Amy Sedaris Goes to YouTube with ‘Crafts For Poor People’

I’m a big fan of Strangers with Candy, so it’s difficult for me to look at Amy Sedaris and not picture her as a semi-non-functioning, 40-something, ex-prostitute, ex-convict, and ex-junkie with awkward vocal inflections and Kermit the Frog facial expressions who desperately wants to be high school cool.

But, in reality, Amy Sedaris is nothing like that! She’s highly functioning! Highly functioning enough, even, to write a book that was published and then follow it up with another book that was published and promote that book with a handful of fantastic YouTube videos.

Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People! is Sedaris’ recession-era follow-up to I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, and features a handful of “off-the-wall crafting and entertaining suggestions” that are equal parts farcical and fun. She demonstrates a few of them on her newly created OfficialAmySedaris YouTube channel.

Sedaris shows viewers how to make potato ships, grill hot dogs on a garden rake, and construct donut bird feeders with non sequiturs and a straight face. The videos don’t have the budget of Foreign Body or the sexy aesthetic of Celebutantes, but my guess is they’ll help sell more books.