November 6, 2014, 7:30pm.
Presented with the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts: Dick Cavett with Paula Poundstone. SOLD OUT.
At the beautiful new Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills.
Dick Cavett, known as “the thinking man’s talk show host,” helmed the Dick Cavett Show for decades on a variety of television networks. It was a talk show like no other, then or now. It was a forum for entertainment, to be sure—but also a place where the audience expected serious talk about serious issues. His new book, Brief Encounters, reminds us of the panoply of thinkers whom he hosted on his show, and those personalities he met in his daily life.
The Dick Cavett Show was like no other talk show then or now. It’s where John Lennon went to talk about his view of the world. It’s where Norman Mailer butted heads with Gore Vidal. It was where Georgia governor Lester Maddox stormed offstage, offended that Dick called Lester Maddox’s supporters bigoted. No problem really, because Cavett’s next guest was Truman Capote. The Dick Cavett Show was where a young veteran named John Kerry, speaking out against the Vietnam war, debated the issue with a pro-Vietnam War vet named John O’Neill, who would later found Swift Boat Veterans For Truth. The historical ramifications of that particular Dick Cavett hour were profound. And Cavett’s stances on cultural and political matters ticked off President Nixon to such a degree that the president, as we’ve heard from his tapes, asked his aides how to best screw Cavett. The Dick Cavett Show was where, on the day that Woodstock ended, Jefferson Airplane , David Crosby and Steven Stills would join Joni Mitchell for an all-music program. Jimi Hendrix would have been there but the festival ran late, and so did Jimi. Joni Mitchell’s manager thought her appearance on the show so crucial to her career that he wouldn’t let her attend Woodstock So many of Cavett’s shows actually created or defined momentous cultural tremors for us.
In his new book, Brief Encounters, Dick Cavett reminds us of more of these moments, and gives us his singularly witty commentary about his relationships with the most singular people of our time. While we miss his show, take heart that he’s a writer, columnist and commentator and coming to Los Angeles to talk to us again.
Paula Poundstone, a standup comedian, is a favorite of Dick Cavett, and it’s no wonder. She appears regularly on NPR’s news quiz show, “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me,”which is now the most popular show on NPR. She tours the country with her comedy, and thank goodness for that: Comedy Central names Paula as one of the 100 greatest standup comedians of all time. She was a winner of the American Comedy Award for Best Female Standup Comedian, and in 2010 was voted into the Comedy Hall of Fame. Just when we worry that the world is about to fall apart, Paula reminds us that it’s actually a totally hilarious place to be.