Five Reasons to Leave the House this Weekend


A contortionist from the Boston Circus Guild. (Photo by Tammy Raabe Rao.)

Theater
Bohemian Bacchanalia
Expect plenty of eye candy at the Boston Circus Guild’s latest offering: a mélange of aerials and burlesque, jazzercise and circus stunts. Combined with the promise of “debauchery, drunken revelry, and wild and mystical festivities,” with juggling, stilts, contortionists, and live music to boot, I can see why this event sold out last year — so best get your tickets with a quickness.
$18-$30, Thursday, Feb. 23 and Friday, Feb. 24, 8:30 p.m., Club Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge, 866-811-4111, cluboberon.com.

Comedy
Paula Poundstone
Local comedienne and NPR’s famed Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me panelist Paula Poundstone is back — last March we caught up with Poundstone before her last standup performance, and I’ll bet you five whole dollars she’s no less funny now than she was then. This guarantees two things if you see the show: you losing a five spot, and a laugh-powered ab workout.
$22?$35, Friday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m., The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston, 800-745-3000, thewilburtheatre.com.

Music
Lauryn Hill
Ever since Lauryn Hill’s notoriously bad performance at the Paramount Theater in Oakland five years ago, fans and critics alike have waxed rhapsodic about the devolution of her career. Well, she hasn’t made any new records, but Hill is touring again, performing songs from her badass 1998 solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Also, does anyone remember when she was in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit?
$58?$75, Thursday, Feb. 23, 8 p.m., House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston, 888-693-2583, houseofblues.com.

Kids
17th Annual Bugs Bunny Film Festival: Looney Tunes Revue
I’ll be the first to admit that Spongebob Squarepants is a fabulous cartoon. But I’ll also wager that not many cartoons these days have the ability to utilize music or animation — oftentimes without even using dialogue — in a way that’s as compelling and lighthearted as Looney Tunes has. Which is why you should pull the parent strings, leave the iPad and Nintendo DS at home, and immerse the kiddos in the series launched by Warner Brothers in 1930.
$6.75?$7.75, Friday, Feb. 24 and Saturday, Feb. 25, 12 p.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m., Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-876-6837, brattlefilm.org.

Film
The Toxic Avenger
I’ll be honest: I have never seen this movie. However, ’80s movies reign supreme in my book, and because this 1984 film has spawned everything from comics to graphic novels to stage productions to band names, I’d say it’s a cult classic worth seeing. But what really seals the deal is the original movie poster.
$9, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24 and 25, 11:59 p.m., Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, 617-734-2500, coolidge.org.