Herm Pugay

The Jersey Boys tour bus arrives at the Curran Theatre

If falsetto warblings make you weak in the knees, Jersey Boys could induce a seizure. The boys are back in town and opened on Saturday at theCurran Theatre, kicking off an eight-week run. On Friday night, we got the chance to quaff choice cocktails (Walk like a MANhattan or Joy-zee Juice anyone?) and talk a little dirty with the handsome-as-hell cast at a Q&A happy hour; we're still convinced the Curran Balcony's never seen that much booze.

Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons are played by Nick Cosgrove (Frankie Vallie), John Gardiner (Tommy DeVito), Miles Jacoby (Bob Gaudio), and Michael Lomenda (Nick Massi). The four "men" -- (sorry but Nick looks like a fresh-faced elfin boy, all sweet grin and fair skin) -- were all dashing in full suits, coiffed do's, and winsome smiles. They poised, preened, and waxed a bit poetic about "the process," their journeys as performers, and of course, San Francisco; they also got a little naughty. Here's a juicy little round-up of what these blue collar Broadway badasses had to say for themselves.

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Mindy Tucker

Alex Koll

One of the most visible, prolific, and best of San Francisco's stand-up comedians, and a co-founder of The Business (SF Weekly's 2012 Best Night of Cheap Comedy), Alex Koll is, well, leaving us. Though raised in L.A., he has lived in the Bay Area since he was a teenager, and this is where he cut his teeth as a comic.

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Sari Gilman

Sari Gilman has been editing other people's documentaries for 15 years. Last year, she made one of her own. An attentive group portrait of five people living at a Florida retirement resort, Kings Point marks an impressive debut, not least because it earned its maker a nomination for an Academy Award. The film itself seems innately modest, just half an hour long and neither technically nor narratively showy. What distinguishes it, though, is Gilman's clear-eyed point of view. Kings Point isn't the place to look for reassuring bromides about riding off into the sunset of life. Gilman's subjects aren't just adorably wrinkly wisdom dispensers; they're people, with wounds and worries, who've lived long enough to speak very frankly about the hardships of human connection. "Everybody's a user here," one resident says. "Self-preservation is number one," says another. Gilman, who lives in San Francisco, spoke with us by phone recently about how the film came to be, what her Oscar nomination feels like, and where she hopes to take our cultural conversation about growing old.

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(Photo: Jennifer Reiley)

Sarah Nina Hayon and Sean San José in Octavio Solis' Se Llama Cristina at Magic Theatre through February 17

In Octavio Solis' new play, Se Llama Cristina, which had its world premiere at the Magic Theatre on January 30, a man and a woman wake up in a room with no memory of who they are or how they got there. And they have a sneaking suspicion they might be parents.

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By Emilie Mutert

Paul F. Tompkins is, as his official bio states, a comedian. Besides having a handful of comedy albums, stand-up specials, and stints on Mr. Show with Bob and David and Best Week Ever, he's become internet-famous in the comedy podcast boom era. You'll hear him most often on Comedy Bang Bang! or his own The Pod F. Tompkast in character as one of a handful of his quasi-celebrity alter-egos: rapper and SVU-er Ice-T, cake boss Buddy Valastro, or director Garry Marshall, among others.

Tompkins has stepped outside stand-up, cobbling together comedy and storytelling and old-fashioned variety shows in live performances, web videos, and particularly podcasts, a medium that he says has found its footing and has started to be taken seriously. He's coming to San Francisco from his Los Angeles home base to partake in his at-least-eighth SF Sketchfest. We talked to him about his many projects, following in Adele's musical footprints, and what's worth seeing at this year's festival.

See Also: Six Must-See Under-the-Radar Events at SF Sketchfest

SF Sketchfest Announces 2013 Lineup: A Feast of Comedy Like No Other

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It's about 5 p.m. on Sunday, January 20. The 49ers just secured a place in the Superbowl, but I'm not out celebrating, because I'm locked in a room with 11 strangers. Inside the room is a desk, a couch, art, and some random furniture. There are two doors, and both of them are locked. One with a padlock, and the other with a regular door knob. We have one hour to escape.

See Also: Black Friday: SF Weekly Takes Masochism to a New Level, Spends 24 Hours at Walmart

Columnist Anna Pulley Flies Through the Air with the Greatest of ... Fear, but She Beats It

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Say what you will about the prevalence of human feces and sky-rocketing rents -- the Bay Area is still an indisputably beautiful place. These videos by Shia Productions capture some of the natural and man-made wonders of San Francisco and Oakland that are rife for exploration, cheap dates, or just to gawk at the sheer loveliness of our hilly homes.

See Also: Hundreds of Starlings Fly through Downtown San Francisco (Video)
What Gay Men Think About Vaginas (Video)

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John Steinbeck

Cultural institutions in San Francisco continually search for new acquisitions. Alexis Coe brings you the most important, often wondrous, sometimes bizarre, and occasionally downright vexing finds every Friday.

The Saryan Museum in Yerevan, Armenia, is a rather unusual place to find a portrait of the American writer John Steinbeck. The Pulitzer Prize winner's reluctance to sit for such paintings was well-known, and yet there it is, an unmistakable likeness found in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia, painted by Martiros Saryan, the nation's most famous and revered artist.

See also:

Batman Illustrator Donates Rare Comic Books to the Cartoon Art Museum

New Exhibition Forever Alters Chinese Culture Foundation

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everfalling/Flickr

By Lydia Laurenson

"There are a lot of journalists here tonight," Andrew McKinley, owner of Adobe Books, said as he poured me some wine. Indeed, I spotted no fewer than three people seeking commentary while taking handwritten notes, and one with a microphone. It made sense: a lot of San Franciscans thought the well-loved bookstore was closing due to skyrocketing rent. Wednesday night was rumored to be a "farewell reading" featuring three of the city's most remarkable writers.

See also: Bookstore Hero Wanted: Two San Francisco Stores in Trouble

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In 1993, the Gracie family of Brazil changed the martial arts world forever. They held a no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Denver, CO., billed as the Ultimate Fighting Championship. There were no weight classes, very few rules, and experts from several different fighting styles were invited to compete. The smallest competitor, Royce Gracie, won the competition, defeating all of his opponents in under five minutes. Royce credited his family's style of jiu-jitsu with his success.

See also:

A Delicate Balance: Five Questions for S.F.'s Hottest Pole Acrobat

An Honest Liar: 5 Questions for a Magician

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