Strange Heights

SAT 5/8

The folks at Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre claim to be taking it down a notch
for their upcoming outdoor performance at the Sabine Street ArtPark. “We are
doing a hand-puppet show about Lenin,” says Jenny Campbell, one of the creators
of Oh Lenin. “We got so highbrow that we got tired of ourselves, so we
were like, ‘Okay, hand puppets.'” Fair enough: Hand puppets are a little more
lowbrow than Bobbindoctrin’s usual mix of shadow, rod, hand, string and tabletop
puppetry, but any art form that deals with tyrannical communist dictators can’t
be too low, now can it? “We can’t do a really serious, shadow-oriented show
because of the light,” she says. “We can’t use power, so we can’t do any of
our cool overhead things that we love to do.” So they’ve created a farcical
show based on a classic Russian children’s story about a man whose sleep keeps
getting interrupted by telephone calls from wacky wild animals. “We’ve kind
of adapted that to Lenin’s life,” she says. “It’s sort of about these strange,
carnivorous toy animals and Lenin trying to take a nap.” If that’s what counts
for lowbrow these days, then we must be living in a pretty highfalutin world.
The ten-minute show repeats from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 8. 100 Sabine.
For information, call 713-526-7434 or visit www.bobbindoctrin.org.
Free. — Keith Plocek

No Limits
Dave Chappelle is an equal-opportunity
satirist

Dave Chappelle is arguably the hottest comedian today. In addition to his
stellar stand-up, he has a half-hour weekly playground in the Comedy Central
series Chappelle’s Show, which is as edgy and I-can’t-believe-he-got-away-with-that
funny as anything on TV. And though much of the skit humor is racial and ethnic,
the abominably skinny Chappelle is an equal-opportunity satirist. That means
playing a black man whose sleep aid is a heaping, healthy portion of greasy
ribs, or a member of a white family straight out of ’50s TV with an unfortunate
last name (“You’re one crazy Niggar!” the plump, doting wife tells her
straitlaced husband). Chappelle’s over-the-top portrayal of the creator of “Super
Freak” has even spawned a catchphrase in “I’m Rick James, bitch!” Expect to
hear it yelled out, oh, once or twice during his performance. 7:30 p.m. and
9:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, May 12 through 15. The Improv, 7620 Katy
Freeway. For information, call 713-333-8800 or visit www.improv.com.
$35. — Bob Ruggiero

Warrior Poets

THU 5/6

When slam poetry popped up in the ’80s, the freeflowin’, freestylin’ competition
breathed some fresh air into a stuffy literary scene. But Houston poet Cedric
Ary, a.k.a. Brother Said, wants to keep moving forward. “In poetry slamming,
you call up the poet one by one, and he’s judged right after he’s done,” he
rhymes. With slam’s Olympic-style scoring system, it’s much easier to get a
high score at the end of a round than at the beginning. Brother Said wants to
put a stop to this inequity and shove the competitive spirit back into scene,
so he’s organized the first of (hopefully) many head-to-head verse tournaments.
The battles begin at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 6. Southmore House, 3107 Leeland.
For information, call 713-299-7829 or visit www.southmorehouse.com.
$5. — Keith Plocek

Seal of Approval

THU 5/6

We had high hopes for Seal when he unleashed his single “Crazy” in 1991. His combination of coarse but soulful wailing and mysterious facial scars had Next Big Thing written all over it. But other than “Kiss from a Rose” (1994), he’s released a string of yawners — until his latest CD, Seal IV. Pared down in a live setting, this soft-spoken Brit can get down and dirty with the best of them. 8 p.m. Thursday, May 6. H-Town’s Arena Theatre, 7326 Southwest Freeway, 713-988-1020. $45 to $185. — Steven Devadanam