Sedaris-Naked-Monkey

I know liking Dave Sedaris’ short stories and essays probably makes me uncool, and some kind of fruity, precious intellectual, but I don’t care.  They’re good.  So I’m interested to see what Kyle Patrick Alvarez, director of the well-reviewed indie Easier With Practice, does with Sedaris’ story, C.O.G., which Alvarez is adapting.  I’m also interested to know how a Mexican dude got named “Kyle”, but we’ll save that for another time. This would be the first Sedaris’ work to become a movie.  There was a plan to adapt Me Talk Pretty One Day (it’s a lot better than the title, I promise) in 2002, but it fell through over concerns about how Sedaris’ family would be portrayed.  But Sedaris was apparently such a fan of Alvarez and Easier with Practice that he gave his blessing and even declined Alvarez’ offer of script approval.

The story C.O.G. came from Sedaris’ book Naked, and the title stands for “Child of God,” which is how the main character, a fanatical born-again Christian would refer to himself.  The guy hired Sedaris as an assistant and the two spent a few months together cutting stone clocks in the shape of Oregon, which the guy planned to sell at county fairs and thought (reasonably) would be huge sellers.  It’s the most funny-sad true story about a county fair since a friend of mine saw a kid with Downs Syndrome at a caricature booth.  (Apparently, Downs kids turn into regular kids when they get caricatured.)

[via GordonandtheWhale]