BEST BETS Thursday 9/21

FULLERTON

8pm

Music

The North Orange County Community Concerts Assn. kicks off its 55th season with the Side Street Strutters’ “Jumpin’ Into Swing” program. This Big Band group has been a resident entertainment unit at Disneyland since 1985. Admission cost is a one-time charge for membership, which admits the holder to the remainder of the association’s series not only in Fullerton, but also in Glendale, Ontario, Redondo Beach and other cities.

* Side Street Strutters, Fullerton First United Methodist Church, 114 N. Pomona Ave. 8 p.m. $15; $5 for students; $35 for season pass. (714) 535-8925.

ANAHEIM

8:30pm

Pop Music

In drawing upon country, rock, R&B;, blues, Cajun and other American music strains, Little Feat was instantly pegged as a difficult-to-peg band when it was born in L.A. in 1969. The veteran outfit has continued touring and recording despite the 1979 death of founding singer, guitarist, harp man and songwriter Lowell George. In fact, Little Feat is getting a one-two punch for its career with a new CD box set, “Hot Cakes and Outtakes: 30 Years of Little Feat,” coming from Rhino Records and a new studio album, “Chinese Work Songs.”

* Little Feat, Poco, Sun Theatre, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8:30 p.m. $25 to $35. (714) 712-2700.

BREA

8:30pm

Comedy

Comedian-ventriloquist Jeff Dunham--straight man to Peanut, Walter and Jose Jalapeno--holds the distinction of performing on the “Tonight Show” more than any other ventriloquist. Johnny Carson was so impressed by Dunham’s first visit, in 1990, that he invited him back again soon. Dunham was thrilled. But his sidekick, the grumpy old curmudgeon Walter, wasn’t: “Yeah, well it will be a cold day in hell before you get me back here.”

* Jeff Dunham, Brea Improv, 945 E. Birch St., 8:30 p.m. Also Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 and 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 8 p.m. $15 to $17. (714) 529-7878.

COSTA MESA

7:45pm

Theater

In 1964, “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” established Joe Orton as a darkly funny, wickedly relentless satirist with few, if any, inhibitions about exposing the perfidious side of human nature. The title character of the British playwright’s first full-length work is an amoral young boarder who exploits the lust of a brother and sister who each try to turn him into their personal love slave. Mix a dash of blackmail and a bit of murder into this sexual power struggle, and you get a scathing picture of humanity.

* “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” by Joe Orton, South Coast Repertory Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays through Sundays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Preview tonight, opens Friday. $18-$47. Pay-what-you-will performance Saturday, 2 p.m. Through Oct. 22. (714) 708-5555.