BEST BETS Thursday 1/25

IRVINE

8:30pm

Comedy

Named the Best Female Stand-Up at the 12th annual American Comedy Awards in 1998, Maryellen Hooper is known for her deft commentary on the travails of being a woman--and doing it without sounding cynical or bitter. A gifted physical comedian who uses her face and body to accentuate her loopy act, she has been described as the comedic offspring of Lucille Ball and Dick Van Dyke. That’s is not difficult to imagine because, as Hooper explains, “I have red hair and trip over ottomans.”

* Maryellen Hooper, Irvine Improv, 71 Fortune Drive. 8:30. Also Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 7, 9, 11 p.m. $12 to $15. (949) 854-5455.

IRVINE

5-8pm

Art

The works of student artists with UC ArtsBridge will be featured during an open house and reception at UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts. The exhibition, “Bright Minds, Strong Voices: Art by California Children,” showcases paintings, sculptures, digital arts and video by California public schoolchildren from kindergarten through 12th grade.

* “Bright Minds, Strong Voices: Art by California Children,” UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University Art Gallery, 300 Arts, Irvine. Reception, 5-8 p.m. Free. Ends Feb. 4. (949) 824-6206.

IRVINE

8pm

Theater

“The Prince” is the masterwork of political philosophy that condemned its author, Niccolo Machiavelli, to an enduring rep as a tutor of tyrants and an advocate of cruel, scheming, ends-justify-the-means power grabs. Robert Cohen, longtime UC Irvine drama professor, stage director and political junkie, tries to get at the far more complex truth as author and director of a new play, “The Prince.” Machiavelli’s turbulent life unfolds against the bloody, politically chaotic but culturally bountiful backdrop of Renaissance Italy; among the historic figures in the play are the witty, charismatic, lethal Cesare Borgia, Machiavelli’s model for “The Prince,” and Leonardo da Vinci, a genius who here is used for comic relief.

* “The Prince,” Winifred Smith Hall, Mesa Road and West Peltason Drive on the UC Irvine campus. Thursdays and Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 3. $13 to $15. (949) 824-2787.