Richard Schave

Richard Schave spends a lot of time bringing old Los Angeles back to life. Esotouric, which he runs with his wife Kim Cooper, takes curious Angelenos on bus tours through familiar neighborhoods to reveal unfamiliar histories: the old apartments and watering holes that once hosted L.A.’s most renowned writers, the hotels and streets where murder victims were last seen alive. Schave will soon step up to take the reins of one of new L.A.’s liveliest events, as executive director of the Downtown Art Walk. Read more about him below.

Q. What do you wake up to?
A. I get up and I clean the koi pond.

Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. “The Coal Miner’s Daughter” soundtrack, and Gillian Welch’s “Time (The Relevator)”.

Q. What’s your favorite word?
A. Copacetic.

Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. Austerity.

Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. A man of the people.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. A doctor.

Q. What is your favorite alcoholic beverage?
A. Microbrewed draught beer.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Membership at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. But we get a great family deal.

Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Upper Peninsula, Michigan.

Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. When I was about eight or nine, my grandfather…drove me up to the Sacramento River Delta, to a houseboat his friend won in this poker game. We stopped at all these bars and I remember going in to all these scary places, really haunted places. I was left to my own devices for 10 to 15 minutes at a time while my grandfather had a beer.

Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. My Macbook. I don’t know how I could function without it.

Q. Who would write your biography?
A. My wife.

Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. Doing more yoga.

Q. What should you throw away but haven’t been able to part with?
A. My car.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you’d most love to have a beer with?
A. Truman Capote.

To read about Schave’s panel on John Fante, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.