Best-selling author and NPR humorist David Sedaris to Return to UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present David Sedaris at 8 p.m. on Oct. 1 in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. A book signing will follow.

With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today.

"Sedaris has hit upon the narrative equivalent of Pepsi, or the PlayStation, or oxygen, or the haircut: something that others in the world might actually want and find useful…. He's smart, he's caustic, he's mordant and, somehow, he's, well, nice," says Bill Richardson of the Toronto Globe and Mail

Sedaris is the author of "Barrel Fever" and "Holidays on Ice," as well as collections of personal essays, "Naked," "Me Talk Pretty One Day," "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" and "When You Are Engulfed in Flames," each of which became a bestseller. There are a total of 7 million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into 25 languages. He was the editor of "Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories." Sedaris' pieces appear regularly in The New Yorker and have twice been included in "The Best American Essays." He and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name "The Talent Family" and have written half-a-dozen plays that have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center and The Drama Department in New York City. These plays include "Stump the Host," "Stitches," "One Woman Shoe," which received an Obie Award, "Incident at Cobbler's Knob," and "The Book of Liz," which was published in book form by Dramatists Play Service.

His original radio pieces can often be heard on "This American Life," distributed nationally by Public Radio International and produced by WBEZ. Sedaris has been nominated for three Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word and Best Comedy Album.

Tickets for David Sedaris are $36.50. Tickets are available at the Center for the Arts Box Office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and all Ticketmaster locations, including ticketmaster.com. To charge tickets, call 1-800-745-3000; in Canada, call 416-870-8000. For group sales, call 716-645-6771. For more information call 716-645-2787.