Following her sold-out run at NYC’s Cafe Carlyle, Candace Bushnell will perform her one-woman show “True Tales of Sex, Success, and Sex and the City” for one night only at Canoe Place Inn in Hampton Bays on Thursday, August 17.
The New York City icon, international best-selling novelist, and creator of “Sex and the City,” takes the audience on a whirlwind tour of the Big Apple, sharing stories of fashion, literature, and sex while pouring cosmos in Manolos.
You moved to New York City in the ’70s. What were the first few years in New York City like for you?
Very exciting and a real struggle. I talk a bit about those early years in my show “True Tales of Sex, Success, and Sex and the City.” I was young and just starting to learn about sex, and I was open to experimenting, as you’ll discover from the show!
No one captures a New York moment better than you and so much of your work is a love letter to the city. Talk a little about how the city has inspired your work.
When I was 18 I decided it was time to begin my real life as a writer in New York City. I began writing about New York City immediately. It’s an endless source of material.
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
Yes, I had an epiphany at the age of eight and knew I would be a writer. It was my reason for being.
How did the “Sex and the City” newspaper column in the New York Observer come to be?
It’s a bit of a long story and again, something I answer in the show. Along with how I created “Sex and the City,” how hard I worked to get there, why I invented Carrie Bradshaw, and what happened to me afterwards.
Your writing has revolutionized how people view women and sex. Did you expect it to have the impact that it did on culture?
As a very young girl I was a feminist. I really wanted to change the way the world thought about women and their place in the culture.
When the first episode of “Sex and the City” aired on HBO, what were your immediate thoughts?
I loved it. The first episode was directed by Susan Seidelman, who also directed “Desperately Seeking Susan” and was one of the few women directors around. Most of the lines in the pilot come directly from the book, so it was fascinating to see things that happened in my real life go from the book to the screen. In the stage show, I play a game with the audience, Real or Not Real, because so much of what happened in the show was just a bit better or a bit worse than my real life.
And when the series ended, did you expect it to stay as relevant as it has for decades?
No one can expect anything creatively as that’s up to the audience. But it doesn’t surprise me. Technology changes but people still have the same desires for connection, romance, and love.
In your one-woman show “Is There Still Sex in the City?” you bring your personal story to life on stage. What inspired this move? Did you have past experience in theater?
I didn’t, but it was something I always dreamed of doing from when I first came to New York. The fact that I’m doing this now, decades later, is proof that you never know what’s going to happen!
You’ll be at Canoe Place Inn on August 17 with “True Tales of Sex, Success, And Sex and the City.” What can guests expect during the evening?
A great time! I’ve had such a wonderful enthusiastic response to the show for which I’m grateful.
It’s summer in Sag Harbor. What does your perfect day look like?
I get up around 7 and take my dogs to the beach. I workout until about 10, then I do some writing and have dinner with friends or go to an event.
