The Best Events and Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Week

New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from February 1 to February 4. 

It's Not for Everyone
Though this show is called “It’s Not For Everyone,” there’s a good chance it’ll be a laugh riot for you.

Comedians Erick Biez and Angela Merkin Haines host a new weekly stand-up event, featuring a rotating mix of local talent along with drink and food specials. Nearly a dozen comics will take to the stage during this week’s debut, including Charlie Speez of “Snapbattles,” Genevieve Rice of the podcast Thank You For Being a Podcast, and Anwar Newton, who opened for Hannibal Buress and Tig Notaro last year.

The free stand-up sets start at 8 p.m. on Monday, February 1, at Majerle’s Sports Grill, 24 North Second Street. To check out the full comedic lineup, head to www.facebook.com/events/1717322215179854. For venue details, visit www.majerles.com or call 602-253-0118. Janessa Hilliard

Spillers
Not so long ago, storytelling was relegated to camp fires and classrooms. Now? Phoenix is fit to burst with a plethora of hip storytelling events all across the city. On Monday, February 1, Spillers No. 3 is taking over Crescent Ballroom with six local writers (including Patrick Michael Finn, whose short story collection won the 2009 Hudson Prize). Spillers is a quarterly event, which includes a series of podcasts and a collectible book of stories. Don’t forget to belly up to the bar and try the custom cocktail Crescent is creating for the event.

Spillers No. 3 will take place from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at 308 North Second Avenue. The 21-and-over event is free. For more information, visit spillers.net. Katrina Montgomery

Pretty Things Peep Show
If your idea of the best night out ever involves naughty puppets, campy sword-swallowing showgirls, and mind-blowing magic tricks delivered with a touch of cheeky humor, then you are in luck.

The Pretty Things Peep Show is rolling into town to entertain you with their bawdy vaudevillian extravaganza that is dripping with racy and suspenseful fun. Performers include Go-Go Amy, a fire-eating burlesque dancer, and Charlie Atlas, who will dazzle you with his whip-cracking and knife throwing skills. Charlie’s wife Rachel, a.k.a. the Painproof Princess, is on the precarious side of those flying knives. The dangerously delicious fun happens from 7 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, February 2, at Phoenix Center for the Arts, 1202 North Third Street. Tickets are $15. Call 602-254-3100 or visit www.phoenixcenterforthearts.org. Amy Young


Waste Management Phoenix Open
Let’s be honest: You’re not going to the Phoenix Open to clap politely at Jordan Spieth’s well-executed draw. It’s not that kind of golf tournament. No, this is the kind of event that drew more than half a million people to TPC Scottsdale last year, including 190,000 in one day. It’s the kind that features a hole with stadium seating; where Phil Mickelson — who’s playing again this year, by the way — is a hero on par with Achilles; where caddies race each other and fans often jump into the water hazards just because. It’s “The Greatest Show on Grass” and it’s a hell of a good time.

The Waste Management Phoenix Open runs through Sunday, February 7, at TPC Scottsdale, 17020 North Hayden Road. General admission tickets are free Monday and Tuesday, $30 Wednesday and Thursday, and $40 Friday through Sunday. Visit wmphoenixopen.com for more. Zach Fowle


"Romance of Italian Leather"
Please don’t murder us, PETA, but we have to admit that sometimes leather looks really beautiful, despite, you know, being the actual skin off of a formerly living and breathing creature. For a deeper understanding of leather’s history outside the world of fashion, head to Mary Wolfe’s lecture “Romance of Italian Leather, Beyond the Runway.” During her Wednesday, February 3, talk at Phoenix Art Museum, the Spinneybeck leather sales representative will look back on how leather has served as a functional material in both interior and industrial design.

The free lecture starts at 7 p.m. in Singer Hall at 1625 North Central Avenue. For more information, see arizonacostumeinstitute.org. Becky Bartkowski

An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein
Shel Silverstein wrote The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and other stuff for kids, sure. But in the ’50s and ’60s, he cartooned for Playboy. And he wrote practically every song Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show recorded (including “The Cover of the Rolling Stone”).

Such a diverse output demands labels, so the latest from Binary Theatre Company, the ASU Tempe student production group, is called An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein, continuing through Sunday, February 7. The sketches aren’t, like, back-room Adult, but they’re not all cheerful and kid-friendly either: a newly-minted bag lady (what we might now call a mobile hoarder), a “who would you throw overboard” game, a very strange laundry.

Get ready to laugh and feel grown up at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 4. Admission is $8, or $5 with a donation of non-perishable food, at 970 East University Drive. Purchase advance tickets at www.binarytheatre.org. Julie Peterson

Bar Flies
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but Valley Bar is kinda the place to be any given night of the week in downtown Phoenix. And Thursday, February 4, will be no exception. That’s when New Times’ reading series Bar Flies returns to 130 North Central Avenue with Kim Porter, Karen Bayless Feldman, Deborah Sussman, Kevin Vaughn-Brubaker, and Kathy West reading true stories revolving around the theme “The Single Life.” So if you’re going stag, you’ll fit right in.

Tickets are $5 and available through www.ticketfly.com. Doors open at 6 p.m., and readings start at 7. For more information, see www.valleybarphx.com. Becky Bartkowski