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​ Don't miss these funny nights in the San Francisco neighborhood where the most cool kids go.

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I remember the first time I saw Brent Weinbach on stage. He was a new (at least to me) comedian. And it was at the Punch Line in San Francisco. It was a Sunday night, and I was supposed to follow him. I had heard he was funny, but I didn't have much hope for him to have a good set. Why? Because he was a new comic and they usually don't.

Well, I was wrong. Brent KILLED. DESTROYED. He destroyed in the way that you occasionally see new comics destroy a room, as if to say, "I'm here and I am a force to be reckoned with. No waiting patiently in line for me. FOLLOW THAT!"

I immediately knew I had to recapture the audience's attention. It wasn't going to be easy. And in large part it wasn't going to be easy because Brent had done something that I had historically hated.

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​Everyone should follow at least a few comics on Twitter.The network has opened a new avenue for funny people to broadcast their jokes, with the added challenge of the 140-character limit forcing creative wit and succinctness. Following comic tweeps can also make you privvy to a world of live events that you might have otherwise missed. Here are a few of the best of them to check out in the Bay Area.More >>

Photos by Erin Browner

The cast of Killing My Lobster Chops Down the Family Tree.

San Francisco sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster turns 15 this year, and to celebrate, it launches a frontal assault on the idea of family. Killing My Lobster Chops Down the Family Tree opens tonight (Thursday, April 26) at The Jewish Theatre. Director Rana Weber's cultural jabs focus on dissecting families in a progressive society. "There's gay families and straight families, and families with no limbs," she says. The troupe has taken multiple punches at San Francisco's quirks and flaws, and many (OK, some) locals are OK laughing at themselves. The troupe's video "The Coffee Wars" turned the microbrewing trend into a History Channel-esque episode on war between loyalists of different coffeehouses. Another Killing My Lobster viral video presents spending a free day in the city as a Twilight Zone episode -- "Why Is Everybody Here?"

The Exhibitionist sat down with Killing My Lobster's creative director, Andy Alabran, to hear about the hilarity of the troupe's latest show, its plans to buy its own home, and hosting a very merry Quinceanera.

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​Modeled after the popular Iron Chef America, which is itself modeled after the quirky Japanese show Iron Chef, Nato Green's Iron Comic is a live game show where five comedians rush against the clock to write a routine from topics suggested on the spot by the audience.More >>

Joey was a career ironworker in New Jersey who suffered a two-story fall on a job site that left him near death. Yet as paramedics showed up and co-workers surrounded him, his chief concern was not dying. It was being cut out of his clothes, which would reveal shaved legs and toenails painted red. For decades, Joey had been living a lie.

Today Joey is living truly, as Morgan. The accident - a fall from the 28th floor to the 26th, was horrific. A cable prevented the fall from being six more stories yet caused a lacerated liver. Other injuries included 20 breaks in arm bones, and multiple breaks in the pelvis. Morgan now has a rod in her leg, along with eigh carriage bolts.

"I had to fall two stories as an iron worker to realize how precarious life is. That was my wake-up call that was when I realized how quickly your life can change," says Morgan.

Morgan is a professional comedian and storyteller who appears tonight at Viracocha in a variety show called Girl Junk, the first in a monthly series.

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Kevin Hees

Are you ready for Bill Bellamy?

"I got nine felonies -- bitch, I'm Bill Bellamy!"

The famously esoteric Berkeley rapper Lil B immortalized the comedian Bellamy (who first came to public recognition in the 1990s as an MTV host) with an unlikely song last summer for no other apparent reason than a convenient rhyme. The real Bellamy, for his part, offered himself up to do the remix, but, alas, it never materialized.

Bellamy snatched up his favorite enterprising young comedians that he met from the four seasons he spent hosting the show Who's Got Jokes on TV One for his Ladies' Night Out tour, which stops at Cobb's Comedy Club for three nights starting Friday. A special from the tour called Crazy Sexy Dirty airs on Showtime on June 2.

During a phone interview, the congenial Bellamy politely juggled his responses with exchanging pleasantries with an admiring female fan at a Manhattan Starbucks who sounded like she wanted to attack him (sexually). He promised that, despite the name, the show won't leave men out and, in fact, it might actually be a good place for a guy to meet a new chick.

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​Space is limited for these noteworthy comedy showcases, so get your tickets. Then, walk around with a little extra pride this week, knowing you're supporting local stand-up, helping your community, and you're in for some serious laughs.More >>

Jimmie Walker began his career in stand-up comedy more than 40 years ago. His first gigs were in front of the infamously judgmental audiences at Harlem's Apollo Theater and as the official comedian of the Black Panthers for about two years. This gave him a thick skin and a quick, aware wit from the beginning -- a necessity allowing him the rare longevity to call stand-up his main career to this day.

It's also kept him from losing his mind over the fact that, to most people who are aware of American pop culture, he'll always be the kid from the TV show Good Times who says, "Dy-no-mite!" Walker, who appears four nights starting Thursday at Tommy T's Showroom, played J.J. Evans for five years in the 1970s, but the show, in perpetual syndication, has raised a few generations.

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