Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Amy Sedaris at the Herbst Theater

I thought she did an incredible job. They set it up to look like a sit-down interview with Daniel Handler but it was pure, polished improv comedy, right from the start. She would take some ridiculous, offhand comment from the audience (including an astoundingly tasteless remark about Ms. Sedaris's dead mother in a sexually compromising position), pretend to ignore it, and then refer back to it mercilessly throughout the evening. Comedy is very hard -- it's easy to get up there and look like a shnook --- but she seemed fearless. She sparred a bit with Mr. Handler -- just enough to make you wonder if it was all part of the act or not. I also picked up on a lot of housekeeping tips (how to put google eyes on peanuts, for example.) There were many other weird twists to the evening -- such as Andrew Sean Greer playing the role of a slavish butler, setting down a martini for Amy Sedaris. Someone in the audience asked her about appearing with Martha Stewart, and what it was like to work with her. Sedaris replied that "he'' was very nice

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