Polish quartet Trupa Trupa recently signed to Sup Pop Records, and are kicking off their world tour with several SXSW performances. Their alt rock/post hardcore songs sound upbeat but feel philosophical (the press release says, "just beneath the surface of Trupa Trupa’s bright and indelible songs, there is a world teeming with nihilistic considerations, slyly dark humor, and survivalist self-assurances"), and come about through a dedicated strategy of running a democratic ship.

This is the band's second year at SXSW. In an interview with The Wire Magazine, vocalist and guitarist Grzegorz Kwiatkowski explained how his amp broke, and by the time they got it sorted out, their set was almost half over. They played 35 minutes worth of songs in 20 minutes. Then, the  bass player's guitar broke in the middle of the set, so he started shouting. The the audience (including the journalists present) loved it. "We are lucky to have strange accidents working on our side," he said.

Kwiatkowski answered a few questions in advance of Trupa Trupa's SXSW sets about how they do their music and how they hope there's no broken amps at this year's festival:

So, this is your second year at SXSW. What are you most excited for? What did you enjoy the most about last year?

For sure we will meet our new partners from Sub Pop and Paradigm, and it's very exciting because we like to cooperate in a friendly and family style. So we are happy to meet our new family soon. We're going present some new songs at SXSW gigs, so it's also very exciting. Last year was crazy - gigs were just unbelievable and full of chaos and madness. We were frightened, but after all very happy. It was like a blow. We also enjoyed family meetings – it was the first time we met Jim McGuinn, David Newgarden, David Fricke and many more of our great supporters and friends from the U.S.

What sparks your creativity? Is it a place? A person? A specific type of sandwich? The meaningless, inescapable routine of daily modern life? (Your answer is not limited to those options.)

Many things from non-musical stuff have a big impact on the music. We try as much as we can to have some distance from the music environment and to have our own private stuff that we later put into compositions. Definitely our city has some impact, as well as beautiful nature around us, because we live in a really great place – the city of Gdańsk in the north of Poland, surrounded by the sea, forests and lakes.

You said in your interview with The Wire that your albums are "a bit boring," because you like to be bored, and also that you don't exist for the audience - you exist for yourselves. How do you balance those desires when you're making music for a world full of people demanding to be entertained and catered to?

All the time I am changing my point of view. And of course Trupa Trupa are four individuals. I am one of them and I am not a frontman or leader. So this is only my point of view. But anyway, I am sure all of us make music for ourselves, and I don't find it controversial. It's just one of many spiritual ways of doing stuff. But we don't have anything against the artists who think differently and address their music to specific audiences. It's all good. I just think we are a band made by accident and we are all made by accident. You know what I mean. We are not uber mensch. We are weirdos and rather weak people.

What is your favorite song of yours, and why? What song of yours would you recommend people listen to first, and why? If these are different songs, why?

I really like "To Me” from our Jolly New Songs album, because it's so easy and simple, but on the other hand or - maybe because of that - it's very powerful and straightforward. I also enjoy "Dream About,” our new single song from Sub Pop. For me it's a kind of Samuel Beckett's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A mantra and love song to nowhere. Almost dream pop stuff. I like such combinations.

Do you have a day job?  If you do, what is it and what drives you to do music as well?

I am a poet, Tomasz Pawluczuk is a graphic designer, Wojtek Juchniewicz is a painter, and Rafał Wojczal is a photographer and reporter. It's has a big impact on the music. It's great that we are different people, and we have a democratic structure in the band, and everyone of us has a different perspective on life and a different job and a different understanding of music. It's the key to our band: this polyphonic way of doing things.

Trupa Trupa’s SXSW sets are at 12:20 a.m. on Thursday, March 14 at Hotel Vegas and 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 15 at Flatstock Stage in the Austin Convention Center.

Moonlover is the recording project of Quang Dinh, a DIY multi-instrumentalist from Melbourne (formerly the bassist of the band Little Red.) His debut album, Thou Shall Be Free, from last year was created over nine months of DIY rockin’ and rollin’ in Dinh’s bedroom studio. Dinh also produces delightfully wacky music videos for the band, like for "Wedding Day," a song off Thou Shall Be Free.

When I asked Dinh about his plans for SXSW and thoughts on music, he talked about taxi drivers two separate times, offered some animation tips and tricks and talked about why he and the band are all the better for not having “a Beyonce budget."

Is this your first year at SXSW? What are you most excited for?

We are excited to just be in the thick of it. Show people our wares. And rock out! It's such a hustle to get over here and do the thing, so we're getting used to that vibe. But I watched Taxi Driver before coming and think I may have a twisted understanding of what might go on here. Thanks, Martin Scorsese.

What sparks your creativity? Is it a place? A person? A specific type of sandwich? (Your answer is not limited to those options.)

Creativity is sparked from any place, anytime, any person or thing. It's just a matter of being open to feeling and emotion. It's like being on a yacht in a still wind and then all of a sudden the wind starts blowing and you do your best to get the yacht moving.

Where did you learn to make your cool music videos?

I learned from the internet. I loved making the Moonlover music videos. It was accessing another part of the creative mind. Animation and Final Cut and After Effects are all deep oceans and I just piddled my foot in there and got what I got. A damn good lot of hungry collaborators helped. There is no shortage of them in Melbourne town. I like DIY stuff. Limitations allow a lot of ideas and workarounds to happen that wouldn't be possible with Beyonce's budget.

What is your favorite song of yours, and why? What song of yours would you recommend people listen to first, and why? If these are different songs, why?

I think one of my faves is "On The Day That I Was Born." I think I could play this song for the rest of my life and it'd still make sense. It's one of those songs that really hit a nerve with me.

Do you have a day job? If you do, what is it and what drives you to do music as well?

My day job is as a taxi driver. I realized a few years ago music was my calling, and I am going to do it for the rest of my life. Music is an endless exploration and you can go as high or as low as you can possibly conceive. I enjoy most when songs and special things fall down from the ether. It feels amazing to not know what is happening and to look back and go 'hey, that was alright!'

Moonlover's official SXSW showcase is at 12 a.m. on Wednesday, March 13. They're also playing shows at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13 at the Austin Taco Project, at 2:45 p.m. on the Aussie BBQ Front Yard Stage on Thursday, March 14, at 8:30 p.m. at Whip in on Friday, March 14 and at 4 p.m. at the ABGB and 7 p.m. at Hotel Indigo on Saturday, March 16.

Longtime Tucson residents Russ and Mac Perlich saw a dire need for access to the arts in Arizona schools. But instead of bringing arts and culture to the classroom, they found a way to get students out to experience it in the real world.

Launched in 2011, Russ and Mac Perlich started Act One, a non-profit dedicated to helping Arizonans of all ages have greater access to art.

Since 2011, Act One has managed a program called Culture Pass, originally created in 2009, which partners with 11 public libraries in Tucson and 50 libraries in other parts of Arizona. Any library cardholder can check out a pass, which gives them free admission for two people to cultural events hosted by 61 participating arts organizations across the state. Thousands of Arizonans are able to access museums, botanical gardens, cultural attractions and theater performances year-round for free, as long as a pass is available.

The success that the program has seen over the last few years prompted Pima Community College to join as the first educational institution to offer the Culture Pass in their Desert Vista campus library. Now, any PCC student or faculty member can check out a pass at that location and experience the arts at no cost to them.

"We're excited to be the first community college to participate in the program," Sol Gomez, head of the Desert Vista campus library, said in a press release. "Our students have already shown interest in the program and are excited to explore the arts with the Culture Pass."

In Tucson, nine cultural museums (including the Tucson Museum of Art, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art) have general admission tickets up for grabs. Theater performances from Arizona Theater Company, Arizona Opera, the Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre, UA Presents and more are available as well, with passes distributed no more than two weeks prior to a show's debut.

"We are immensely proud and incredibly excited to announce Pima Community College as our newest partner in the Culture Pass Program," Geri Wright, president and CEO of Act One said in the press release. "We are committed to ensuring all Arizonans have inroads to the arts, and our Culture Pass Program allows us to continue our mission. This is an important growth milestone for us and, with the support of our library partners, we can bring arts access to even more Arizonans statewide."

The Desert Vista campus is located at 5901 S. Calle Santa Cruz. The Culture Pass is also available at the following Pima County public libraries: Joel D. Valdez, Eckstrom-Columbus, Himmel Park, Joyner-Green Valley, Kirk-Bear Canyon, Miller-Golf Links, Mission, Quincie Douglas, Valencia, Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. and Woods Memorial.

Editor's Note: A few of the Tucson Weekly family are in Austin this week for the annual South by Southwest Conference and Music Festival. They will be bringing us a taste of Texas throughout the week, so keep an eye out for artist profiles and blogs letting those of us stuck in Tucson live vicariously through them.

ORI is the performance name of Ori Alboher, a Jersusalem-born songwriter, musician and record producer now based in Germany. His synth-y soul, with lots of looping and repetitive beats often gets him compared to James Blake, and NPR described his song "Black Book" from his latest album, 1986, as "a strange, immersive sound-world" when they selected it for this year's Austin 100. His music is atmospheric, haunting and continually surprising, leaving you wondering where he thinks these tunes up. So we asked him!

Is this your first year at South by Southwest? What are you most excited for?

Yes! It's my first time here, and I'm really taking everything in. I think I'm most excited about playing to a new audience/audiences I haven’t met before.

What sparks your creativity? Is it a place? A person? A specific type of sandwich? (Your answer is not limited to those options)

I’m inspired by Hummus! Just kidding.

For me the starting point of any musical effort has to be an emotional place. I let whatever I’m going through unfold in sounds, which is something I have been doing to balance myself since I can remember myself. I create music mainly to heal and process.

I saw in your interview with Who Sampled that a tragic coffee incident ruined your process early in the stages of working on 1986. So you started working with live instruments, but you also started experimenting with your voice. And you're not just changing the pitch of your singing - you're using sounds like your breathing and the clicking of your tongue. What got you interested in trying that?

I’ve been always using my voice as a musical instrument. As a kid, I used to love places that echoed. I would experiment with my voice making weird sounds and later got obsessed with great artists like Rahzel and Bobby McFerrin who blew me away with the ways they were using their voices.

You sampled poet Jack Hirschman doing a reading of "Path" for your track of the same title. Who are some of your favorite non-musician artists?

I’m very happy you brought up Jack Hirschman, I’m deeply inspired by his words and his voice. In a very strange way I feel like he’s an integral part of my music, although we've never met.
I’ve always been very drawn to painting, I used to study M.C. Escher’s drawings for hours when I was little. I love the way Alexander Hodorovsky uses his art in film.

I suspect there’s something about the manipulation of distorted optics that I can relate to.

What is your favorite song of yours, and why? What song of yours would you recommend people listen to first, and why? If these are different songs, why?

I guess that changes from time to time. Right now my favorite song of mine is “Better Days.”
[Here's a preview of the song ORI posted on his Instagram page] It’s a new song that I wrote recently and will be released soon. What I most like about that song is it’s simplicity - I’m using only vocals and a piano recording. Usually that wouldn’t be enough for me, but I feel such a deep connection with the lyrics, that I felt like this was enough.

“Black Book” seems to be the song people always tell me they discovered my music with. It’s a combination of an R&B melody and some dark ambient. I guess there’s something about this song that captures my musical roots.

Do you have a day job? If you do, what is it and what drives you to do music as well?

I’m fully dedicated to my music. However, whenever I have some spare time I enjoy producing other musicians that inspire me from all genres.

ORI is playing at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12 at Parish, at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 15 at the Hilton Hotel Cannon & Belle Lobby Bar - Second Stage, and at 9 p.m. on Saturday, March 16 at the Hideout.

Modern Woman Tells All

We are trying not to refer to Carol Leifer as a Michaelangela of comedy, but there it is. She started her standup career in college in the 1970s, when that was not at all the done thing. Most recently, she’s been a writer for our favorite TV shows: Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Modern Family and Saturday Night Live. An actor and producer as well, she’s also written books with compelling titles: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Crying and the irresistible-as-chocolate When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win.

At 10:30 a.m., Sunday, March 10, Leifer shares stories from her incredible career as well as her thoughts on women’s issues, her Jewish roots, LGBT perspectives and her four rescue dogs at a benefit for Women’s Philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. The event is at the Westin La Paloma Hotel and reservations are $40 for those who already have donated at least $180 to the JFSA. Surely you know someone? Visit jfsa.org/connections-2019 for details.

Think Positive

Billboard Magazine has called Chonda Pierce “the country comic,” so even though Larry the Cable Guy is cancelled at Casino del Sol Saturday, the week shouldn’t be a total loss. Pierce performs at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 12, at the Fox Tucson Theatre. Tickets are $21.20 to $52 via awakeningevents.com.

Like most of the Awakening stable, Pierce is Christian; her website has a tab for “Prayer.” It’s given her a bright outlook, though, in the way of lemons making lemonade. Her first film, Chonda Pierce: Laughing In The Dark, was based on her struggle to overcome depression. While it may not be every comedy fan’s taste, her positivity has made her the top-selling female comedian, per RIAA data.

A preacher’s daughter, Pierce got her start in show business playing the role of Minnie Pearl at Nashville’s Opryland theme park. She so loved telling jokes as Minnie Pearl she decided to make it her career. According to her website bio, “she credits her southern upbringing both for her warped sense of humor and her solid roots.”

Speaking of Women

March 28 through 30 are set for this year’s all-female, multi-genre Cactus Flower Comedy Festival. Details about selected standups, storytellers and improvisers are still being sorted, but festival hosts the Tucson Improv Movement will feature their popular female teams the Riveters, the bilingual Como Se Dice and female members of Throwdown. 

In a collaborative project—with photographer/videographer Julius Schlosburg and writer/broadcaster Hannah Levin—singer-songwriter Katie Haverly is set to unveil her latest video to the world. Tuesday, Feb. 26 marks the release of “Titanic” a song from her fifth studio album Pluto. The video is a celebration of 38 Tucson women—the badass artists, musicians, movers and shakers that make this dusty town tick.

But, there is more to the story than that.

XOXO sat down over coffee with Haverly, Levin and Schlosburg at Casa Libre for a chat. Gird your loins.

The song “Titanic” is from your 2018 release, Pluto. How did the inspiration for the video come about?

Katie Haverly:  The day that Aretha Franklin died I had a vision of doing this video. It was inspired by a desire to highlight and have many women be seen, that maybe aren’t highlighted enough in our community, for the contributions that they make and creativity they bring to our city—and the value that they hold. I sent an email reaching out to sixty women to describe the project. Then I tried to figure out how to do it… And I talked to Julius and he said, “Yes.” Then, Hannah heard about the project and got excited. From there we started collaborating together.

From listening to the song and reading the lyrics, it strikes me as a cautionary tale. What was your intended meaning or thought when you wrote “Titanic?”

Katie Haverly:  I read Russell Brand’s book Revolution (Random House). He uses this metaphor, over and over again, in the book. Which is, this school bus is filled with forty people that control 98 percent of the world’s resources and wealth. And these forty people have this enormous political power to impact policies and change big things, like our environment. This song is really about our environment. And the ways in which we are not waking up to the call to arms that we should be tasked with to stop these insane massive changes. So these forty people on the bus, are there on the top deck of the Titanic. They are lounging on fancy linen sheets under diamond chandeliers. And all the decks below are the people who are influenced by their decisions. [The forty] hold the steering wheel to this vessel—one that we are all on together—that is about to hit a fucking iceberg.

The undercurrent to the song is how The Divine Feminine energy needs to come up and out to correct this masculine energy that has created this shift in the vessel. It is definitely a cautionary tale.

“I see now what you had in mind. You can't hide in plain site. I know the helm must feel nice. Wheel in hand, making demands, setting the price. But sometimes it just takes a few to tip the scales and change the view. Don't you see that person is you? The decks below are filled with ghosts counting on you.” – Katie Haverly

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When you reached out through your email what was the message that you were conveying?

Katie Haverly:  Hannah, I would be curious what you felt the message was when you received the email?

Hannah Levin:  The message was clear, that you wanted to pull more women into the spotlight that weren’t necessarily in the spotlight. Aside from the feminist and necessary implications of the work. I was impressed. She articulated a very lucid vision. She wanted to create a space where each woman would be represented in her own way; Each woman’s power, strength and creativity was going to be illuminated.

How does Julius factor into all this?

Julius Schlosburg:  Katie and I were in a band, Copper & Congress, for years. We became close friends. We’ve made music videos before. We respect each other's work. It’s really joyous to work with Katie.

Where was the video shot?

Katie Haverly:  At my house.

And, what was the vibe like having all these dynamic women in one room?

Katie Haverly:  I think it was like the best day of my life. It was so beautiful and full of love and support. There was such a sense of community during a time when we all felt so violated, not seen or heard. It was a healing experience. Very inspiring and nourishing.

What message would you like someone watching this video to get?

Katie Haverly:  The first thing, is to spark curiosity as to who these women are. I want people to get a sense as to how powerful these women are and how underrepresented they have been in our community. And to create a space for these women to be seen.
You’ve been cultivating your career in Tucson for several years now. Do you feel that you have experienced discrimination as a female artist in having access and doors open for your performances?

Katie Haverly:  That’s a very complex question…

It is.

Katie Haverly:  Because there are lots of different levels to those experiences. I’ve had to learn how to assert myself in a certain way, to not be treated that way. I’ve spent my whole life feeling like I’ve been treated differently by men in the music industry.

You have?

Katie Haverly:  Oh absolutely. Especially booking shows.

Julius Schlosburg:  Even when we would play shows… It’s like Katie Haverly and The Aviary. But, the sound person would come up to one of the guys in the band, “Hey, what do you need?”

Hannah Levin:  I’ve been sitting with her after a show and some guy in the audience would come up and start giving her feedback about how she could do a better job.

Katie Haverly:  That started when I was fifteen. And it was always white guys in their fifties and sixties. I fucking swear to god.

I suspected there was some sexism involved in the process. I am sorry to hear that…

Katie Haverly:  My strategy to overcome that is to be insanely professional and really good at what I do. So people can’t ignore me. I feel that I have to do this better to be considered for the same thing.

Ultimately, and maybe that will be our saving grace as a society, is that talent always rises above. And, I think you have risen based on your abilities as opposed to anything else. Your persistence has paid off.

Katie Haverly:  Thanks.

Your work touches on social and environmental issues. Is “Titanic” a political statement?

Katie Haverly:  Absolutely. Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is horrendous. I don’t know where to start…

Please, I think you should start.

Katie Haverly:  I don’t understand how the idea of climate science is not being recognized by our political leaders. It’s like a nightmare. I don’t know how… All of the tragedies that we are dealing with right now are human generated. And, I am a culprit. We all are living in this luxury that affords us this experience right now. But, we are really not prepared to have a safe and healthy place for future generations to live.

The bitter truth.

In an encore performance, Katie Haverly and The Aviary debut the video for “Titanic” on Saturday, Feb. 23 at Exo Roast Co. With Jillian Bessett.

Joey “Coco” diaz may be from Cuba, but he’s the very soul of New Jersey. He looks and talks like central casting’s dream of a thug from The Sopranos. In fact he’s played to type in several movies and TV shows, including The Longest Yard, Spider-Man 2, Taxi and and the Robert DeNiro and Sylvester Stalone 2013 boxing flick Grudge Match. 

With his comedy, he’s toured the country’s largest clubs for more than 20 years, in recent years building audiences through his podcast, The Church of What’s Happening Now, regular appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience and a series of straight-to-download comedy shows called The Testicle Testaments, some of which broke into Billboard’s Top 100.

The 2018 Netflix special The Degenerates seems to have given him a late-career boost. The series features Diaz among six standup comics walking on the “mature audiences only” side. Now, Diaz is being booked into the likes of the Fox Tucson Theatre, where he performs at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23. 

Diaz’ longtime pal Ron Reid, a recent transplant from L.A., who now runs his multi-million-dollar comedy management and promotion business out of Northwest Tucson, was happy for his friend’s good fortune, but a little surprised. “I guess that’s the power of Netflix!” 

He has lots of stories from Diaz’ salad days, but only one he dares to tell. One of the many years Reid ran the storied Seattle International Comedy Competition, a venue cancelled at the last minute and he had to move the show to St. Martin’s University, run by the Order of St. Benedict. 

“They agreed to take the show,” Reid says, “but they said it has to be clean, and we want one of our brothers to be a judge. We get to the show and the brother is right in front. He’s got robes, the haircut…the full monk. 

“Joey Diaz didn’t have five clean minutes, and not really any interest in doing that. So, he would swear or have inappropriate content, and every time, he would look over at the monk and apologize. Joey has a very strong New Jersey accent, and he would say it with that edge, like ‘I’m so sorry faddah.’  At one point, he said something really outrageous, then looked at the monk and said, ‘Faddah, I’m sorry but I gotta tell ya, the last time I went to confession, they told me to get a fuckin’ exorcism!”

Tickets are $30.50 to $39.50 via foxtucsontheatre.ticketforce.com.  

After spending the day plotting a kidnapping and burying mannequin parts in the loam; before seeking expiatory purification for their sins at Bisbee’s notorious St. Elmo Bar; even as the members of XIXA figuratively scaled the seven terraces of purgatory, photographer Puspa Lohmeyer captured the essence of a band with blood, and a few tattoos, on their hands.

Calling the artist enclave of Bisbee home—this native of Germany spent long years working in NYC—Lohmeyer now is enamored by the Southwest. “I live very far away from trend makers, rule makers, commercial interests and gatekeepers. Here anything goes. We can all be creative and not be judged or pigeon holed.”
The photo shoot took place on a brisk day in December 2018, in conjunción with the anticipated release of XIXA’s new EP The Code (Dust and Stone Recordings)—the dark overlords of Gothic cumbia’s dustiest, mysterious best—to the masses.

For Lohmeyer the highlight of the day's shoot was the kidnapping scene. Styled by menswear designer Thom Oatman, was shot last, after nightfall, in an old burned up apartment.

“Everyone really got into their roll. It was like a movie set. Efren Cruz broke a bottle and made it into a weapon for his accessory.” Lohmeyer admits, “I may have enjoyed tying up Winston Watson, Jason Urman and Hikit Corbell a little too much.”

Naughty, naughty.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, XIXA is hosting a listening party, replete with complimentary libations, for The Code—with an exhibition of photographs by Puspa Lohmeyer—at Wooden Tooth Records.

Here’s a sneak peek.

The dynamic troupe from the Big Apple is in town Thursday night only to perform Mr. TOL E. RAncE (Mr. Tolerance).

A dance/theater work that excavates the history of black performance, the show combines comedy, animation, theater, live music and dance styles from hip-hop and African to modern, ballet and tap.

Mr. TOL E. RAncE celebrates black humor while drawing on popular and scholarly sources to investigate blackface, minstrelsy past and present and sundry other indignities black performers have been forced to tolerate.

The troupe’s founder and director, Camille A. Brown, regularly choreographs Broadway shows, but in her work for her own company, she says, she creates dance “stories and dialogues about race, culture and identity.”

Her dancers are regularly haled as “incredibly inventive and energetic.” One critic wrote that the eclectic Mr. TOL E. RAncE “had it all-heart, mind, soul, passion, full-out dancing and introspective solos.”

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21 Centennial Hall. Tickets $19 to $65. Discounts for students, seniors, military and first responders. Tickets at the box office, by phone at 520-621-3341 or online.

Congratulations to all involved in the first CATcomedy520 LOL Crawl. Mark your calendars for the next one, Sunday, Jan. 26 through Feb. 1, 2020. Meanwhile, follow CATcomedy520 on Facebook and CATcomedy.org on the web for Tucson comedy shows.

This month, we’re being treated to a string of top national standup comics.

Ali Wong: The Milk and Money Tour comes to the Tucson Convention Center at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16. Wong catapulted to the national scene with her 2016 Netflix feature Baby Cobra. In 2017, she drew record crowds to eight shows at the San Francisco Masonic. In 2018, she voiced and produced Netflix’s animated Tuca and Bertie, starred in a Netflix movie she co-wrote, and wrote a book coming out on Random House this year. Tickets are $37 to $63 via Ticketmaster.

Brian Regan performs at the Fox Tucson Theatre at 7 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16. Vanity Fair is a fan, and Entertainment Weekly calls him “your favorite comedian’s favorite comedian.” In 2018 he delivered the first Netflix special of his 30-year career, tenderly named "Nunchuks and Flamethrowers." Regan is a frequent guest on The Tonight Show and appeared regularly on Letterman.Tickets are $37.50 to $74.50 via Foxtucsontheatre.ticketforce.com

Fried Chicken and Latkes with Rain Pryor features at Leo Rich Theatre at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16. Legendary TV producer Norman Lear is adapting for television this one-woman show created by his casting director, Rain Pryor. The daughter of comedian Richard Pryor, she is half Jewish and all entertainment.Tickets are $10 via SquareUp.com

Brew Haha Comedy Showcase Presents: Black Chicks and Pink D*cks! at 8 p.m., Monday, Feb. 18. This collective of top black female comics promises “A stand-up comedy show featuring open minded strong black women who are coming for your inheritance.” They’ve won top reviews in their travels. Tickets are $10 via SquareUp.com.

Tucsoncomedy.com Presents Gilbert Gottfried at Laffs Comedy Caffe in two Wednesday shows, Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. (Update: the 7 p.m. show is sold out.) This mean, dirty and relentlessly hilarious jokester was the subject of documentary last year that let fans see his softer, more human side. No worries! The mellow Gottfried won’t be showing up at Laff’s. Gottfried’s long-time fans who may have caught his act only on TV or in arenas can enjoy the 360 degree Gottfried experience in the uniquely intimate setting of Laff’s, where even newcomers to comedy can watch the master up close. Tickets are $25 at Eventbrite.com