[.ca] Santaland Diaries & Seasons Greetings: 2 Plays (ISBN 0822216310)

Well worth reading:
I picked up this book at the library after recognizing the title of "The Santaland Diaries" from posters I had seen in downtown Pittsburgh at Christmastime. Figuring it would be a quick read, I borrowed it and started paging through it. I don't think I ever stopped laughing. "The Santaland Diaries" is a hilarious one-man play about the author's experiences working as an elf in Santaland at Macy's department store in New York City. Chronicling everything from his dismay at having to choose an 'elf name' to be referred to as, to his questionable co-workers (including profiles of all the Santas and the woman who desperately wanted to wear her costume home everyday), the quality of visitors, and his final relief at the end of the season, Sedaris has put together a brilliant piece of work. I only regret that I missed the chance to see this performed at Christmastime, and hope that I have a chance to see a future show. It's worth a read, at the very least, and you may find yourself quoting it as I have ("It breaks my heart to see a grown man dressed as a taco" is one of my favorite lines, and I find ways to use it in conversation entirely too often). Great for a quick pick-me-up.

SANTALAND DIARIES & SEASON GREETINGS: 2 PLAYS:
THIS IS THE AUTHORS FIRST PUBLISHED WORKS AND IS WHAT BROUGHT HIM HIS SUCCESS. IT WAS READ ON NPR AND WAS INSTANTELY A HIT. THESE 2 PLAYS ARE HILIARIOUS. THEY CAPTURE THE QUIRKY AND OUTLANDISH HUMOR THAT DAVID SEDARIS IS SO WIDELY KNOWN FOR. IT IS A DEFINITE MUST READ. YOU WILL ROLL AND TUMBLE ON THE FLOOR WITH GIGGLES AFTER SUBMERGING IN THESE MOST ENJOYABLE PLAYS.

Santaland, Yes!; This Script, No!:
"The Santaland Diaries" is superlative satire. The words bristle and delight. Sedaris is a genuine American voice -- witty, sardonic, removed, unpredictable. I have seen "Santaland" work on stage many times. Way funny stuff. However, why read a script when you can read the original prose piece in Sedaris' *Barrel Fever* or listen to Sedaris aloud on CD? The DPS script seems a backwards way to encounter "Santaland" on the page. As far as "Seasons Greetings" goes, well, let's just say that this is not a piece of writing for the ages.

Good, but not quite as insanely hilarious as expected...:
I bought this compilation because after purchasing "Strangers With Candy" Season One on DVD, this kept showing up in my Amazon recommendations every day for over a month. I read the reviews, and decided it couldn't be that bad. It wasn't. It just wasn't that super, either. Sure, there are funny parts, and sure I could envision some of this on the stage, but the truth is that David Sedaris' storytelling is good but somewhat short of other NPR geniuses like Garrison Keillor. I'll keep reading him, in search of the comedy stroke that so many others seem to have found, but I guarantee no milk was coming out of my nose while choking out laughter during this read. It kind of seems like the sort of writing a high school kid might do on a sitcom (the character Warren P. Chestwick from NBC's "Ed" comes to mind) to blossom his stage career, but it just doesn't hold up well on its own. Call me uncultured if you want, but I just don't think he's worth the salt of some of the other NPR favorites. But like I said, I'll keep reading.