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Weekend Agenda

Events to catch this weekend, January 4–7.


RZA  

1. It’s January, which means we get new reasons to laugh. Comedians including Seaton Smith, Jo Firestone, Joel Kim Booster, and Julio Torres gather to tell the the 50 First Jokes they’ve written in 2018. Will they be good? Who knows! Find out for yourself at the Bell House on Friday.

2. And this weekend, the cowboys come to town (hope they brought snow boots!) for the Professional Bull Riders competition at Madison Square Garden. Also in town: 750 tons of dirt and pyrotechnics, for the 25th anniversary of the event.

3. The Wu-Tang Clan launched a new venture this week selling rolling papers, and that’s reason enough to celebrate. Catch RZA with the Wu-Tang Killa Bees and Inspectah Deck on Friday at City Winery.

4. This weekend kicks off 12 days of exciting new theater at the Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival. See How to Be a Rock Critic, about the life of Lester Bangs, hear an evening of stories with Adam Gopnik, and Erin Markey and co-composer Emily Bate will present excerpts from various musicals.

5. You may know her as Molly from Insecure, but Yvonne Orji is also a pretty talented comedienne. See her touch on growing up Nigerian in America, her dating life, and more through Saturday at Carolines.

6. Winter weekends are great for meat pies and murder. Dickensian Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd was on multiple year-end lists and recently broke the Barrow Street Theatre sales house record in December. The cast is switching over in late February, so try one, then try the other.

7. Edvard Munch’s melancholy body of work is much more than The Scream. Learn about it at the Met Breuer’s Edvard Munch: Between the Clock and the Bed, centered around the Norwegian artist's moody self-portraits.

8. Or find something new to munch (sorry) in our Where to Eat 2018 guide. We also have a list of comforting dishes to combat the cold.

9. Sunday on the subways they’ll be wearing no pants, as the No Pants Subway Ride returns for the 15th year. Here’s to hoping their underwear is stuffed with hot-water bottles.

10. And through January 7, the avant-garde jazz saxophonist, clarinet player, and MacArthur Fellow Ken Vandermark is at the Stone, both solo and in collaborations. Keep it loose, and happy weekend!