Tuesday, March 14
How will you celebrate Pi Day? Some lucky geeks will be honoring what must be the nerdiest holiday on earth at the Sie FilmCenter’s one-night-only screening of Pi, director Darren Aronofsky’s award-winning, surreal low-budget thriller perhaps most famous for its grainy cinematography and a scene in which the protagonist Max Cohen, a mathematic savant, drills a hole in his own head to rid himself of his gift. Yes, there will be pie — if you’re still hungry. Pi screens at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, at the Sie, 2510 East Colfax Avenue. For tickets, $7 to $11, visit denverfilm.org.
Wednesday, March 15
You can’t swing a growler around without hitting a beer dinner in Denver these days, but some of them stand out as special, don’t-miss events. That’s the case on Wednesday, March 15, when chef/restaurateur Troy Guard invites Fort Collins saison specialist Funkwerks into his flagship eatery, TAG, at 1441 Larimer Street. Enjoy four courses and two passed appetizers, each paired with beers from Raspberry Sour to Dark Prophet, all for $58 a person. Enjoy TAG’s eclectic, fusion fare, with the likes of tuna carpaccio and veal sweetbreads with charred turnips and truffle purée (yes, that’s all on one plate) or a Long Island duck duo plated with cascabel chile, orange, white beans and kale. Call the restaurant at 303-996-9985 for reservations. For more information, visit tag-restaurant.com.
Shane Mauss has had a lively career since winning “Best Standup Comic” at the Comedy Arts Festival in 2007. With five appearances on Conan and a Comedy Central Presents special under his belt, Mauss set about creating thematically sound hours of comedy, first on the Netflix special Mating Season, then on his most recent album, My Big Break. In addition to his busy performing schedule, Mauss also hosts the weekly podcast Here We Are, wherein the comedian consults scientists, psychologists and various other experts for insight on the human condition. Ever the mind expansionist, Mauss has created A Good Trip, a psychedelics-inspired hybrid of standup, storytelling and Ted Talk that entertains and educates in equal measure. Mauss brings Trip to the Comedy Works South, 5345 Landmark Place in Greenwood Village, at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15. Admission is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Call 720-274-6800 or visit comedyworks.com to learn more and buy tickets.
Willem Defoe dons paper armor in Michael Garlington's photo, on display at Processus.
Michael Garlington
Thursday, March 16
To casual television viewers, Michael Che’s rise to fame seems meteoric. Shortly after landing a coveted correspondent gig on The Daily Show, Che left the show to join the cast of Saturday Night Live, where he co-hosts “Weekend Update.” But Che, a quintessentially New York comic, pounded the pavement and worked his way through the city’s cutthroat club circuit for years before making his on-screen debut, on The Late Show With David Letterman. Fearless, confrontational and contrarian, Che achieves a delicate balancing act of challenging audiences’ dearly held beliefs while consistently delivering big laughs — a promise hinted at in his Comedy Central Half-Hour and fully flourishing in his most recent special, Michael Che Matters. Che will kick off a weekend of shows at 10 p.m. on Thursday, March 16, at Comedy Works Downtown, 1226 15th Street. For tickets, $25, call 303-565-3637 or visit comedyworks.com.
It takes not just months, but years for Boulder-based animator Stacey Steers to create one short film less than twenty minutes long, through a process involving thousands of handmade collages, each shot frame by frame. Trilogy, an exhibit opening at Robischon Gallery in conjunction with Month of Photography, delves into that intensive process with displays of individual collages from three of Steers’s films (“Phantom Canyon,” “Night Hunter” and “Edge of Alchemy”), sculptural installation works inspired by the films, and a new series of large-scale pigment prints. Attend the opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 16, at the gallery, 1740 Wazee Street; Trilogy and two additional photo-based exhibits by Kiki Smith and the duo Kahn + Selesnick run through May 6. For more information, visit robischongallery.com.
Kick up your heels for an early Irish celebration at the Fainting Goat, 846 Broadway. From 4 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, March 16, the bar will host the twentieth annual Donohue St. Patrick’s Day Party to benefit the Avielle Foundation, a nonprofit that funds neuroscience research to help understand and prevent violence. A suggested donation of $50 per person includes admission, two drink tickets and an Irish buffet, as well as admission and two drink tickets for an 8 p.m. concert by U2 tribute band Under a Blood Red Sky just up the street at Bar Standard, 1037 Broadway. Want more? At 7:30 p.m., the Michael Collins Pipes & Drums corps will march on Broadway. Tickets are available at eventbrite.com; call the Goat at 303-945-2323 for additional details.
Friday, March 17
Found forms and extreme photographic close-ups from nature combined with the studio refuse left over after the making of previous sculptural works form the basis of Lauri Lynnxe Murphy’s Apocryphal Terrains, an ongoing series of “micro-macro photography.” “Much of my photography is taken in nature, incorporating the real landscape with the fake, invented landscape — creating the illusion of expansive terrains within minutiae such as a hilly clump of moss or a crystalline patch of snow,” the artist and Westword contributor explains. Murphy’s recycled materials and altered scenery show up in a wonderland of photos and mixed-media wood sculpture at Mai Wyn Fine Art, 744 Santa Fe Drive, just in time for Month of Photography, with an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, March 17, and a run that continues through April 22, which also happens to be Earth Day. Learn more at facebook.com/events/1857128857892957.
Denver’s premier steampunk convention, AnomalyCon, returns bigger and better for its seventh and last year, with three days of elaborate cosplay, live music, panel discussions, artist and author events, and contests for costumes, facial hair and tea dueling — a straight-faced battle of crumb-free cookie dunking. AnomalyCon cranks up at 2 p.m. on Friday, March 17, and never really completely closes down until Sunday, March 19. But formal programming ends at midnight on Friday and Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center Hotel, 7800 East Tufts Avenue. Get tickets, $20 to $40, at the door only, and find more details at anomalycon.com.
If green dye in your beer and throngs of caterwauling bros are not your idea of a St. Patrick’s Day well spent, Céad Mile Fáilte delivers high-culture holiday counter-programming at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 17. Gaelic for “a hundred thousand welcomes,” Céad Mile Fáilte offers music lovers respite among the tranquil pews of Augustana Lutheran Church, 5000 East Alameda Avenue. With traditional Irish folk songs and a soaring collaboration between the Colorado Men’s and Women’s Chorales and the world-renowned St. Mary’s College Choir capped off by a performance by organ virtuoso David Eichner, this fine concert sends the holiday back to its holy and cultural origins. Get tickets, $10 to $25, and more information at augustanaarts.org.
Keep reading for more of our 21 best events of the week.
Some critics call Manhattan Woody Allen’s greatest film, though time and subsequent decades of filmmaking by Allen have intervened. So it’s good to return to this black-and-white classic of the ’70s with its Gershwin score adding a sheen of class to the story of a New York television script writer (guess who?) tangling with a neurotic jungle of a life of his own making. The Sie FilmCenter welcomes its comeback in a brand-new digital 4K restoration for a weeklong run beginning Friday, March 17, the first in a string of Allen upgrades promised for the future, including a new print of Annie Hall coming this summer. Catch Manhattan while you can — if only for the film’s love affair with New York City and the Chaplinesque send-off — at the Sie, 2510 East Colfax Avenue. For showtimes and ticket information, go to denverfilm.org.
Roll out of bed, wipe the sleep out of your eyes and head downtown for KTCL 93.3’s twelfth annual Keggs and Eggs event to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Drink a morning brew (or several), eat some eggs and enjoy the music of American Authors, Bishop Briggs and Bryce Fox. Doors open at the Blake Street Tavern, 2301 Blake Street, at 7 a.m. Friday, March 17, and the party goes until midnight. Listen to KTCL for a chance to win guaranteed admission, or wait in line with everybody else and hope you can get in to the free event. For more information, go to area93.iheart.com.
Hordes of homeowners and craftsmen will descend upon the National Western Complex, 4655 Humboldt Street, this weekend starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 17, for the Denver Home Show. Aspiring renovators can benefit from the experience of nearly 400 experts, including HGTV’s Matt Blashaw, while shopping for the latest innovations in bathroom, kitchen and landscape design. Be sure to check out this year’s Tiny Home Village for inspiration on how to efficiently maximize small spaces. Admission is $11; visit homeshowdenver.com to learn more and get discounted tickets.
Boulder’s nonprofit Local Theater Company is bringing back its crown jewel, the annual Local Lab New Play Festival, for a sixth year, packing three staged readings, a series of workshops culminating in a short performance, a playwrights’ panel, a comedy show and a party or two into three concentrated days. It all takes place Friday, March 17, through Sunday, March 19, at the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut Street in Boulder. This year’s play-reading schedule includes Mia McCullough’s Wisdom From Everything on Friday, Jason Grote’s Shostakovich, or Silence on Saturday, and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice on Sunday. The workshop performance, Pain Management, is also on Sunday. Various all-access passes range from $50 to $135, or purchase individual reading tickets for $15 to $20 each (as available) at tickets.thedairy.org.
Saturday, March 18
Hosted by poet and Get More Rad author Dustin Holland, writer/editor/artist Connor Magyar and a stuffed bear, Don’t Yell at Me periodically brings free-form readings and performances to northern Colorado, depending on whose stage will have them. DYAM’s eighteenth episode settles at Still Cellars, 1115 Colorado Avenue in Longmont, at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 18, with a long slate of readers, including Denver poet Charly Fasano and indie authors Tameca Coleman and David S. Atkinson, music by Xavier Ó Luain, a screening of the film The Pink Concept and off-the-cuff performance courtesy of The Mystagogue Holland Show. You get all this for a $5 donation at the door. For more, visit stillcellars.com or facebook.com/events/247583122361893.
Part game show, part science lesson and a big part hilarious, Funny or True? sends comedians up against scientists in a battle of book learning and pure wit. But the best part of this spectacle is that the audience gets to participate. As contestants go head-to-head answering science-based questions, with answers truthful or outlandish, you — the audience — get to vote via smartphone for the best replies. Bill Farrand (Space Science Institute) and Stefanie Johnson (University of Colorado Boulder) face off against Janae Burris (Comedy Works New Faces champ) and Shane Mauss (Conan, Jimmy Kimmel) starting at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 18, at the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut Street in Boulder, with friendly goading by Peter McGraw, director of the Humor Research Lab (HuRL) and co-author of The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny, and guest emcee, Fort Collins comedian Mallory Wallace. Admission is $20 in advance at tickets.thedairy.org or $25 at the door.
Celebrate your heritage or broaden your cultural horizons at the Colorado Children’s Noruz celebration. Alternately spelled Nowruz or Nauruz, the Persian New Year celebration typically begins near the vernal equinox (March 21) and continues for thirteen days. Though the holiday remains holy for its Zoroastrian progenitors, Noruz’s unique cuisine and set of rituals have delighted people, especially children, of all faiths for centuries. For twelve years, the Colorado Children’s Noruz Foundation has helped introduce new generations to the ancient and peaceful holiday. This year’s event kicks off at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 18, at the Infinity Park Event Center, 4400 East Kentucky Avenue. Tickets are $20 in advance only, and include Noruz crafts, a ceremonial Haft Seen table, a Persian bazaar and live traditional music. For more information, visit facebook.com/events/1483720785001273. Eide Shoma Mobarak!
Tired of dancing to the same tired house tracks? Wanting to escape all the St. Paddy’s green? Try the Bollywood Dance Party Holi Bash, where DJ MRA will be spinning a mix of Bollywood hits, EDM, Top 40 and bhangra. Known for fusing EDM and Bollywood music, MRA will play an energetic set sure to get even the stiffest souls out on the dance floor. The event, which is billed as “Denver’s hottest international dance party,” takes place Saturday, March 18, at City Hall, 1144 Broadway. Doors open at 8 p.m., and the party goes until 1:45 a.m.; tickets are $15. For more information, go to norvanentertainment.com or call 720-381-8686.
Sunday, March 19
The unfortunate lag in production on season seven of HBO’s Game of Thrones has it premiering later than usual, possibly in July. What’s a true fan to do? Here’s something that might keep your hankering for the show’s addictive blend of fantasy realm, savage gore and exemplary storytelling at bay until then: The Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience. The multimedia musical extravaganza that brings the scenery and soundscape of Westeros to life with GoT composer Ramin Djawadi and a full orchestra and choir is coming to the Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle, on Sunday, March 19. The soaring pageantry of Djawadi’s compositions will sweep you away beginning at 8 p.m., on a high-tech armchair journey (possibly with a dragon’s-eye view!) from Winterfell to Meereen. Tickets start at $39.50 at livenation.com.
Cochon555 Heritage BBQ, the biggest, porkiest celebration of the whole hog, returns to Denver for another year on Sunday, March 19. Buy your tickets at cochon555.com, then head to the Curtis Hotel, 1405 Curtis Street, at 4 p.m. for more than three hours of pigging out on creations from five Colorado chefs. This year’s porcine practitioners are Bill Miner of Il Porcellino Salumi, Will Nolan of the Viceroy in Snowmass, Darrell Truett of Barolo Grill, Hosea Rosenberg of Blackbelly, and Burton Koelliker of Osteria Marco. Each chef has been assigned a different heritage-breed hog, and they’ll be competing to see who can come up with the best array of prize-winning plates. Tickets start at $125; early admission and a special dinner on Saturday, March 18, (part of the Bespoke weekend package) will run you extra.
Monday, March 20
Although bro haven the Irish Rover Pub, at 54 South Broadway, might seem like an odd venue to stage a theatrical production, unlikely spaces are part of the mission statement for the Play in a Pub series, which continues on Monday, March 20, with a performance of Mike Broemmel and Seth Holley’s The Bonfils Girl. The story of local newspaper magnate Helen Bonfils, the play offers an entertaining slice of Colorado history from the perspective of a unique woman whose historic achievements still serve as an inspiration. With Cathy Washburn reprising her starring role in a production staged by director Rich Beall, The Bonfils Girl is an ideal introduction to pub-based theatre. Doors open at 6 p.m. for a 7:30 curtain call. Buy tickets, $12, at actoneproductions.wellattended.com.
