COMEDY
DECEMBER
No Rest for the Wicked Funny
Through Saturday
Improv Asylum Theater
216 Hanover St., Boston
MBTA: Orange Line to Haymarket
$10, 617-263-NUTS
The fifth annual comedy event is also a 24-hour charity drive, with 100 percent of profits going to local children via Globe Santa. If you think laughing at comedy is fun, just try laughing at comedy after you've stayed up so late that you've passed exhaustion and have entered some funky sleep-deprived semi-consciousness. That's when the laff riot starts.
Todd Barry
Dec. 10
Great Scott
1222 Comm. Ave., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Harvard Ave.
$15, 617-566-9014
You've seen stand-up comedian Todd Barry in films like the underrated "Pootie Tang," or as the bongo-playing third member of the band on HBO's "Flight of the Conchords." He'll do the whole bald-man-stand-up routine thing and make Great Scott a funny place.
Jim Breuer
Dec. 11
Wilbur Theatre
246 Tremont St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Boylston
$25-$32, 800-745-3000
Ex-"SNL" member Jim Breuer, not-so-fondly remembered for characters such as Goat Boy, is more fondly known for that perma-stoned grin he wears while delivering excitable stand-up routines.
Dane Cook
Dec. 31
TD Garden
Causeway St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to North Station
$30-$100, 800-745-3000
Perhaps the most hated contemporary comedian by fellow comedians, Cambridge native Dane Cook is also the only comic playing the Garden this winter.
JANUARY
Rob Schneider
Jan. 9
Wilbur Theatre
246 Tremont St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Boylston
$35-$42, 800-745-3000
Remember this guy? "You can do it!"? The guy who brought you Deuce Bigalow and repeatedly gets himself in hot water for playing Hawaiian and Japanese characters in Adam Sandler movies hits the stand-up circuit.
FEBRUARY
Pauly Shore
Feb. 12
Wilbur Theatre
246 Tremont St., Boston
MBTA: Green Line to Boylston
$22-$29, 800-745-3000
No, seriously, remember THIS guy? The weasel!! Find out if Shore still possesses that doofus charm that got him a string of movie deals in the mid-'90s when he gets on stage at the Wilbur.
ONGOING
Awkward Compliment
Thursday nights
Somerville Theatre
55 Davis Square, Somerville
MBTA: Red Line to Davis
www.somervilletheatreonline.com
A new generation of improv comedians is rising, and you can find them here anchored by the fail-safe troupe Awkward Compliment, who headline each week, and invite their funny friends and other aspiring com-ics to begin the evening.
Improv Asylum
Ongoing
Improv Asylum Theater
216 Hanover St., Boston
MBTA: Orange Line to Haymarket
$20, 617-263-6887
Improv Asylum has shows with their mainstage and NXT casts on every day of the week except for Mondays, unequivocal proof that comedy just doesn't work on Mondays.
Improv Boston
ImprovBoston Theatre
40 Prospect St., Cambridge
MBTA: Red Line to Central
$12-$16, 617-576-1253
ImprovBoston's ongoing main stage show puts the "funny" back in Cambridge, with skits, improvisations, and other comedic shenanigans. Pauly Shore, Dane Cook, Rob Schneider, Jim Breuer: eat yer hearts out!