Lebowitz, ‘the last flaneur,’ returns to speak in Astoria

Lebowitz, ‘the last flaneur,’ returns to speak in Astoria

Published 11:30 am Sunday, March 1, 2026

0312 CW Fran speaks1.jpg
Fran Lebowitz will bring her wit and wisdom to the Liberty Theatre in Astoria March 16. At 74, she has brought her acute observations to stages around the world. Vogue magazine has highlighted her “signature uniform” of an Anderson and Sheppard blazer, blue denim jeans and boots.

(mandatory photo credit))
0312 CW Fran speaks2.jpg
Fran Lebowitz (Brigitte Lacombe photo)
((with pull quote))
‘Success didn’t spoil me, I’ve always been insufferable.’
— Fran Lebowitz
humorist

((Infobox))
An evening with Fran Lebowitz
Liberty Theatre, Astoria
7 p.m. March 16 (Doors open 6 p.m.; concessions available).
Tickets online at https://libertyastoria.org. Reserved seating, $29 to $49.

((head)) Lebowitz, ‘the last flaneur,’ returns to speak in Astoria

By PATRICK WEBB

It’s too simplistic to shape an agenda for Fran Lebowitz with two questions:
1. “How did the United States get into this mess?”
2. “How does it dig its way out?”

But that might be a temptation at the Liberty Theatre in Astoria 7 p.m. March 16 when the New York humorist returns for another stop on her world speaking tour.

Lebowitz, 74, is usually introduced with a sentence containing the word “acerbic,” which dictionaries define as sharp and forthright.

Somehow that doesn’t seem to go far enough.

An interview in the British Sunday newspaper The Observer last year, summed her neatly. “She makes her living as a wit, as a bearer of bon mots, and as the poster girl for a certain kind of crusty but erudite and essentially good-natured New York archetype, intellectual and judgmental, and walking the line between rudeness and frankness with engaging grace,” wrote Maria Spann.

Her web site at https://franlebowitz.com is peppered with clever words to spoon-feed any interviewer or audience:
• “Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.”
• “The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.”
• “Success didn’t spoil me, I’ve always been insufferable.”

Her biography lists almost random early survival jobs, including cleaning apartments and selling belts. Her literary path began when recruited to write for Andy Warhol’s magazine, Interview. Later, she published books of essays called “Metropolitan Life” and “Social Studies.” “The Fran Lebowitz Reader, which reprints them, has been translated into nine languages. She has penned a children’s book, “Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas.”

In the early 2000s, she appeared as a judge in 12 episodes of the TV cop show, “Law and Order.” Director Martin Scorsese has made two films about her, “Public Speaking” (2010) and the Emmy-nominated “Pretend it’s a City” (2021). In between, she had a cameo role, also as a judge, in Scorsese’s dark comedy-drama “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013).

Interviewers seem aghast that Lebowitz lives an “unplugged life,” one of the nation’s few citizens not glued to a cellphone screen. She defends this practice vigorously, maintaining it allows her to better absorb what’s around her.

ABC-Australia host Sarah Ferguson, on screen ahead of a 2025 Sydney performance, suggested dubbing her “the last flaneur,” a detached urban stroller who observes and comments, a term coined in 19th-century Paris.

Similarly, author and journalist Mateo Hoke in San Diego Magazine, offered his own label. He called her “an articulate curmudgeon and the patron saint of sarcasm.”

While his wide-ranging 2025 phone Q&A interview was distracted into apparent trivialities like dress choices and her coffee obsession, it included a core exchange:
Hoke: “The world keeps getting worse in so many ways.”

Lebowitz: “Yes, well, let me assure you, this is improvable. You know, anything that’s created by human beings is fixable by human beings.”

Matt Winters, regional editor at The Astorian and Chinook Observer, was able to interview Lebowitz on stage during her last visit. “She has one of those exceptional Manhattan dry wits,” he said. “I was reminded of that ‘Kevin Bacon: six degrees of separation.’ She just has one degree of separation from Martin Scorsese and Andy Warhol.

“She is one of those people that you just might encounter on a Manhattan sidewalk. She’s just an ordinary denizen of the city — but has these deep connections to just about anybody you can think of.”

After Astoria, Lebowitz hits the Midwest then Canada before flying to Australia and New Zealand. London, Berlin and Scandinavian stops loom in late fall.

Tickets for her Astoria appearance are on sale at https://libertyastoria.org. Reserved seating is available, $29 to $49.
Her last appearance at the Liberty included problems with the sound system. Theater managers assure these have been rectified. For attendees who would like additional support, a limited amount of hearing-assist devices are available. To reserve one, email [email protected].