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The Minnesota Daily

Serving the UMN community since 1900

The Minnesota Daily

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Culture Compass: Nostalgia, comedy and eclectic rap

A&E plans your weekend.

Friday

Rory Scovel is a refreshing alt-comedian who delights in the oddball non-sequitur while coming across as both bemused and aloof.  He lords over the audience, seeming to take delight in how slowly people catch up with his jokes.  He weaves his material up, down and sideways before ending up somewhere that surely isn’t the middle.  He shares an eerie similarity in voice, appearance and comedic sensibility with Chris Elliot, while somehow managing to not seem as weird.  Check out Scovel’s bit on “Conan” from two months ago, where he delivers standup in a tux with twinkling piano accompaniment.

Rory Scovel
Acme Comedy Club, 708 N. 1st St., Minneapolis
8 p.m., 10:30 p.m.
$15
18+

 

Saturday

Cliff N Norm’s Bar claims that this is a chance to relive your prom, but other than the chance to dress up, this bar crawl will probably be nothing like your prom.  Well, if you were 21 years old in high school and opted to go paint the town red instead of actually attending prom, maybe this will be similar.  Anyway, libation-seekers will skedaddle all around Northeast before ending up back at Cliff N Norm’s for more drinks, karaoke and a free meal.  You can opt to become a “Board Member,” which simply requires a $10 fee.  That gets you a t-shirt proudly proclaiming your membership, as well as a year’s worth of discounted drinks.  Becoming a board member ensures that every night at the bar will be one where “everybody knows you name.”

Adult Prom Night
Cliff N Norm’s Bar, 2024 N. Washington Ave., Minneapolis
5 p.m.
Price varies
21+

Sunday

Y’all might be more familiar with the Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy film, but “Driving Miss Daisy” was first a successful play by Alfred Uhry.   The Jungle Theater is putting on this epic piece which spans 25 years of tumultuous southern history.  It covers the before, during and after of the civil rights movement, as seen through the eyes of a strong-willed Jewish widow and her African-American driver.  An initially chilly relationship turns heartwarming as both characters’ outlooks are profoundly changed by virtue of their friendship.  To make things even more stellar, the lead roles are played by James Craven and Wendy Lehr, two local masters of their craft.

“Driving Miss Daisy”
The Jungle Theater, 2951 S. Lyndale Ave., Minneapolis
2 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
$20-38

 

Watch: “Real Husbands of Hollywood”

This show gets little love and it’s a darn shame.  Now in the midst of its second season, “Real Husbands of Hollywood” is a parody of reality shows with similar titles, rocking a hilarious all-star cast who play fictionalized versions of themselves while going about their day-to-day celeb routines.  The protagonist is bite-size funnyman Kevin Hart, whose raging insecurity and huge ego provide the source of most the show’s conflict.  How that manifests varies widely from show to show, but it inevitably leads to drama within his friend circle, comprised of Nelly, Nick Cannon, Boris Kodjoe, J.B. Smoove, Duane Martin and occasionally Robin Thicke.  Everyone from Bobby Brown to Cedric the Entertainer to Shaq has guested on the show.

Listen to: Mykki Blanco

Where to begin with this gal?  I guess you could call her a rapper.  But her music really isn’t hip-hop; it’s more glitch, glam, rave-pop with a unique voice laid on top like a raspy cherry.  She’s the performing alter ego of Michael Quattlebaum, but there’s nothing gimmicky here.  Her gender-bending aesthetic gels so completely with her genre-blending, it seems like it could be no other way.     Check out “Angggry Byrdz” and “David Blaine Bitches” off her EP “Betty Rubble: The Initiation” for a truly entrancing experience.

Buy: Old gaming systems

As new systems replace old in the everlasting cycle of video game obsolescence, consumers are left with a dearth of cheap gaming alternatives if they’re willing to sacrifice ever-more realistic graphics for a good time.  Nintendo’s Game Cube, a system with a tremendous library of solid games, can be bought from GameStop for a mere $20.  Now, you may find yourself laughing at the irony of playing retro games on a 40-inch hi-def, but consider that people are giving away tube TVs as they become increasingly obsolete — a free, fitting partner for your cheap stroll down memory lane.

 

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