Editor's Picks

ARTS AND CULTURE

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Nov. 6, 2007

Rare Bird Show

>>COMEDY

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Philadelphia Improv Festival
Thurs., Nov. 8-Sat., Nov. 10, 10am. $10-50. Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St. 215.925.8686. www.phif.org

If Drew Carey ever did anything to redeem his existence, it was hosting, like, eight seasons of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which introduced folks other than Christopher Guest fans to the fertile lunacy known as impårov. Sure you may think improv is for spazz-attacks in pleated khakis, and okay, maybe it is, but maybe those Adderall-hopped quick wits are onto something. Maybe, just maybe, improv's got something to lord over scripted humor, which can feel as tired as nu-rave newb after his first Making Time. At least, that's what the third annual Philadelphia Improv Festival is hoping. The Fest hosts three nights of charmingly schizophrenic improv by groups from across the country, including a few Philly staples, such as the N Crowd and Rare Bird Show. The Fest also includes two days of workshops that promise to hone participants' studiously spontaneous techniques, including those ever-important mime skills. (Caralyn Green)

>>MUSIC

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Top of the moms: The Three Degrees will provide the music.

Unsung Heroes Awards
Fri., Nov. 9, 7pm. $65-$75. Liacouras Center, 1776 N. Broad St. 215.609.4645. www.bemanow.org

While most music awards shows have degenerated into the gaudy, tawdry and borderline sordid spectacle of talentless but attractive talking heads doling out meaningless tchotchkes to here-today-gone-tomorrow pop flibbertigibbets, the Philadelphia-based Black Entertainment & Music Association--a collection of industry vets dedicated to raising and maintaining standards--continues to add some dignity and gravitas to the process with its worthy and wonderful Unsung Heroes Awards. Intended to honor the visionaries and pioneers of black music (and where better than Philly for that?), this is only the second such ceremony, and it promises to be an amazing musical evening. The Three Degrees provide the musical entertainment, along with oldie but goodie Jean Carn, who belted out the '70s hit "Closer Than Close," and Joe "Butterball" Tamburro, a longtime Philadelphia radio personality who is most famous for having hosted fundraisers for Martin Luther King Jr. and keeping his listeners' rocking to his Sunday Night Oldies Dance Party radio show. Awards will also be given to political, dance and humanitarian honorees, and to those who've done the most to further BEMA's avowed aim of improving "the image of black music around the world." (Kendra Howard)

>>NIGHT WATCH

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Magnum
Sat., Nov. 10, 10pm-3:30am. $5-$10. XO Lounge, 1437 South St., 215.735.7351. www.phillygaycalendar.com