PHOTO COURTESY ARCADE COMEDY THEATER

The Best Reason to Leave Your House This Weekend

Todd Glass
8 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Friday, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Saturday
Arcade Comedy Theater

Todd Glass is perhaps the only touring stand-up who brings a backup band on the road.

Yes, there are musical comedy acts. That’s not what Todd Glass does. Glass has a late-night-style combo that adds punctuation and color to his smart, exasperated humor. It’s tough to sell how well this works; writing about comedy is tricky, after all. So you’ll have to trust me: This is a completely distinct live comedy experience, similar to nothing else I can name.

Pittsburgh is one of only four stops on Glass’ “Event of a Lifetime” tour. The idiosyncratic comedian will wrap up this short jaunt with five shows at Arcade Comedy Theater after stays in Philadelphia, New York and New Hope, Pa.; it’s his first local engagement in five years, after memorable prior engagements at Arcade and as part of the Pittsburgh Comedy Festival.

He’ll perform five shows this weekend; given the size of the tour and the amount of time between appearances, it’d be wise to see this notorious comic’s comic while you have the chance.

Music

Phat Man Dee’s Roaring ’20s
7:30 p.m. Friday
The Oaks Theater

Pittsburgh’s eternal torch singer Phat Man Dee was born a throwback, so I’d imagine she was ready for the roaring ’20s to come back around for quite some time. She’ll lead her backing band, the Cultural District, to Oakmont for a suburban celebration of our old-fashioned new decade. A costume contest is involved (just buy a flapper outfit now and get it over with), and themed cocktails are promised, but the music is the draw here. Hearing Phat Man Dee’s boldly ethereal voice take on forgotten former standards is a Pittsburgh rite of passage.

Theater

Downstairs
Through Feb. 2
City Theatre

It’s hard to assign a genre to “Downstairs,” Theresa Rebeck’s twisty tale of cohabitation. At its outset, it feels like a comedy; by the end, the drama is genuine. In between, “It’s got a little bit of intrigue about it,” says Marc Masterson, City Theatre’s artistic director, who will direct. “It does have this ominous mystery around it that I think the audience gets involved in.” Teddy, shiftless after losing his job, temporarily moves into the unfinished basement of his sister, Irene; her husband, Gerry, wants Teddy gone. But why is Gerry so protective of a disused basement? Head to the South Side to find out.

Comedy

Quick & Shameless Comedy Hour: The Reboot Special
9 p.m. Sunday
Blue Moon

One of my favorite comedy shows vanished into an iridescent sunset sometime in the mid-to-late ’10s, but I’m happy to report it is making a spectacular return this weekend. The Quick and Shameless Comedy Hour, which I profiled in this space back in 2016, brings a bevy of off-kilter comedy acts to Blue Moon in Lawrenceville; the only uniting force in these lineups is that the acts wouldn’t neatly fit into any other lineup. Expect sketch, improv and several comedic forms that don’t have names yet.

Theater

The Woman Who Rode Away
8 p.m. Friday-Sunday
off the Wall Theater

Developed in New York’s the cell theatre, “The Women Who Rode Away” is a personal, multidisciplinary work by artist Natalia Zukerman. As a musician, she has penned songs for “The L Word” and appeared with the likes of Shawn Colvin and Richard Thompson; as an artist, she has illustrated children’s books and theater sets. Those skills combine in “The Women Who Rode Away,” which Zukerman brings to off the WALL for a weekend engagement.

Looking for more things to do this weekend and beyond? Check out our Events Calendar

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