JANUARY
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“Ah, Paris,” a classic bit from the early 1970s that originally featured Gilda Radner as an American in Paris and Eugene Levy as her French suitor; “American Pie,” a mid-90s skit about the dating scene with Miriam Cohen (who now writes for Late Night With Conan O’Brien) and Neil Flynn (the janitor on Scrubs); and many other sketches from the past 40 years have been dusted off for The Best of Second City, which opened January 3 and runs through January 25 at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, 111 Campbell in Arlington Heights. Performances are tonight at 8 and tomorrow night at 7 and 10 and tickets are $17, $12 for students. For more call 847-577-2121 or see www.metropolisarts.com.
11 SATURDAY
13 MONDAY
In 2000, frustrated novelist and former Chicago insurance broker Leif Ueland (grandnephew of If You Want to Write author Brenda Ueland) was hired by Playboy to spend six months on a bus taking photos and writing about the magazine’s national search for the Playmate of the Millennium. His memoir, Accidental Playboy: Caught in the Ultimate Male Fantasy, covers his near misses with the would-be Playmates and deals with his own sexual confusion–a self-described sensitive guy raised in a feminist family, he hadn’t had sex in the six years preceding the assignment and was a bit uncomfortable around all those eager-to-please women. Ueland had the writing bug while living in Chicago in the late 1980s; he’d write at the old Scenes cafe on Clark and “scribble on legal pads at the beginning of every business day.” He returns tonight at 7:30 to read from Accidental Playboy at Quimby’s, 1854 W. North, Chicago (773-342-0910). It’s free; for more on Ueland visit www.leifueland.com.
