Wednesday, May 6, 2015
8:00pm 

Jillian Lauren
in conversation with Dana Gould

discussing her memoir 
Everything You Ever Wanted

William Turner Gallery
Bergamot Station Arts Center
2525 Michigan Avenue,
Santa Monica, CA 90404

PURCHASE TICKETS
$20 General Admission
$30 Reserved Seats
$33 Includes Lauren’s memoir + Seats in reserved section

Jillian Lauren is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, and the novel, Pretty. In her new memoir Everything You Ever Wanted (May 2105), she shares her zigzagging path from Brunei harem girl to mommy blogger.

A former concubine and heroin addict, Lauren lived in thirty apartments in four states over the course of ten years. Some might say she was a screw-up of epic proportions. Then she fell in love and decided she just wanted to be a happy wife and mom, and learn to knit and make a fantastic pot roast.

Jillian Lauren is not your typical mom. After a heartbreaking struggle with infertility, Lauren and her husband, Weezer bass player, Scott Shriner, adopted an Ethiopian boy with special needs who forced her to recalibrate her way of looking at the world.  Exploring complex ideas of identity and reinvention, Everything You Ever Wanted is a must-read for everyone, especially every mother, who has ever hoped for a second act in life.

Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Magazine, Flaunt Magazine, The Rumpus, and Salon, among others. Her work has also been widely anthologized, including in The Moth Anthology and True Tales of Lust and Love.

Jillian is a regular storyteller with The Moth and has performed at numerous spoken word and storytelling events across the country. She regularly blogs at MSNBC TODAY Moms, The Huffington Post and Jillianlauren.com, which was named a top 100 mom blog of 2012 by Babble Magazine.

Dana Gould began his professional stand up career at the tender age of 17, cutting his teeth in the comedy boom of the 1980’s. He arrived in Los Angeles in the early 90’s, where he became one of the founding fathers of the alternative comedy movement. After starring in the TV series “Working” and guesting on such shows as The “Ben Stiller Show” and “Seinfeld”, Dana joined the writing staff of “The Simpsons,” eventually becoming executive producer of the legendary show. 

Dana left the show and rededicated himself to his stand-up career. In addition to numerous HBO specials and the CD, Funhouse, Dana recently completed the one-hour special “Let Me Put My Thoughts In You”, directed by fellow “Ben Stiller Show” alum Bob Odenkirk.

Dana wrote, produced and starred in the pilot “Nolan Knows Best” for ABC television and, in addition to his podcast, The Dana Gould Hour, which premiered in February 2012, is currently developing, along with the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, a new pilot for F/X, “Rock Bottom.”