Blisteringly brilliant Icon of all Icons Fran Lebowitz took on the stage and the audience on Monday 25 May with absolute ease and seemed both pleased and unfazed by the sheer magnitude of people rocking up to this occasion of all occasions (she has seen it umpteen times before). A die-hard urbanite and a New Yorker through and through, she wouldn’t have it any other way [1] and is a happy smoker in the big smoke, who “feeds on cigarettes and revenge.”[2]
The word her weapon both verbally and in writing, Lebowitz, now 75, is as acerbic, vastly entertaining, dry and cutting, sharp and witty as ever. She really needs no further introduction. Her trailblazing legacy since long solidified, she is a fearless author and orator, public speaker, cultural critic and commentator who – a columnist for Andy Warhol in the 1970s – has seen, done, astutely observed and witnessed it all.
The Hamer Hall audience immediately entranced and enthralled, we hung on to every dry word in the breathless 1.5 hours we were fortunate to be in her company this one night only (her mission on this Australia tour indirectly to educate the ignorati), when we were asked to “[c]ome for the candour, stay for the cynicism and leave vastly more entertained.”[3]
A 21st century prophet and sardonic guru of a human being, Lebowitz took on one topic after another and manoeuvred complex concepts in her own stride, delivering quick retorts to interviewer Benjamin Law and common mortals alike (she says she welcomes what Sarah Ferguson of the ABC calls “randoms that ask [impromptu] questions”[4] and who were in need of guidance).
Giving her opinion on AI and American politics alike, Lebowitz soon laughed at Wyoming and Montana in what has become a standing joke and gave Trump a piece of her mind – calling him “ignorant” and “stupid” and a person with “nothing but flaws” [5] – and then proceeding by rejecting bombastic ballrooms and stressing bottomless brainlessness.
She is all the more approving of Zohran Mamdani who, when asked, she does not see as overly young in a country of ‘geriatric’ leaders (after all, she herself once set the precedent for what can be achieved at a comparatively young age). She welcomes Mamdani’s NY housing policies.
Lebowitz addressed aging, nostalgia and the longing for a non-descript past by those who have not themselves lived through the past they are rather wistfully referring to, as well as the current lack of the ‘now’ (“There is NO NOW NOW. Because we live in an ERA where things are NOT NOW. They’re either THEN or WHEN. There doesn’t seem to be a PRESENT”. Mindfulness as an in-vogue concept today thus already addressed by Lebowitz who always got the bigger picture) [6].
At Arts Centre Melbourne, Lebowitz took us back to 1970s New York then returned to the present, adding her views on socialism and its general impossibility; topics subsequently also discussed with ABC News where, again, Lebowitz was revving to get started: “Socialism is a very delightful idea. It’s the nicest idea for government. The problem is the human species is not nice enough for socialism. We’re not up to it.”
Notably steering away from social media and smart phones [7] through her lifestyle and by being PRESENT, Lebowitz proves just how superfluous these devices are and how one can keep in the loop no matter what. She shies away from nothing and tells it as it is, without preliminaries – a straight shooter since, literally, forever. Included in comprehensive The Fran Lebowitz Reader (1994) [8] are breakthrough bibles Metropolitan Life (1978) and Social Studies (1981) where she already said it all and where any subsequent periods of writer’s block only led to her further successes in a range of critical orbits.
The mental cogs of a young Lebowitz had started to churn as if there was no tomorrow, and on these pages of eternal truths she leaves us with thoughts of lingering relevance on anything beneath the sun: “manners”, “science”, “arts”, “letters”, “people”, “things”, “places” and “ideas”:
“The first of the pieces in this volume were written in my early twenties – the last, in my early thirties. It is therefore unsurprising that the question of what used to be called relevance (exactly) has been raised. Allow me them, to lower it. Although it is true that CB radio, disco, high-tech interior decoration, and safe sex with strangers are either no longer novel or extant, it cannot be denied that many such things (although not, alas, the last) have been frequently revived, and that in this singularly dull and retroactive era to require timelessness of a writer, when it is no longer even required of timelessness, is not only grossly unfair, but also unseemly” (preface).
Lebowitz is a character in her own right and a protagonist in the world of everything that matters. A creator, mover, shaker and groundbreaker who is more often than not “angry … all the time” [9], she stands out from any given crowd and, though radically different, she joins the fine company of fellow septuagenarian Grace Jones whose avant garde beat transcends time and whose (older) charisma comes from letting go and connecting increasingly freely with her audience in the midst of flawless performances and technical perfection.
Both legends lit up Melbourne 2026 – with a no-nonsense, unfiltered Lebowitz’ going her own way and delivering remarks dripping with irony. Her words are weapons and firecrackers that ignite sparks and invite into intellectual understanding, that cut through and strike down all at once.
She discerns it all in our world of copycats (‘born original, we all die copies’?), of Tik Tok and other numbing social media platforms where death-scrollers left right and centre are in dire need of illuminating. She is one of very few sane ones still left standing. It is up to us if we are prepared and willing to really follow her lead. [10]
In Focus: Fran Lebowitz Conquers Hamer Hall
Words: Dr Jytte Holmqvist
Image: Fran Lebowitz – courtesy of the artist
Footnotes:
[1] See ”Fran Lebowitz is Never Leaving New York”: www.newyorker.com
[3] www.artscentremelbourne.com.au and 2026.rising.melbourne
[5] Ibid. See also: www.instagram.com
[7] I don’t have a smartphone, a cell phone, a computer, a Wi-Fi connection in my apartment, a microwave oven. If you told me I could text on a microwave oven, I would believe you. But I am aware of the effect of the internet, which is suffocating. One of the things it does is flatten everything. It flattens geography and also time.” www.harpersbazaar.com
[8] 1994 also saw the publication of Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas[8], translated into German and Italian, and likewise set in the author’s favourite Big Apple.
[10] Recommended viewing: TV-series, Pretend It’s a City (2021). See: www.vulture.com