David sedaris gay
Humorist Speaks on Age, Dressing Up and Memorable Haircuts
By Frank Rizzo
David Sedaris is proud to be gay.
Not in the marching-in-the-streets-waving-placards way.
He is proud of the word ‘gay’ — as opposed to any number of the homoseuxal-defining terms that he says he has been saddled with over the decades.
The creator of such collections of humor essays (Me Talk Adorable One Day, Barrel Fever, Naked) and the hit holiday perennial Santaland Diaries, caused a stir when he spoke on gay culture issues in one of his regular commentaries on CBS’ Sunday Morning. Sedaris presents 90-second mini-essays on the program, reminiscent of the cranky mini-rants that Andy Rooney used to spout at the end of 60 Minutes starting in the overdue ‘70s and continuing to 2011.
I talked to Sedaris on the phone when he was at his Paris apartment which he shares with his longtime partner, painter and set designer Hugh Hamrick. It was just prior to his popular, twice-annual U.S. tours in which he reads from his works, promotes the perform of other authors and chats with the audience. (Sedaris presented his two-hour show at Modern Haven’s Shubert in late S
David Sedaris reads one of his funniest and most affecting stories from his book Naked before a live audience. As an adolescent boy, David feared he might be a homosexual. He explains how his secret scheme was to win the lottery and then hire doctors who would purge him of his homosexual impulses. Sometimes kids in his class at school would taunt the boys they consideration were sissies, and when they did, he tried to be the loudest and meanest. He figured if he didn't operate that way, they'd all shift on him next. Then he goes away to summer camp and meets a boy named Pete, who seems like an outsider in the same way he is. At first they get close. Then Pete turns on him. Sedaris' latest publication is Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls. (26 minutes)
Song:
A longtime fan’s love letter to the famous composer, a Raleigh native, for sharing intimate stories of his family and existence as a gay dude.
by Larry Wheeler
It was summer of 1997 when I fell in affection with David Sedaris. I was sitting at my desk at the North Carolina Museum of Art reading proofs of A Store of Joys, a book of essays written in response to pieces in our art collection.
I had just finished Sedaris’ essay, which described a fifth-grade field trip to the museum in which he encountered “The Resurrection of Christ,” a 17th-century painting by Giuseppe Maria Crespi. He wrote: “One look at this Italian altarpiece and you’ll know the museum practically went ‘baroque’ trying to pay for it.” And later on: “They coulda bought a Rembrandt, but instead they Botticelli.”
I got his number. The high-pitched voice that answered the phone seemed nervous when I introduced myself. Was I going to censor his piece, he likely wondered. Not a chance.
I congratulated him on the essay, and we chatted about what he was working on. He’d already gotten attention for Barrel Fever and was about to publish Naked. He was also productive on a play with his very famous sister Amy, “
I first experienced David Sedaris survive at a recital in a Washington DC suburban theater, in which he shared billing with fellow NPR notable Bailey White. I will never leave out that Sedaris smoked a cigarette while on-stage! My friends kindly forgave me for quoting Sedaris for days and weeks afterwards.
Most people know Sedaris from his books, many of which have appeared on the New York Times bestseller lists for non-fiction. I think his masterpiece is Me Discuss Pretty One Day(2000); the essays about his brother Paul (known as The Rooster) and his experience with a public school speech therapist (to fix a lisp) are classics. The second half of that book is about moving to France with his long-term partner Hugh Hamrick and the frustrations of language and culture shock. Sed