Comedian Daniel Tosh has accomplished many of the same things as others in his craft: Comedy Central specials, late-night TV show appearances, tours of college campuses and comedy clubs and competing on Funny Money on the Game Show Network. But he has done something few others have.Tosh starred in a series of Taco Bell television commercials. He's the guy who ate tacos on the golf course and in a bubble bath at a hotel and tempted bank and jewelry store employees with seven-layer nachos. He was like the Sam-I-Am of the fast-food world. Now he's a full-time joke teller, and he'll bring his boyish good looks and love for surfing to the Addison Improv, 4980 Belt Line Road, through Sunday. Performances are 8:30 p.m. Thursday; 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday; 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12 to $15. Call 972-404-8501.
Friday, August 8
If there isn't a play about putting on a play or another "revitalizing" version of a Shakespeare classic soon, we just won't make it through the late-summer theater drought. Here's our salvation now, and it's a two-fer. In An Evening of Culture: Faith County 2, the "redneck" theater troupe from fictional Faith County decides to stage Romeo and Juliet. The sets aren't built, the actors aren't prepared and there's an obnoxious dog barking off stage. We'd like to think it'll be a charming, pull-it-off-just-in-time heart-warmer similar to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Just don't expect Dallas Theater Center to option it any time soon. Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays from August 8 to August 24. Tickets are $10 to $12. The Runway Theatre, 215 N. Dooley, Grapevine. Call 817-488-4842.
Saturday, August 9
We imagine paratroopers being one of three things: extremely brave, adrenaline rush-addicted or off their rockers. They jump out of a plane into a battlefield in only a uniform attached to a giant parachute, risking trees, power lines and snipers all before reaching the ground where the actual fighting is. Look for all when James Megellas signs his memoir All the Way to Berlin: A Paratrooper at War in Europe. As part of the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II, Megellas participated both in the battle of Anzio, known as one of the bloodiest Allied operations of the war, and in the Operation Market Garden in Holland, which involved crossing the Waal River, a feat portrayed in the film A Bridge Too Far. Megellas, who now lives in Dallas, will sign his book and discuss his experiences at 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Park, 7700 W. Northwest Highway, #300. Call 214-739-1124.
Sunday, August 10
We've never had the patience for Bob Marley's music. We prefer our political commentary and reggae beats funneled through punk rock in the style of The Clash. But maybe after a few Red Stripes we'd change our minds and enjoy the Legends of Rasta Reggae Festival--formerly the Bob Marley Festival--this Saturday and Sunday. The two-day touring festival features several reggae bands from the Dallas area including Watusi and Mighty Fists of Dread, plus headliners from Nigeria, South Africa and Trinidad. Each night ends with a "reggae fusion finale," which sounds like a big jam with all the bands onstage at once. In addition to music, there are booths, vendors and activities for kids. The Legends of Rasta Reggae Festival is noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Annette Strauss Artist Square, 1800 Leonard St., next to the Meyerson Symphony Center. Admission is $8 in advance, $10 at the gate or $15 for couples. From noon to 3 p.m., admission is a $5 cash donation, a new teddy bear donation or a donation of $8 in nonperishable food. Call Ticketmaster at 214-373-8000 or the festival hotline at 214-550-3851.
Monday, August 11
If for you a "global sampler" is an appetizer plate of Buffalo wings, egg rolls and cheese sticks, step out of that chain restaurant in Addison and come on down to Sur La Table. Chef Jennifer Moschel-Brightman will lead her students in preparing her idea of a global sampler. The menu includes crostini (an Italian toasted bread dish), vegetable spring rolls, pesto with soba noodles, flank steak with chimichurri and cinnamon toast-flavored bread pudding. Granted, we can't name the origins of some of these dishes, but we do know that chimichurri is a sauce from Argentina, not something based on the chimney sweep song from Mary Poppins. The class is 6:30 p.m., and admission is $60. Sur La Table, 4527 Travis St., Suite A. Call 214-219-4404.
Tuesday, August 12
Our favorite drama about a group of people stuck in a small seafaring vessel was always the one about the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Now the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Lone Star Film Festival (formerly the Fort Worth Film Festival) present an alternative during Classics at the Modern, a festival of classic films screened the second Tuesday of each month. August's selection is Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat. At different times in the 67-minute film, eight people occupy a lifeboat. They're a diverse group of survivors of a Nazi U-boat attack on an ocean liner. The last passenger added (and the last subtracted) is the German man who was captain of the boat that led the attack, who intends to take the survivors to his mother ship and make them prisoners of war. He's the only one with the knowledge to keep them from floating aimlessly. The others' occupations include magazine writer and photographer, capitalist, nurse and a few of the destroyed boat's crewmen. Despite the claustrophobic premise, Hitchcock finds a way to work in a cameo appearance. Lifeboat will be shown in the museum auditorium. The event starts at 7 p.m. with classic shorts and cartoons before the feature. Admission is $5.50 to $7.50. The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St., Fort Worth. Call 817-738-9215.
Wednesday, August 13
In Being John Malkovich, you had to crawl through a tiny door to enter Malkovich's mind. For a similar experience, you just have to go to the Dallas Museum of Art, and it's even more disturbing than seeing Malkovich in drag. In Talo/The House, Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila presents her three-screen installation showing her concept of the mind of a young woman with psychotic episodes through her experiences, her treatment and finally her newly ordered "normal" world. The idea is to present the everyday trials of mental illness. The surrounding, objects and activities on the screens may be unremarkable, but what happens around them isn't. The exhibit is playing in the Southwest Quadrant Gallery Tuesdays through Sundays through August 17. Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St. Call 214-922-1200.
