I just got back from a rare outing to the "downtown" area of this city, hearing a reading/stand up routine by the fabulous comedian David Sedaris. Our faces are sore from laughing and my heart is still a little flushed with the thrill of being in the same room with a famous person.
It's hard to describe David Sedaris to the uninitiated, except that he's the funniest thing ever. He's quite a unique person - in his fifties, but with the face of a 30 year old man and the voice of a 12 year old girl. He mocks the mundane like Dave Barry and revels in the grotesque like Flannery O'Connor. He's down-to-earth, despite the fact that he lives in France and London when he's not on tour.
Tonight we heard stories about flight attendants, lab rats, French doctors, weird labels in British supermarkets, the marital problems of dogs, and the "aggressively beautiful" receptionists in a dermatologist's office. . I thought the animal fables from his upcoming book would be boring, but they were fantastic. We laughed, gasped, and pondered our own humanity. Are we as self-centered and idiosyncratic as the characters in these vignettes? Of course we are.
At times, Sedaris' satire can veer into the sacriligious, since he draws on his Greek Orthodox upbringing for material. One bit tonight rode the line of taste, but ended up making a good point. Why is the Jesus on roadside French crucifixes really toned? he wondered. Why doesn't someone make a cross with an obese Jesus, who broke the wood the first time the Romans tried? Why don't we ever see a Jesus with a bulbous nose, shoulder acne, and hairy back? Where's comb-over Jesus?
I have to agree about the dubious nature of doe-eyed blond Jesus pictures where he lacks any body hair or calluses. But I seriously doubt an itinerant preacher with little money had time to get fat. In the end, though, comb-over Jesus makes a profound point. Those ugly or even repulsive people are Christ. They deserve as much respect as a man who looks good in a loincloth.
In that spirit, here's a classic Sedaris story, in which he attempts to explain Easter in broken French.
You've been quoted!
ReplyDeletehttp://qoddessquotesblogs.blogspot.com/2010/04/quotes-april-7-2010.html
Well, he is #25 on "Stuff White People Like"
ReplyDeletehttp://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/25-david-sedaris/
so of course I am impressed!
Anyway, Jesus was not an itinerant preacher all his life -- it is reasonable to think he spent some time as a carpenter, right? In that pre-power tool era you would be "toned" from that profession wouldn't you?
The french countryside crucifixes depict a specific person, not the generic idea of the dignity of all persons, which is true indeed, but just not what is being represented there.