The Big Break

I discovered David Sedaris sometime in the late ‘90s. I ordered Naked from a book catalog. I liked the description, and I got the sense the author might be gay. The book was fairly popular, and I had seen it around. Being the perv that I am, the title and the picture of those boxer shorts caught my eye. The catalog was selling it at a reduced rate, so I bought it. I’m glad I did. I loved it. I’ve read several of Sedaris’ essay collections since then, and I’ve enjoyed them all.

I’ve noticed that a number of Sedaris’ essays suggest he was pretty poor as a young adult. He was born in a small town in New York, but his family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, when he was still in grade school. His family was solidly middle class, but Sedaris’ financial situation seems to have taken a sharp dive after he moved out of his parents’ house. He mentions living in slummy apartments and working dead end jobs many times. So I looked up his Wikipedia page and found out his talent as a storyteller didn’t start paying off until he was in his mid-30s.

A radio host heard him reading one of his stories about his family in a nightclub and asked him to be a guest on his show. Sedaris is small, and he speaks with a squeaky, elfin voice. His stories are funny and self-deprecating, but just below the laughs, there tends to be an honest confrontation with some of the darker aspects of human nature. So I can imagine a radio host thinking he would be a great guest. Sedaris’ performance led to NPR invited him to read SantaLand Diaries on Morning Edition in December 1992. The audience loved him, and soon he had a book deal.

Sedaris has lived in France and now he lives in England with his partner. He’s regularly invited to read his essays all over the United States, so he travels a lot, and he’s a regular guest on TV and radio shows. He has caught up with the standard of living he enjoyed when he was young and surpassed it, but he was nearly middle aged before this happened.

Sedaris admits that the radio host who discovered him turned everything around. Short, elfin men with squeaky voices tend not to be taken seriously, especially ones who are socially awkward like Sedaris, so it’s not likely he would have went very far if he had chosen a more mundane profession, and he could have lived out his life in obscurity and poverty if that radio host hadn’t seen his performance in the early ‘90s.

Sedaris has a lot of talent, and he is cunningly perceptive as well as funny. I’m glad he made it, but his success story shows that no one is truly self-made. Sedaris did the work. He began writing his anecdotes in 1977. But the radio host had to give him a break before things started moving. NPR gave him another break. Then his publisher gave him a chance.