Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Humorist Writer DAVID SEDARIS Shares an Evening of Storytelling at the Merriam Theater, Oct. 15

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

“Sedaris ain’t the preeminent humorist of his generation by accident”— Whitney Pastorek, Entertainment Weekly

Today’s pre-eminent humor writer, David Sedaris, shares his highly sardonic wit and incisive social critique during an evening of laugh-out-loud storytelling in the Merriam Theater on Saturday, October 15, 2011. The NPR humorist and best-selling author of Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and the recently released Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary will discuss his latest topics of discourse.

Tickets for David Sedaris are $50.50 - $57.50, and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center Box Office located on Broad and Spruce streets, Philadelphia, PA 19102 (open daily from 10am to 6pm, later on performance evenings).

 “Sedaris’s droll assessment of the mundane and the eccentrics who inhabit the world’s crevices make him one of the greatest humorists writing today.” — Chicago Tribune

David Sedaris is the author of Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, each of which became a bestseller. There are a total of seven million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into 25 languages. He was the editor of Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories. Sedaris’s pieces appear regularly in The New Yorker and have twice been included in “The Best American Essays.” His newest book, a collection of fables entitled Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary (with illustrations by Ian Falconer), was published in September 2010 and immediately hit the NYT Bestseller Fiction List. 

He and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name “The Talent Family” and have written half-a-dozen plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center, and The Drama Department in New York City. These plays include Stump the Host, Stitches, One Woman Shoe, which received an Obie Award, Incident at Cobbler’s Knob, and The Book of Liz, which was published in book form by Dramatists Play Service. David Sedaris’s original radio pieces can often be heard on This American Life, distributed nationally by Public Radio International and produced by WBEZ. David Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album.  His most recent live album is David Sedaris: Live For Your Listening Pleasure (November 2009).

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Kimmel Center, Inc., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center.  Kimmel Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the University of the Arts Merriam Theater. Kimmel Center, Inc.’s mission is to operate a world class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience which includes providing arts in education, community outreach and a rich diversity of programming.  The 2011/2012 season is sponsored by Citi.  For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org. 

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