Wigfield

Sedaris and Dinello first pitched to Hyperion a children's book about a worm searching for his identity. The idea came after her, and her brother David, found an orange ceramic worm, which they named Montgomery. They would make up stories about the worm, although it eventually broke, Sedaris kept the idea in her mind, and thought it would make "a great character for a kids’ book." She and Dinello didn't have a plot, but would often think of the adventures the worm would go through.[1] Hyperion was not convinced, and asked for something else. On that same meeting Sedaris and Dinello improvised the pitch of what would become Wigfield, inspired on a fake town full of weird characters, created by Sedaris in her youth. "I used to change my wig for all these different characters, so I called it Wigfield," she recalled.[2]

Although it was rather vague, Hyperion thought it sounded promising, and picked it up. After reading the contract, and realising they had to write 50,000 words, they contacted collaborator Stephen Colbert. He declined at first, but after they asked again, he was reminded of Jefferson, West Virginia a town he had visited for "The Daily Show",[3][4] Colbert said that when he joined the project, "All they had was the name of this town, Wigfield, a certain amount of shaping was required, you could say."[2] Jefferson was incorporated so its business owners could avoid paying county taxes.[5][2] "There was this mayor who was running on the platform that, 'If you elect me, I'll dissolve the town.' So this candidate wins the election, and then all these people living there contest it and organize this fight to save the town." Colbert recalled.[2][6] They did most of the writing in Colbert's New Jersey home.[7] The idea of making the lead character a reporter, came from them trying to reach the word count more easily.[8][2][9] Dinello said: "We created the Hokes character out of necessity, it gave us the freedom to write anything. If someone says, 'That's barely a sentence,' we could say, 'Well, clearly that cat doesn't know how to write.'" The character of Donny Larson, Wigfield's local strip club manager, was also inspired by people Colbert met while growing up in the South, "Every choice in life they make usually hurts them and others, but they have no sense of personal responsibility whatsoever."[5]

Due to budget restraints, Hyperion could not send the authors on a book tour.[2] Instead, Sedaris, Colbert and Dinello organized a theatrical adaptation of the book. The show consisting mainly of staged readings, featuring large photos of each character projected on a screen set up behind the trio, was produced by WestBeth Entertainment, and launched at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts on May 2, 2003.[2][5][15][16] The show ran Off-Broadway through May 9-17 at New York City's Jane Street Theatre,[11] to a sold-out crowd.[17] It had further dates at Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center, Washington, D.C.’s Marvin Center and Boston’s Somerville Theatre.[18] Wigfield ended with a string of shows at New York City's Lucille Lortel Theatre in July 2003.[17] On their show at the Jane, Russell Scott Smith of the New York Post, said: "This is less a play than an elaborate book reading. The comics don't change costumes, and they hold copies of their book throughout the evening. But these are talented performers, and they inject their kooky characters with a weird charm."[19]