Fran Lebowitz is one of a kind. She is the ultimate New Yorker. She is sharp and witty. She is an International Treasure. The New York Times called her the modern day Dorothy Parker, and as a fan of both I concur.
I first came across Fran many decades ago when I was introduced to Vanity Fair by my friend Nolene. She was seemingly always in it, in photos at some cool event or writing an article or essay. Her satire drew me in. She began as a writer, writing columns for many cool NY publications. People loved her, she loved writing and authors, becoming friendly with many great writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. But in the mid 90s she developed writers block and nothing since, but this morphed into the interview and talking circuit, which I think she is far more entertaining. And she knows it!
When I saw she was doing a spoken tour and performing at the Opera House, I had to go. I convinced Andrew to go on the back of she pushes boundaries - his favourite thing - and then gave him heaps of clips, immediate fan of course!
So we were excited about seeing Fran, and a little intimidated as we had second row seats. But Fran didn't seem like someone to pick on the audience. And she wasn't.
Now, I do not have a single photo, she famously is a bit of a luddite so I didn't want to upset her by trying to take photos and midway she did say to someone - don't point that thing at me and waggled her finger, it was kind of funny, but I wouldn't have wanted to be on the end of that!
The show was simple, 90+ minutes of Fran talking about stuff, and answering questions. The first 30 minutes was an in conversation with the wonderful Louise Adler. Louise, publishing doyen, and sadly the director of the Adelaide Writers' Week who stood down after the debacle earlier this year. She was the perfect partner for this early part of the show.
She stuck mostly to biographical questions. So we got to listen to Fran talk about her childhood and family - challenging and a little but naughty. Also about her schooling, often expelled and ending up in New York at an early age. A lover of literature and reading, she told a great story about accompanying Toni Morrison and others to Stockholm in 1993 when Toni won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature.
Louise bid her farewell, and left Fran to move to a podium, DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF US!!!!!! There she had an ipad (which she used hilariously and in her curmudgeonly way) that had questions the audience had sent via QR code.
We had a perfect view of her and her body language and facial expressions. Fran uses her hands in a really interesting way, wringing them, and pointing her finger to emphasise certain points. She also shakes them to almost extract a particular point. It is difficult to describe, but when you see her talking live next, observe! She also continually adjusted her glasses, unsure if that was a thing or just a problem on the night.
It would be amiss of me not to describe her outfit before continuing too. She is such a fashion critic, about what people should and shouldn't wear. She is in her jeans phase, good solid denim, with legs folded up as she is short, worn with brown cowboy boots, a plaid shirt and a jacket. She makes it work and it suits her fine.
Now this section of answering questions she really shone. She was definitely enjoying herself with Louise, but she really came into her own here. In fact, she was meant to spend about an hour on this but went well and truly over time, which we loved. There was a lot of questions about politics and Trump, which she gleefully answered. She has famously said the only good thing to come of Trump being president is it got him out of New York. Prior to that she always said everyone in New York hated him, especially those in real estate, which she added, imagine having the lowest of the low - real estate - thinking poorly of you! She calls him many things, but basically she says he is dumb.
She answered all the questions with wit and that dry, sardonic tongue. She also added on thoughts she wanted to pass on. One was younger people coming and asking her questions about their life, and her general response is I don't care what you do, why should I care? And this is Fran, unfiltered and incredibly sure of her own thoughts, even if they may seem a little out of step with the general trends. She is her own person, and has always been. She also has a wonderful, clipped, lyrical way of speaking.
She ended the evening with a great anecdote, walking through Washington Square Park one evening recently alone and a larger threatening looking man was walking towards her and she was worried, then some mice ran by and she jumped, he commented fiercely, don't worry about mouses. Now, she had no moment to think, and simply responded, Mice! He was excuse me? She said strongly and vehemently, the plural of mouse is mice! Grammar matters people!!!
And that is pure Fran. It is difficult to try and replicate her comments and commentary. It was great. But her wit is so singular to try would be ridiculous.
We loved the evening, and were in fits of laughter or nodding wildly with her words and ideals. We did notice some people leaving in that last 40 minutes or so, which we found rude and churlish, she didn't seem to care. It was a lot of the US and politics, but that is the focus of the world right now, hearing from someone right in the middle of it all was exactly what we needed.
We both went away, loving her even more than we already did!
This is how close we were:
But it will give you a little piece of Fran!
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