Rat Pack Redux

WED 10/29
To create a comedy gang, all you need is one funny guy,
one straight man, one drunk and an innocent man-child. Stir in a dollop of outlaw
comedy (think Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison) and you’ve cooked up Houston’s Whiskey
Brothers.The Brothers were founded by Rob Mungle in ’99. The group’s current incarnation
(about a year old) counts Ben Mowbray, Chuck Savage, Craig Bischoff, Mike MacRae
and Sam Demaris as members; the comics sit on stage together wearing tuxedos and
riffing off each other, giving the act a vintage feel. The cast is a who’s who
of local comedy, rife with Houston’s Funniest Person contest winners and Press Best of Houston comics. Savage, the group’s musical director, toured with national
comedy headliner Mitch Hedberg and recently left the Jesse Dayton Band to focus
on the Brothers.

The show has a Vegas lounge vibe. But, says Mungle, “we try to do something
more with it. The easiest definition is an old ’60s Rat Pack show but without
the music. And instead of singing and dancing, we have dick jokes.” 8 p.m. Wednesday,
October 29. Laff Spot at Willowbrook Mall, 17776 State Highway 249. For information,
call 281-955-9200 or visit www.laffspot.com.
$12. — Eric A.T. Dieckman

Hurley Burley
Butterfli Divas seek to get a rise out of you
SAT 10/25

Burlesque is back, baby. Even Christina Applegate and Carmen Electra have taken
the stage in risqué revues at hot L.A. nightspots. Whether or not their
pole-dancing antics will be good for their careers is still open to debate,
but it’s safe to say their hot numbers have revived more libidos than a blister
pack of Viagra. Now the burlesque revival has reached our muggy burg, where
Yvette Perez and her Butterfli Divas have put together a hot and steamy musical
revue at The Gatsby. The show promises to be an explosive array of song, dance
and fashion (or lack thereof) that will leave the audience wanting a cold shower,
or at least another martini. The shimmying and shaking starts at 9 p.m. Saturday,
October 25. 2540 University Boulevard. For more information, call 713-874-1310
or visit www.gatsbysocialclub.com. $10
to $15. — Keith Plocek

The Mighty Organ FRI 10/24

Fact: You would hardly call Dana Carvey’s Church Lady a drag queen. And
playwright and composer Eric Lane Barnes hopes you will extend the same courtesy
to Ginny, Rose and Euglena of the North American Lady Organists Guild in Theatre
New West’s musical revue The Stops. The three female roles are to be played
by men. “That’s part of its charm,” says artistic director
Joe Watts. More charm will abound when the ladies pull out all the stops —
literally — and work up a frothy “Bossa Nova for Jehovah.”
8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from
Friday, October 24, through December 20. 1415 California. For information and
tickets, call 713-522-2204. $20. — Lisa Simon

Vibrato and Violence
FRI 10/24

Tosca is an opera about an opera singer. In it, the titular Tosca offers her
body to the police chief in an attempt to save her lover from execution. Will
a betrayal follow? You bet your horned helmet. Tosca opens at 7 p.m. Friday,
October 24. Cullen Theater, 510 Texas. For further dates and showtimes, call
713-228-OPERA or visit www.houstongrandopera.org. $19 to $254. — Lisa
Simon