Retired Christmas Elf Sedaris to Open National Tour At UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Shrewd, loopy and wickedly sardonic, David Sedaris is one of the country's most popular young comedic personalities. He is a playwright, author, radio commentator and "retired elf" who weaves his complex moral vision into acidic commentaries delivered in an eerily innocent voice.

The deliciously prickly Sedaris will open a 21-city performance tour at 7 p.m. on Nov. 1 in Slee Concert Hall on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

The event will benefit Just Buffalo Literary Center and the UB Program in Modern Greek, which will co-sponsor the event, along with the dean of the UB College of Arts and Sciences and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. Sedaris' appearance is a featured event in Hallwalls' 1998 Ways of Being Gay Festival.

His presentation will be preceded at 5:30 p.m. by a book-signing and fund-raising reception in the University Art Gallery in the UB Center for the Arts to benefit Just Buffalo and the Program in Modern Greek.

Tickets for the performance only are $10 for general admission and $8 for students, seniors and members of Just Buffalo and Hallwalls. Tickets for the performance, reception and book-signing are $18. They are available through the Slee Hall Box Office, 645-2921, or from Hallwalls, 835-7362.

Although the content of his Buffalo performance is not known "by me or even by my agent," Sedaris said he plans to premiere new material here.

Sedaris' commentaries are intensely personal, hilarious and full of wild exaggeration. They began on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" with the "SantaLand Diaries," in which Sedaris recounted his bizarre experiences as a Macy's Christmas elf. The commentaries air on "Morning Edition" every Monday and also are regular features of Public Radio International's "This American Life" with Ira Glass.

Sedaris' books are "Holidays on Ice," "Barrel Fever" and "Naked," an excerpt of which can be found at .