 21st, 2005 at 9:22 am
awesome. Jealousy is oozing from every pore in my body. Good work. Now ask him if we can get Silly P’s number, we got some hardwood floors what need refinishin’.
June 21st, 2005 at 9:34 am
Nice job, soon-to-be-national-talk-showhost…
Often, the birth of a child is preceeded and followed by a prolific period of creativity and personal growth… Ride the ride.
June 21st, 2005 at 11:44 am
You can always check The Rooster’s web site:
http://www.sedarishardwoodfloors.com/
For my own part, I bought two T-shirts.
June 23rd, 2005 at 6:40 pm
David Sedaris is one of the kindest, friendliest people I’ve ever met, and he absolutely could not have been more of a pleasure to interview
This reminds me of a conceit I’ve harbored for years. What it springs off of is that I am, by the estimation of even my closest friends, a raging asshole— and I always have been. But I tell myself that if I were only successful in my chosen vocation I would be more comfortable and happy with myself and that this would make me the kind, friendly person I’ve otherwise never had the patience to be— or even the patience to pretend to be.
The reality, of course, is that instead of just being an asshole I’d just be a rich asshole. But you know, I like to imagine…