RSS
Home
David Sedaris at GW's Lisner Auditorium
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Jada Bradley
This past weekend, I got to experience a cultural event at no cost using the one method you cannot plan for: the unexpected offer of a free ticket. When I got an e-mail saying that someone I knew had an extra free ticket to go hear David Sedaris speak at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium , I jumped at the chance. Sedaris, who lives abroad, was here to promote his latest essay collection, When You are Engulfed in Flames.
Sedaris's brand of humor and offbeat worldview isn't for everyone, but if you've read his work and liked it, you'll find that hearing him read it makes it even more hilarious.
If you are like me and haven't spent a lot of time at GW, then be warned that in the dark, you and a generous ticket-providing friend can stumble into GW's Jack Morton Auditorium (at 804 21st St. NW), since it has almost the same coordinates as Lisner Auditorium (at 21 and H Sts. NW). Check out the Lisner Auditorium website (listed below) because they have a great roster of upcoming events.
As usual, Mr. Sedaris was laugh aloud funny. He is in the habit of paying someone at a book signing prior to a speaking engagement to introduce him. When a young woman who looked a little nervous approached the microphone, I thought she might have been university staff, but no, she was a student. Sedaris had offered her $10 to bring him out and for someone who hadn't planned to speak before a capactiy crowd, she did a good job.
Book tours are all about promotion and he read a funny piece that The New Yorker had asked him to write about being on a book tour. But Sedaris doesn't just use his speaking engagements to promote himself. He also mentions, holds up and reads from the work of another author he admires. This time he read from The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders. This kind of promotion was good to see because not everyone is quite so generous.
Have you recently gotten the unexpected windfall of a free ticket? If so, drop me a line. I'd love to hear about it.
Related Articles:
Comments
