Join Un-Cabaret’s Beth Lapides on the mat

Comedian Beth Lapides is stretching herself these days – both literally and creatively.

The longtime yogi and co-host of the weekly variety show at 1st and Hope, “UnCabaret,” will teach a class at Silverlake Yoga for the next seven weeks.

“It’s serious; you don’t want students to feel they have to laugh,” Lapides says. “But I do bring my quirky comedy sensibility to it. I think sense of humor is our seventh sense – and hopefully you’re more open to it after you leave.”

Lapides, who used to write a monthly column for LA Yoga Magazine called “My Other Car Is a Yoga Mat,” has been a staple of the L.A. comedy scene for more than two decades. She was the host and co-producer, with Greg Miller, of the original “UnCabaret” show, which ran for 17 years from 1991. The show combined stand-up, music and storytelling and it was a force in the city’s then-nascent alternative comedy movement. Julia Sweeney, Kathy Griffin, Janeane Garofalo, Margaret Cho, Taylor Negron and Michael Patrick King all cycled through.

Lapides resurrected “UnCabaret” with musical director and co-producer Mitch Kaplan in January, and a whole new crop of edgy comics have since graced its stage: Roseanne, Marc Maron, Moshe Kasher and Tig Notaro included.

The hour-and-a-half “UnCabaret” live shows are now being shot and edited down to 40-minute episodes; “Un-Cabaret” plans to release them on Amazon for $2 a pop starting this fall. Sandra Bernhard, Rob Delaney and Andy Dick all appear in the pilot.

The ever-evolving Lapides’ secret? Flexibility, of course. “But only physically!” she jokes.

Join her Wednesday nights at 7:30 for a yoga class that she calls: “Om - OM - OMG!”

--Deborah Vankin

Twitter.com/@debvankin