COMEDY

John Hodgman
Thursday at 8 pm, Hollywood Theatre
The mini-mustachioed “minor television celebrity,” now a part time Maine resident, is known to weigh judgment on artisanal axes for his podcast and impersonate a deranged millionaire onThe Daily Show. Want more “white privilege mortality comedy”? Catch the Portland stop of Hodgman’s two-month “Vacationland” tour.

Cameron Esposito
Friday at 7:30 pm and 10 pm, Mississippi Studios
Jay Leno declared her “the future of comedy,” and numbers back that hype. The LA-based comic recorded sophomore album Same Sex Symbol here last year; it promptly topped charts on iTunes and Billboard.

Michael Ian Black
Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm and 10 pm, Helium Comedy Club
The Wet Hot American Summer actor is taking his standup game to Portland for a special event show. His snarky deadpan gained notoriety on MTV; the Chicago–born writer and director has since progressed to regular antics on Comedy Central. (Four great clips here.)

MUSIC

Wild Child
Friday at 8 pm, Revolution Hall
The malty voice of Kelsey Wilson anchors this quirky, guitarless (if ukuleled) seven-piece, named Austin’s “best indie band” in 2013. Now they hit town with just-dropped third album Fools.

Con Bro Chill
Friday at 9 pm, Wonder Ballroom
Portland-based neon dance poppers Con Bro Chill might be a music, comedy, and dance platform all rolled into one. Or, they might be wrestlers from a future where ’80s fashion aesthetics never died. The disco, funk, and “epic rock” powerhouses were last seen locally, this past spring, moving the crowd at TEDx Portland to a standing ovation.

Kurt Vile and the Violators
Saturday at 8 pm, Crystal Ballroom
The former forklift driver kicks off a world tour with the release of B’lieve I’m Goin Down (an album he calls his darkest, albeit with lots of banjo, piano, and “pretty” finger picking).

Oregon Repertory Singers: Dvorák's Stabat Mater
Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 4 pm, Newmark Theater
The choral group begins its 42nd season with an oratorio not heard in Portland for more than four decades. This collaboration with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra features Vakare Petroliunaite, Hannah Penn, Carl Halvorson, and André Flynn.

DANCE

Amore Italiano
Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 pm, Keller Auditorium
Oregon Ballet Theatre’s 26th season opens with a double bill: Napoli Act III, an 1842 work by Danish choreographer August Bournonville—and a world premiere, from “Almost Mozart” choreographer James Kudelka, based on the music of Carlo Gesualdo.

L-E-V
Thursday–Saturday at 8 pm, Lincoln Hall
Meaning ‘heart’ in Hebrew, a 6-member company performs the lauded “Sara” and “Killer Pig,” choreographed by artistic directors Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar. Demanding in synchronization and expressive in its jagged movements, this Israeli recital opens White Bird’s season with a jolt.

Dear Armen
Friday at 8 pm, Performance Works NW
An audience-immersive mix of "Armenian dance, erotic performance, monologue and live music," this touring show stops in Portland for one night only. Touchstones of this ambitious program include ethnicity, genderqueer identity, avant garde theater, and "memoricide."

THEATER

OPENING Sex with Strangers
Friday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, Gerding Theatre
Portland Center Stage’s Brandon Woolley directs a House of Cards writer’s seductive new play, which features the collision of a blogger and a novelist as their one-night stand—spent off­ network—is upended by online exploits.

OPENING Remme's Run
Friday-Sunday at 7:30 pm, CoHo Theatre
The Sacramento Gold Rush, a 1855 Portland bank bust, a French Canadian cattleman racing the clock to rescue his life savings: workshopped at 2014’s Fertile Ground Festival, Wayne Harrel’s high-intensity script makes its world premiere. 

Cuba Libre
Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, Winningstad Theatre
Artists Rep’s “Broadway-scale” world-premiere musical counts as its house band none other than blistering, Grammy-nominated Latin act Tiempo Libre. For more on the crack team behind the 21-person show, see our anatomy of a production with Pan-American aspirations from our October print issue.

Passion Play Part III
Thursday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, Shaking the Tree Studio
In Sarah Ruhl’s homage to medieval Christendom’s Eastertime passion plays (Parts I and II played in September), we find ourselves in Spearfish, South Dakota, at the onset of the Vietnam War. Reagan shows up, as do lots of fishies.

VISUAL ARTS

OPENING Magdalena Suarez Frimkess and Luis Romero
Friday & Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm, Adams and Ollman
On display through mid-December: Suarez Frimkess's ceramic "canvases" of maybe functional cups, mugs, and pitchers, alongside Romero's "eye-buzzing" works in paper and paint.