Chuck Klosterman is not the average public speaker.
Once when giving a book reading, his fans came to the event early. Instead of drinking coffee while they waited, they dropped acid.
“I guess I’m not a literary author,” he said. “I bet this wouldn’t happen to Salman Rushdie.”
He treated the 100 in attendance to a candid and open discussion about everything from internships with Charlie Sheen to reality versus “realness” to how fun it is to be a journalist.
Though Klosterman has written for publications such as Spin, Esquire and GQ, he’s most famous for his books, such as “Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs” and “Eating the Dinosaur,” where he writes about popular culture, music, film, sports and the general “soundtrack to being alive.”
Klosterman began his presentation by treating the audience to a live reading of something he just wrote about reality and how one’s perception of it is affected.
In the piece, he argued that commercials are actually a good thing while watching sports on television, used Ricky Gervais’ insulting Golden Globe jokes as a means to discuss differing levels of reality and perception, and joked about consumers’ irrational beliefs that they have a personal effect on televised games they watch at home based on whether they stand up to cheer.
After the reading, he took questions from the audience and spoke about his thoughts on the new Radiohead album, Bill Simmons of ESPN and Snooki selling pistachios.
“It doesn’t really bother me at all,” he said. “I mean, can Snooki sell out?”
Justin Plemmons, 20, said he liked what Klosterman had to say, though it wasn’t what he expected.
“I thought a lot more than I thought I would,” he said. “He doesn’t think like a 38 year old ... I think he’d be annoying to his kids.”
Klosterman was paid $10,000 for his appearance.
