Time to get your weekend on. Here’s how:
“Paid Regulars”
Until recently, Oakland held the unfunny distinction of being one of the few big American cities with no professional comedy club. Enter the Continental Club, first opened in 1945 as a eatery-by-day (Christy’s Grill) and supper club-slash-dance-spot by night (Rumboogie). The current owners decided to launch a comedy club in the space after a trip to LA, where they saw just how much a supported comedy scene is lacking in their city. Join them each Friday and Saturday night, including Mar. 29-30, as they host “Paid Regulars,” their new comedy show of ten- or twenty-minute sets for local comedy talent. 8 p.m., $15. 510-673-8813 or ContinentalComedy.com — Azeen Ghorayshi
Credits: Julie Blair
- Julie Blair
Imogen Binnie
On the surface, it seems like Imogen Binnie wrote her debut novel, Nevada, for the same reasons anyone writes a novel: to tell a story that hasn’t been told before. But Binnie’s concerns extend further; as a trans woman, she said she wasn’t seeing anyone like her portrayed in any kind of media, with any semblance of realistic substance. “I wanted to see a story about trans women that wasn’t all trans 101, deceptive/pathetic dichotomies, and inevitable death tropes,” she wrote on her blog. In the darkly comedic Nevada, Binnie tells the story of Maria Griffiths, a young trans woman living in New York and grappling with an unraveling relationship and her ensuing inability to emotionally engage with her own history as a trans woman. Join Binnie on Saturday, Mar. 30, as she reads from her novel at Pegasus Books Downtown. “Despite all the grim theoretical circumstances around it it’s actually pretty funny,” Binnie continued. “Also there’s lots of sex and cussing. The sex is pretty unfulfilling, though.” 7:30 p.m., free. PegasusBookstore.com — A.G.
