Friday

January 18

Yuk it up

There are plenty of comedy nights around town with big names, but it’s time for the next generation of comics to make a stand. Tonight at Coco66, Nick Turner (from CollegeHumor.com) and Jason Saenz (an organizer of the DC Comedy Festival) host their weekly “Too Cool for School” show featuring some real up and comers (including Baron Vaughn (pictured).

8 pm. “Too Cool for School” at Coco66 [66 Greenpoint Ave. between Franklin and West streets, (917) 807-6045].

Monday

January 18

Living the dream

It wouldn’t be the third Monday in January without the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s annual tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. This year’s event features actor/humanitarian Danny Glover and the New Life Tabernacle Mass Choir — plus every politician in town. Yes, Chuck Schumer will be there!

10:30 am. Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute at Brooklyn Academy of Music [30 Lafayette Ave. near St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100], http://www.bam.org.

Monday

January 18

Astral traveler

Yes, she’s spacey and she’s ethereal, but English singer-songwriter Beth Orton is not New Agey garbage. If she was, would everyone from Ryan Adams to the Chemical Brothers to Annie Lennox be hounding her for collaborations? And would everyone from Bristol to Bensonhurst be dying for her long-promised follow up to her trippy “Comfort Of Strangers” LP? No.

8 pm. Beth Orton at the Bell House [149 Seventh St. at Third Avenue in Gowanus, (718) 643-6510]. Tickets are $25 ($22.50 in advance).

Monday

January 18

Boob job

It sounds to us like a bit of exaggeration, but our friends at Sweet and Nasty Burlesque say that tonight’s show at Public Assembly will be the last ever. “Burlesque shows are born, get covered in glitter and various sticky substances, and ultimately pass through the veil to world beyond,” Nasty Canasta told us this week. Canasta (pictured) says her final show will be part Irish wake, part Viking funeral and part unholy experiment featuring “cheap whiskey and getting naked onstage in front of a roomful of strangers.”

10 pm. Public Assembly [70 N. Sixth St. at Wythe Avenue, (718) 782-5188].

Tuesday

January 19

Heller of a writer

She’s not a Brooklynite, but we’re going to head to PowerHouse tonight to hear English writer Zoe Heller read from “The Believers,” her book about faith, family and the flaws that keep it all interesting. Heller’s own family history — Stalinist mother, screenwriter father, atheist upbringing — is a novel unto itself.

7–9 pm. PowerHouse Arena [37 Main St. at Water Street in DUMBO, (718) 666-3049].