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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 3 June 2017
David Sedaris diaries are mundane, profane, downright odd

LEANNE ITALIE go back and why don’t amazing to be able to do
Associated Press you find things that aren’t that.
NEW YORK (AP) — David necessarily funny. I just AP: Diary item dated Dec.
Sedaris, over more than planned it to be things that 15, 1992, enter Ira Glass,
a quarter century, has made you laugh out loud. who called to say NPR’s
earned many job descrip- It turned into something “Morning Edition” wanted
tions: humorist, playwright, else. to broadcast your “Santa-
essayist, author and radio AP: What did it turn into? Land Diaries” and pay you
contributor. Sedaris: It turned into more, $500. This was your start as
At 60, call him a thief, but I think, a reflection of my a public radio star, but you
still funny, sometimes awk- life. It turned into something continued your work doing
ward, often poignant. with sort of an arc to it. I odds jobs to make money.
Sedaris has robbed de- don’t imagine the second Sedaris: It never meant
cades of his diaries for a volume will have that, but anything to me to be able
two-book series taking him the first book does seem to to say to people I’m a
way, way back — to Sept. tell a kind of a story. Some- writer so I kept my day job.
5, 1977. That’s where he be- times there would be a dia- But I would do these read-
gins — at age 20 — with his ry entry that was three pag- ings and I worked my way
first volume, “Theft by Find- es long and there would be up from an audience of
ing,” with the second due three sentences that might eight. I really had paid my
out in two years, sweeping be of interest. dues. I wasn’t just this guy
him through to 2017. AP: Why did start keeping a who came out of nowhere
Odd jobs, his dysfunctional diary in 1977? and someone put me on
family, the cost of chicken Sedaris: I was with my friend the radio. I had been writ-
per pound, Sedaris cov- Ronnie and we had left San ing every single day for 15
ers that and more through Francisco. We were going years. I went from a small
some vagabond moments to pick apples and pears audience to an audience
as he moves from itiner- in the Pacific Northwest of 10 million people. Every-
ant, art student and, finally, and I was writing letters to thing came from that.
some writerly success. He my family and friends, but AP: Diary item dated
culled from roughly 8 mil- I didn’t have an address March 23, 1999, you gave
lion words that he wrote by where they could write me up drinking. Why?
hand or typed, including back. I started just writing Sedaris: I told myself I could
just a fraction. to myself. only write when I was drink-
Associated Press: Why was AP: How you do describe ing. I would say that I was
it a good idea to put out a your work? Do you em- This cover image released by Little, Brown and Company an alcoholic. There are
514-page volume of diary brace humorist, diarist? shows “Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002),” by David Se- many worse drinkers than
entries? Sedaris: I rejected the word daris. me, but it meant I couldn’t
Sedaris: I started reading humorist for a long time Associated Press go anywhere at night be-
things from my diary out because I thought that it cause I was just too messed
loud and people laughed. meant you had, like, a car- do? would be the end of my re- up to leave the house. It
Ever since then, whenever digan sweater with patch- Sedaris: I wanted to be a lationship with a painting. meant I was constantly liv-
I do a reading I include es on the elbows, but now visual artist, but I realized With a short story I would ing with this low-grade fe-
some things from my diary. I’m old and I do. I grew into I was more affected by read or with an author I ver of shame. It felt great
I always thought I would that word. I think at heart, what I read than by what I would discover I could be to quit. Now I can write
publish a funny diary thing, all this time, I’ve been a di- saw. I would go to a show haunted. It would affect anywhere. Put me on a
but when it came time to arist. I’m not ashamed of it. at a museum and look at a my mood and affect the plane on the runway for 45
talk about this book, my AP: As a teenager, what painting and say, ‘Oh I wish way that I saw the world. I minutes and I’m good.q
editor said why you don’t were you thinking you’d I owned that,’ and that thought, wow, it would be

Ariana Grande’s Manchester

benefit airing on Disney channels

NEW YORK (AP) — Disney says its telecast.
networks will air Ariana Grande’s Grande will be joined by the Black
“One Love Manchester” benefit on Eyed Peas, Robbie Williams, Justin
Sunday. The concert, to be carried Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Cold-
by broadcasters around the world, play and other stars at the charity
is aimed at helping victims of the event being held two weeks after
recent attack in Manchester, Eng- the suicide bombing at Grande’s
land. performance in the city. Twenty-
The full concert will air live at 2 p.m. two people died at that show.
EDT on Freeform, Disney’s young Proceeds will go to an emergency
adult cable network. The show will fund set up by the city of Manches-
also stream live on Ariana Grande’s ter and the British Red Cross.
Facebook page and YouTube Other performers include Phar-
channel. rell Williams, Niall Horan, Little Mix
ABC will air a one-hour highlight and Take That, who will open the
special following the NBA Finals show.q
In this Aug. 28, 2016, file photo, Ariana Grande arrives at the MTV Video Music
Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Associated Press