He (mostly) doesnt mind being written about as Congressman Prude.
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At the door of a dignified apartment on the Upper East Side: Hugh.
Or at least everyone save one.
Every comic needs his straight man.
David has his boyfriend, Hugh.
In Sedariss stories, Hugh is a mainstay, a durable but background presence.
(Fans at Sedaris showsask after him.)
He isnt kookified, and he doesnt get the laugh lines.
Its the reason Sedariss nickname for him is Congressman Prude.
If Sedaris is antic confession, Hamrick is Wasp reserve.
I feel like David writes about us, and thats enough, he says.
Hamrick understands life with writers.
But his father also wrote spy novels a la le Carreunder the name W.T.
(Sedaris used to write at night amid clouds of cigarette smoke.)
My brother said, Oh, Im so jealous, he says.
Thats just the sound we grew up with.
Id love it if there was someone that could key in me to sleep like that.
Not everyone was as enthused by the prospect.
Hamrick remembered his mother calling once early on, too, and asking what Sedaris did.
Hes a writer, Hamrick said.
Oh, Im sorry, his mother replied.
The pair metwhen Sedaris helped a friend borrow Hamricks ladder.
By March 21, 1991, Sedaris was confessing to his diary that it was serious.
Tonight Ill have chicken with some squid-ink linguine Hugh brought me.
This spring I am, if Im not mistaken, in love.
At the time, it wasnt clear Sedaris would have any success at all.
Thats just the way it happened.
Hamrick once made a living as a painter, often in theatrical-scenery shops.
He worked on the originalLion Kingset on Broadway, and still sometimes does touch-ups for its sets in London.
But ever since the couple first moved to France, in the late-1990s.
the logistics became complicated.
Today, his painting studio is the former maids quarters, with a single window for light.
I wanted something about the election, Sedaris says, when he joins us.
The real work of Hamricks life, one gathers, is taking care of Sedaris, now 63.
We came here after one of those tours at the beginning of this year, Hamrick says.
And we were stuck.
Theyve never spent more time together.
And its been great, he says.
Hamrick is a homebody, like a houseplant or a cat.
Its an exaggeration, but recognizable nonetheless.
I think he pretty much nails people, he says.
Still, its not always comfortable.
Id like to say, Im sorry, but thats my boyfriend of almost thirty years youre talking about.
The women behind me started gasping when he was talking about me, like,Oh, how awful!
I went up to him after and said, I dont want to hear that ever again.
But anyway, it was published.
This just comes with the territory.
Sedaris says there are things he would never write about for fear of upsetting Hamrick, sex among them.
Davids semi-haplessness, Hamrick says, is not a work of fiction.
The world visits pricks and indignities upon him.
Its just the way people treat David sometimes.
Why are people someanto him?
He gets a lot of abuse.
(Sedaris theory is that it has to do with his size: five-foot-five.)
I worry about it, Hamrick sighes, with genuine feeling.
I do worry about him.
So the Congressmans term must be an appointment without end.
They seem to need either other to play off of: One pushes, the other pulls.
I would never read Davids diary, is how Hamrick sums up the difference between them.
He would read mine.
Of such stuff is love made.
Hes like a little kid, he says.
He just cant help it.
Hes like an inquisitive little boy, whos poking at everything and touching everything.
Hamrick says, and laughs.
