FRIDAY-SATURDAY
>> Comedy and jazz will be on tap during Lea DeLaria’s isle shows
Lea DeLaria, a gender-bending comedian, actress and jazz musician, drops into the Blue Note Hawaii for two nights this week. She might now be best known for her role as Carrie “Big Boo” Black, a stocky, strutting prison inmate with sky-high self-esteem to match her lascivious lesbian sex drive, on “Orange Is the New Black.”
DeLaria, who usually performs wearing a man’s suit on her barrel-shaped frame, got her start in comedy in the early 1980s after she went to a San Francisco club that was holding a gay open-mic comedy night, only to find just one comedian taking the stage. She wrote a bit based on her Catholic upbringing — “I learned at an early age that if you make the nuns laugh, they wouldn’t hit me,” she would tell Conan O’Brien years later — and took up the mic herself.
Expect a show of fun and variety. The daughter of a musician, DeLaria is an accomplished jazz vocalist who has sung at the Newport Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Sydney Opera House.
LEA DELARIA
Presented by Blue Note Hawaii
>> Where: Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort
>> When: 6:30 and 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday
>> Cost: $35-$45
>> Info: 777-4890, bluenotehawaii.com
Her 1993 appearance on “The Arsenio Hall Show” made DeLaria the first openly gay comic on national television. From there she’s made numerous film and television appearances, including roles on “One Life to Live,” “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Friends,” in which her character hits on Phoebe at a lesbian wedding. She’s won accolades for her stage performances, winning an Obie in 1998 for her portrayal as Hildy in “On the Town” at New York’s Public Theater — and hosting this year’s Obie Award in May.
SATURDAY
>> Waikiki bash to feature beer and bratwurst
The Hilton Hawaiian Village will roll out the barrels Saturday for the Third Annual Waikiki Beer Festival.
More than 100 beers, 30 wines and 30 sakes will be featured at the festival, a benefit for the Wounded Warriors Ohana. Festivalgoers can get 10 tastings for the $75 general admission fee starting at 6 p.m., but if you want to be sure to get your fill, consider the $105 VIP ticket. It includes dinner and starts at 4 p.m., so you can quickly down the 10 tastings early and then settle down with your favorite brew or two.
THIRD ANNUAL WAIKIKI BEER FESTIVAL
A benefit for the Wounded Warriors Ohana
>> Where: Hilton Hawaiian Village Great Lawn
>> When: 6-9 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $75-$105 (military discount available)
>> Info: 947-7955, hiltonhawaiianvillage.com/beer
Food will also be perfect with a beverage, with items like beer-braised bratwurst, kiawe-smoked beef brisket, tempura shrimp dynamite, pretzels and tater tot nachos.
Live entertainment starts at 5 p.m. with songstress Starr Kalahiki, followed by country/folk/island stylist Blayne Asing and Alx Kawakami of Manoa DNA. Henry Kapono, a longtime supporter of the military, closes out the evening with his All Star Band.
>> Florida band to bring emo sound to town
Florida rockers Mayday Parade bring their textured, indie sound and wistful love songs to The Republik.
Formed in 2005, the group made a name for itself after it self-produced its first EP, “Tales Told by Dead Friends” and sold them at Van’s Warped Tour concerts. That led to official billing on the Warped Tour and national tours with Pierce the Veil and All Time Low.
MAYDAY PARADE
Presented by BAMP Project
>> Where: The Republik, 1349 Kapiolani Blvd.
>> When: 8 p.m. Saturday
>> Cost: $25-$30
>> Info: 941-7469, jointherepublik.com
The group has produced five full-length albums, with its eponymous album in 2011 reaching No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Its most recent album is “Black Lines,” released in 2015, which, with tunes like “One of Them Will Destroy the Other,” features a more aggressive sound than the group’s previous albums, which include “A Lesson in Romantics” (2007), “Anywhere but Here” (2009), and “Monsters in the Closet” (2013).
The group “excels at anthemic, emo-inflected rock,” wrote Rolling Stone, commenting on “Letting Go,” another single from “Black Lines.”
The band comprises lead singer Derek Sanders, guitarists Brooks Betts and Alex Garcia, bassist Jeremy Lenzo and drummer Jake Bundrick. They are childhood friends from Tallahassee, Fla., who work collaboratively on all of their music.
TUESDAY
>> Film series on social issues invites discussion by viewers
Ever go to a thought-provoking film and want to talk about it with a bunch of people afterward? That’s what Hawaii Women in Filmmaking is offering with Indie Lens Pop-up, a series of films that begins Tuesday.
INDIE LENS POP-UP
Presented by Hawaii Women in Filmmaking
>> Where: PBS Hawaii, 315 Sand Island Access Road
>> When: 5:30-8 p.m. Tuesday
>> Cost: Free
>> Info: 206-0848, fb.com/HIWomenInFilmmaking
The series, previously known as Community Cinema, presents films concerning subjects including race relations, gender identity and class struggle, with a facilitated discussion held afterward.
“It’s not much panels, but more like a talk-story format, so that everybody feels they can participate,” said Vera Zambonelli of Hawaii Women in Filmmaking.
The opening film is “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary,” pictured, which features clips of the saxophonist during childhood and documents his years as a groundbreaking jazz musician, his struggles with drugs and his eventual recovery.
“It’s about the power of music and how it can change people’s life,” Zambonelli said.
The next film in the series is the widely praised “I Am Not Your Negro,” a timely, Oscar-nominated 2017 documentary about African-American author and activist James Baldwin and his observations on racism and the civil rights movement, on Nov. 15. For a full series schedule, go to hawaiiwomeninfilmmaking.org.
“The beauty of the films is that they address so many issues and topics,” Zambonelli said.