June 28, 7:30 pm: Albert Brooks with Bob Weide SOLD OUT

This event is now full.  What differentiates a great writer from the rest is that artist’s observations about humanity, observations that define us, our little obsessions, that stand up to time and to generations.  Actor, writer and director Albert Brooks continues the conversations he starts in his movies, with his new novel.  A really terrific novel called 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America.  Albert Brooks is the master of the unconventional whose movies are among the best cultural mirrors and social commentaries we have.  The guy who brought us the audacious, hilarious and courageous Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World, and Mother, among  so many others, has given us a novel with his singular voice, and his unique comic tone.  It’s a novel with a serious premise that sings with his satirical voice, with not a little apprehension and anxiety.  The man who brought us Lost In America, Modern Romance and Real Life knows how to tell a great story that’s at once provocative and important, and achingly funny.  In Brooks’ dystopic 2030, the elderly had better behave.  President Bernstein is doing his best to avert disaster, and the problems that plague us now just keep on coming.  China: a deal with the devil.  Debt.  A fairly mighty earthquake in southern California.  And old people with their healthcare demands keep getting in the way of just about everything.  What to do with them?  These are serious issues, and Brooks laces his anxiety about America’s future and values with his observations that could very well be prescient.  2030 is less than twenty years away, folks.  Thank God 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America is as funny as it is.  Here’s his book from amazon.com; buy it now or at our program.

Bob Weide knows a thing or two about American humorists.  He produced and directed the first five seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  He has made documentaries on The Marx Brothers, Mort Sahl, W.C. Fields (which won an Emmy) and Lenny Bruce, which was nominated for an Oscar®.  Bob also wrote and produced a film of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Mother Night, and is finishing up a film on Woody Allen.  Bob’s recent feature, How To Lose Friends and Alienate People, was one of the funniest films of 2008.  Filmed in London, it opened as the #1 feature in the UK, and remained a top 10 draw for a month.  In the US— not so much. We loved it.

We are delighted to close our remarkable fifteenth season with this program.  We hope you’ll join us.

At the Writers Guild Theater, 135 South Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills.  Tickets, $20.
We accept cash and checks, payable at the door.  If you make reservations but find that you cannot attend, please let us know immediately so that others can be accommodated. No-shows will be noted.