SXSWedu - 2015

KEYNOTE SESSION SXSWedu 2014 83 ith a prodigiously versatile and fear- less acting career that spans more than 40 years, Jeffrey Tambor is a recognizable and widely respected face on tele- vision and movie screens. Yet, Tambor is also a widely lauded and experienced educator, and as SXSWedu's closing keynote speaker, he will hope to share some of the wisdom he has earned in both disciplines, all under the banner of a sim- ple concept. "My best teachers," he states, "were the ones who taught me enthusiasm." Tambor's SXSWedu session, titled "Perform- ing Your Life in the Classroom" promises to be an interactive mix of lecture, performance art and Q&A. The veteran actor will use his own experiences and struggles, and the insights that he has gained over the years, to challenge audience members to discover the artist within themselves and use that knowledge to discover their potential while achieving their personal and professional goals. Tambor's presentations have been acclaimed as "exhilarating, a little scary, brilliant and engaging," with Tambor receiving praise as "an empowering, inspiring presenter." His face is already familiar to SXSW Film registrants where he has taught acting work- shops for several years. "Jeffrey's workshop has been a magical experience for so many SXSW guests," says SXSW Comedy programmer Char- lie Sotelo. "His frank approach is as enlighten- ing as it is entertaining. The feedback we've re- ceived includes numerous accounts of changed lives and rekindled dreams." Tambor, who has been teaching acting workshops for nearly 40 years, puts those same skills to work in his one-man show, combining humor with his passion for learning, encourag- ing teachers to look beyond their curricula and offer guidance based on their own experiences. Growing up across the street from San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University), Tambor gained his initial exposure to theatre and acting, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in drama in 1965. "My life was saved by two things: the theater and the library," he says. He went on to receive a master's degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, where he taught speech and theater as a teaching fel- low and graduate assistant, developing a deep connection to the education process, while con- tinuing to build his résumé in repertory theater. Not long afterward, Tambor took the leap into full-time acting, moving to New York City. He made his Broadway debut in 1976 in Sly Fox , opposite George C. Scott. Since then, he has built an extensive and varied résumé of memorable comedic and dra- matic performances in a wide array of film, TV and stage pro- ductions. He has been a familiar face in episodic TV on shows such as Taxi , Kojak, M*A*S*H , The Golden Girls and Three's Company , as well as on the short-lived, but quintessentially late '80s show Max Headroom . He has also been a fixture in films including roles in ... And Justice For All , Muppets from Space , There's Something About Mary , Meet Joe Black and The Hangover . He has also racked up a half- dozen Emmy nominations for his work on the groundbreaking TV comedies The Larry Sanders Show and Arrested Development . Those shows established Tambor as a cult icon in the alt-comedy community for his roles, as ragingly insecure talk-show co-host Hank Kingsley in the former, and as shady family patriarch George Bluth Sr. in the latter. Thanks to Arrested Development 's ardent fan base, Tambor revived his role last year in a series of new episodes that were released through Netflix, and is expected to do so again in a long-rumored Arrested Development fea- ture film. "It's quite fervent, I must say," Tambor re- cently told The New York Times , referring to the show's enduring audience. "A fellow—very well dressed, seemed to have his stuff together— stopped me at the airport a couple months ago and said, 'I don't want a picture and I don't want an autograph. I just want you to say, 'There's always money in the banana stand.' I did, and he said 'thank you' and walked away. People re- spect it, so I don't find it troubling." Despite having left the teaching profession to pursue his acting career, Tambor has retained his passion for education and has continued to teach acting while doing film and television work. At least part of this experience with stu- dents is what led him to develop the presenta- tion he will bring to SXSWedu. "I've taught thousands of students, many of whom were far more talented than I am," Tambor notes. "Some have gone on to great things. But most—I would say 90 percent—have stopped, and I'm curious as to why." After more than four decades of acting and teaching, Jeffrey Tambor retains his passion, and his inquisitiveness. Also, as the father of four school-aged children, he is both puzzled and fascinated how the rapidly changing world is preparing students for the future. "I'm curious about modern education," he states. "Something is very different. I stood on a stage in Pennsylvania recently, handing out de- grees. And as all the black caps went by, I won- dered, 'Where are they all going?'" Jeffrey Tambor Contributed by Scott Schinder W 12:00pm – 1:00pm Austin Convention Center Ballroom D THURSDAY KEYNOTE Justin Stephens/FOX

• Cover