The Fundraiser: ZooFest 2010: Wild About Parrots
The Date: Friday, April 30
The Chair: Barnaby Conrad
The Beneficiary: The San Francisco Zoo’s Tropical Aviary
Event411: Birds of a charitable feather are flocking together for this year’s fundraiser benefiting renovations for the tropical aviary at the SF Zoo. As patrons can attest, this is one of the Bay Area’s wildest soirees where it’s come as you are – stripes, spots, and all.

Chair of the 2010 ZooFest, Barnaby Conrad III is an engaging bon vivant who knows the ins and outs of San Francisco and how to get things done with flair.

Here we asked Barnaby a few questions about ZooFest and his role as the Chair.

How did you come up with the ZooFest theme?

We’re building a Tropical Aviary and the parrots are a key part of the exhibit. Parrots are colorful and talk—like good guests. I grew up with parrots, because my father’s had about 15 of them over his lifetime. His favorite was an African Grey named Eldridge Cleaver.

I just know it will be a fun party this year.

Anything different about this coming ZooFest than in years past?

The economy is tighter than in years past, and yet we are probably going to sell out our tables. We’ve also incorporated Zoo II, a fundraising group for the younger set, which will jazz everything up. We’re holding our benefactors’ party (the week before) at the Arader Gallery on Jackson Street to celebrate a special exhibition of 3 centuries of great art inspired by parrots. A couple of the prints will be auctioned at Zoofest.

What is it that makes ZooFest such a popular party even in lean years?

There’s no stuffy attitude. This has always been a fun party with a heart rather than some show-off glamfest. We’re in a tent surrounded by roaring lions and howling lemurs. Brings out the party animal in nearly everyone.

What was the best charitable event you’ve ever attended?

Zoofest 2001. I was a bachelor then and during the auction I bought a Back Roads bicycle trip through Italy, not knowing who I’d end up taking. Then I met my future wife and took her on it.

What book have you read that you’ve learned the most from?

The Bible. After that, Crime and Punishment, which I thought was a treatise on dating in San Francisco. I was a bachelor until I was 50.

What’s it like to be a male event Chair in a female world?

Like being the first female driver at NASCAR. I was terrified. Then I called female board members and got help. The Zoo staff is very competent. We had a lot of fun choosing the food with McCall’s. And Robert Fountain came up with a great tropical design.

One tip you’d share in charitable fundraising?

Write personal letters. Don’t just scrawl “hope to see you there” across the invitation—especially if you barely know the people. And if they don’t respond, don’t take it personally. SF people get invited to a lot of other events.

What’s your next book going to be about?

I’m finishing a darkly comic novel about a San Francisco bachelor. It’s pretty autobiographical, so I’m not letting my wife read it until George Clooney buys the movie rights.

You have your hand in a lot of different pies, what title would you give yourself?

Octopus in a Bakery. I’m a writer, an editor, a publisher, and a painter. And my wife, who was formerly in the CIA, has a Manhattan gallery specializing in contemporary Chinese art.

If you could how would you change the world?

Make every American read the Constitution of the United States before they try to control the lives of fellow Americans, much less people in foreign countries.

You wrote a book about martinis, what is your cocktail of choice and do you have a recipe?

My recipe for a great martini is 4 parts Plymouth gin, 1 part fresh vermouth, a dash of orange bitters, shaken with the coldest, hardest ice possible, and garnished with a lemon twist. A good friend and a Miles Davis album makes for an even better martini experience.

What historical character would you like to have dinner with?

Theodore Roosevelt. A great president, adventurer, writer, and conservationist.

Any other anecdotes?

My wife and I recently traveled to Mongolia to fish for a giant trout-like creature called a taimen.

They get up to 5 feet long and eat anything that swims in the river. You fish with a fly called a Verminator, which resembles a rodent. The second day I had a nice 12-inch trout on the line when a 34-inch taimen attacked it,swallowed the fish, and I landed him. We released him. Next day my wife caught a 38-incher.

We actually saw a photo of a 60-inch taimen that died swallowing a 30-incher. Perhaps a lesson to us all about ambition and its consequences.

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For more information on ZooFest, click here

More about Barnaby Conrad

A graduate of Yale University with a B.A. in Fine Arts, Barnaby is best known as a writer. Yet he has exhibited his paintings regularly in group shows and currently has a one-man show at M. Sutherland Fine Arts in New York.

Mr. Conrad is a contributing editor for Forbes Life magazine and has written 11 books of non-fiction. His first, Absinthe: History in a Bottle (1988), recounted the intoxicating green liqueur’s effect on the art, literature, and politics of Belle Epoque France. The Martini (1995), chronicled the shimmering life of this elegant American cocktail. His articles have appeared in Art In America, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, London Sunday Times, GQ, and Smithsonian, and twenty other publications.

Mr. Conrad served on the Board of Trustees of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for ten years and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Zoological Society.

[Feature photo by Drew Altizer]