The Damfinos, members of the International Buster Keaton Society, have left town. The next big thing at the restored downtown theater here in Riverdale, Mishconson is David Sedaris. I am so far out of touch with today's pop culture that I had never heard of him. He is hyped as America's greatest humorist. Like Garrison Keillor (I do know about him) he came to fame on Public Radio. Also like Lake Wobegon's gift to radio, Sedaris is compared to Mark Twain. So is Jean Shepherd. Jean who, you say? Marshall McLuhan, who wrote a pretty famous book about media, "The Medium is the Message," called him the first radio novelist. You heard Shepherd's voice if you ever saw "A Christmas Story" about young Ralphie, his air rifle and his dad's sexy leg lamp.
I wonder what Sam Clemens would have to say about all this comparing?
Everybody good in America gets compared to Twain. My great-grandfather was described as a Norwegian Mark Twain, with his satire, letters from the road, etc. His greatest novel was the ground-breaking Lingonberry Lapp, about preacher's kid who floated down the Chippewa on a raft made of lefse.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call him "greatest," but David Sedaris is pretty damn funny. Never read him, but I enjoy his spoken pieces on "This American Life." He talks a lot about being a gay guy in France, to sum it up neatly.
I confuse him with Ira Glass. They sound similar, although Sedaris is all about comic timing, whereas Glass sounds kinda flat and angsty.