Fran Lebowitz Is Never Afraid to Speak Her Mind

In a cultural landscape filled with endless talking heads, Fran Lebowitz stands out as one of our most insightful social commentators.

Known as one of New York’s most distinguished personalities with her trademark sneer, devotion to cigarettes, and chic ensemble of cowboy boots and custom-made Anderson & Sheppard suit jackets, Lebowitz has been speaking her mind for half a century. From writing as a columnist for Andy Warhol’s Interview in the 1970s and publishing two bestselling collections of comic essays, to being the subject of Martin Scorsese’s Emmy-nominated Netflix series Pretend It’s a City, Lebowitz offers acerbic views on current events, the media, and pet peeves. 

A satirist whom many call the heir to Dorothy Parker, Lebowitz has an opinion on just about everything, and she doesn’t give a damn if you disagree. 

The humorist is currently touring the country and will stop at the Paramount Theatre on February 28 for An Evening with Fran Lebowitz. OFM had the opportunity to connect with Lebowitz before her visit to Denver.

Can you begin by telling us what we can expect from your upcoming engagement, An Evening with Fran Lebowitz?

I always do the same thing. Someone interviews me on the stage for about 30 minutes, usually a local journalist; then I answer questions from the audience for an hour. 

Have you been to Denver before?

I don’t think I have. I’m almost positive that I haven’t, but I have been in the state of Colorado. I am very much the kind of New Yorker that people who are not New Yorkers make fun of. Colorado, is that in Utah? (Laughs.) So, I have been to Colorado, but pretty sure not Denver.  

Do you have any preconceived observations or opinions on the Mile High City you would like to point out? 

I don’t know if it’s still there, but I have heard for years that one of the greatest bookstores in the country is in Denver. I hope it’s still there. I believe it’s called The Tattered Cover.

Yes, it’s still there! It’s one of my favorite bookstores. 

That in itself is very encouraging. A lot of people in New York always talk about this bookstore, so that’s the main thing I know about Denver. Other than that, I always think of Colorado in terms of skiing. That’s probably not the correct way to approach it, but as you can imagine, I’m not the skier you might imagine.

A lot of people usually associate Denver with pot because Colorado is one of the first states to legalize cannabis for recreational use. 

Well, it’s legal in New York now, and it almost seems mandatory. No matter where you walk, it’s just a fog of weed. We didn’t vote on it here. I know a lot of states in the West put these kinds of issues on the ballot, but that doesn’t happen here. I also never paid that much attention to it. My feelings about things like that is, I don’t care what other people do. Do what you want. 

Overall, what do you hope audiences take away from your speaking engagements?

When I was younger, I actually believed that people might listen to me, by which I mean, my real goal in life was for people to do what I told them. That never happened, so I gave that up many years ago. What really irritated me was that people would often, a little less now, berate me. “You’re a bad role model; you shouldn’t do this; you shouldn’t do that.” Well, no one pays attention to what I say anyways. If people listened to me, we would have had a completely different political situation in this country. 

When people go to a theater or any kind of venue, they want to be entertained. Whether it’s a basketball game, a concert, a speaking engagement, that’s why they go. So, I hope that they enjoy themselves, and that’s one of the reasons why I do questions from the audience. Otherwise, I would have to write a speech, so that’s the main reason. The other reason is because you get to talk about what the audience wants to talk about. It does vary according to where you are to some extent. Less than it used to because the country has become much more homogenized, and that’s not my fault, but it has. Sometimes, you get to a place where some local furor is going on. 

There was one time in either Portland or Seattle, I know they are vastly different, but I never could figure out what that is, and there was some huge controversy going on about a type of bird that was going to become extinct if the trees kept being cut down. That’s all the audience wanted to talk about. This was around 20 years ago, and I really tried to get them off this subject because I really didn’t know what they were talking about. Basically, they were trying to make me take a side: trees or birds. This is an untenable position. 

Your commentary is very witty and funny, and you are also known as a humorist and satirist. Why do you like people asking for your opinion?

First of all, because I love to answer questions, but I think it’s because I was traumatized by my childhood of no one ever asking me a question. This was not peculiar to me. I was a child of the 1950s, and no one ever asked children questions. Being a child in that era, you were issued instructions from morning till night. Parents—and not just my parents, but every parent I knew or even heard of—it was their jobs to civilize these beasts that have been born to them. 

Everyone I’ve ever met who is around my age, and it doesn’t matter what country they’re from, if they’re a boy or girl, white or Black, that’s how parents thought they were supposed to behave. Things started to change in the late 70s and early 80s, and I started to hear parents ask their children what they wanted. “What would you like for dinner? What would you like to wear?” It was astonishing to me. Since I missed that point, now I like people to ask me questions. 

Later in 2022, you will embark on a massive European tour. What are you looking forward to the most about that?

I have been to Europe numerous times, but I have never done speaking dates there, and that’s only because of the Netflix documentary I am involved with. Netflix is all around the world.

But you don’t have it. 

I don’t have it, and I’ve never seen it, but I know it’s all around the world. I heard it’s in, like, 190 countries. Personally, I could not name 190 countries. I doubt I can name 90 countries. Anyway, every country it’s in, everything is translated into their language, which I assume takes a great deal of time. To me, it would take until the end of the world, which may not be that long from now. So, that was a huge change in my life, that people in another country would want to hear me speak.

I love to be in different places, but I loathe traveling. It was horrible before COVID, and now, it makes what was horrible before COVID look delightful. So, I’m not looking forward to that, and I also have some trepidation about the country being shut down and getting stuck. This has happened to people I know. It’s not that you would hate to be locked up in Paris, but I’m pretty sure they don’t take care of the extra expenses. I know a guy who practically went broke because he had to stay at a hotel for an extra four weeks. I’m hoping this doesn’t happen.  

Did you ever think that you would become a pop culture icon?

No, and I know that everyone uses that word all the time. I don’t because, to some extent, it just means old. Not pop, but icon. Even though I don’t have it, I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the internet. Also, the Netflix series. I was surprised at how many people watched it, but it also came out when not many people were leaving their homes. People were like, “I’m watching Netflix 45 hours a day,” and this was around the world. Even though there are apparently a billion things on Netflix, at some point, you can run out of them. 

I know you have talked about this a lot in other interviews, but for our readers, can you tell us why you are so reluctant to use technology? You don’t own a cell phone, a computer, or even a typewriter.

I’m glad you said typewriter because it’s not that I hate technology, it’s machines. I don’t like machines. I have always had a tremendous antipathy to machines. I’m the kind of person that if a machine breaks, I hit it. Fix yourself! Don’t break! I don’t know how to fix anything, but this is partially because when I was a girl, girls weren’t supposed to know how to fix anything, but every boy knew how to fix everything. My father was one of those men, who I don’t think exist anymore. One who could fix anything possible. I have owned the same car since 1979, and I would say three or four years ago, I learned how to open the hood.

When you could first have computers in your home, they were called word processors. A friend of mine who is a screenwriter got one, and she said, “This is fantastic, you must come see this.” I went and looked at it, and I thought, “This is just a fast kind of typewriter. I don’t need this because I don’t know how to type. Also, it’s fast, and I’m really a full writer. I could write with my own blood without hurting myself. I don’t need anything like this.”

You moved to New York City in the 70s, and you say you will never leave. Why is New York City so special to you?

First of all, I love New York, but second, I used to think, and to some extent I still do. I don’t think they’d let me live anywhere else. I feel like, people invite me to these cities; I’m there for one night; they take me to dinner, and then they think, “I don’t think she’s the kind of person we should have living here” (laughs). I just feel very much at home in New York, and I feel like they’re not about to expel me from the city. 

What is your number-one piece of advice you think everyone should abide by?

Wow, that is a very good question, which I don’t think I’ve ever been asked, which is astonishing. I don’t think I can answer this in just a word. There are a billion problems in the world right now, but to me, one of the worst things out there, and I’ve felt this way since childhood, is lying. I hate liars, and I hate to be lied to, but we now live in this era where it doesn’t matter. Lying is a part of human nature, which is horrible, but it is much more acceptable now, and that was not always the case. People used to be embarrassed if they got caught lying. Now, they just tell another lie and another lie.

People are proud of it, and it’s more than unfortunate. It’s dangerous. When we listen to politicians, congressmen, court nominations, what they say matters. Watching those Supreme Court hearings, those nominations, those are the things that make me want to go insane. Everyone knows they’re lying, and I think people should really think about what it means to accept these kinds of lies. 

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?

No. I happen to be someone who doesn’t have a cosmetic or fashion line. I’m not in the retail industry (laughs). 

To stay up-to-date with Lebowitz, visit her official website, franlebowitz.com. Visit paramountdenver.com for more information and to purchase tickets for her upcoming engagement.      

Photos Courtesy of Brigitte Lacombe