David Sedaris at Amazon

One of the perks of working at Amazon is this thing called "Amazon Fishbowl." Basically, visiting authors and musicians come by to talk or perform and sign stuff. A lot of people come through but so far I've only seen They Might Be Giants, and Lewis Black. (Also, Russell Simmons.) Today was David Sedaris. The line to the big conference room was out the door , around the lobby, and down the hall. Jenny and I were near the front of the line, and we barely got seats.

Seeing him in person was a bit surreal. I've heard his voice so many times on NPR that it's impossible to imagine him as an actual person, and having him there didn't help that much. Surreal or not, he was hilarious. A lot of his humor is in the delivery, and it's even better in person.

I've never been sure how much to believe of his stories, so when he told us that he works with a charity that provides helper monkeys to quadriplegics I was skeptical, but maybe it's for real. Anyway, this is what he looks like:Some of the authors who speak at Fishbowl are very effusive about how great Amazon has been for them, but not David Sedaris:

"I have never been on Amazon. I have no idea what it looks like. I know that people order stuff on there but I have no idea how."

He also mocked authors who are obsessed with their Amazon ranking, and who write reviews of their own books. He offered up this review of his latest:

"The type is so small. I coudln't hardly read it! The author's picture is so ugly!"

Then he took questions from the audience. There was a lull so I asked about the promo for his interview on KUOW this morning, which described him as "one of the most humane writers alive." He hadn't heard it, and he was kind of puzzled. He said I must have misheard.

A better question was about writing about his family, and whether that causes problems. His response,

"People will come up to [my older sister] and say 'I know all about you.' They don't know anything about her. Except she has a parrot... and she had her first period on a golf course."

Hopefully that's funny to someone reading this who wasn't there. Like most of his writing, you have to picture him saying it.

By the way, this is my first post where I explicitly mention my employer, Amazon.com. This means I'm now operating under the External Communications guidelines which state that I must:

make it clear to your readers that the views you express are yours alone and that they do not necessarily reflect the views of Amazon.com.

Since I have to do that, I might as well express an opinion which does not necessarily reflect that of Amazon.com. Hmm... let's see here... Okay, here goes:

• The title of Russel Simmons' new book, Do You!, sounds kinda filthy.

Please note that Amazon.com does not necessarily agree with the above--but they might!