What's cool in DC this week... and what's coming up

Happy new year, and hooray for an imminently spectacular 2015 filled with DC delights. 


But first, let's review the last few days of 2014. Sadly many of them were occupied with bereavement activities, but I still managed to get to Second City, which my lovely wife had to see for a second time to accommodate my demands, and it was indeed hilarious. Plus I really like the Arlington Drafthouse as a venue, other than its pesky location. Hooray for Uber. 

SpeakeasyDC's My So Called Jewish Life at Sixth and I was fantastic - of course I would say so as I was performing in it! But it was a great crowd, great stories, and Amy's innovation of Jewish-themed jokes between the stories was well judged. 

We also saw Pointless Theatre Company's Christmas revue, which we found a little facile and disappointing for this cool theatre company - but I guess I just don't really like that particular genre. We tried to see Woolly Mammoth's Famous Puppet Death Scenes, and while it was clearly quirky and eccentric and macabre, it turned out not to be the best choice for the recently bereaved... so we had to flee for the exit after the first couple of death scenes. I was interested to see Pippin at the National Theatre, especially given all the glowing reviews... and I'm afraid I had mixed feelings. I just wasn't that impressed with the story (nor did I really understand why this particular story should be performed by circus type performers in one of these performances-within-a-performance that perhaps unfairly irritate me... But the performances were fab, and I loved all the acrobatic and trapeze stuff. Especially the grandmother. Very nice. And I loved seeing another National Theatre Live performance, Skylight, at the Sidney Harman Hall. 


Coolest-sounding things coming up this week
Hooray, the festive season was messing up all the cool things to do in DC. But now we're back!

Wed 7th Jan - Tonight is Perfect Liars Club! It's sold out of course, but if you aren't a lucky ticketholder, there will be a limited number of tickets on the door, starting somewhere between 6 and 6:30. Go try your luck! (tickets for the February show go on sale on Thu at 1pm)

Thu 8th Jan - The 9 Songwriter Series at the 9:30 club features Perfect Liars Club theme song writers, the Sweater Set! Check them out.

Fri 9th and Sat 10th - One of my favorite shows of the year, DC Shorts Laughs - a mix of live comedy and funny film shorts from the DC Shorts festivals. They actually have two entirely different shows, so you can do a double show marathon on one evening, or go both nights! Discount code for 20% off DC Shorts Laughs: 15LAUGHS20

Sat 10th - It's SpeakeasyDC's night of the year: Top Shelf! They choose their favorite stories from their entire last year of shows and bring them all together to be performed for our pleasure. They're sold out but maybe you can seduce someone... 

Sun 11th Jan - Patton Oswalt talks film and comedy at Sixth and I.

Mon 12th Jan - Kramer Books presents an evening of humorous readings. This sounds good! Or go learn clever things about Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.