Thursday, Dec. 11 Maria Bamford There’s Minnesota Nice, which everyone loves

Thursday, Dec. 11

Maria Bamford

There’s Minnesota Nice, which everyone loves to laugh about. Then there’s Minnesota Crazy, which is Bamford’s confessional comic specialty. Almost all stand-up comics mine their personal lives for material, though few deal so frankly with mental-health issues as she. OCD, depression, bipolar, suicidal thoughts, what it’s like to be in a psych ward—these are all things she can joke about, because she’s been there, done that. (It’s a little like the license black comics are given with certain language and topics, or why Jews can joke freely about Soup Nazis.) Bamford’s Internet sketches and stage material may exaggerate her vulnerabilities and insecurities, but self-caricature is a form of ownership. (Again, think of gay men doing drag.) In our Kardashian culture of oversharing, erasing the boundaries between private and public life is one path to possible fame and fortune. What Bamford does is considerably braver and more acute. Other comics score laughs because we’ve all been on bad dates or wondered what is the deal with the way wooden chopsticks come stuck together. Those are universals. But so are mental-health worries. Bamford has done all the talk shows, plus bit parts on Arrested Development and The Sarah Silverman Program. Now one hopes that America is ready for a favorite new crazy deadpan aunt—with those Minnesota vowels, which make her jokes all the funnier. The Neptune, 1303 N.E. 45th St., 877-784-4849, stgpresents.org. $26. 8 p.m.

BRIAN MILLER

SAM Lights

How does that Springsteen song go? “The sculpture park is cold and dark” . . . ? Or maybe that’s another tune. Tonight the mood will be considerably more festive at this holiday event, as the OSP is open long past its usual dusk closing time. The paths will be illuminated by candles and lanterns. (To help you create the latter, Celeste Cooning will lead a paper-cut workshop.) There will be live music from Lydia Ramsey, Ben Hunter and Joe Seamo, and the D20 Brass Band. Food and drinks will be offered from Taste and Bikelava. And visitors are encouraged to wear “light ensembles,” which we take to man those wearable, wired, LED-bulb-adorned garments you sometimes see on bicycle commuters or at holiday parties. (The old term “Cosby sweater” will have to be replaced, of course.) Otherwise, dress for the weather; this is primarily an outdoors event—come rain or come snow. Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Ave., 654-3121, seattleartmuseum.org. Free. 5:30–7:30 p.m.

BRIAN MILLER

Friday, Dec. 12

Risk! Live

With its tagline “Where people tell true stories they never thought they’d dare to share in public,” Risk! has blown up into a weekly podcast that nets 600,000 downloads a month. Created as a live show in 2009 by host Kevin Allison, who got his start as part of MTV comedy troupe The State, Risk! asks various comedians, celebrities, and regular people to spill their most mortifying moments. Their first-person stories range from totally embarrassing to kinda sexy to (sometimes) really enlightening. Example: A woman describes how being fingered by a random actor in the freezer room of a gay bar ended up freeing her from the psychic bonds of her Christian summer-camp upbringing. Or: A man reveals how accidentally sharting his shorts during a date ended up (teaser: it involves a police raid and cats). Tonight Risk! is returning its live show to Seattle for some heretofore unheard stories from local storytellers, the lineup still pending. If fan testimonials like “YOUR STORY HELPED INSPIRE my 18-year-old step-son TO STOP USING DRUGS” are to be believed, you are in for a cathartic and potentially therapeutic ride. The Vera Project (Seattle Center), risk-show.com. $20. 7:30 p.m.

KELTON SEARS

The Conformist

Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1970 classic has been given a spiffy new digital 2K restoration, which should bring out the burnish of Vittorio Storaro’s famously elegant cinematography. (No one, back then, could’ve predicted the near-demise of 35 mm film.) Jean-Louis Trintignant’s fatally passive Marcello is plagued by an incident from childhood. An aristocrat whose class is falling out of favor in late ’30s Italy, he seeks to make good with the fascists by agreeing to assassinate his old professor. (One sin will erase the other, he figures.) His Paris honeymoon a pretext for the hit, he and his wife both fall in love with the academic’s young wife (Dominque Sanda, with powerful bisexual appeal). Marcello’s life emerges in gorgeous flashbacks: empty plazas menacingly paced by hard-soled flunkies, country estates in lavish, leafy disrepair, Marcello and Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli) necking in a room seemingly constructed of Venetian blinds. There’s a lovely scene in a dancehall where the two women lead a swarm of dancers in joyous rings around Marcello; yet he stands stolid at their center. Making amends for his past cuts him off from the living. (Through Sun.) SIFF Film Center (Seattle Center), 324-9996. $7–$12. See siff.net for showtimes.

BRIAN MILLER 

Saturday, Dec. 13

Robert Williams

In 1968, freaks from across America ended up on Haight Street in San Francisco, pens in hand, lured by the trippy psychedelic posters being made there. As the famous alt-comix pioneer R. Crumb put it, the posters clued him in that “there were a lot of artists who were on that wavelength, you know, obviously involved with psychedelic drugs.” When eight hippie comic artists started vibrating on that weird wavelength together, Zap Comix was the result—a seminal countercultural comic series full of bisexual drug-addicted pirates, horny anthropomorphic dogs, and radical leftist superheroes. The series also produced one of the most iconic images of hippie-era optimism, Crumb’s big-footed “Keep on Truckin’ ” men. Fantagraphics has now compiled the 16 issues of Zap into a comprehensive box set, The Complete Zap Comix ($500), including an unpublished 17th issue that never saw the light of day. Tonight, as part of the Georgetown Art Attack, Zap contributor Williams will sign books alongside an in-store exhibition of Zap art (on view through Jan. 8). And tomorrow he’ll introduce the new documentary Robert Williams: Mr. Bitchin’ at Northwest Film Forum (4 p.m., $6–$11), followed by a Q&A. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, 1201 S. Vale St., 658-0110, fantagraphics.com. Free. 6–9 p.m.

KELTON SEARS

Tuesday, Dec. 16

Roger Shimomura

Making a rare but welcome visit from Kansas to his old hometown, the eminent painter was just honored with a retrospective at WSU and a new book, Roger Shimomura: An American Knockoff (UW Press, $24.95), which he’ll be signing tonight. Long associated with Greg Kucera Gallery, Shimomura spent part of his boyhood detained with other Japanese-Americans in the World War II internment Camp Minidoka, in Idaho. His revenge, of sorts, wasn’t against America per se but its pop-cultural imagery: superheroes and Mickey Mouse, Dick Tracy and George Washington—which he then mixed with his own family history and the iconography of Japan (samurai, Hello Kitty, etc.). His paintings playfully yet trenchantly address notions of race, ethnic stereotyping, and representation. His work is unquestionably on the Pop Art spectrum, only with politics and autobiography interlaced. Though he left Seattle in the early ’60s, he’s unquestionably one of the half-dozen great artists this city has produced. He also provided the illustrations for a poetry collection: Glimpses of a Forever Foreigner: Poetry & Artwork Inspired by Japanese American Experiences (CreateSpace, $18.70), whose local author, Lawrence Matsuda, will also read his verse tonight. Elliott Bay Book Co., 1521 10th Ave., 624-6600, elliottbaybook.com. Free. 7 p.m.

BRIAN MILLER 

Cary Elwes

My feeling about Hollywood memoirs of the post-studio era is this: Only women should write them. Actresses like Carrie Fisher, Lena Dunham, and Angelica Huston have got stories to tell; and a common denominator is survival in a brutally sexist, male-dominated industry. For actors, by contrast, candid tales of sexual conquest and misbehavior will only make you look like more of an asshole. Who wants to know more about Warren Beatty or Jack Nicholson? Not me. Occupying a very different position is the non-bad-boy British actor Elwes, whose As You Wish (Touchstone, $26) is devoted to the filming of 1987’s The Princess Bride. Since an entire generation of new fans has been raised—from VHS to DVD—on that beloved adaptation of the William Goldman children’s tale, Elwes is not about to piss upon his fellow castmates. (Bread, meet butter, etc.) That means flattering anecdotes and new interviews with Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Carol Kane, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin. (Jesus, what a great cast.) Goldman lends his acerbic voice, as does director Rob Reiner (gentler, growlier). Elwes arguably never escaped his role as Westley the would-be pirate (Saw was his last notable movie lead), but he has the good sense—and good manners—not to deny it. (Also note that SIFF Film Center is screening a quote-along presentation of The Princess Bride on weekends through Jan. 1.) University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, bookstore.washington.edu. Free. 7 p.m.

BRIAN MILLER