Night & Day Events
22 Thursday
Carlos Mencia‘s humor is offensive — “equal-opportunity offensive,” as he puts it. That doesn’t mean that audience members who hear his Take a Joke, America act at Stanford & Sons Comedy Club, 504 Westport Road, won’t laugh. Mencia is a funny guy, and his delivery is so convincing that even the sensitive, thoughtful people who disagree with most of his routine might find themselves incapable of stifling laughter during the show. Midwesterners might react unfavorably to his jokes about stubborn rednecks who stay in Tornado Alley as twisters continue to knock down their homes. It’s not nice to make fun of rednecks, but it’s difficult not to laugh when Mencia asks, “How hard is it to relocate? Your house is on wheels!” Mencia’s jokes about Mexicans get pretty bad, as do his jokes about women. The question of whether to attend boils down to this: Are the moments of uncontrollable laughter worth the long stretches of infuriating banter between them? If they are, here’s a tip: Be sure to make fun of Mencia if he trips onstage — he says he can take a joke even if it’s at his own expense. The show starts at 8:30 p.m., and admission is $12 per person. For more information, call 816-561-7454.
23 Friday
Seeing the Unseen: Dr. Harold E. Edgerton and the Wonders of Strobe Alley isn’t intended to be an interactive journey through fits of strobe-induced epileptic seizures. Edgerton needed to see what was going on inside a circular motor, and he discovered he could use the strobe flash he had invented to capture all kinds of quick motions. His photographs — the corona formed by milk splashing on a saucer, a bullet passing through an apple, the compression of a baseball bat as it makes contact with the ball — make up only a small portion of the exhibit. Museumgoers also experiment with the equipment Edgerton used. As University of Missouri-Kansas City professor Frank Hamilton says of Edgerton, “He was always a very curious man. Not ‘curious’ as in ‘weird,’ although he was that too, but when he saw something, he wanted to know what was going on.” Maybe Edgerton was able to make sense of all the wonders in Strobe Alley, but most of us still scratch our heads in amazement at the sight of a stream of water that appears to go up into the spout instead of falling into the drain. This art/science exhibit is on display at the Kansas City Museum, 3218 Gladstone Boulevard, until May 6; admission is $2.50 For more information, call 816-483-8300.
24 Saturday
Double-bassist Edgar Meyer joins the Kansas City Symphony as a guest soloist for a performance of his own composition, Concerto for Contrabass and Orchestra. Meyer usually plays with Bela Fleck (whose electric-banjo abilities can get a huge crowd dancing) and Mike Marshall on the mandolin. The trio combines old-style music with new technologies while blending classical, funk and bluegrass. Predictions as to what kinds of sounds the Kansas City Symphony will take on under Meyers’ spell cover a pretty wide range. The symphony also performs two of Richard Strauss’ most famous tone poems, Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration. Tickets cost from $12 to $40, and the show starts at 8 p.m. at the Lyric Theatre, 1029 Central. For more information, call 816-471-0400.
25 Sunday
Given the popularity of The Buena Vista Social Club, a 1999 documentary on the music that has kept Cuba’s population afloat through waves of social and political upheaval, today’s Chachacha: ¡Viva la Musica Cubana! lecture, 2 p.m. today at the Spencer Museum of Art, 1301 Mississippi Street in Lawrence, should draw quite a crowd. Although there won’t be live music, Professor Walter Clark of the University of Kansas’ music and dance department plays recorded music to illustrate his points, so fans of Latin music who want to increase their familiarity with the important names and ideas can spend an afternoon soaking up Cuban sounds while preparing a mental list for the next trip to the record store. This lecture complements the current Spencer exhibit, Contemporary Art From Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island, the first major U.S. exhibition of the work of a new generation of young Cuban artists. Even art is difficult to import from Cuba, and they don’t have it in stock at Havana Moon, so this show, running through March 18, is a rare opportunity. For more information, call 785-864-4710.
26 Monday
Ava Gardner is the best reason to see the 1951 movie version of Oscar Hammerstein’s Show Boat at the Englewood Theater, 10917 Winner Road in Independence; neither the dialogue nor the acting is very good. Gardner portrays the biracial Julie, the show-boat performer who gets thrown off the boat for being married to a white man, with a sexier approach than Hammerstein had imagined. This romantic musical drama touches on matters of race and the perils of gambling, not to mention the danger of getting intimately involved with gamblers. For more information, call the Englewood at 816-252-2463.
27 Tuesday
It’s Mardi Gras, and it seems that the place to fatten up before Lent in Kansas City is Jazz, the Cajun kitchen and bar at 39th and State Line. While eating hush puppies and crawdads — first-timers can follow crawdad-eating instructions posted on the walls — early diners hear Joe Roberts from 6 to 9 p.m. Lonesome Hank and the Heartaches play from 9:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. And for those Mardi Gras fatties who want to pack it in and still have cash left for the bar, the New Orleans-style bistro offers a po’ boy sandwich that will help save a few pennies. For more information, call 816-561-7977.
28 Wednesday
The Student Gallery at the Kansas City Art Institute, 4415 Warwick, opens a new show today. Karen Kice presents her imaginary friend, Virgil, to the community at large starting today. But this Snuffalupagus-type character has a twist: Virgil is missing the middle finger on his left hand and has only two fingers on his right hand. Kice’s show displays the everyday objects she has modified for Virgil’s use. Meanwhile, poor Virgil can’t even flip her off for putting his personal challenges on public display — he hasn’t got any middle fingers. For more information, call 816-472-4852.
