Anthony Bourdain on the long and the short of fame

• Travel Channel

Anthony Bourdain — chef, author, TV star — is bringing his stage show to town this week (Friday, December 16, at the Midland ), and part of the night’s entertainment is the candid, spontaneous question-and-answer session with the audience. Sometimes, it’s the best part of the performance.

“The questions I get are never pre-screened,” Bourdain says. “I mean, I like weird, confrontational, drunk or psychotic questions from my audience. This is a show, not a press conference. I’m not running for office. I like it that you never know how it’s going to go on any given night.”

Drunks? Really?

“Oh my God, it’s a regular event,” Bourdain says. “I dd a show in a Las Vegas casino, and everyone in the audience was drunk — 2,000 drunks.

“I’ll talk about anything. And if I don’t, I’ll tell the audience I don’t want to fucking talk about that. It doesn’t all have to be about food. If someone wants to ask about obscure rock albums of the 1970s, I’ll talk about that.”

And then there’s the weirdest question that Bourdain has been asked so far. The normally unflappable Bourdain was even taken aback when he was asked about the size of his penis.