I could listen to Fran Lebowitz forever

Adore Fran Lebowitz but notice how her act has changed? With the way things are today, she can't do biting social commentary anymore. Now she mostly talks about the past. And about her childhood. Things like that.

Fran was a one trick pony. Very good, but one trick. Cranky lesbian curmudgeon had a short shelf life. I think she’s also lazy and antisocial. Her happiness is a stack of books and a carton of cigarettes.

I love this story she tells:

I went to Andy Warhol’s Factory to discuss doing some writing for Interview Magazine. I knocked on the door and Andy called out, “Who is it?” I answered, “Valerie Solanas.”

I wonder about people who smoke as much and as long as she does. Doesn’t she realize that she will get zero sympathy in the event that she is diagnosed with lung cancer?

How is that possible, OP? She has vocal mannerisms that would be cringe-inducing in a 13-year-old, much less a woman of her age.

I love her too

Wasnt she killed in a kiln explosion?

I bought a copy of her Reader that she autographed after a Q&A at Film Forum.

She signed it “Your pal, Fran” and drew a smiley face smoking a cigarette.

Nice, r6. Lol

No education. Admits to be a dinosaur. She’s entertaining to morons.

I love her take on hate crimes - they don’t exist. Legislation shouldn’t exist because that makes it a thought crime. She also has no time for gay men because they haven’t suffered as much as black people with slavery. She’s some intellectual.

She is much better read than almost anyone.

Really, Miss R9--and who are YOUR intellectual equals? I'd love to see you go toe-to-toe with Lebowitz. She'd wipe the floor with you--as would most of us.

As for R10, you're deliberately misreading what Lebowitz actually said--that gay people have been oppressed but not enslaved, and that there was a difference. That's what she actually said. And by the way, slavery IS worse than oppression.

R12. That is the stupidest form of argument. We mostly criticise things that we couldn’t create ourselves.

I would be hopeless at running a hotel. Does that mean I can never complain about a bad hotel stay.? I can’t write a piece of music. Does that mean I have to think every composition is wonderful.

Any satirist would be magnificent by your measure since the vast majority of humanity isn’t capable of writing satire

No wonder you would find a simpleton like Liebowitz endlessly witty.

R13, your absurd non-analogy (commenting on a hotel stay vs competency at managing a hotel) is nonsensical. Why don't you quit while you're behind? Talk about a simpleton.

R13, Lebowitz isn't a satirist, nor does she claim to be. You don't even know what she does.

R24. Geez. You’re an angry, illogical one. I guess you’re insecure that not everyone is impressed by your middlebrow, mass-market social commentator with adolescent diction

Who are you talking to, R16? The future R24? You can't even keep up on a DL thread. What a highbrow you are!

R17. You are so witty about typos! You are marvellous !

Thanks, R18--and you're not!

It's not just about typos, R18--you don't even know that Lebowitz isn't a satirist. Either you're unfamiliar with her work, or you don't know what satire means. You're really not one to judge others' intellects.

R18. It’s okay.

I acknowledge that Liebowitz is more intellectual and a better writer than 99 percent of humanity and that that alone makes her a brilliant writer I can’t stop listening to. I wouldn’t want you to be upset.

i wonder where her money comes from. just tv show/podcast appearances?

i enjoyed the recent doc about her.

[quote] i wonder where her money comes from.

I think she had family money.

She said when she first came to NYC, she drove a taxi cab and she only drove enough hours to afford rent and cigarettes. I would take that as hyperbole from anyone other than her (she’s often said her best life is sitting home reading books and smoking). That lifestyle was possible in NYC in the 1960s and early 1970s.

However, she also mentioned that she bought bespoke clothes from a men’s shop in London. Plus, she owned a car in Manhattan and always complained in later years how difficult it was to get parts because that model had quit production.

She’s been tuning in from snarksville for all of her life

There are too many books. The books are terrible. And this is because you have been taught to have self-esteem.

A book is not supposed to be a mirror. It’s supposed to be a door.”

All God's children are not beautiful. Most of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable.

Being offended is a natural consequence of leaving the house.

Humility is no substitute for a good personality.

Spilling your guts is just exactly as charming as it sounds.

Generally speaking, it is inhumane to detain a fleeting insight.

If you can stay in love for more than two years, you’re on something.

Nothing succeeds like address.

Even when freshly washed and relieved of all obvious confections, children tend to be sticky.

It’s harder to make people laugh than it is to make them cry. People are always on the verge of tears.

If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture, you would pretty much be left with Let’s Make a Deal.”

To me one of the great frauds -- coasting on dry 'tude and pseudo-witticism. Chacun à son goût.

I love her. There's a clip of a young Fran responding to a question about her book "Metropolitan Life".

"Would you call this a self-help book?"

"Yes. It helps me."

Here OP. 2.5 hours of her on Letterman.

I agree, OP. I love Fran’s wit and insight. Her experiences in New York in the 70s and 80s are fascinating.

It's subtle, but I believe at 13:20 in this video is the very first "John Travolta is gay" joke.

I've always been a fan of Fran. Her quips can be quite funny, brilliant and insightful. She is a real character. There used to be many characters in New York City, most of us had at least one relative who was a character. I think she is the last one left.

I hope she's one of those smokers who lives to be 95

"My favorite vegetable is steak."

I love her "fuck all of yous" attitude towards all those who try to control others to make themselves feel good about their shitty selves.

[quote]I hope she's one of those smokers who lives to be 95

Well, she’s already 73. I wonder if she’s just a social smoker and in private doesn’t smoke as much as believed.

Given that she is 73 but looks 83, R34, I suspect she smokes as much as she tells us. I doubt she would lie about it in the first place.

Yeah she gets visibly out of breath in the latest doc about her

My mother lived to 87 and smoked all her life. She never touched alcohol though and Leibowitz doesn't drink either. Most smokers (85%) are drinkers, and smoking plus drinking raises your risk of esophageal cancer more than smoking alone. Not suggesting smoking isn't horrible for you but sometimes I think alcohol is even worse and the combination is deadly.

I can’t look at her. Way too ugly.

Supposedly had an affair with Dolly Parton.

Fuck you r38.

Fran says that she was always, always unfaithful. I can understand being unfaithful with some partners, but why always?

No thx Fran r40

I thought lesbians were always unfaithful. With gays there is no real faithful to un.

Didn't she have "severe money problems" a few years back?

I read somewhere before Covid that she threw out a bunch of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs that he gave her over the years b4 he died of AIDS. My ex-wife Alexandria's partner Natalie always tells that when Fran Lebowitz is dining with the other lesbians in their home, for a lesbian who doesn't like $$$$, she has lots of multi-millionaire& billionaire lesbian friends.

I loved that thing she did with Scorcese - Pretend It’s A City.

R23, she didn't come from money. Her mother was a housewife and his father had a small curtain/drapery business.

In what conceivable way is she fraudulent, R26?

Passing herself off as the ne plus ultra of witty social commentary when she's rather less than that, R46. Obviously most on this thread will beg to differ.

Fran is one of a kind and an acquired taste for many. But she's done this for over 40 years and it's still interesting.

[quote] and who are YOUR intellectual equals? I'd love to see you go toe-to-toe with Lebowitz. She'd wipe the floor with you--as would most of us.

Fran is dumb as a doornail. Bless your heart. I’ve known her for years. She’s funny but no member of Mensa. She didn’t even complete school. She was too stupid.

[quote] she didn't come from money.

She absolutely came from money. Leave this thread. You have no clue what you’re talking about.

[quote] when Fran Lebowitz is dining with the other lesbians in their home, for a lesbian who doesn't like $$$$, she has lots of multi-millionaire& billionaire lesbian friends.

Her entire act is bogus. Everyone knows this who actually knows her personally. She’s full of shit and incredibly ignorant. She loves money and uses people to get it.

She's gotta be an aspie.

[quote] she didn't come from money.

Those men’s shirts from a London tailor didn’t pay for themselves. Neither did the maintenance on her car.

I can see in the 1970s, where she could have got a cheap apartment and lived off her writing by consuming coffee and cigarettes. But by the 1990s, she had to have money coming from somewhere. She’s probably made a modest royalty off her books and tv appearances, but she has to have money coming from somewhere.

R47 just seething with jealousy.

[quote]Those men’s shirts from a London tailor didn’t pay for themselves. Neither did the maintenance on her car.

Her glasses are also bespoke. She admitted they cost "as much as a car."

Income streams include hooking, speaking engagements, lawsuits, inheritances, t.v. appearances and very rich friends.

Fran's take on how AIDS devastated our culture by not just killing off so many creative artists but also killing off a discerning audience is spot on.

I don't mind her, but put her in the same category as Paul Theroux and Joan Didion - someone who always seems about to say or write something very interesting and then somehow never does.

Since I hit 50, R56, a pet peeve is people who turn one word into two with “t.v.” instead of simply TV.

R57 I've quoted that observation of hers to others in the past, it's so insightful

Big fan here!

Her books explained to my parents that the life of the heterosexual is sick and boring.

[quote] Since I hit 50, [R56], a pet peeve is people who turn one word into two

As if I give a shit, ass.hole.

One of my great grandmothers smoked constantly (unfiltered Pall Mall!) and made it to 91 by some miracle.

I love Fran - she puts an amusing spin on common sense situations that annoy her. I think of her as the male version of Truman Capote but with a different POV.

Here's a link to a really entertaining YT video of her in Europe -

R62, are you 89 years old, gramps?

Edmund White referred to her in one of his books as a "court jester" to the likes of Calvin Klein, David Geffen, and other famous gay men--someone they kept around because she could be amusing, but not any kind of serious friend. He later apologized to her.

Real bottom feeders of knowledge and intellect at R49/R50/R51.

She absolutely did not come from money, you idiot R50. Anyone with Google and Wikipedia and who's ever listened to her knows that.

R51--what act, exactly.

[quote] I’ve known her for years.

Sure you have, Miss Mary R49!

[quote] Those men’s shirts from a London tailor didn’t pay for themselves. Neither did the maintenance on her car.

R53, she sells out every venue she speaks at. But you think she comes from family money?

Such morons abide here who know nothing about her, even though such knowledge about her is readily available.

Willful ignorance is such a Trumpian trait--I believe what I want to believe! If I say she comes from money she does!

OP, your appreciation of Lebowitz is widely shared. The sad trolls here are bitter she's brilliantly engaging, smarter, and has a better life. Dumb cunts.

All you (presumably) young people who refer to older gay men as "Gramps" need to understand that the likelihood that any of the gay men here on DL actually have children (which you need to have in order to have grandchildren) is very, very slim.

Just sayin'.

Ugly-ass toad

For R49, a high-school diploma makes one intelligent. R49, Lebowitz has a GED, which is, in fact, the same as a high school diploma. And ten thousand books, four of her own books to her name, sell-out venues, and two Scorsese works--a movie and a series--about her.

What a failure she is! If only she could be as brilliant and successful as R49!

She seems a one-note performer. "Vaguely jaded" can be amusing and occasionally insightful, but it's tiresome after a while.

She never seems inspired or excited by anything.

She’s an ugly old bitch get over it

Everyone has a shtick and Fran’s no different.

[quote] she sells out every venue she speaks at.

A regular Taylor Swift is our Fran.

She probably gets a flat fee for her speaking engagements. How much do you think a 1970s social commentator can net per show? Does she have a weekly gig on What’s My Line? Is she signing autographs at ComiCon?

r76 she does speaking engagements all over the place.

R76, she makes more than you--can you afford a co-op in Chelsea? No, darling, you cannot.

[quote] She seems a one-note performer.

R73, you realize she's not a performer, dummy?

Brilliant woman. Love huh.

She had an ex lover that left her a small commercial building on Robertson Bl that nets her somewhere around 400-600k per year, she's not wealthy, but certainly not hurting.

I gotta get me an ex like that

I like to think she's written on Datalounge in the past. More like the distant past, sort of like Rosie.

"Listening to Fran Lebowitz, Forever" sounds like some kind of existential play.

R83, not without an edit function. I think any typo would be a “narcissistic injury” to a writer/wit.

Uh, R65, even the blurb says this interview took place in Massachusetts, not Europe. If you actually listened to the interview, you would have heard one of them mention they are in Ptown. I suspect you would annoy her.

Fran and Larry David should work together. Crabby old Jews are funny!

Funny Fact: Fran was close friends with Super Agent Sue Mengers

Funny Fact: When Fran was on the cover of Interview Magazine in September, 1981, Andy Warhol would sometimes scribble his autograph under Fran's nose so that it looked like a mustache. He gave his magazines away on the streets, signed or not, to help promote it and as a way of putting a buffer between him and enthusiastic fans and sometimes critics. It gave him a little control in these frequent encounters.

R83, she doesn’t have a computer, phone or similar device.

Fun Fact: Fran looks like an old toad.

And so one day will you, R91.

She dictates, R90. It's all done over the telephone, which she has.

Fran doesn't use a computer, she doesn't even have a cell phone. The only way to communicate with her remotely is on her land line. She's talked about this many times.

My favourite of Fran's witticisms is this little gem:

"Never ask your children what they want for dinner unless they're paying.".

So much with and wisdom.

Oh, how would have given to sit at a dinner table with her and the late Sue Mengers...

"...if you don't have anything nice to say about anyone, come sit next to me.".