Profi le A longtime Chicago dancer moves from lawyer to artistic director at the Madison Ballet.

ARTS & CULTURE

Sleeping Village is slowly becoming one of my favorite “not a comedy venue” venues, and that’s in part because of the monthly showcase Just Us Gals. The lineup consistently features some of the most hilariously bizarre comics in the biz, with a focus on women, nonbinary folks, and queer performers.

A recent report from the Comedy Club Database showed that less than 1 percent of comics booked at 55 diff erent clubs across the country were Latina. Las Locas Comedy is working to change that. Every month at Dstrkt Bar and Grill the show features a lineup of primarily Latinx stand-ups—and a few lovingly called “honorary locas.”

If you’ve ever wondered whether your favorite stand-ups can also sing, then Low Key Karaoke is for you. Every Tuesday at Northside Bar & Grill comedians perform jokes and then sing a karaoke song. An open mike follows, and anyone who sings can add another minute into their set—the person with the best set of the night wins a $25 gi certifi cate to the bar.

The Missy is named as such because each month at the Boxcar two comedians need to put their thing down, fl ip it, and reverse it. Translation: each of the performers do a ten-minute set while the other is not in the room. The hosts of the show write down keywords as a setlist and then the comedians improvise a brand new ten minutes based on the other person’s set.

Full disclosure: I performed at the Paper Machete this year. But even if I hadn’t, this weekly live magazine at the Green Mill would still top my list as one of the most cathartic comedy experiences in the city. Comedians, musicians, journalists, and one beloved puppet break down the week’s current events, and it feels so much better to laugh until you cry instead of just crying.

Celebrating the body types and expressions of performers on stage makes laughing along to their jokes all the more euphoric. The monthly body-positive stand-up show Strip Joker at Mary’s Attic encourages performers to wear as little or as much as they please, o en resulting in an item of clothing being tossed with every punch line.

Everyone loves a good roast. At Toasted, every Saturday at Comedy Clubhouse, stand-ups perform and turn the spotlight on willing audience members with the delicate and time-honored art of the roast. To take the sting out of it, every show ends with a toast celebrating the roasted. v

@BriannaWellen

THEATER

The Nutcracker DARREN LEE

PROFILE

Sara Schumann is seeding new dance in Wisconsin

The longtime Chicago dancer moved from labor lawyer to artistic director at the Madison Ballet.

By IRENE HSIAO

For most, the holidays mean food, family, festivities, and fi ts of reckless acquisition. But for ballet dancers, Thanksgiving is the last supper before the marathon of merrymaking that is The Nutcracker, which first flopped in 1892 Russia only to become a seasonal sensation in 1950s America. More than two dozen productions of the annual phenomenon exist in the Chicago area alone, ranging from extravagant and spectacular to DIY and Dance Along, ensuring that the magic of Christmas is broadly allied with the ritual of dance. The story of a sensitive girl who journeys to the Kingdom of the Sweets with a magical nutcracker has become synonymous with innocence and nostalgia. However, for the ballet industry, The Nutcracker more accurately represents another middle-class value: work. Annual ticket sales account for an average of 48

THE NUTCRACKER

Through 12/28: see website for schedule, Overture Hall, 201 State St., Madison, 608-278-7990, madisonballet.org, $11-$63.