Posts by Live Talks LA
Robert Crumb & Dan Nadel with Matt Groening
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
discussing Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life
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Aratani Theatre
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
244 San Pedro St,
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(Parking available at the venue)
Wednesday, April 23, 2025, 8pm
$100–One Premium Orchestra Section ticket + 2 signed books
(signed copy of Crumb’s biography*; and a signed copy of Groening’s book, The Art of Futurama)
$30–One Balcony Ticket (book not included)
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PURCHASE VIRTUAL TICKETS (US Orders Only)
Tuesday, April 29, 2025, 6pm PT/9pm ET
$50 Virtual Admission + signed book copy of the Crumb biography* (includes shipping to US addresses only). Includes access to watch the event on April 29 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days.
*signed by Crumb and Nadel..
The first biography of Robert Crumb—one of the most profound and influential artists of the 20th century—whose iconic, radically frank and meticulously rendered cartoons and comics inspired generations of readers and cartoonists, from Art Spiegelman to Alison Bechdel.
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Robert Crumb (b. 1943, Philadelphia) redefined comics as an art form in the 1960s and 70s with titles including Zap, Fritz the Cat, and Mr. Natural. In 1994 he was the subject of the widely hailed documentary, Crumb. Celebrated internationally for expanding the boundaries of the graphic arts, his books include The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb and Existential Comics. He lives in the south of France.
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Dan Nadel is a writer and curator. His previous books include, It’s Life as a I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940–1980; Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence, 1945–1976; and Art Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 1900–1969. Nadel has curated exhibitions for galleries and museums internationally including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is the founder of PictureBox, a publishing and packaging company that produced over one hundred books, objects, and zines from 2000 to 2014, including the Grammy Award–winning design for Wilco’s 2004 album A Ghost Is Born. Dan is the curator-at-large for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
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Matt Groening created the longest-running comedy in television history…The Simpsons. It exploded into a cultural phenomenon in 1990 and has remained one of the most groundbreaking and innovative entertainment franchises, recognizable throughout the world. He followed it with his creation of the hit sci-fi series FUTURAMA, currently one of the top rated shows on Comedy Central. As a cartoonist, Groening began his “Life in Hell” weekly comic strip series in the 1980’s which he concluded in 2012.
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Robert Crumb is often credited with single-handedly transforming the comics medium into a place for adult expression, in the process pioneering the underground comic book industry, and transforming the vernacular language of 20th-century America into an instantly recognizable and popular aesthetic, as iconic as Walt Disney or Charles Schulz. Now, for the first time, Dan Nadel, a curator and writer specializing in comics and art, shares how this complicated artist survived childhood abuse, fame in his twenties, more fame, and came out the other side intact.
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More than just a biography of an iconic cartoonist, Crumb is the story of a richly complex life at the forefront of both the underground and popular cultures of post-war America. Including forty-five stunning black-and-white images throughout and a sixteen-page color insert featuring images both iconic and obscure, Crumb spans the pressures of 1950s suburban America and Crumb’s highly dysfunctional early family life; the history of comics and graphic satire; 20th century popular music; the world of the counterculture; the birth of underground comic books in 1960s San Francisco with Crumb’s Zap Comix; the economic challenges and dissolution of the hippie dream; and the path Robert Crumb blazed through it all.
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Written with Crumb’s cooperation, this fascinating, rollicking book takes in seven decades of Crumb’s iconic works, including Fritz the Cat, Weirdo, and his final book-length comic of The Book of Genesis; capturing, in the process, the essence of an extraordinary artist and his times.
Senator Chuck Schumer
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Senator Chuck Schumer
discussing his book,
Antisemitism in America: A Warning
. Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
at New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(Free Parking available at the venue)
Sunday, March 23, 2025, 3pm
$50 General Admission + signed book
$75 Two General Admission tickets + one signed book
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PURCHASE VIRTUAL TICKETS (US Orders Only)
Thursday, March 27, 2025, 6pm PT/9pm ET
$46 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses only). Includes access to watch the event on March 27 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days.
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In an urgent and personal new book, Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer sheds light on the Jewish American experience and sounds the alarm about the troubling resurgence of antisemitism.
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Chuck Schumer is the Senate Democratic Leader and highest-elected Jewish official in American history. He has been United States senator from New York since 1999. He is the author of Positively American: Winning Back the Middle Class One Family at a Time.
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When it comes to the history of the Jewish people, there is a national and global crisis of misunderstanding. This lack of knowledge feeds demons of ignorance, hatred, and violence. Antisemitism in America: A Warning is an urgent book that illuminates the Jewish experience and the prejudices both hidden and overt that have led to the chronic persecution of the Jewish people.
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By placing antisemitism in its proper historical context, and drawing from Senator Schumer’s own life, the book informs Americans’ understanding of the causes of the recent swell of antisemitic rhetoric and violence in our country. In very personal terms, it will engage with debates over the purpose and meaning of Israel, and help draw a line between legitimate criticism of its government and when criticism of Israel as a Jewish homeland verges into antisemitism. This book is a warning, informed by the lessons of history, about what can happen when the “world’s oldest hatred” is allowed to rise, unchecked.
Kristin Hannah with Paul Levine (Santa Barbara)
Kristin Hannah
limited edition of her novel, The Nightingale
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1214 State St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(Paid Parking available in structure behind the theatre)
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TICKETS:
$54-84 Assigned seats + signed book (The Nightingale)
(Signed copies of The Women available for purchase at the event)
*Tickets include a signed limited 10th Anniversary Edition with foil and embossing, gorgeous designed edges, a ribbon bookmark, exclusive four color endpapers, and a decorative, gold foil stamp on the front case.
With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale was New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and is soon to be a major motion picture.
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Kristin Hannah, former lawyer turned writer, is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including The Women, The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds.
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The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
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Kristin Hanna’s most recent novel is The Women — the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others — women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.
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In The Women, like in The Nightingale and The Four Winds, Hannah exposes an important but largely unknown historical story: there were women serving in Vietnam. This novel shows us the Vietnam war up close and personal, through a woman’s eyes; what it was like to serve in a combat hospital and how it was to come home to an angry, bitter and divided America. What it was like to have your story forgotten.
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It is about the unremembered women in an unpopular war. About women finding their voices and being sustained by friendships made on the battlefield. About the birth of a new culture and the music, ideas, fashion, and freedom that came with it, a story told about the price of patriotism and war through the hearts, minds, sacrifices and courage of the women who were there.
Paul Levine is the author of the Jake Lassiter and Solomon vs. Lord novels, Paul Levine has won the John D. MacDonald Fiction Award and has been nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, International Thriller, Shamus, and James Thurber prizes. His forthcoming novel of historical fiction, Midnight Burning, is the first of a series of thrillers featuring real-life friends Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin. He also wrote twenty episodes of the CBS military drama JAG and co-created the Supreme Court show First Monday starring James Garner and Joe Mantegna.
Kristin Hannah
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Kristin Hannah
limited edition of her novel,
The Nightingale
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(Parking available at the venue)
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TICKETS:
$55 General Admission + signed book (The Nightingale*)
$80 Two General Admission tickets + one signed book (The Nightingale*)
$90 General Admission + TWO signed books
(The Nightingale and The Women)
*Tickets include a signed limited 10th Anniversary Edition with foil and embossing, gorgeous designed edges, a ribbon bookmark, exclusive four color endpapers, and a decorative, gold foil stamp on the front case. This special edition hardcover jacket will be revealed in October.
VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (click here)
Sunday, February 23, 2025, 3pm PT/6pm ET
TICKETS:
$50 Virtual Admission + signed anniversary edition of The Nightingale (includes shipping to US addresses only). Includes access to watch the event on February 23, 2025, at 3pm PT/6pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days. Books ship a week after the virtual event.
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With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale was New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and is soon to be a major motion picture.
.
Kristin Hannah, former lawyer turned writer, is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including The Women, The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds.
.
The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
.
Kristin Hanna’s most recent novel is The Women — the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others — women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.
.
In The Women, like in The Nightingale and The Four Winds, Hannah exposes an important but largely unknown historical story: there were women serving in Vietnam. This novel shows us the Vietnam war up close and personal, through a woman’s eyes; what it was like to serve in a combat hospital and how it was to come home to an angry, bitter and divided America. What it was like to have your story forgotten.
.
It is about the unremembered women in an unpopular war. About women finding their voices and being sustained by friendships made on the battlefield. About the birth of a new culture and the music, ideas, fashion, and freedom that came with it, a story told about the price of patriotism and war through the hearts, minds, sacrifices and courage of the women who were there.
Naomi Watts
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
Naomi Watts
discussing her book,
Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause
. Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre
at New Roads School
3131 Olympic Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(Free Parking available at the venue)
Monday, February 3, 2025, 8pm
$50 General Admission + signed book
$75 Two General Admission tickets + one signed book
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PURCHASE VIRTUAL TICKETS (US Orders Only)
Monday, February 10, 2025, 6pm PT/9pm ET
$46 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses only). Includes access to watch the event on December 10 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days.
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A frank, funny and informative guide to menopause and aging by beloved actress Naomi Watts, one of the leading voices in menopause awareness.
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Naomi Watts is a renowned actor and producer. She has Academy Award nominations for her performances in 21 Grams and The Impossible, and is also known for starring in critically acclaimed projects such as Mulholland Drive, King Kong, and, more recently, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. She is the founder and chief creative officer of Stripes, a company dedicated to raising menopause awareness and providing women with education, community, and solutions for a holistic approach to menopause.
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At thirty-six, Naomi Watts had just completed filming King Kong and was trying to start a family when she was told that she was on the brink of menopause. It is estimated that seventy-five million women in the United States are currently dealing with menopause symptoms (dry itchy skin, raging hormones, night sweats), and yet the very word “menopause” continues to be associated with stigma and confusion. With so little information, many women feel unprepared, ashamed, and deeply alone when the time comes.
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This is the book Naomi Watts wishes she had when she first started experiencing symptoms. Like sitting down over coffee and having an intimate chat with your girlfriend, Dare I Say It blends funny and poignant stories from Naomi and her friends with advice from doctors, hormone experts, and nutritionists to take the secrecy and shame out of menopause and aging. Answering questions such as: What’s hormone therapy and should I be on it? Will I ever sleep again? Will I get myself back? What happened to my libido? Do I need eighteen serums for my aging skin? Whose body is this anyway? Who am I now? Naomi Watts shares the most up-to-date research on how to manage menopause symptoms and tackle the physical and emotional challenges we encounter as we age.
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Irreverent, bold, and reassuring, Dare I Say It is the companion every woman needs to embrace the best version of herself as she moves into what can be the most powerful and satisfying period of her life.
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Eric Idle with Alex Edelman
Live Talks Los Angeles event:
in conversation with Alex Edelman
discussing his book,
The Spamalot Diaries
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(Parking available at the venue)
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TICKETS:
$50 General Admission + signed book
>> Book available for pick up at the event on Jan 28, 2025
$75 Two General Admission tickets + one signed book
>> Book available for pick up at the event on Jan 28, 2025
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VIRTUAL EVENT TICKETS (click here)
Sunday, February 2, 2025, 3pm PT/6pm ET
TICKETS:
$46 Virtual Admission + signed book (includes shipping to US addresses only). Includes access to watch the event on February 2, 2025 at 6pm PT/9pm ET and on video-on-demand for five days after it airs. Books ship a week after the virtual event.
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From comedy legend Eric Idle, the fascinating inside story of bringing Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Broadway as the unlikely theatrical hit Spamalot.
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Eric Idle is a comedian, actor, author, and singer-songwriter who found immediate fame on television with the sketch-comedy show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Following its success, the group began making films that include Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Eric wrote, directed, and created The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, the world’s first-ever mockumentary, as well as the Tony Award–winning musical Spamalot. His memoir, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life was a New York Times bestseller.
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Watch videos of Eric Idle’s three previous appearances at Live Talks Los Angeles — interviewing John Cleese and Alan Zweibel; and interviewed by Bob Saget.
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Writer & actor Alex Edelman is best known for solo shows that blur the line between his stand-up comedy roots and narrative-driven storytelling. His last offering, JUST FOR US, played more than 500 performances all over the world before premiering as an HBO original comedy special. In 2024 Alex was the recipient of a special Tony Award, was named to the Time100 list of most influential people, and won an Emmy. His debut non-fiction collection, I DON’T BELONG HERE, recently sold to Avid Reader at auction. Alex will next be seen starring in Greg Daniels’ THE PAPER for Peacock. He also writes on the show as a Consulting Producer.
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“Idle provides a rollicking account of the making of his Broadway musical Spamalot. . . . [and] an irresistible and unfiltered ode to the art of live theater. Fans will love this tantalizing glimpse behind the curtain.”—Publishers Weekly
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Long before Spamalot was the toast of Broadway and the winner of three Tony awards, it was an idea threatening to fizzle out before it could find its way into existence. In The Spamalot Diaries, Eric Idle shares original journal entries and raw email exchanges that reveal the sometimes bumpy, always entertaining path to the show’s unforgettable run.
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Financial anxieties, collaborative disputes that tested decades-long friendships, endless rewriting and a broken ankle were just some of the challenges. Idle chronicles every minor mishap and triumph along the way, as well as the creative tension that drove the show to new heights. An unforgettable look behind the curtain of a beloved musical and inside the wickedly entertaining mind of one of our most treasured comic performers.
Photo credit: Lily Idle