David Sedaris: Why he really hates the word 'awesome' but loves (sequined) culottes

Jocelyn McClurg | USA TODAY

David Sedaris’ caustic wit and offbeat observations about life (including that legendary stint as a department store elf) have landed him on best-seller lists for the past two decades with titles such as “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” and “Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls.”

His latest essay collection, “Calypso” (Little, Brown), has been a USA TODAY best-seller all summer. In it he writes about the joys of shopping for culottes in Tokyo, expat life in the English countryside with longtime boyfriend Hugh Hamrick, and feeding his freeze-dried tumor to a snapping turtle. The author and humorist, 61, joined USA TODAY's Jocelyn McClurg in New York for a live #BookmarkThis video chat. Highlights:

Question: Your new book “Calypso” is awesome. I kid! That word drives you crazy! Why? Is it a generational thing?

David Sedaris: It just got out of hand to me. That everything is awesome. Everything’s awesome all the time. I was in Boulder, Colorado, and someone said, “I’ll have a double espresso, awesome,” and the other person said, “Awesome,” and I thought, (shakes head). I went to the Great Wall of China once, and I have to say it was awe-inspiring. I would say it was “awe-inspiring,” I wouldn’t say it was "awesome." A Pepsi isn’t awesome; it’s just not.

Q: I was hoping you’d be wearing culottes!

Sedaris: I’m wearing regular shorts today. People will often come up and say, “I have culottes on in honor of you,” and then what they’re wearing are gauchos. Culottes are bell-bottom shorts. And I have eight pairs. I just wore, for the first time, a pair of black sequined culottes with a pink sequined shirt I got in London. And I wore the shirt once on television here. It was a great thing to wear on stage. I always thought you should get dressed up if you’re in front of an audience, so I always have. The very first time I read (in public) I wore a tie. My ideas of getting dressed up have changed a bit.

More: 'Calypso': David Sedaris shines in tales of family, loss and a favorite turtle

Q: Your book is laugh-out-loud funny but you also deal with some serious topics, such as your sister Tiffany’s suicide and your mother’s alcoholism.

Sedaris: My sister’s suicide is something that happened in 2013. I’ve never thought of writing as cathartic in any way. But I write about my family a lot and that’s a big thing for a family to go through, so of course I was going to write about that. And I didn’t necessarily mean to write about my mother’s drinking, but I started watching a TV show called "Intervention" (the A&E docuseries about addiction), and that kind of led me to writing about it. It was something my mother struggled with toward the end of her life. It didn’t make her a bad person. There are a lot of really good people who are alcoholics, and she was one of them.

Q: (From a reader) How is your dad doing? Did you ever make any family conclusions about how to help him as he ages?

Sedaris: My father’s 95. Until recently he lived alone in the house I grew up in. And then he fell down and he’s now in an assisted living place. So that’s something, to go from a big house he was rattling around in to a single room. But I think the hardest thing is my father hates old people. He’s always hated old people.

Q: Is Hugh, your partner, your first reader? Do you ask him to read your stuff?

Sedaris: Hugh would prefer to read it in The New Yorker. Or when the book comes out in galleys, he helps proofread. If I go to Hugh and say, “Oh, listen to this,” he says, “Don’t make me. Don’t make me,” if it’s more than three or four lines. Hugh is a pretty serious person. We just went into a bookstore and he got that new translation of "Ulysses." That’s the kind of thing he likes. Or if he were to find a Trollope novel at the thrift store, he would be really excited. He – and his mother, too – they’ve both read so many things I’ve never read and I probably never will read.

Q: “Ulysses” is not on your summer reading list?

Sedaris: No. While Hugh read “Ulysses,” I read Meg Wolitzer’s “The Female Persuasion.” I absolutely loved it. I don't even feel bad about not reading "Ulysses."

Q: You and Hugh have been together for 28 years. A reader asks, “What do you feel is the key to a happy relationship?”

Sedaris: Never look under the hood. Never talk about your relationship. Never. I’m serious. I think it leads to trouble. After a certain point you should just stop listening to the other person. Because they aren’t going to say anything you haven’t heard before. You have to look like you’re paying attention. (Tilts head, imitating expression of interest.) You can think about a lot of other things while you’re making that face. And you say, “Uh-huh, uh-huh.”