Elaine Newport arrived in Washington, D.C. in the early ’80s to be a legislative assistant to Illinois Republican Senator Chuck Percy. The piano major thought her primary course of study in college wouldn’t come in very handy. That was until a Christmas party in 1981 when she and several coworkers decided to provide some entertainment for the event. “We thought we’d do this once for a Christmas party and be told to stop, or be fired, or both,” she recalls. “But 27 years later no one has stopped us, so we’re still going.” And The Capitol Steps were born. They perform 7:30 p.m. at Music Hall.  

In the fifth grade, Jerry Rocha got his first break as a stand-up comic. “My fifth grade teacher actually made a deal with me,” recalls the Texas-native. “He said ‘If you shut up during class, and don’t make jokes, I'll let you do five minutes on Fridays.’ I was like ‘Absolutely.’” On stage he tries to make people laugh about things that otherwise might make them uncomfortable. Jerry Rocha performs at Go Bananas Thursday-Sunday. Tickets are $8-$12.  

Comedian Ryan Stout hopes you’re paying attention during his set. “People who are willing to sit and listen will enjoy my act,” he explains, “more than those who just want to get an emotional response to something. If I say something on stage, the set-up to my joke might make you cringe a little bit, but if you wait and listen for the punchline, you realize that everything is OK.” Stout has hosted several programs on MTV, and will tape a Comedy Central Presents episode in November. He performs at Go Bananas Thursday-Sunday.  

“I like my comedy to make you think and laugh at the same time,” Kyle Grooms says. “I like it to be real. I like it to have some kind of focus.” Grooms originally got into comedy as a hobby. After a few years he realized he was good at it and left his job at a Miami TV station to pursue comedy full time. These days he’s talking about American culture, among other topics. “There’s so much going on,” he says, “every week there’s something new.” He even entertains foreign audiences with his observations about life in the U.S., and those crowds dig it. Grooms performs Thursday-Sunday at Go Bananas.  

Though he grew up Cleveland, comedian Mike Lukas considers Cincinnati to be his second hometown. Back in the late ‘80s, the now L.A.-based comic started his first “day job” at AT&T downtown. Lukas went on to work for in-house television productions at Universal Studios in Orlando, as well as Disneyworld. He wound up in L.A. after a brief stay in New York. “The Midwest sensibility and humor wasn’t appreciated,” he says. “‘You’re goofy, why aren’t you angrier?’ ” Lukas ended up in L.A., co-hosting a successful radio show with wife Gretchen Massey. Next stop … Cleveland? He performs at Go Bananas Thursday-Sunday.  

Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more really interesting buried places, Don Wildman is back sinking to new depths. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist). The 11 episodes of season two find Wildman returning to Germany, this time to explore Berlin’s hundreds of World War II bunkers. In New York, it’s secret societies, not unlike his trip to Boston in season one.  

“They wanted (those of) us who got to the finals to pitch how we would combine the Lincoln years in Indiana with his presidency, so those two would weave together.” Jones decided to start with Lincoln’s assassination and work backwards.  

Maybe it’s because the fad hasn’t worn off, but prequels seem to be far less objectionable than sequels. It makes sense in that with a prequel you have to be somewhat loyal to an end point, whereas a sequel has to make up a bunch of new stuff that might or might not live up to the original. So is the situation the producers of Battlestar Galactica found themselves in when their series recently wrapped up. The notion of Carpica telling the back-story to BSG was formulated in the latter’s second season and came to fruition late last year.   

A class clown, Mike Epps entered a stand-up comedy competition in his teens and was so encouraged by the response that he decided to move to Atlanta to pursue his new found passion. He became so successful in Atlanta that a club owner there suggested the young Epps head on to New York City, which Epps did almost immediately. Since then he's moved to Los Angeles and been in movies like Next Friday. 8 p.m. Saturday at the Taft Theatre.  

This show was getting some notice even before one of its actors (Dev Patel) turned up as the star of Slumdog Millionaire.