Posts by Live Talks LA
J. Kenji López-Alt with Molly Baz (Virtual Event)
Bob Odenkirk with Jack Black
In this “essential” (Entertainment Weekly), “hilarious” (AV Club) memoir, the star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it’s like to reinvent himself as an action film ass-kicker at fifty.
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Bob Odenkirk is an actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer. Odenkirk got his start in improv comedy in the motley Chicago comedy scene of the mid-eighties and went on to write for Saturday Night Live. He has starred in AMC’s Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and written and starred in the sketch comedy cult hit Mr. Show. He has written and produced a number of television shows, including Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show and Great Job!, and directed three films.
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Jack Black’s career that includes projects in film, television, music, and more. Most recently, he reprised his role opposite Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart in Jumanji: The Next Level, the highly-anticipated follow up film to 2017’s global smash hit Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle. Additionally, Black is behind the viral YouTube channel Jablinski Games, which launched in 2018 and reached one million subscribers in just days. Black also continues to tour internationally as the lead singer of the rock-folk comedy group Tenacious D, which he created with longtime friend and collaborator Kyle Gass.
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.“I’ve known Bob Odenkirk for more than thirty years, and yet I had to read this book to believe his stunning career arc.”—Conan O’Brien
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Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations—with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him—it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty.
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Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City’s legendary Del Close. He somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live. While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing—eventually employing them in the immortal “Motivational Speaker” sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David.
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In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad—a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis—it’s fun!
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Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot.
J. Kenji López-Alt with Molly Baz
One of Time’s 10 Most Anticipated Cookbooks of 2022
The obsessive mastermind behind one of the decade’s best-selling cookbooks returns with the definitive English-language guide to the science and technique of cooking in a wok.
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J. Kenji López-Alt is a chef, parent, and New York Times best-selling author of The Food Lab and Every Night Is Pizza Night. He is a wildly popular New York Times food columnist; the chief culinary advisor for Serious Eats; and the host of Kenji’s Cooking Show, which has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. He lives in Seattle, Washington. Visit his website, and at Serious Eats.
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Molly Baz is a recipe developer, cookbook author, caesar salad enthusiast, and weenie dog lover with a lifelong love of cooking, eating and teaching other people how to cook. Molly runs a successful Recipe Club with thousands of paying subscribers, hosts The Sandwich Universe podcast, releases quarterly drops of Molly Merch on her website, and recently launched a New York Times‘ bestseller cookbook, Cook This Book. Visit her website.
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“We should all be thanking Kenji for this book, his recipes, and the education on the greatness of wok cookery. This is not just an amazing book about how to make delicious food with a wok, Kenji has written one of the best cookbooks of all time. No hyperbole!”― David Chang, restaurateur, author, and host of “Ugly Delicious”
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Kenji López-Alt’s debut cookbook, The Food Lab, revolutionized home cooking, selling more than half a million copies with its science-based approach to everyday foods. And for fast, fresh cooking for his family, there’s one pan López-Alt reaches for more than any other: the wok.
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Whether stir-frying, deep frying, steaming, simmering, or braising, the wok is the most versatile pan in the kitchen. Once you master the basics—the mechanics of a stir-fry, and how to get smoky wok hei at home—you’re ready to cook home-style and restaurant-style dishes from across Asia and the United States, including Kung Pao Chicken, Pad Thai, and San Francisco–Style Garlic Noodles. López-Alt also breaks down the science behind beloved Beef Chow Fun, fried rice, dumplings, tempura vegetables or seafood, and dashi-simmered dishes.
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Featuring more than 200 recipes—including simple no-cook sides—explanations of knife skills and how to stock a pantry, and more than 1,000 color photographs, The Wok provides endless ideas for brightening up dinner.
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Special thanks to the Japanese American Cultural
& Community Center and the Aratani Theatre
Bob Odenkirk with Jack Black
In this “essential” (Entertainment Weekly), “hilarious” (AV Club) memoir, the star of Mr. Show, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul opens up about the highs and lows of showbiz, his cult status as a comedy writer, and what it’s like to reinvent himself as an action film ass-kicker at fifty.
.
Bob Odenkirk is an actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer. Odenkirk got his start in improv comedy in the motley Chicago comedy scene of the mid-eighties and went on to write for Saturday Night Live. He has starred in AMC’s Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and written and starred in the sketch comedy cult hit Mr. Show. He has written and produced a number of television shows, including Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show and Great Job!, and directed three films.
.
Jack Black’s career that includes projects in film, television, music, and more. Most recently, he reprised his role opposite Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart in Jumanji: The Next Level, the highly-anticipated follow up film to 2017’s global smash hit Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle. Additionally, Black is behind the viral YouTube channel Jablinski Games, which launched in 2018 and reached one million subscribers in just days. Black also continues to tour internationally as the lead singer of the rock-folk comedy group Tenacious D, which he created with longtime friend and collaborator Kyle Gass.
.
.“I’ve known Bob Odenkirk for more than thirty years, and yet I had to read this book to believe his stunning career arc.”—Conan O’Brien
.
Bob Odenkirk’s career is inexplicable. And yet he will try like hell to explicate it for you. Charting a “Homeric” decades-long “odyssey” from his origins in the seedy comedy clubs of Chicago to a dramatic career full of award nominations—with a side-trip into the action-man world that is baffling to all who know him—it’s almost like there are many Bob Odenkirks! But there is just one and one is plenty.
.
Bob embraced a life in comedy after a chance meeting with Second City’s legendary Del Close. He somehow made his way to a job as a writer at Saturday Night Live. While surviving that legendary gauntlet by the skin of his gnashing teeth, he stashed away the secrets of comedy writing—eventually employing them in the immortal “Motivational Speaker” sketch for Chris Farley, honing them on The Ben Stiller Show, and perfecting them on Mr. Show with Bob and David.
.
In Hollywood, Bob demonstrated a bullheadedness that would shame Sisyphus himself, and when all hope was lost for the umpteenth time, the phone rang with an offer to appear on Breaking Bad—a show about how boring it is to be a high school chemistry teacher. His embrace of this strange new world of dramatic acting led him to working with Steven Spielberg, Alexander Payne, and Greta Gerwig, and then, in a twist that will confound you, he re-re-invented himself as a bona fide action star. Why? Read this and do your own psychoanalysis—it’s fun!
.
Featuring humorous tangents, never-before-seen photos, wild characters, and Bob’s trademark unflinching drive, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama is a classic showbiz tale told by a determined idiot.
.
Special thanks to the Japanese American Cultural
& Community Center and the Aratani Theatre
Mike Schur with Kristen Bell
This event premieres on Mach 7, 2022 at 6pm PDT/9pm EDT
— $40 ticket includes a signed copy of the book
(* we only ship to US addresses). Books ship week of March 14
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From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,400 years of deep thinking from around the world.
Michael Schur is a television writer and producer who has worked on shows like The Office, Master of None, The Comeback, and Hacks, and created or cocreatedParks and Recreation, Brooklyn 99, The Good Place, and Rutherford Falls. .
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Kristen Bell is an actress, philanthropist, and producer who can currently be seen starring in Net-flix’s parody comedy “The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.” She recently starred in the animated Amazon children’s series “Do, Re, & Mi”, STX Film’s couponing adventure “Queenpins” and family game show “Family Game Fight” with her husband Dax Shepard which premiered on NBC. Bell will also be starring in the upcoming film “The People We Hate at the Wedding” alongside Allison Janney and Ben Platt.
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She also recently starred in the NBC series “The Good Place,” opposite Ted Danson and reprised her role as ‘Anna’ in “Frozen 2.” Additionally, she executive produced and appeared in a second season of “Encore,” on Disney+.
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Her Broadway credits include “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Crucible.” Her Off-Broadway credits include “Reefer Madness” and “A Little Night Music.”
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“As someone who worries that a deep dive into morality will ruin my fun and problematic life, I was certain this book wouldn’t be for me. Boy, was I wrong! It’s so brilliant and funny and warmly written you don’t realize you’re becoming a better person just by reading it.” —Mindy Kaling
Most people think of themselves as “good,” but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad”—especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.
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Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such as: Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day.
Shaka Senghor with DeVon Franklin
This event premieres on March 3, 2022 at 6pm PDT/9pm EDT
— $38 ticket includes a signed book (shipping included).
(* we only ship to US addresses).
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The New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons—one whom he is raising and the other whose childhood took place during Senghor’s nineteen-year incarceration.
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Shaka Senghor is the New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison, a leading voice on criminal justice reform, a tech investor, a lecturer at universities, and the head of Diversity, Equality & Inclusion at TripActions, a travel management and expense start-up. Senghor is a former MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, a former fellow in the inaugural class of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Leadership Network, and a member of Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul 100. In the decade since his release from prison, he has started and worked with nonprofits seeking to lift people up, visited the White House, been interviewed by Trevor Noah and Oprah Winfrey, and given award-winning TED Talks, all with the goal of building a more inspired, just, fulfilling future.
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DeVon Franklin is a Hollywood producer and New York Times bestselling author committed to uplifting the human spirit through entertainment. He is the award-winning producer of the upcoming Flamin’ Hot movie and the hit film Breakthrough, and serves as Vice-President of the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He is also the bestselling author of books such as LIVE FREE, The Success Commandments, and Produced By Faith.
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“As Black men, we just don’t talk about certain things—especially the pain that we carry when we feel we are falling short as fathers. Senghor courageously sheds light on topics that have almost never been discussed in public. The integrity and transparency found in Letters to the Sons of Society make it a book that everyone needs to read.”—Van Jones, author of Beyond the Messy Truth
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Shaka Senghor has lived the life of two fathers. With his first son, Jay, born shortly after Senghor was incarcerated for second-degree murder, he experienced the regret of his own mistakes and the disconnection caused by a society that sees Black lives as disposable. With his second, Sekou, born after Senghor’s release, he has experienced healing, transformation, intimacy, and the possibilities of a world where men and boys can openly show one another affection, support, and love.
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In this collection of beautifully written letters to Jay and Sekou, Senghor traces his journey as a Black man in America and unpacks the toxic and misguided messages about masculinity, mental health, love, and success that boys learn from an early age. He issues a passionate call to all fathers and sons—fathers who don’t know how to show their sons love, sons who are navigating a fatherless world, boys who have been forced to grow up before their time—to cultivate positive relationships with other men, seek healing, tend to mental health, grow from pain, and rewrite the story that has been told about them.
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Letters to the Sons of Society is a soulful examination of the bond between father and sons, and a touchstone for anyone seeking a kinder, more just world.