Can't Miss It: Thursday
DO TELL: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, NPR’s weekly radio quiz/news show, comes to Paramount’s stage. Actor and playwright Peter Sagal hosts, and is accompanied, as always, by Carl Kassel, the show’s judge and scorekeeper. Contestants play a variety of quiz games that focus on the biggest news stories of the week, often including Ask Carl, a game to identify who’s making the news, Bluff the Listener, in which the contestant must weed out the one true news story out of three possiblities, and the Listener Limerick Challenge. The prize? A highly desired personalized, voicemail greeting custom recorded by Peter Sagal. Listen an earlier radio show here.
7:30 // The Paramount Theatre // $33-$68
CLOWNING AROUND: In the recent past, Cirque du Soleil leaned more toward show than cirque, entertaining still, but not in the way that people have loved and raved about for two decades. Yet Kooza, one of the company's three touring shows, is Cirque in traditional form, centering on acrobatic performance and the fine art of clowning. Kooza, the story of “The Innocent, a melancholy loner in search of his place in the world,” spotlights ten acrobatic acts, seven characters, and music that draws on both 70s funk and traditional Indian. Looking to impress a date? Need some light heartedness to balance out the early June gloom? Really into well-dressed clowns? Look no further.
8:00 p.m. // The Grand Chapiteau at Marymoor Park 6046 W. Lake Sammamish Parkway N.E., Redmond // $40-$250
BELLEVUE BOP: Okay, Okay, so it’s not Seattle, but we can see it from here! And when it comes to jazz practically flowing out into the city’s downtown streets, we can almost hear it from here, too. The third Bellevue Jazz Festival, a four-day, 44-performance fair, starts today. On the list for today are five free performances in downtown clubs and a performance by Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra at the Theatre at Meydenbauer center. The prominent 17-piece big band, co-directed by Clarence Acox and Michael Brockman, can do Monk and Mingus as well as Basie, and they’ll throw in some Ray Charles too. The Orchestra follows a performance by BJF’s Rising Stars, a group of high school students and emerging jazz artists from the metro-Seattle area who gained the opportunity to workshop with the region’s pros. For more details and a list of the free shows, which begin at 5:00 p.m., visit the festival’s website.
7:00 p.m. // Theatre at Meydenbauer Center 11100 NE 6th Street, Bellevue // $10-$20 at the door
