Bruce Eric Kaplan

Thursday, April 30, 2015
8:00pm 

Bruce Eric Kaplan
in conversation with B.J. Novak

discussing his memoir 
I Was a Child

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

PURCHASE TICKETS 
$20 General Admission
$30 Reserved Seats
$43 Includes BEK’s memoir + Seats in reserved section

Bruce Eric Kaplan, also known as BEK, is one of the most celebrated and admired cartoonists in America, whose single-panel cartoons frequently appear in The New Yorker. His cartoons are known for their signature simplistic style and ironic humor. Kaplan is also a screenwriter and producer, and has worked on Seinfeld and HBO’s Six Feet Under and Girls.

In I Was a Child, he examines his childhood in suburban New Jersey, detailing the small moments we all similarly carry into adulthood. Deceptively unconventional, Kaplan’s anecdotes are accompanied by his signature drawings of family outings and life at home—road trips, hamsters, ashtrays, a toupée, a platypus, and much more. Kaplan’s images contain an easy irony and a sense of humor that cuts straight to the truth of experience. As children, we are all stuck in a certain situation, in a certain time, and those circumstances all shape, push, and prod us into who we become. Brilliantly relatable and genuinely moving, I Was a Child is about our attempts to understand the mysteries that are our parents, families, and ultimately, ourselves.

B.J. Novak is perhaps best known for his work on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning comedy series The Office as a writer, actor, director, and executive producer.  He is also known for his work as a standup comedian and his performances in motion pictures such as Quentin Tarantino’s  Inglourious Basterds and Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks.  Novak’s debut collection of short stories, One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, was a New York Times Best Seller and received rave reviews.  His children’s book, The Book With No Pictures, is a #1 New York Times Best Seller and will appear this year on international bookshelves in 18 additional languages.  Novak’s stories have been published in The New Yorker and featured on This American Life.