About the event

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.  

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.  

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 8, 2021 and is nominated for an Emmy award.

Program overview

Fran Lebowitz will be interviewed on stage for 30 minutes by the evening’s host, Jennifer McCabe, Director and Chief Curator of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Following the interview there will be 50–60 minutes of Q&A with the audience.