THE ESSENTIAL A&E PICKS FOR AUG 4 - 10 

• Courtesy Photo

Chris Redd @ Wiseguys
Through the nearly-50-year history of Saturday Night Live, there have been two general paths toward becoming a cast member: success on stand-up comedy stages, and involvement with one of the great sketch-comedy workshops like Second City or The Groundlings. It's evidence of Chris Redd's unique skill set that the current SNL cast member started out with the latter, but has made a transition to successful work as the former.

Even more interesting is the possibility that Redd might never have found his way into comedy at all, since his initial artistic ambitions were as a rapper, a talent he developed as a way to overcome a childhood stutter. His switch to comedy didn't mean that his musical gifts weren't a career benefit, however. His film debut involved him playing the role of a rapper in fellow SNL alum Andy Samberg's 2016 music-industry mockumentary Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping; he even won an Emmy Award in 2018 for co-writing the song "Come Back Barack" for an SNL sketch. As much of an impression as Redd has made with his SNL characters—including a terrific riff recently on New York City mayor Eric Adams—it's clear that his talents can't be contained in one creative box.

If you're interested in getting a gander at what Redd brings to work on a stand-up stage, you'll get a chance this week when he visits Wiseguys Gateway (194 S. 400 West) for four shows Aug. 5-6, with performances at 7 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $30; visit wiseguyscomedy.com for tickets and additional event information. (Scott Renshaw)

• Rebekah Stevens

Park City Kimball Arts Festival
Through the relentless heat of this Salt Lake Valley summer, you really shouldn't need an excuse to consider an escape to the nearby mountains; throughout the season, there are wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities in the canyons and the Wasatch Back. But there's a particular pleasure involved in spending a weekend with one of the great regional showcases for the arts at the Park City Kimball Arts Festival, which for more than 50 years has welcomed approximately 50,000 annual visitors.

Once again, Park City's Historic Main Street is turned over to around 200 artists from 28 states and multiple countries, representing works including ceramics, painting, jewelry, digital art, fiber, glass, photography, printmaking and more. Two festival stages will showcase live performances by local musicians on all three festival days. In addition to the regular lineup of amazing Park City restaurants, the festival will be presenting culinary artisans and food trucks in the festival grounds area. Proceeds from the festival support the Kimball Art Center's year-round programming; visitors can get just a taste of that programming with the festival's hands-on experiences at the Studio on Main and the all-ages Creation Station.

The 2022 Park City Kimball Arts Festival runs Aug. 5-7 on Historic Main Street, with hours 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday. Single-day tickets are $5-$10, with $225 VIP tickets including access to the festival lounge, and Friday night admission free with registration for Summit County residents. Visit kimballartsfestival.org for tickets and additional event information. (SR)

• Madeline Whitehead

Colson Whitehead: Harlem Shuffle
There aren't many precedents for the kind of career Colson Whitehead has already enjoyed as a novelist. For more than 20 years, Whitehead has been turning heads with extraordinary work—from a MacArthur Fellowship and Pulitzer Prize finalist recognition thanks to his 2002 novel John Henry Days, to the extraordinary back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes in fiction for his novels The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. Whitehead has already proven that the hits just keep coming from his remarkable mind, and that's true again with his 2021 novel Harlem Shuffle.

This time around, Whitehead turns his dense explorations of the Black experience in America to late 1950s/early 1960s Harlem, and the character of Ray Carney. Ray's family has a history with criminal enterprises, but he himself is trying to make an honest living running a furniture store—or at least a mostly honest living, as he occasionally fences stolen goods out of the store for his cousin, Freddie. But once that door is open a little, it's easy for it to get open a lot, as Ray discovers when he gets caught up in the aftermath of a heist that puts him squarely in the sights of both law enforcement and some of his neighborhood's even more dangerous criminal characters.

Salt Lake City's King's English Bookshop partners with several other national independent booksellers to present Colson Whitehead in conversation with journalist Adam Serwer in a Crowdcast virtual event on Tuesday, Aug. 9 at 6 p.m. This ticketed event is $27, which includes a paperback copy of Harlem Shuffle; visit kingsenglish.com for registration and other event information. (SR)

• Courtesy Photo

Ogden Pride
Officially, Pride Month is already more than a month in the rearview mirror. That doesn't mean—especially with rhetorical attacks on LGBTQ people escalating throughout the country—that only one month of the year is needed for acknowledging and celebrating the queer community. And once again, Ogden Pride offers a different summer showcase for events with particularly rainbow hue.

The celebrations kick off on Friday, Aug. 5 with a Drag Queen Bingo Night & Dinner at No Frills Diner on 25th (195 25th St., Suite 100, Ogden), an all-ages event with a $15 charge for the first bingo card and $5 for subsequent cards. On Saturday, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m., enjoy a "funny-raising" event at Ogden's Own Distillery (615 W. Stockman Way) headlined by veteran comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer (pictured), the first openly lesbian comedian to appear on national television, and the first openly lesbian comedian to headline her own HBO comedy special; tickets are $50 advance and $65 at the door. Westenhoefer also serves as Mistress of Ceremonies for the free-admission Pride Festival on Sunday, Aug. 7 at the Ogden Amphitheater & Municipal Gardens (343 E. 25th St.). The event kicks off with an opening rally at 11 a.m., and the festival's booths, entertainment and food offerings running until 8 p.m.; scheduled performers include Ginger & the Gents, the all-trans lineup of Shecock with a Vengeance and Zaza Historia Vandyke.

Additional information is available on the festival's website at ogdenpride.org. Visit there to buy tickets for ticketed events, and take advantage of another opportunity to let that flag fly. (SR)