“One of my goals is to never open a book I’ve written,” best-selling author David Sedaris told an audience of about 1,500 Friday night at Lisner Auditorium.

With that brief introduction, Sedaris went on to read several new, unpublished essays on his family, his upcoming movie and the Dutch tale of Saint Nicholas. In his essay on Saint Nicholas, he describes the folklore hero, who, unlike America’s Santa Claus and 12 reindeer, visits children in Holland accompanied by “six to eight black men”

Sedaris first became known for reading his “Santaland Diaries,” a recount of his experiences as a Macy’s in-store elf, on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” Sedaris went on to write several collections of humor essays, his most recent being “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Prior works include best-sellers “Barrel Fever” and “Naked.”

One work read Friday – which was prefaced the disclaimer, “I was working on things that seemed incredibly funny until September 11” – was a never-aired introduction to a NPR conversation between former “Morning Edition” producer Ira Glass and Terry Gross, founder of the Fresh Air Fund. Sedaris’ introduction muses on his mock-realization that NPR was a “conspiracy of Jews.”

Sedaris traded off readings with the younger commentator and humorist Sarah Vowell, whose writing has appeared in such publications as Time, GQ and The Village Voice magazines. Vowell read essays that touched on past presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and talked about her childhood experience learning existentialist philosophy from deceased football coach Tom Landry.