When the “Sandman” author Neil Gaiman was approached in 2013 about reading “A Christmas Carol” at the New York Public Library, his requirements were simple.
“Only if I can have a beard and a top hat,” he recalled saying.
On Dec. 18 and 19, Gaiman, beard and top hat intact, will again conjure up Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, this time at Town Hall.
“I’m terrified,” he admitted in a video interview from his home in Woodstock, N.Y., before talking about his affection for “What We Do in the Shadows” and “Doctor Who.” “Perhaps I should have retired, undefeated. But it’s fun doing something that’s a bit terrifying sometimes.”
These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1
‘What We Do in the Shadows’
The film was an absolute and utter delight. I managed to take a couple of people to it who didn’t know that it was going to be a vampire movie, and by the time they realized it was a vampire movie, they were laughing too hard. When the TV series came along, I spent the first few episodes going, “But it’s not the film.” Then somewhere in there realized that I was in love with what they were doing.
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