*David Schmader **is a writer and performer from El Paso, TX, where he attended Hanks High School. His solo plays include *Straight, Letter to Axl, *and *A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem, which combine autobiography, journalism, and comedy, and which he’s performed to acclaim across the U.S.
From 1998-2015, Schmader worked as staff writer, editor, and columnist at the Pulitzer-winning Seattle newsweekly The Stranger. His book Weed: The User’s Guide, was published in 2016. His other book, Filmlandia!: A Movie Lover’s Guide to the Films and Television of Seattle, Portland, and the Great Northwest, was published in 2023. Schmader’s TEDx talk on the eternal pleasures and persistent stigma of cannabis has been viewed 2.5 million times on YouTube.
In his spare time, he’s the world’s foremost authority on the glorious terribleness of the movie Showgirls, hosting annotated screenings of Paul Verhoeven’s notorious stripper drama at cinemas across the US and supplying the commentary track for the Showgirls DVD. As he did for the first 17 years of his life, Schmader now lives in El Paso on a street named after a golfer no one’s heard of.
*David Schmader hosts a live, annotated screening of Showgirls at 10 pm Friday, July 19 in the Philanthropy Theatre. *
