Showing posts with label Jason Alexander and Samantha Bee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jason Alexander and Samantha Bee. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Recent Forum Panelists Christopher Hitchens, Anthony Bourdain and Samantha Bee Release New Books

If you're keeping up with the book club of past Forum panelists, you have a lot of reading to do this summer. Recent Forum panelists Christopher Hitchens, Samantha Bee and Anthony Bourdain have all released books in the past month.

Hitchens' memoir Hitch 22 tells of his young life, his time in British boarding school, his literary friendships with Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and others and, um, getting spanked by Margaret Thatcher at a party (I can't make this stuff up). As his friend McEwan said, "If Hitchens didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to invent him." Hitchens lived up to his reputation and was a polemical panelist at our 2009 Forum, God: Big Questions... Bigger Questions with Rabbi Harold Kushner and Reverend Peter Gomes.



You can also view the entire Forum conversation at TheForumChannel.

Samantha Bee's collection of funny personal essays is titled I Know I Am, But What Are You? She cracked us up when she appeared with Seinfeld's Jason Alexander and Daily Show Executive Producer David Javerbaum at the It's Satire! Forum last Season.



Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw is the follow up to his best seller Kitchen Confidential, which was released ten years ago. Like Confidential, it gives an inside look at the restaurant industry. But unlike Confidential, Bourdain has a lot of famous acquaintances in the food industry, and he doesn't hold back - even on Alice Waters, the mother of the slow food movement. He got his jabs in on her at the Food for Thought Forum in 2009, when Alice Waters told the audience that she would have shark fin soup as her last meal. Bourdain quipped, "That's not local!" to audience laughter and applause.



Monday, November 16, 2009

Behind the scenes with Jason Alexander, Samantha Bee, David Javerbaum & Randy Cohen

Photo courtesy of Nick Caito, Fox 61 News

Can't get enough of our It's Satire! panelists? Neither can we! Check our their answers to our backstage questionnaire, and stay tuned for more photos and videos from behind the scenes coming soon!


What is your favorite place in the world? Why?

David Javerbaum: My mother's womb...because I was happy there.

Samantha Bee: My cottage in the Catskills is my favorite place. When I go there with my family we instantly transform into out best, most relaxed, pink cheeked selves.

Jason Alexander: To hard to choose a favorite, but one of the most beautiful places is Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.

Randy Cohen: Central Park-that urban jewel. It's the finest municipal park in America.



What is something you can't live without?

David Javerbaum: My lymphatic system.

Samantha Bee: My children and my husband.

Jason Alexander: My family, including the dog. Things are not something I get overly attached to as my entire childhood home was robbed by 8 men in a moving van when I was little.

Randy Cohen: A feeling of remorse.



What book are you currently reading?

David Javerbaum: Hop on Pop. (I have a two year old)

Samantha Bee: The Sheriff of Yrnameer by Mike Rubens (friend, ex-Daily Show producer)

Jason Alexander: Giants by Jonathan Stauffer a comparative study of the life and times of Frederick Douglas and Abe Lincoln.

Randy Cohen: Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's Booker winner.


What is always in your fridge?

David Javerbaum: Cold air.

Samantha Bee: Whole milk, eggs, Perrier, broccoli, onions, and yogurt. I am boring.

Jason Alexander: Deodorant.

Randy Cohen: Hummus.


What surprises people about you?

David Javerbaum: When I jump out of a giant birthday cake.

Samantha Bee: That I am short, and nice.

Jason Alexander: Any discernible intelligence.

Randy Cohen: My having a refrigerator full of hummus.




Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Jason Alexander to Join Samantha Bee in Hartford

Yesterday we announced that Jason Alexander (a.k.a. George Costanza from Seinfeld) will be joining our panel for It's Satire on November 14th - a panel that already includes The Daily Show's hilarious and uber-talented Samantha Bee.

As if that weren't enough, Randy Cohen, humorist and author of The Ethicist from The New York Times Magazine, will moderate the conversation. But the fun doesn't stop there! We'll be announcing yet another panelist for this Forum in the coming weeks.

Needless to say, judging by the litany of bad Seinfeld character impersonations ("Helloooooo!") and the copious research being conducted on Comedy Central and YouTube, we're just a wee bit excited here at The Forum office.

That said, here's a little taste of Jason Alexander as everyone's favorite lovable loser, George Costanza.