Legendary author, journalist, and social observer Fran Lebowitz comes to Cincinnati for a live, in-conversation event at the Aronoff Center’s Procter & Gamble Hall on Tuesday, April 12, 2022 at 7:30 PM. An Evening with Fran Lebowitz will be hosted by a special guest moderator (TBA), followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Coming off her latest documentary series Pretend It’s a City, directed by Martin Scorsese and available now on Netflix, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of the most insightful, humorous, and entertaining social commentators of our time.

 

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 18 at 10:00 AM at www.CincinnatiArts.org and  (513) 621-ARTS [2787]. For Group Sales of ten or more, call (513) 977-4157. Due to the pandemic, the Aronoff Center Ticket Office is closed for in-person sales until further notice. Ticket prices: $75 • $55 • $45 • $35. Applicable services fees may apply.

                           

In a cultural landscape filled with endless pundits and talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators. Her essays and interviews offer her acerbic views on current events and the media – as well as pet peeves including tourists, baggage-claim areas, after-shave lotion, adults who roller skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan. The New York Times Book Review calls Lebowitz an “important humorist in the classic tradition.” Purveyor of urban cool, Lebowitz is a cultural satirist whom many call the heir to Dorothy Parker.  

 

Lebowitz on special interest groups: “Special-interest publications should realize that if they are attracting enough advertising and readers to make a profit, the interest is not so special.” 

 

Lebowitz on frankness: “Spilling your guts is exactly as charming as it sounds.” 

 

Lebowitz on herself: “Success didn’t spoil me; I’ve always been insufferable.”

 

This is Lebowitz off the cuff. Her writing — pointed, taut, and economical — is equally forthright, irascible, and unapologetically opinionated. Lebowitz worked odd jobs, such as taxi driving, belt peddling, and apartment cleaning (“with a small specialty in Venetian blinds”), before being hired by Andy Warhol as a columnist for Interview. That was followed by a stint at Mademoiselle. Her first book, a collection of essays titled Metropolitan Life, was a bestseller, as was a second collection, Social Studies.

  

By turns ironic, facetious, deadpan, sarcastic, wry, wisecracking, and waggish, Lebowitz’s prose is wickedly entertaining. Her two books are collected in The Fran Lebowitz Reader, with a new preface by the author. Lebowitz is also the author of the children’s book, Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas.

 

Between 2001 and 2007, Lebowitz had a recurring role as Judge Janice Goldberg on the television drama Law & Order. She also had a part in the Martin Scorsese-directed film, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). A raconteur if ever there was one, Lebowitz has long been a regular on various talk shows including those hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, and Bill Maher. In an interview with The Paris Review, Lebowitz said, “I’m not a nervous person. I’m not afraid to be on TV. I’m only afraid when I write. When I’m at my desk, I feel like most people would feel if they went on TV.”

 

She can also be seen in various documentary films, including the American Experience series on New York City, as well as Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016), Regarding Susan Sontag (2014), and Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990), among others. In 2010, Martin Scorsese directed a documentary about Lebowitz for HBO titled Public Speaking. A new limited documentary series, Pretend It’s a City, also directed by Martin Scorsese, premiered on Netflix January 2021. 

 

Lebowitz was once named one of the year’s most stylish women by Vanity Fair. She remains a style icon. Lebowitz lives in New York City, as she does not believe that she would be allowed to live anywhere else.

 

“Hilarious... an unlikely and perhaps alarming combination of Mary Hartman and Mary McCarthy... To a dose of Huck Finn add some Lenny Bruce, Oscar Wilde and Alexis de Tocqueville, a dash of cabdriver, an assortment of puns, minced jargon, and top it off with smarty pants.” — The New York Times