Author and NPR personality David Sedaris, who writes and recites achingly funny stories about his life, has been embraced like a rock star by diehard readers and listeners. Often finding personal connections with the author, his fans are a passionately devoted lot, so his appearances in Glenside and Delaware should be comic love-fests. Yet anyone unfamiliar with the appeal of this funnyman can take a cue from some of his more ardent admirers. An informal survey of fans I know revealed comments like, "He articulates all of my inner thoughts," and, "He makes my childhood look normal!" One testified: "Reading David Sedaris is like having a great conversation with a close friend—a little nostalgic, slightly bittersweet and captivating in hilarious (albeit sometimes inappropriate) ways. I love him for his brutal honesty."

But in the age of James Frey memoir scandals, is Sedaris being completely honest with his audience? His devotees seem to love him more if he is stretching the truth.

As one fan admits, "There is a perversity about David Sedaris that I love—a kind of irrepressibility in how he writes about childhood. I don't believe for a second that most of the stuff he writes about actually happened. But what's the point of nostalgia if not to remember things the way we'd have wanted them to be?"

And perhaps this is the best way to appreciate David Sedaris—to develop one's own imaginary relationship with him. Not unlike a particularly determined fan who tended bar in Chicago. She insisted on marrying Sedaris, unconcerned with the very fact that he is gay. Rabid, indeed.

David Sedaris appears Tue., March 28, 8 p.m., $33-$37, The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del., 302-652-5577 or 800-37-GRAND; Wed., March 29, 8 p.m., sold out, Keswick Theatre, Easton Rd. and Glenside Ave., Glenside, Pa., 215-572-7650.