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Here are our favorite events happening in LA tonight, including a Literary Death Match, a joint theater performance by the Los Angeles Poverty Department and Wunderbaum; a West Coast premiere of Pablo; after-school specials on the big screen; a Grindhouse Film Fest on Hong Kong gang films; a little bird talking and walking; and live performances by stand-up comics of the All Things Comedy Podcast. Read on for all the details.
BIRDWATCHING
Every year during their migration, thousands of Vaux's swifts stop, rest and roost for several days in a chimney in DTLA near 5th and Broadway. Tonight at 5 pm at the Central Library (Meeting Room A) Jeff Chapman of the Audubon Society talks about the swifts and following the talk, he’ll lead a little birdwatching tour toward 5th and Broadway.
COMEDY
The All Things Comedy Podcast is at Largo tonight at 8:30 pm with an evening of stand-up from comedians from the ATC network. Performers include Greg Behrendt, Jackie Kashian, Neal Brennan, Jake Johannsen and Bill Burr. Tickets are $25.
FILM
Tonight at 7:30 pm, the Hammer Museum holds theWest Coast premiere of Pablo, a documentary of animation/design artist Pablo Ferro. The film, narrated by Jeff Bridges, “tracks the rise of a poor Cuban immigrant to the heights of the Madison Avenue commercial industry, his presence in the New York counterculture of the 1960s, and the emergence of one of the most celebrated designers of movie history.” There’s a post-screening Q&A with Ferro, the filmmakers and guests.
PERFORMANCE
The RADAR LA theater festival opens today with the world premiere of Hospital, by the Skid Row-based performance group Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) and the Dutch collective Wunderbaum. The two theater companies confront contemporary healthcare in a “ficto-mentary.” The performances will take place at the Tower Theater and draws on the “clichés of serialized medical dramas, as well as real-life encounters with patients, doctors, healthcare professionals and reformers in both the U.S. and the Netherlands.” General admission: $25.
AFTER-SCHOOL SPECIALS*
Cinefamily has a very special event planned for tonight: TV-movie shorts for kids that deal with the “hot-button issues of the day.” They’re pulling from the treasures of places like the CBS Schoolbreak Special, NBC's Special Treat, the ABC Afterschool Special, HBO's Lifestories: Families In Crisis. Selections (including “The Wave”) will be presented on 16mm and video. At 7:30 pm. Tickets: $12/free for members.
LIT DEATH MATCH
Literary Death Match (LDM) takes over Busby's East tonight for an evening that mixes lit and comedy. The show features four writers reading from their own work (seven minutes or less), judged by three all-star judges. Only two writers will move onto the LDM finale. Judges tonight are author Tracy McMillan (literary merit), actress Frankie Shaw (performance) and comedian Kumail Nanjiani (intangibles). Writers/readers: Antonio Sacre, Marisa Matarazzo, Joshua Wolf Shenk and Randi Newton. The evening is hosted by LDM creator Adrian Todd Zuniga. Doors at 7 pm; show at 8:15 pm. Tickets: $10 at the door. The event is 21+.
FILM
The Grindhouse Film Fest takes over the New Beverly Cinema again tonight as it screens rare 35mm prints of two Hong Kong youth gang classics. The first film at 7:30 pm is the 1980s rarity School on Fire by producer/director Ringo Lam on a violent, gang-infested school; it’s followed by Young and Dangerous (1996), another youth-gang film. The double-feature is preceded by rare exploitation trailers...and all of this is yours for the taking for $8.
BARGAIN MOVIES
Every Tuesday through the end of the year, all movies—2D and 3D—at Regal Cinema L.A. LIVE’s 14 auditoriums, are only $7. The deal lasts all-day long and includes the Premiere House, which offers reserved seating and a 70-foot screen. In the theaters today are: Prisoners, Battle of the year 3D, Insidious 2, Elysium, Riddick, We’re the Millers, This is the End, The Family and Elysium.
*Pencil this in pick of the day
Want more events? Follow me on Twitter (@christineziemba).
