Farley Elliott

Don't let anyone tell you where to spend your money. Use it how you will - on comedy shows! Here are our weekly picks aimed at tickling your funny bone.

It's another week, which means a fresh start to renew those almost-gone New Years vows of seeing as many comedy shows as you can. It's OK; we won't tell.

This week promises to be a funny one, with the cast of FX's "The League" putting together a show, plus some great charity work being done at El Cid. And Jesse Miller's talk show hits the two-year mark!

It's time to start ramping up the political comedy! There are plenty of Democrat-skewing shows going on this week (more than we could list), as well as the usual slate of stand up, sketch and improv.

It's not often that a comedy show emerges onto the Los Angeles scene to offer something truly unique. Most dimly lit back room shows fall into one of a few categories: stand up, sketch, or improv. There may be different themes, different ways of extracting the jokes from a given set of parameters, but ultimately the delivery ends up being about the same. Does all that sound boring to you?

As September draws to a close, consider heading out to one of these fine comedy shows this week to grab a laugh before the fickle fingers of winter takes us all.

This is an extra-special week for comedy, as the Riot L.A. festival officially kicks off in Downtown Los Angeles. After a hard-fought victory via Kickstarter, the festival earned enough cash to happen, and we all get to reap the rewards.

Marta Teegan's been in the neighborhood for well over a decade, getting to know the neighbors and finding out what Echo Park really needs. As it turns out, the answer may well be Cookbook.

All is as it should be, including this week's slate of incredible comedy shows. Conan O'Brien is doing stuff, Hannibal Buress is around, Chris Hardwick is trying new material and Kevin Pollack is telling stories. Yesssss.

Labor Day has come and will soon be gone, but there are still plenty of ways to make your face smile with laughter this week. A bunch of great indie stand up shows are bringing the heat, and the outlying Improvs (Brea, Ontario and Irvine) must be celebrating early 2000's week, judging by the stand ups they're having out.