Saturday, November 15, 2014, 8pm Zellerbach Hall David Sedaris Hugh Hamrick Hugh Berkeley Talks is co-presented by Cal Performances and UC Berkeley. Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. CAL PERFORMANCES 19 ABOUT THE SPEAKER ITH SARDONIC WIT and incisive social appear regularly in The New Yorker and have Wcritiques, David Sedaris has become twice been included in The Best American one of America’s preeminent humor writers. Essays anthologies. There are a total of seven The great skill with which he slices through million copies of his books in print, and they cultural euphemisms and political correctness have been translated into 25 languages. proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and He and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have col- one of the most observant writers addressing laborated under the name “The Talent the human condition today. Family” and have written a half-dozen plays Mr. Sedaris is the author of Barrel Fever which have been produced at La Mama, and Holidays on Ice, as well as the collections Lincoln Center, and the Drama Department of personal essays Naked, Me Talk Pretty One in New York City. These plays include Stump Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and the Host, Stitches, One Woman Shoe (which re- Denim, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and ceived an Obie Award), Incident at Cobbler’s his most recent book, Let’s Explore Diabetes Knob, and The Book of Liz, which was pub- with Owls, each of which became an immedi- lished in book form by Dramatists Play ate bestseller. The audio version of Let’s Service. Mr. Sedaris’s original radio pieces are Explore Diabetes with Owls is a 56th Annual often heard on the public radio show This Grammy Award Nominee for Best Spoken American Life. Mr. Sedaris has been nomi- Word Album. He is the author of The New nated for three Grammy Awards for Best York Times bestselling collection of fables en- Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album. His titled Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest latest audio recording of new stories (recorded Bestiary (with illustrations by Ian Falconer). live) is David Sedaris: Live for Your Listening He was also the editor of Children Playing Pleasure. A feature film adaptation of his story Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology “C.O.G.” was released after a première at the of Outstanding Stories. Mr. Sedaris’s pieces 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Dylan Brody will give brief reading in advance of Mr. Sedaris’s performance. PLAYBILL.