The adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk‘s novel, Choke, premiered last night in New York’s West Village at a screening hosted by Radar and followed by a Q & A with Clark Gregg, writer and director of Choke, the film’s star Sam Rockwell and Palahniuk, who fielded questions on how faithful the film was to the book.

The talk was led by Radar executive editor Aaron Gell, who expressed gratitude that people showed up, presumably in light of the Barack Obama acceptance orgy occurring at the same time. “I was kinda amazed that this many people stayed for the question and answer session,” he said. “Usually, on a night like this, a big television night, people leave as the credits roll.”

But how did controversial author Palahniuk feel about the whole affair?

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Urban lit legend, perhaps. But the last time the Strand Bookstore hosted a free Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) reading — during the “Roses and Shit Tour 2006″ promoting his novel Haunted — 800 fans showed up to hear the cult author read one of the novel’s most graphic stories, “Guts,” which to this day, has caused 73 people to faint. So Saturday’s reading — at $35, the first-ever ticketed Strand reading — was equally historic.

Over two hours, Palahniuk, dressed in a standard starch white button-up tucked into black dress pants and bright yellow tennis shoes, completely and refreshingly uninhibited, doled out gifts of chattering monkeys and life-size rubber snakes, answered audience questions, told stories and read from Snuff, his next novel, encouraging the audience to laugh even when it seemed inappropriate.

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