“You gotta come see this!” called my roommate Melbell from her bedroom. It was my junior year in college and Melbell and her beau Goose were curled up on her futon, their eyes glued to her laptop.
A crazy lady with buck teeth and caked on purple eye shadow was dancing around on the screen, wearing mom pants and a turtleneck. For the next half hour I watched in horror and joy as Jerri Blank ran through the halls of Flatpoint High School, in what was my virgin experience of watching “Strangers with Candy” and the incredibly funny Amy Sedaris. Sedaris is on tour for her new fantastic how-to book, titled Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People.
She explained at her evening appearance at Herbst Theater that the book has been a collaboration between friends, family, and little children, and that most of the crafts in the book do not exceed the ability of a five year old. Some of the chapters include coconut crafts, potholders (her favorite) and also “The Ten Commandments of Crafting”. During the show she also showed off her new felt phone, on which she received several calls and had to excuse herself to the host while she answered them. Sedaris’ ability to make anything funny, including a felt phone, is why so many people love her. I’m sure everyone left the theater that night with sore cheeks from laughing for hours on end and a pocket full of handy ideas on how to get uber-crafty this holiday season.