In the Event That...

He Still Lights Your Fire


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Published: Jun 3, 2008

David SedarisSat., June 7, noon, free with purchase of book, Joseph Fox Bookshop, 1724 Sansom St., 215-563-4184, foxbookshop.com

Anne Fishbein

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Holy cow, people. David Sedaris is reading in a bookstore. While this sounds refreshingly cozy — our favorite memoirist usually sells out places like Irvine Auditorium and the Kimmel Center — it also means that mobs of nerds will be descending not upon an arena-size concert hall, but upon tiny Joseph Fox Bookshop. Oh, they've tried to discourage the masses by promoting the event as a book signing preceded by a "brief reading" of his new collection of essays, When You Are Engulfed in Flames (Little, Brown, $25.99). But you can bet crazy fans will still begin claiming spots at the crack of dawn.

Even if you've already read many of these stories in The New Yorker or Esquire — about his Stadium Pal external catheter, or the time he sat in his underpants in a waiting room after misunderstanding a French nurse's instructions — seeing the man himself tell his delightful and hilarious tales of embarrassment and pain, in such cramped quarters, is nothing short of thrilling. Of course, if you can't get in, he'll be back at the Academy of Music in October. Start thinking about getting your tickets, um, right now.