What is wrong with me...

[Tom]

...that i don't get David Sedaris? He's like a gay male Erma Bombeck for the 90s, only without the funny. What am i missing?

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

He's better on audio than on the page, Tom. I first heard of David Sedaris, and heard him, on NPR, doing segments from "The Santaland Diaries".

It really helps to be familiar with his voice and his phrasing for the humor to come through.

[Rusty]

Oh, he's on NPR. That's why I don't know who he is.

[[deleted user]]

I get the nagging feeling David Sedaris isn't as funny as his fans claim he is. Don't get me wrong, I've read his books and he's got a gift for extracting humor out of the ordinariness of life, but, is he really that funny?

PS - very funny, Rusty...

[Jackie "the Librarian"]

No, he's not laugh out loud funny. He's a kind of funny that's uncomfortable, and sometimes he's not funny at all, just lame. But he's not boring.

[[deleted user]]

The funniest thing I read from Sedaris is the story about his youngest brother, The Rooster, who's so full-blown redneck in a family of Northern transplants. Now that story had me gasping for air because it was hilarious.