Friday night I saw a live performance at the Cleveland Playhouse Square Center of David Sedaris. Sedaris is one of my favorite writers and a frequent contributor to NPR, Esquire and the New Yorker. Profound, funny, poignant and always entertaining, Sedaris also reminded me that you don’t always need pyrotechnics, gobo lights and thumping bass to entertain your crowd.

Of course there are some differences to the crowds at the local theatre and a typical sports fan, but in the end your goal is the same: Entertain them enough to want to pay to see you.

Sedaris is introduced by a local host and simply walks to the podium on the unadorned stage, opens his notes and reads to the audience. The lights starkly light the podium and his stool for water, the sound system thumps out only his (self-described “girlish”) voice and the lack of pyro is deafening. Despite all those deficits, the crowd is completely entertained…..all without the bells and whistles most of us spend so much time focussing on.

While I don’t recommend stripping your entertainment down to these basics, it is an indication that keen attention to writing can be as valuable as a massive concussive explosion, a mascot pratfall or expensive lighting display.

I talked about this in our game review of the Columbus Blue Jackets, where they took an ordinary game element (kids playing hockey at intermission) and made it a memorable video element.

–Cudo

• Holidays on Ice: Stories
• Me Talk Pretty One Day
• Barrel Fever: Stories and Essays
• Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim