TODAY-SATURDAY
>> Comedians aplenty at 3-day festival
Laugh it up with the Aloha Comedy Festival, a three-day event that features 60 comedians performing in multiple shows at six Chinatown venues.
The event features visiting headliners, including “Last Comic Standing” participant Amy Miller, frequent talk-show performer Mark Normand, and Hawaii natives- turned-mainlanders Kermet Apio and Paul Ogata, each appearing several times over the three-day festival. Local standouts include Jose Dynamite, James Mane and Shane Lucas Price.
Creative groupings are a hallmark of the festival, with a female-centric show, “Venus Envy,” 5 p.m. today at NextDoor.
“Veterans of Comedy” features former service members, 6 p.m. today at Square Barrels. Comedians from the South appear in “Southern Cooking,” 10 p.m. today at NextDoor.
Neighbor Island comedians appear 6 p.m. Friday at Kumu Kahua Theatre.
Other venues are Dragon Upstairs, Downbeat Diner and O’Toole’s Irish Pub.
ALOHA COMEDY FESTIVAL 2020
>> Where: Various venues
>> When: Today through Saturday
>> Cost: Single shows, $10-$50; three-day pass, $120
>> Info: alohacomedyfestival.com
FRIDAY-SUNDAY
>> Moffat explores transgender issues in ‘Imperfect Gentlemen’
Hawaii’s theater community remembers Ben Moffat for the contributions he made to Windward Community College’s theater program from 1989 to 2011.
Moffat returns to local theater this weekend in “Imperfect Gentleman,” a one-man show he co-wrote with Bradley Wayne Smith, inspired by his father’s 1980 decision to come out as a transgender woman and its aftermath. Moffat was then 24; his father was 53.
“At that time I had never heard the words ‘transsexual’ or ‘transgender’,” Moffat said. “I play 11 different characters, and so I also show the reactions of my brother, mother and aunt, as well as the journey that my father made.”
Moffat began working on the script in 2011, finally premiering it in final form in March 2019 at the Proud Theater in Madison, Wis.
The actor combines characterization and storytelling, using costumes, props and projections of vintage photos to establish the time, the setting and the people involved. Moffat’s technique “emphasizes the performer’s body and imagination, as well as the complicity between the performer and audience,” he said.
With “Imperfect Gentleman,” Moffat gives Oahu audiences the opportunity to explore their thoughts on the forces that shape and define a person’s sense of identity.
– John Berger, Star-Advertiser
“IMPERFECT GENTLEMEN”
>> Where: The Arts at Marks Garage, 159 Nuuanu Ave.
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $20-$25
>> Info: 808ne.ws/gentlemen
>> Note: Recommended for ages 14 and older due to strong language and adult themes
SATURDAY
>> Irish group performs new tunes to authentic beat
It’s always nice when a traditional art form continues to grow and evolve while remaining true to its roots. So it is with Goitse, an award-winning quintet that puts its own, delightful spin on traditional Irish music.
Pronounced “go-wit-cha,” an Gaelic Irish welcome that means “come here,” Goitse was named Ireland’s Traditional Group of the Year in 2015 and then gained international acclaim, with awards coming from Germany and Chicago’s Irish community. Its original music has a distinctly upbeat energy and bright sonority, worthy of stomping feet and clapping hands.
The group formed at the Irish World Academy of Dance & Music at the University of Limerick and features a roster of young all-stars in Irish music. Percussionist Colm Phelan was named the first world champion in the bodhran, a hand-held drum played with a baton called a “tipper,” which can be used to create a variety of compelling rhythms.
Fiddle player Aine McGeeney has played with Michael Flatley’s “Lord of the Dance” and has been honored for her singing as well, while guitarist Conal O’Kane, an American, is a versatile musician trained in many styles of music. Tadgh O Meachair won a national piano competition, and Alan Reid is a virtuoso on traditional plucked instruments such as banjo, mandolin and bouzouki.
GOITSE: CONGTAGIOUSLY ENERGETIC IRISH MUSIC
>> Where: Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawaii- Manoa
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $12-$27
>> Info: manoa.hawaii.edu/music
SATURDAY-SUNDAY
>> Violinist performs husband’s concerto with symphony
Celebrate romance this weekend with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra and guest violinist Bella Hristova, who returns to perform a violin concerto written for her by her husband, acclaimed composer David Ludwig.
Ludwig, chair of composition at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, wrote music for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration as well as the 2014 film “Cymbeline.” The work was inspired by the couple’s impending wedding in 2015.
The Bulgarian-born Hristova gave a masterful performance of Samuel Barber’s violin concerto here in 2018.
Symphony artistic director JoAnn Falletta, pictured at right, will conduct the program, which also features Dvorak’s buoyant “Symphony No. 8,” a pastoral work reminiscent of the Czech countryside with lovely solos for the woodwinds and especially the flute.
“JOANN RETURNS”
>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday
>> Cost: $35-$96
>> Info: 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com
