If you mention the name David Sedaris to most Americans, even if they’ve never read his books or seen him perform or heard him on the radio, they will, at the very least, recognize the name.
A writer of cynical, quirky, often self-depreciating essays that pick apart human nature by examining everyday life situations from a different angle, David Sedaris got his big break when asked by Ira Glass to share a Christmas piece with his radio audience. Sedaris pulled read the portion of his personal diary detailing his time spent working as an elf at Macy’s Department Store’s Santaland.
Unfortunately, he’s not so well known in the Netherlands, despite his hilarious essay Six to Eight Black Men, which does its best to explain the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas from a foreigner’s point of view.
There is, however, a group trying to introduce Sedaris to the Netherlands. Sedaris’s publisher here in the Netherlands, Big Lebowski Publishing, has published Dutch translations of all of the essayist’s books and has created the website www.davidsedaris.nl – Sedaris’s only homepage on the internet. With the help of Dutch comedy superstars such as Paul de Leeuw and Aaf Brandt Corstius, they have gotten Sedaris on hit television shows such as De Wereld Draait Door, Jak Halzen, and the MaDiWoDoVri Show.
And, on 25 September 2011 at 4pm, 1,400 watched as David Sedaris became the first foreign author to perform at Theater Carre in Amsterdam.
For an hour, the author read various selections from his books and essays published in Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as selections from his private diary. The performance was rounded up with a question and answer session.
Afterwards, audience members were invited to pick up a free copy of his latest essay Innocents Abroad, after which many stood in line for upwards of two hours to get Sedaris’s autograph and have a chat with the author.
Well known for taking the time to speak with his fans, Sedaris engaged in pleasant banter with each and every person that came to his table as he signed and drew sketches in the books he was asked to sign.
Next, Sedaris – who lives with his partner in the UK – will be heading back to the United States for a 51 city tour.
But Sedaris fans and fans-to-be can catch him back in Amsterdam in 2013.
