THURSDAY, JAN. 23 2014 >>>

1. The annual Tacoma Home and Garden Show opens 11 a.m. and runs through Sunday at the Tacoma Dome. Everything we want to know or see in the garden world will be on display. The huge event features the first-ever "$25,000 Backyard Makeover" contest, award-winning garden writer and designer Don Engebretson, aka "The Renegade Gardener," will be in the house Friday and Saturday, as will local garden experts Ciscoe Morris, Marianne Binetti, Pete Lisoskie of KIRO Radio's "Home Matters," and many others sharing tips and trends in daily seminars. Show attendees can get a jump on spring gardening projects with inspiration from local vendors, headlined by a feature garden created by Olympic Landscape, and the popular plant sale staged by Olympia's Bark & Garden Center. 

2. Unveil the mysteries of exquisite flavors and treat your senses to the extraordinary foods of Persia when Mitra Mohandessi teaches you the secrets of the dishes she grew up at 6 p.m. in the kitchen at the Bayview School of Cooking.

3. The Washington Center launches its annual Comedy in the Box series at 7:30 p.m. featuring headliner David Crowe, as well as Todd Armstrong and emcee Geoff Brousseau. Cozy into the Black Box Theater-turned-cabaret, and enjoy. A full bar in the lobby completes the action for those 21 and older.

4. Few comedians are so confident that they can take a joke as far as it can go, effectively drive it into the ground in the process, and still drag the audience kicking and screaming the whole way. Watching Gilbert Gottfried lay a joke out in explicit and hilarious detail is a sight to behold, which you can see at 8 p.m. at the Tacoma Comedy Club.

5. Jane Wagner penned the one-woman comedy The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe for her life partner, Lily Tomlin, basing segments on many of the comedian's characters. Tomlin famously allowed a dozen or so characters to inhabit her body, including Agnus Angst, the 15-year-old punk whose hero is G. Gordon Liddy; Lud and Marie, a retired couple (and the grandparents of Agnus Angst); and Trudy the Bag Lady, who acts as a tour guide for visiting space aliens. Harlequin Productions presents award-winning Seattle actress Terri Weagant in the lead roles at 8 p.m.

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