January 27, 2004
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu
UCSB Arts & Lectures presents political satirist and best-selling author Al Franken delivering a funny and insightful lecture at the Arlington Theatre
Summary Facts:
- An Afternoon with Al Franken
- Franken is the best-selling author of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
- He was one of the original creators of Saturday Night Live
- Saturday, February 28
- 2 pm / UCSB Arlington Theatre, 1317 State Street, Santa Barbara
- General public: $35 / UCSB students: $15
- Tickets & Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or the Arlington Theatre at (805) 963-4408
Political satirist and best-selling author Al Franken, called “wickedly funny” by Newsweek, will deliver a hilarious and insightful presentation on Saturday, February 28 at 2 pm at the Arlington Theatre, 1317 State Street, Santa Barbara. Franken’s most recent book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right has been on The New York Times bestseller list for 20 weeks, often at number 1. The book made headlines even before it was published when Fox News sued Franken and his publisher Dutton, claiming it had proprietary rights over the term “fair and balanced.” The suit was thrown out of court as having no merit, but the media attention helped launch the book. Even Business Week called the book “laugh-out-loud funny...blistering and impolite attack on the President and his supporters...compelling, fact-laden slam of the positions and posturing of conservatives ...a liberal who’s not only passionate and well-informed but amusing.”
Franken first came to prominence as part of the original writing team that created Saturday Night Live. He remained with the original show until 1980 and then returned in 1985 for another ten-year stint. He received four Emmys for his writing on SNL and a fifth for producing. He also won recognition for his on-camera work, first as half of the comedy team of Franken and Davis, then for his Al Franken Decade persona.
Beyond his droll and accurate impressions of Pat Robertson, Paul Simon and Paul Tsongas, Franken’s most enduring SNL character was Stuart Smalley, the new age cable TV host he recently resurrected for a guest segment with Al Gore. Smalley was the subject of Franken’s first book I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough and Doggone It, People Like Me, which was published in 1992. It provided the basis for the 1995 movie Stuart Saves His Family, starring and written by Franken. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film “a genuine surprise: a movie as funny as the SNL stuff, and yet with convincing characters, a compelling story and a sunny, sweet sincerity shining down on the humor.”
Franken’s work turned more and more to the political, particularly when he anchored Comedy Central’s Indecision ’92—a clear precursor to that network’s The Daily Show—that won wide critical acclaim for his coverage of both conventions and election night. In 1996, he and Arianna Huffington, then darling of the right wing Gingrich revolution, teamed as “Strange Bedfellows” for a running segment on Politically Incorrect that cleverly and comically covered the party conventions, the campaign and election night.
Franken’s second book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations (1996) spent over eight months on The New York Times bestseller list and was number one for five weeks. Franken’s recording of the book on tape won the 1997 Grammy for Best Comedy Album. Franken’s third book Why Not Me: The Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency (1999), which chronicles the rise and fall of Al Franken, 43rd President, was also a New York Times bestseller. His fourth book Oh, the Things I Know!: A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness (2002), was on The New York Times bestseller list for five weeks.
Franken grew up in Minnesota and is a graduate of Harvard College. He and his wife Franni Franken live in New York City and have two children: Joe, 18, who attends Princeton University, and their daughter Thomasin, 22, who recently graduated from Harvard.
To learn more about Al Franken visit www.ohthethingsiknow.com.
In Arts & Lectures’ on-going effort to make our events accessible to all who wish to enjoy them, this lecture will be signed. Sign language interpretation is made possible by the California Arts Council in collaboration with the National Arts and Disability Center and by the Santa Barbara Foundation’s Access Theatre Endowment Fund.
Courtesy of Borders, books by Al Franken will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
Al Franken is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by Borders and the Metropolitan Theaters Corporation.
Tickets for Al Franken are $35 for the general public and $15 for UCSB students. They are on sale now and will be available at the door.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.