Kate McCabe Warehouse

Oh, Amy Sedaris, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Forget it, there are far too many. Plus, I’ll probably be highlighting some of them later in this blog and I don’t want to cheat myself out of another day’s entry. Let’s just say that ever since I saw her in Exit 57, she’s been one of my favorite comedians. She is a master of the ridiculous, queen of crafty camp, and an imitator of the love-ably ugly–never has one woman donned so many fake frontal butts for our amusement. As one of America’s greatest character actresses, she’s likely to pop up just about anywhere from Law and Order to Sesame Street to Dolly Parton music videos. Soon, she’s going to be guesting on TNT’s most tasty cop drama The Closer, which might possibly indicate very very very good news: she’ll potentially be making the rounds on the talk show circuit!

This, of course, leads to today’s great thing:
67. Amy Sedaris’ Talk Show Appearances

An appearance by Amy will liven up any old gab-fest. Check out this clip of her on The Martha Stewart Show:

Pretty good, yes? I mean, have you ever seen a Martha Stewart guest joke about selling crack on that show? No. And that’s because Martha Stewart is a white-collar crime program. Great on Martha’s show, enjoyable on Craig Ferguson, a delight on Conan, but more than those, Sedaris has a special rapport with David Letterman. Says Sedaris of her appearances on Late Show:

“I like doing Letterman when I don’t have anything to promote,” says Sedaris. “I don’t like to do things because I have to. I like to do them because I want to”. –Quote taken from ontheinside.info

Maybe it’s because she doesn’t come on just to shill her projects that the interviews on Letterman veer off into enjoyably chatty and goofy segues. Sedaris is also a guest who manages to bleed information out of the notoriously private host. She often turns the tables and starts interviewing him on things she’s curious about, like the decor in his house.

I’ve chosen the following appearance not necessarily because it’s the absolute funniest of her over 15 guest spots on Letterman but because it highlights so many of the things you should expect to see in an Amy Sedaris talk-show appearance:

-An exciting dress

-The employment of her ‘Jerri Blank’ voice

-A legitimately funny observation (the ‘wear it with jeans’ bit in this clip)

-Personal insight into her private life

-A dig at Dave

-A dig at another celebrity

-Discussion of her pet rabbits

-Invasive interrogation of Dave

-The labeling her mug of water as something more stimulating (here she calls it sangria)

Here’s part two:

It’s a credit to David Letterman, I think, that he gets Amy Sedaris. She is an oddball but then again, so is Dave–he’s just a bit more buttoned up–which is why they work together so well. That, and their innocent but adorable flirtation. The fact that he appreciates Amy’s weird sensibilities helps to make Letterman the hippest of the late night talk-show hosts. I don’t think, frankly, that Leno would have known what to do with her and Conan, much as I love him, isn’t as good with funny chicks. I think he gets too skittish.

As I mentioned before, she’s been on Dave’s show over 15 times. So, when you figure in her guest-spots on other people’s shows, there’s a veritable treasure trove available on YouTube with which you can while away your work day.

By the way, she’ll be playing the psychic sister of Brenda Lee’s boyfriend on The Closer. (Brenda Lee is the Kyra Sedgwick character). Though they can never write a character that’s as funny as the real Amy, I’m sure this will be a worthy entry into her resume and well worth checking out.