weekend event planner

Here are the top 10 things to do in Houston this weekend

Sebastian Maniscalo brings his brand of kooky comedy to town.

This weekend, cosplayers and comic-book will be flocking to Comicpalooza on Saturday and Sunday. Expect downtown Houston to be a straight-up geekapalooza.

However, for those with — shall we say a more "refined" — taste, Sunday is National Caviar Day. Several spots will be taking advantage of this with special caviar-related events, including The Annie Cafe and Bar, Turner's and Uchi Houston. Also, check out our National Caviar Day coverage here.

Also this weekend, look for a local theater's big event, beer-fueled bashes, a bar anniversary party, fun markets, and a red-hot comic coming to town. Here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, July 15

Express Theatre presents Rhyme & Reason
This virtual event will feature music, dance, and performance poetry, presenting Black history from ancient Africa to today. The production features poetry by Houston Poet Laureate Emeritus Deborah DEEP Mouton and members of her slam poetry team, with a special appearance by Lauren Anderson, the world’s first African American prima ballerina, from the Houston Ballet. There will also be a short Q&A with the cast. 10 am.

The Riot Comedy Show presents The Interruption with Tre Tutson
For those who have ever checked out went to LA and checked out The Benson Interruption, where comedian Doug Benson would interject other comics doing their sets on-stage, The Riot Comedy Show has something just like it. A hand-selected lineup of comedians have agreed to be interrupted in the middle of their performance by Tru Tutson, one of the most flippant, unfiltered, abrasive, and hilarious Houston comedians who always gets the last word in with these comics. 7:30 pm.

Friday, July 16

Big Trouble in Little China Watch Party & Beer Release
To celebrate the 35th Anniversary of John Carpenter's wacky 1986 adventure, Eureka Heights is showing the film on their new titan screen. Come early and grab yourself a good seat and pint or a 4-pack of their new Golden Six Shooter Golden Ale. They worked closely with co-star/man of many weapons himself Gerald Okamura on this brew. They will also be giving away autographed items and swag to a few lucky fans in attendance. 7 pm.

Sebastian Maniscalco: Nobody Does This Tour
Along with being perhaps the only comic to have a obsessed fan in E! personality Giuliana Rancic, Sebastian Maniscalco has celebrated heights only a few comedians ever achieve. In addition to his stand-out stand-up career, which has seen him headlines at arenas across the country, he has appeared in movies like Tag, Green Book, and The Irishman. He's now on the road, ready to make a stop in Houston as part of his Nobody Does This tour. 7 pm.

Theatre Southwest presents All in the Timing
All in the Timing is a collection of one-act plays by David Ives. The short plays are almost all comedies, which such titles as Words, Words, Words, Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread, and Variations on the Death of Trotsky. These plays focus mainly on language and wordplay, existentialist perspectives on life and meaning, as well as the complications involved in romantic relationships. This will run through Saturday, July 31. 8 pm. (3 pm Sunday).

Saturday, July 17

Brews & Browse Art Market
Bring the family out to the Ingenious Brewing Co Brewing Company (where they have some monthly events as a night of beer and lobster!) and join them for this new, monthly gathering full of beer, food, art, and handmade fun. They will have a full selection of beer on tap, wine by the glass and bottled soda for sale. GastroCraft will be serving up some delicious grub to satisfy your hunger. And let's not forget all the art vendors that will be selling all their creative stuff. Noon.

Revelry on Richmond 7 Year Anniversary Party
Revelry is going all-in for their seven-year anniversary party this weekend. They'll also be celebrating surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, and want to give thanks to everyone that helped support them. The sports bar will turn into a casino for the night with fun games like blackjack, craps, roulette, and more. They will also be raffling off cool raffle prizes throughout the night, such as Astros tickets, a two-night stay at the Heights House Hotel, a foursome at Houston National Golf Club and much more. 7 pm.

Community Music Center of Houston presents Family Funk Festival
This funk celebration will be intergenerational, beginning in the 1970s to the present. Some of Houston’s great musicians, including Vivian Mosley and her band The Storm, will perform hits from Parliament, Funkadelic, George Clinton, and others. After intermission, Tweed Smith, a former member of the funk band War, will wow audiences with some of their greatest hits. The uniqueness of this concert is that it includes both classic and new songs in the world of funk. 8:30 pm.

Sunday, July 18

Legacy Community Health presents Mint Julep
For close to 40 years, Legacy has led the fight against HIV, opening its doors to the LGBTQ+ community in 1978 as the Montrose Clinic. Now in its 19th year, this legendary Houston LGBTQ event will honor Jani Lopez, a former Mint Julep chairperson and long-time supporter of Legacy's mission to drive healthy change. The event's integrated approach to care has helped give patients the opportunity to live healthier, more productive lives, and help end the spread of HIV. 10 am.

Cosmic Creature Events presents Solar Summer Food Fest
Located at the back patio of Social Beer Garden HTX, this is a celebration of all things: smoked and savory, spicy and sweet, cheesy and mouthwatering. But, mostly, this is an event made for Houstonians by Houstonians! They will have a plethora of local eats and sweets for you to enjoy. There will be plenty of options to fit every taste and diet. Bring your family and friends. Vegan options available. 6 pm.

event-planner

welcome home, wes

Wes Anderson's Houston homecoming supports historic theater restoration

A fancy, eccentric-looking crowd showed up for the Wes Anderson Homecoming Soirée, held on Friday, July 17, at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’s Zilkha Hall.

Fans of the Houston-born, Oscar-winning auteur paid hundreds of dollars to attend this benefit event. Guys dressed up like characters from The Royal Tenenbaums. Others wore red skull caps and low-top Adidas, like the characters from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Some people working the event even wore “Lobby Boy” hats, looking like the bellboy character from The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The people gathered for two reasons: 1) to get a chance to see Anderson in person; and 2) to raise money to renovate and restore the Garden Oaks Theater, a project spearheaded by local nonprofit Arthouse Houston. Top-tier “Founders Experience” ticketholders got a chance to meet Anderson onstage for pics. The St. John's School alum also received a proclamation from Mayor John Whitmire declaring it “Wes Anderson Day.”

After that, he and actor/fellow SJS alum Michael Maggart (who has appeared in several Anderson films) held a half-hour discussion where they reminisced about making Rushmore here in Houston, Anderson’s days working at the Bookstop on W. Alabama (now a Trader Joe’s), and how he and frequent collaborator Owen Wilson used to sneak into the River Oaks Theatre. (It involved pretending to lose a pair of glasses.)

Of course, the conversation shifted to Anderson coming back home to support the Garden Oaks project. “I always say you can't build an old building,” Anderson said. “First of all, I mean, a beautiful old place has history, and has people's experiences tied into it, and it has stories involved in it. And I think an old cinema — these things are kind of endangered all over the world, and it's not just an architectural thing. It's not even just a community thing. It's a sort of delivery system for something that’s, to me, deeply important to our country.

“It’s one thing we can access these things on all these devices,” he continued. “It's a different thing when you go to a place that's designed to help you share the experience of a movie together. It's such a powerful art form. And, anyway, for me, it's worth making a bit of an effort to try to save a place like the Garden Oaks.”

After the convo, he introduced the quintet of films he curated for the event. (Unfortunately the DCP file for his 2007 short Hotel Chevalier had some technical difficulties and was cut short.) “We wanted to do a screening here, and I don't have a new movie to show,” he said. “I don't have something hot off the presses. So, I thought I'd put together a little something that just was different from what anybody else will see. So it's a sort of mixture… This is just for Texas, this little collection.”

He eventually left the stage, leaving Arthouse Houston co-founder/director Maureen McNamara and Houston Public Media host Ernie Manouse to auction off perks & gifts and encourage the audience in helping revive another legendary, local movie palace. Among other items, attendees bid for treasures such as a special John Waters backstage VIP experience at his upcoming Christmas Show, dinner with John Cameron Mitchell, and a rare set of photo portraits of a young Anderson and friends, circa Bottle Rocket. Others paid $5,000 for select seats in the future theater and $5,000 to restore one foot of the venue's neon sign.

Photo by Alan Nguyen

Mayor John Whitmire declared Friday as Wes Anderson day in the director's honor.

So far, the effort has raised approximately $1.3 million of the $4 million required to begin the renovation project. The organization needs to raise $4 million by July 30 for the project to move forward. Those interested in securing naming rights will find more information here.

“River Oaks has 245 seats,” McNamara informed the crowd. “The Garden has over 700, and that is a place that we don't have in Houston. We have a need for that, for premieres, for performances in your life, for music, for a dynamic learning & exhibition space… So, we're building new on the shoulders of our history. I hope you guys will join us, and we need people to join us in a big way today.”

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