Sundays It’s been “trial by fire,” but so far Mad Props Variety Show, the latest addition to the Valley comedy scene, is a success, says organizer Ryan McKee. “There really wasn’t a place for comedians to go and perform for free,” explains McKee, who says some venues charge people to…
8/7-9/13 ASU’s Art Museum is popping an attitude. Anchored by Andy Warhol’s famous “lipstick-and-peroxide” screenprint of Mao Tse-tung, a sharp-witted exhibition honoring American Pop Art also features Robert Rauschenberg’s flattened cardboard-box birds and Robert Indiana’s snarky screenprints (in After Mississippi, words encircling a state map read: “Just As in the…
8/7, 8/9 Last year, with her debut book The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, Valley humorist Laurie Notaro hit the New York Times best-seller list right about the same time her long-running column for the Arizona Republic was unceremoniously canceled. Much of the book, and its just-released follow-up, Autobiography of a…
If the traditional rock concert routine is growing tedious — what with the archaic guitar-drum-bass combo, occasional crazed-groupie nudity, and sweet, sweaty euphoria — take heart: Three hairless blue fellows are freshening the scene. Blue Man Group — best known for its multisensory mix of percussive music, theater, art and…
Fri 8/1 Novelist and playwright Hannah More said, “Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it.” Given our gluttonous desire for discipline (and daiquiris!), we really can’t wait for this weekend, when Paradise Valley Community College’s Opera Workshop wraps up its…
Sat 8/2 At the very least, they deserve to be commended for their commitment to car-pooling. Rawhide Wild West Town celebrates National Clown Week on Saturday, August 2, when 100-some clowns from across Arizona swarm in for the theme park’s 10th Annual Clown Day. From 5 to 10 p.m., the…
Sun 8/3 Praise the Lord and pass the Jack and dirty women — you’re guaranteed a hoe-down when the Reverend comes to town. The Reverend Horton Heat, Texas’ most debauched theologian and rockabilly evangelist, is hitting Tempe’s Marquee Theatre, 730 North Mill, on August 3 (on a Sunday nonetheless, so…
Tue 8/5 It’s an odd match-up at best, a pairing of two of the greatest control freaks in guitar history: B.B. King, who measures his solos with the precision of a diamond cutter, and Jeff Beck, who is as much a sound sculptor as he is a musician. King is…
Big fancy dance studios are great for students who can throw thousands of dollars at long-term contracts, but where does that leave the clumsy, cheap and commitment-phobic among us? Thanks to Rob Haines, we can swing without the bling. Through his sole proprietorship, Rhythm and Motion, Haines leads group dance…
With a star-studded roster including George Clinton, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, India.Arie, Kansas, Naughty by Nature, Billy Bob Thornton, and the Village People, it’s either a benefit concert or a Sweeps Week episode of The Simpsons. This weekend, it’s the former, as Off the Hook Productions sponsors a concert benefiting…
Sat 7/26 The best little Horror house in Phoenix does double duty this weekend, pairing Hedwig & the Angry Inch with The Rocky Horror Picture Show for a gender-blending double feature. Broadway Bound & Gagged, the Valley’s longest-running Rocky Horror shadow cast, screens the films this Saturday, July 26, promising…
Fri 7/25 This week, mud draws the masses to Scottsdale, and it has nothing to do with minimizing pores: The guck at Mighty Mud Mania is all about fun. The City of Scottsdale throws open the mud gates Friday, July 25, at Chaparral Park, 5401 North Hayden. While kids ages…
Despite a dramatic shortage of musical theater, Gilbert somehow has managed to thrive — becoming the nation’s fastest-growing city, no less. This weekend, the void at last is filled, as the city’s first year-round live theater stages its grand opening — and puts the Gilbert in Gilbert and Sullivan. Construction…
7/18-8/20 Thanks to a Valley pioneer in lace exploration, adventurous theatergoers soon will see London, France and beyond. Beginning Friday, July 18, On the Spot Productions presents Skimpies, a brief treatise on underpants. The cheeky comedy, which swept the Zoni awards after its 1990 première, returns with new music and…
Sat 7/19 For those who need more spontaneity in their nightlife, the promoters of Inkblotch are throwing up a staggering slate of DJs and hip-hop talent for an all-night, all-ages bash to open a new club in Phoenix — but they’re not saying where. Inkblotch’s Mike Stanton says the secret…
7/24-8/21 A small request for rock-climbing aficionados in the Phoenix area: It’s July, and if you’re dead-set on showing up the rest of us with your exploits in verticality, the least you could do is join us in the comfort of the great indoors. Besides, something tells me the competition’s…
Mon 7/21 “I hadn’t really thought about doing thrillers for adults,” says best-selling children’s author R.L. Stine. He’s speaking of his new book, The Sitter, a creepy summer read aimed at the twentysomething set that grew up reading Stine’s Goosebumps series. “I thought maybe I’d try to grow with my…
Have you heard the one about Vice President Dick Cheney inviting comedian Darrell Hammond to a party? “It was Cheney and his buddies and Republican congressmen,” recalls the Saturday Night Live star and eminent impersonator. “He wanted me to come there as [Bill] Clinton — made up and dressed up…
Not much grows in the Valley during the summer — sweat stains, heat-induced hostility, and the Hulk’s bulging box office take ranking among the unsavory exceptions. A rare instance of positive growth takes hold in downtown Scottsdale this Thursday evening, when the weekly ArtWalk morphs into the bigger, better and…
Sat 7/12 “The only way I can sum it up is: a freakers’ ball with bands,” E Bomb guitarist Eddie Lopez says of Planet Sex, the third installment in his band’s series of risqué parties featuring the burlesque ladies of Lezbosagogo, Cut Throat Freak Show, body latex painting, bands and…
Sun 7/13 Grade school trends may come and go, but music will always be one of the true joys of childhood. Seventies tykes sang along to Sesame Street disco records, children of the ’80s got caught up in the lip-synching craze, and ’90s youngsters got a piece of the airwaves…
ONGOING More than 40 years after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright remains a true giant in the world of architecture. Evidence of his genius abounds, and nowhere more so than at the winter home, studio and architectural campus he created at the foot of the McDowell Mountains: Taliesin West. Experience…
