Lebowitz shares her unique take on life at stop in Chico

“Polite conversation is rarely either.”

That is one of Fran Lebowitz’s famous one-liners.

Fran Lebowitz is worth seeing if she comes to a city near you. (Image: Brigitte Lacombe)

This New Yorker brought her wit and distinct take on life to Chico State on Sept. 19. The four of us (me, mom, Gracie and Anne) were laughing and applauding as the night went on.

Lebowitz can seemingly take any topic and run with it in a direction that usually isn’t predicable. You really don’t know what is going to come out of her mouth. That is what makes listening to her so delightful.

The only disappointment of the evening was the Chico State professor who started the evening with a Q&A with Lebowitz. He truly sounded like he had just watched her 2021 Netflix special and posed questions from that viewing. She clearly wanted to fast forward to other topics, including the current presidential election.

Lebowitz doesn’t shy from her liberal views. At the same time, politics was not the dominate topic.

Two-thirds of the night was Lebowitz taking questions from the audience without those people having a microphone. She said she prefers it this way because with a mic in hand people tend to ask questions in paragraphs instead of a more succinct sentence.

Instead of actually answering the questions she used them more like a prompt for an improv verbal free-for-all of sorts. Questions were all over the place, which led her responses to take the same uncharted path.

Lebowitz definitely has a sardonic wit. With her heavy New York accent and fast-talking style it can be a bit difficult to catch every word. When mom and I watched her Netflix series we had the closed captioning on so we could read what she was saying. Obviously, live performances don’t  have that luxury.

I wonder what a “normal” conversation with Lebowitz would be like. Is this all an act when she is on stage? Or is this the satirist’s “real” personality? It doesn’t matter. She is a unique entertainer.