Performing Arts❯Variety

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event, offering free admission to the museum for all, plus a Live Wire event as part of the Literary Arts Portland Book Festival. Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both!

4:30 – 6 p.m. — Free, pre-show, pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free First Thursday tickets can be reserved online one week in advance and are also available at the door.

7 p.m. — Enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle. Doors will open at 6:30pm.

GA Tickets are $15. Preferred Seating is $40. Discounts available to Portland Book Festival passholders.

Dessa is a singer, rapper, and writer who fell in love with language as a toddler—and just never got over it. Now, she works in fields that traffic in words: she’s recorded rap bangers as part of the fiercely independent Doomtree collective, released a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; contributed to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; delivered a TED Talk on the intersection of romance and neuroscience that’s notched more than 4 million views; hosted 2 seasons of behavioral science podcast Deeply Human (BBC/American Public Media); and published a memoir recounting most of the above called My Own Devices (Penguin Random House).

Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a New York Times bestselling author of stories for children. Mac’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read Aloud Awards and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, as well as several international prizes. He lives in Oakland, California. His latest book, illustrated by X. Fang, is Tom Nancy: The Sheep Who Swapped Brains with a Boy. From two of the most exciting picture book makers today comes a hilarious trickster tale and Freaky Friday switcheroo story: a sneaky, cheeky sheep named Tom Nancy has a brain swap proposal for an innocent farm boy named Felix that will change both of their lives forever. Laugh-out-loud, subversive, and totally unexpected.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer, and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Profound, wily, and beautifully wrought, his new book Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties is a meeting of memory and myth, confession and obfuscation, coalescing to offer a singular picture of creativity in action.

The princess of Portland comedy, best known for her breakout performance on the popular Netflix special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, Mx. Dahlia Belle has been compared to a Swiss Army knife—different tools to extract sharpness, softness, vulnerability, hope, and wicked wit. She’s been declared one of “11 Trans Comedians… Funnier Than Dave Chappelle” by Out Magazine, repeatedly featured on NPR, and has written for Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Guardian, The Stranger, and Portland Mercury. Her live performances have included NW Black Comedy Festival, Upper Left Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, and an awkward conversation with John Waters and Piers Morgan. In the upcoming live taping of her comedy special Affirmed at Polaris Hall on November 22nd, Mx. Dahlia Belle delivers 60 new minutes of stand-up to celebrate and affirm being human in the modern world through a combination of the wholesome and mundane, anecdotes about house cats, liscivious foibles of the LGBT community, and an unapologetic account of her personal journey with gender-affirming care, all delivered with her trademark free form wit.

Free First Thursdays at the Museum and PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater aligns with the revitalization of the long-standing Portland art galleries’ tradition of opening their doors for openings, receptions, and events on the first Thursday of each month. In recent months art and culture organizations have joined to bring back this popular activity, including the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in the North Park Blocks.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

The Fates are spinning… do you dare give in to temptation?

After a deep slumber, EX-SPELLED! A Cabaret Tribute to the Occult finally returns to the Jack London Revue this November. Hosted by the Mad Marquis, this wicked night of magic, mystery, and mayhem summons a spellbinding collection of performers to astonish you in ways that would make even the Devil himself shiver with antici……

Step beyond the veil and surrender yourself to the forbidden, where good old debauchery mingles with the come-hither peculiarities of your wildest dreams. Prepare to explore the limits of your imagination, indulge your darker curiosities, and discover what exactly lies just beyond the bounds of everything you know.

JLR Seating Map Notes: For this show, you may reserve individual tables on the map pictured. Note that some tables have limited sightlines as noted. General Admission ticket holders note that seating and sightlines are limted and may be standing room only. All table reservations include admission.

1. For Table Reservations: Note the relative location of the stage and bar on the map. Then click a table number to see prices, or click "Show All Tickets". Click the + button to add a specific table to your cart.
2. For General Admission tickets: click the "GA Standing" area. Click the + button to add additional tickets.
3. Click "Agree & Checkout"

From humble beginnings 50 years ago busking on the streets of Philadelphia, to acclaimed sold–out runs on Broadway and renown as the longest-running and one of the most-beloved resident headline acts in Las Vegas history, magic’s legendary duo — Penn Jillette and Teller — continue to defy labels (and at times physics and good taste), by redefining the genre of magic and inventing their own very distinct niche in comedy.

The current hit series Penn & Teller: Fool Us! for The CW Network, on which up-and-comers and magic veterans try to fool Penn & Teller for a chance to star in the pair’s hit Las Vegas stage show, was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award and has been renewed for an unprecedented 12th season. The show is the longest continual American magic television series in history, introducing the art to new fans and cultivating new generations of innovators within the craft.

Twice named “Magicians of the Year” by the Academy of Magical Arts, the equivalent of the Oscars in magic, they were named the 2024 Masters Fellowship recipients, the highest honor the Academy bestows. The pair live in Las Vegas, where they are engaged in their community, acting as honorary chairmen for AFAN (Aid for AIDS Nevada), raising and donating nearly $2 million and serving as grand marshals for AFAN’s annual Las Vegas AIDS Walk for the past 23 years. Through their involvement with Opportunity Village, which assists in employment placement and lifestyle betterment for those living with intellectual disabilities, they have raised over $1 million. The annual blood drive, Penn & Teller’s 13 Bloody Days of Christmas, has resulted in over 85,000 donors since its inception. In 2023, they took part in the USO’s annual Christmas tour, entertaining thousands of servicemen and servicewomen in bases across Europe.

In 2025, the pair celebrated 50 years as innovators in combining smart, edgy comedy with their unique magical style.

From humble beginnings 50 years ago busking on the streets of Philadelphia, to acclaimed sold–out runs on Broadway and renown as the longest-running and one of the most-beloved resident headline acts in Las Vegas history, magic’s legendary duo — Penn Jillette and Teller — continue to defy labels (and at times physics and good taste), by redefining the genre of magic and inventing their own very distinct niche in comedy.

Their Off-Broadway debut in 1985 electrified New York with a stage show the likes of which had never been seen. Combining magic, comedy, and social commentary in a theatrical event the New York Times said was a “A witheringly funny…Brazen assault on the temple of magic,” the show moved to Broadway in 1987, the first of three eponymously titled Broadway runs. Their efforts in New York have been awarded an Obie and a Lucille Lortel Award. Their most recent return to Broadway, hailed as “Deliciously Demented” by USA Today, was the highest-grossing non-musical for the entirety of its run, even out-grossing Hamilton for one week.

Performing nearly 300 live shows every year from the stages of America’s greatest performing arts venues as well as the Sydney Opera House and London’s Apollo Theatre, their record-breaking Las Vegas show at The Rio Hotel & Casino has an amazing 10 wins, including 2025, as “Las Vegas Magicians of the Year” and was called “The single best show in Vegas,” by the Los Angeles Times.

The current hit series Penn & Teller: Fool Us! for The CW Network, on which up-and-comers and magic veterans try to fool Penn & Teller for a chance to star in the pair’s hit Las Vegas stage show, was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award and has been renewed for an unprecedented 12th season. The show is the longest continual American magic television series in history, introducing the art to new fans and cultivating new generations of innovators within the craft.

Hundreds of outrageous appearances on everything from Fallon to Friends, The Simpsons to Colbert, Modern Family to Big Bang Theory, Dancing With The Stars to The Masked Singer, plus their own specials for NBC, ABC, PBS and Comedy Central have garnered them an Emmy, a Writers Guild Award, and their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The controversial Showtime series, Penn & Teller: BS! was nominated for 13 Emmys and was the longest-running series in the history of the network. The show highlighted the pair’s ardent skepticism by tackling the fakes and frauds behind such topics as alien abduction, psychics, and bottled water.

In recent years they have become acclaimed documentarians with the BAFTA-nominated Sony Pictures Classic release, Tim’s Vermeer, which follows Texas-based inventor Tim Jenison on his quest to discover the methods used by Dutch Master painter Johannes Vermeer. Their other films, the critically-lauded feature The Aristocrats and the Showtime short The Gambler’s Ballad, were met with wide praise.

The Olivier-nominated Magic Goes Wrong, written and created in collaboration with Mischief Theatre (creators of the Tony-nominated The Play That Goes Wrong), played at London’s West End Vaudeville Theatre, setting a box office pre-sale record. The Daily Mail hailed it as a “Spellbinding romp,” while The Sun theater critic raved, “I’ll be laughing into next week.” In 2024, they had two shows running Off-Broadway as creators and producers: the Magic Goes Wrong spin-off The Mind Mangler, which returned to London’s West End in
March, and the technology/magic/thriller Stalker.

As individuals, they are just as prolific. Teller directed versions of Macbeth and The Tempest which toured to raves from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, co-wrote and directed the Off-Broadway thriller Play Dead and has written two books. Penn has written five books, including the New York Times Best Sellers “God No!” and “Presto”. For his role in this year’s critically acclaimed Oscar-nominated film, Marty Supreme, he was nominated for an Actor Award (formerly the SAG Awards), alongside co-stars Timothee Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Twice named “Magicians of the Year” by the Academy of Magical Arts, the equivalent of the Oscars in magic, they were named the 2024 Masters Fellowship recipients, the highest honor the Academy bestows. The pair live in Las Vegas where they are engaged in their community, acting as honorary chairmen for AFAN (Aid for AIDS Nevada), raising and donating nearly $2 million and serving as grand marshals for AFAN’s annual Las Vegas AIDS Walk for the past 23 years. Through their involvement with Opportunity Village, which assists in employment placement and lifestyle betterment for those living with intellectual disabilities, they have raised over $1 million. The annual blood drive, Penn & Teller’s 13 Bloody Days of Christmas, has resulted in over 85,000 donors since its inception. In 2023, they took part in the USO’s annual Christmas tour, entertaining thousands of servicemen and servicewomen in bases across Europe.

In 2025, the pair celebrated 50 years as innovators in combining smart, edgy comedy with their unique magical style.

The 4th Annual MOST Pageant

Saturday, November 7th

Doors 6pm, Show 7pm

Tickets $20 in advance, $25 at the door

The MOST Pageant returns in thanks to our sponsors The Property Weirdos, Outrage Onstage, Demand Drag, Greg Lemix, and more!

9 extraordinary drag and burlesque entertainers will push their artistry to the limits, as they compete for fame and fortune ($500 and bookings and 2 drink tickets!) The contestant who brings the most extreme, bold, extravagant, avant-garde, out of this world, over the top, never before seen, mind blowing package will win the title of The MOST! This year’s contestants were chosen for their exemplification and commitment to mostness in their approaches to fashion, performance and living art. An esteemed panel of judges will be evaluating each contestant on their creativity and presentation to determine who will take the crown. Come ready to cheer and tip your favorite performers!

Who will be The MOST?

Anna Karenema

Baby LeStrange

Boujee Cherry

Harlow Quinzel

HOTTBOXX9000

Max Little

Seven

The Artist Formerly Known As Given

Tomboy

Leapin’ Louie: The Upside Down Ocean. Leapin’ Louie’s new show: An ocean animal circus spectacular. It’s science, but you laugh so hard. Gastropod Cousteau (aka Leapin’ Louie Lichtenstein ) is a nudibranch detective trying to figure out what happened to the missing kelp forests. Whales, sea otters, decorator crabs, giant squid and a peacock mantis shrimp help Gastro solve the mystery. And the story is told with circus and comedy. Featuring giant lasso, glow juggling, a 6 foot unicycle, enormous puppets and a slide-show of amazing ocean animals. You know him from White Album Xmas or the Rose Festival. Leapin’ Louie has performed his solo shows in 35 nations around the world, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil, the UK and a few dozen European tours. He has toured opening for country stars Brooks and Dunn and the rock legend Primus. He makes adults laugh with family-friendly material, and he gets audiences very excited.

Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian

ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS.

Grab your gear and strap on your tunic, because The Hyrule Ball is here. A niche, nerdy, nightlife celebration of everyone's favorite action-adventure franchise, just in time for the latest release. Featuring Zelda-inspired DJ sets and drag performances, specialty cocktails, local vendors, and consoles and cabinets for playing games with friends.

Come dressed in your cosplay best, grab your wallet of rupees, and get ready to dance until the Sun Song plays.

Live Wire joins forces with the Portland Art Museum for an afternoon of roving performances ahead of an evening recording of the program. The event coincides with PAM's monthly Free First Thursday and the Portland Book Festival's expanded programming. Performers will include poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries, giving visitors a chance to catch live performances and storytelling while moving through the PAM spaces. Completely free through PAM’s Free First Thursday general admission. Also, enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide.

Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both.