A tiny man walks onto the stage like a proverbially cute button with legs. He declines to pose or mug for the audience but the women in the audience shriek, one man whoops out an “Ay-yi-yi” and the rest of Davis Sedaris’ adoring audience erupts before he even organizes himself at the podium.

OK, that was our best attempt at mimicking Sedaris’ trademark similie-heavy writing style. As you can tell, we’re not as good at this as he is. But boy, did he ever show off his prowess Monday evening at a nearly-full Providence Performing Arts Center.

If you’re unacquainted with Sedaris, you should know that he’s a humorist and author who has made a career out of telling stories, and good ones to boot. Most of the stories he tells are based around small anecdotes from the NPR contributor’s life. A good introduction to Sedaris’ work is this YouTube video, from an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman:

Disclaimer: gross, but hilarious, imagery

Relatively little overt mention of bodily functions was made Monday night, but nearly every story was a well-constructed gem from start to finish. Sedaris warned his audience at the start that he was “on Percocets” after having an unfortunate late-night encounter with a kidney stone. He said that any disorderliness could be blamed on his medication, but for the most part, he had his act together throughout the evening.

The best of the program’s three main pieces was undoubtedly “Laugh Kookaburra” – an extended reading from his hilarious diary. The one slow part of the evening was a recording of Alan Bennett’s “Talking Heads,” an audiobook Sedaris repeatedly plugged, sometimes at awkward points in his presentation. The only other notable lowlight was a silly gag during an all-too-short audience Q&A segment wherein Sedaris would call on an empty part of the audience and pretend he was getting an answer. The joke sagged the first time he did it, and it dropped like a lead balloon each time he tried it afterwards.

That being said, whether he was describing a bizarre event or the idiosyncrasies of his family and boyfriend, he did so in a way that makes it seem both absurd and completely natural. Giving good stand-up comedians a run for their money, Sedaris spoke with the same irony and wit that infuse his bestselling books. His night at the PPAC was memorable to the point that even if he were to tell the same stories all over again at some future show, we might consider attending.

Grade: A

-EJ & LJ