THURSDAY, JAN. 24 2013 >>>

1. Remember that time in high school when your parents went away? You know, plot line of every teenage movie ever made - except this time, you blew up the house. Standing in the ashes as your parents roll up, what do you do? Say it with us now - iiiiiimprovise. Take notes Thursday, Jan. 24 at the Washington Center while watching the best and blithest live comedians and next time you're in a lose-lose situation, you'll wondrously make screams turn to laughter. On the main stage, Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Joel Murray and Jeff Davis star in Whose Live Anyway? - 90 minutes of improvised comedy and song made up before your eyes from your suggestions. In the black box, the Center's Comedy in the Box series features the best from the Seattle Comedy Competition. Both begin at 7:30 p.m., which is not funny. Read Sean Contris' interview with Ryan Stiles in the Weekly Volcano's Arts section.

2. Alec Clayton, author of The Backside of Nowhere and art critic for the Weekly Volcano, recently published Return to Freedom, which begins where Backside left off - the day of the hurricane that wiped out the little bayou village of Freedom, Miss. Teenage hoodlums, who looted an electronics store during a flash flood many years ago, are now adults - one with an alcoholic wife and three teenage children, the other an evangelical preacher - living in the same condo overlooking the bay with an unicycle-riding street performer and single mother who owns a diner. Their lives are as stormy as the hurricane from which they are still recovering. Hear Clayton and local actors Luke Amundson, Michael O'Hara, Sharry O'Hare, Samantha Camp, and Jenifer Rifenbery read scenes from Clayton's new book at 7 p.m. inside King's Books. Discussion and book signing will follow.

3. Against a background of a long drawn-out war and a counter-culture of free love, cross-dressing, and pastoral lyricism, the 1660s look a lot like the 1960s in Or, a neo-Restoration comedy at 8 p.m. inside Harlequin Productions in Olympia.

4. Blending many of the principles of traditional bluegrass and Americana roots, Barleywine Revue supplies a contemporary flavor to their music by playing primarily original tunes. Expect the fiddles, banjos and voices to fire up at 9 p.m. inside The Swiss. Warning: The Tacoma Runners are using The Swiss as their base tonight. Expect to see a mass reflector vest hoedown.

5. Blues dancing derives from the so-called "Black vernacular" of Southern dance styles and includes such moves as the Lindy and the irresistibly named "Funky Butt." Worst case scenario: you have two left feet but get to listen to Nina Simone. Check out OlyBlues Dance at 9 p.m. inside the Eagles Ballroom.

LINK: Thursday, Jan. 23 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area