Seriously Funny

Solo performer Tim Miller knows a little something about being in the middle of a raging storm. In the early 1990s, Miller (along with artists Karen Finley, Holly Hughes, and John Fleck) had his National Endowment for the Arts fellowship revoked on the basis of obscenity, thanks to the racy performance piece he was working on. Miller and his cohorts later sued the federal government for infringing on their First Amendment rights. The group was successful all the way up to the Supreme Court, which then ruled against them, affirming that a decency test should be applied to federal funding for the arts.

Tim Miller: patriot and show tune aficionado

Details

Come Out Laughing takes place at 8:00 p.m. Friday, July 16, at the North Miami Beach Theater of the Performing Arts, 17011 NE 19th Ave. Tickets cost $25. Call 800-494-8497.

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More About

• Tim Miller
• Jessica Kirson
• Karen Finley
• John Fleck
• Stand-up Comedy

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Now Miller is battening down the hatches for a different sort of cyclone: the denial of rights of immigration for foreign-born partners. If they want to continue their relationship of nine years, Miller and his partner Alistair, who is of Australian-Scottish background, face getting the boot from the United States, which allows straight couples the right to have a foreign-born partner immigrate. Expect to experience a little bit of all those tempests, plus a little good-humored nod to Broadway and a meditation on the meaning of home, when Miller offers his solo piece Us (which, don't say we didn't warn you, contains nudity) during an installment of Miami Light Project's Come Out Laughing series.

Any deeply thoughtful and possibly butt-baring political discussion should be leavened with a bit of humor. That's where comedian Jessica Kirson comes in. Appearing for the second time in a Miami Light Project production, Kirson might be most familiar to fans for her numerous TV appearances, especially as a contestant on the highly popular NBC show Last Comic Standing, sort of a humorous Ten Little Indians. The energetic entertainer peppers her stand-up routines with an array of hilarious characters including an uptight librarian, an exasperating British child, and a boisterous cabaret singer. Could a stuffy Supreme Court justice be next on her list to perfect? -- Nina Korman