Anthony Bourdain to tell crazy stories at Fox show

Anthony Bourdain’s last work-related visit to Atlanta has become legend: In 2012, he shot his final Travel Channel episode of “The Layover” in town and persuaded Food Network star Alton Brown to visit the infamous stripper joint the Clermont Lounge.

“One of my proudest achievements in television,” Bourdain said in a recent phone interview, chortling. “I want it in my obit!”

Bourdain, 59, is coming back to town July 11 to do a live stage show called “Close to the Bone” at the Fox Theatre, but he isn’t sure if Brown, who lives in Marietta, will hang out with him again.

“I didn’t actually know that the people performing at the Clermont actually took off all their clothing,” Brown told Mara Davis of Atlanta Eats last year. “It was a rabbit hole that I didn’t need to go down. That bastard did that to me on purpose!”

Bourdain said despite his very busy schedule shooting CNN's Emmy-winning travelogue show "Parts Unknown," he is doing 10 live shows across the country this month including Atlanta. "People have been asking relentlessly," he said. "I knuckled under. I'm already on the road most of the year."

He said the show will be very, very simple: “It’s me talking. There’s no video component. No props. No band. No giant blender. That’s it. I’m working on 90 minutes of new material and a Q&A.”

Bourdain said he will tell stories, along the lines of stand-up: “Long ago, I found if people aren’t laughing every few minutes, it feels like five hours!”

And if you have read his books, you know he’s not exactly G-rated when he’s not on TV. “This is going to be pretty filthy — even by my standards,” he warned. “Do not bring the kids.”

He recently concluded his fifth season of his CNN “Parts Unknown” show, which has been one of the network’s most successful programs and included visits to Budapest, Beirut and the shores of New Jersey.

“We only go to places I want to go,” Bourdain said. “I’m always looking for some kind of personal angle or to look through somebody’s particular perspective. I like to go to places people overlook or haven’t really covered. That’s why I did Koreatown in Los Angeles and pretended nobody was there who wasn’t Korean. I’m always looking to have fun and challenge myself and my crew.”

One experimental episode came on earlier this season where he aired a South Korea episode in reverse chronological order. “I become progressively more sober as the show went on,” he said. “It was trippy!”

The Jersey shore probably qualified as his least exotic locale this past season but was definitely a case of personal connection. “I’m a Jersey boy,” Bourdain said. “The challenge there was go to this reviled state that everyone makes fun of all the time but I genuinely love.”