Pam Bruno, the best comedian in 2015 at Ultimate Miami (a competition to find the finest bartenders, drag queens, vocalists, and other performers), is the sort of fresh face Hollywood dreams about discovering — and she's in her mid-60s. A Miami transplant and Iowa native, Bruno is a former cranial sacral therapist, meaning her job involved relieving pain and tension through gentle manipulations of the head and spine. These days, she's more interested in relieving pain and tension in people by appealing to us through the blackest of humor. Her jokes are often dark and slightly disturbed, but her aw-shucks charm and dry wit allow her to nail routines that would flounder with lesser comics. She's like the fifth Golden Girl, a combination of Bea Arthur's character Dorothy and Estelle Getty's Sophia but entirely more relaxed. Her delivery is as gentle as the work she used to do but hits hard with morbid jokes about death, drug use, sex at all ages, and loneliness. Plenty of comics can do bleak, but she brings a perspective all her own, cultivated through years of experience. Her self-promoting motto is "Like wine, comedy gets better with age," and damn if it isn't true with Bruno.

Whether she's inside the Palace in South Beach, on Ocean Drive's sidewalk, or even in the middle of the street, the whole world is a runway for Missy Meyakie LePaige. This fierce drag queen has embraced the Palace's slogan, "Every queen needs a palace," to the fullest. The 2015 Miss National Showgirl is one part class act and one part badass. LePaige is equally comfortable in elegant feathered evening wear and fur coats as she is strutting every inch of her attitude in a glittering church dress. She's forever dancing and gyrating, hands in the air for Jesus, her feet moving like they're touching the fires of Hell. LePaige is an athletic, agile performer who absolutely demands our attention. Her moniker was inspired by rapper Missy Elliott, fashion designer Issey Miyake, and her drag mother, Victoria Le Paige. Much like the songs by her hip-hop namesake, "Get Ur Freak On" and "Work It," Missy Meyakie LePaige brings an unavoidable energy through movement, singing, dancing, and laughing that prompts engagement from her audiences and some dollar bills for a lady hard at work.

Readers' choice: Queef Latina

New York nightlife maven Susanne Bartsch introduced the city that never sleeps to her brand of wild parties and unconventional fashion in the late '80s. Now her newest bimonthly at Brickell's Old Havana-style club, El Tucán, is as must-see as anything she's ever staged in the Big Apple. Held the last Tuesday every other month, Bareback Follies regularly stars gay and drag icons such as Amanda Lepore, Joey Arias, and Dirty Martini, plus all-stars from RuPaul's Drag Race. During this risqué evening — which costs $25 and includes a drink — pasties and nipple tassels are considered modest. An early show at 8 p.m. accommodates guests who find a late-night Tuesday party a little tough. But the 10 p.m. show is when the drag queens and models really get rowdy, pulling out all the stops, from striptease to elaborate one-woman light shows designed to upstage the next girl.

Repeat this five times: "I am not too cool for the science museum." Then head downtown. The new Frost Museum of Science — not to be confused with the Frost Art Museum out west at Florida International University — is amazing. Frost Science offers a 30-foot-long dinosaur, yellow-submarine elevators, a light floor, and a 500,000-gallon saltwater tank with a 31-foot-wide oculus that allows you to peer inside at various sea creatures, including sharks and rays. And the 250-seat, state-of-the-art planetarium continues Miami-Dade's favorite event: the First Fridays laser light show that was a tradition at the museum's former location near Vizcaya. Viva the new museum, but let us never forget the old one!

Readers' choice: Pérez Art Museum Miami

Only a few short years ago, Wynwood's Second Saturday Art Walk was at the heart of a revolution. Up to 40 galleries would open their doors once a month, allowing the public to peruse every expanse of the creative mind. Wynwood, of course, has since leveraged that cachet to become a hipster commercial mecca, and many of the artists have fled for cheaper real estate. So the art faithful have turned their attention north to a burgeoning hot spot for both imagination and inebriation: downtown Hollywood. The area has been revitalized, both aesthetically and with new infrastructure. From 5 to 10 p.m. the third Saturday each month, sidewalks and storefronts welcome casual and hard-core art lovers. Attendees enjoy collections from local, regional, and international artists while classical and jazz bands perform live. Plus, many galleries are walking distance from dozens of bars, restaurants, cigar shops, and coffee bars. Street parking is mostly free and plentiful, and murals decorate the walls of many of the buildings. Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk, for now, is nowhere near the size and scale of its Miami counterpart, but that's a good thing. One day, this gathering's popularity might catch up to Wynwood's, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Even if you don't enjoy eating colorful candy marzipan, it's hard to argue with viewing monumental art that looks like it. Built in 2016 by the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, the 42-foot-tall Miami Mountain consists of five bright boulders that sit atop one another just feet from A1A in Collins Park. The sculpture is like a huge, delicious treat for all of South Beach. Rondinone recently installed seven of these sculptures in the desert outside Las Vegas, but those are planned to be there for only two years, while Miami's stack of stones is part of the Bass museum's permanent collection and will sit in place for the long haul. Also, technically, the piece is called a "cairn," a dandy way of referring to a pile of rocks. Turning a corner and seeing Miami Mountain is still a startling experience. The work, which is held together by an iron spine, immediately causes the viewer to question whether the rocks are real and then walk up and engage. The question of artificiality is one dear to Miami Beach, but like the city, the closer you get to the statue, the more awe-inspiring it becomes. It is joyous to look all the way to the top of the Beach's mountain, which, of course, is rainbow-hued and right by the sand.

Branch off from the commotion of Young Circle Park in downtown Hollywood onto Tyler Street, and you'll probably stop in your tracks beside a mural of a bird's-eye view of a swimming pool, pink floaties and all. You can't help but note in awe how the artists nailed the sunlight refracting on the water. Five years ago, this wall was bland and boring (as was the rest of these lackluster walls in this neighborhood). But since it became home to a monthly art walk in which folks stroll along the quaint, tree-lined streets from gallery to gallery, this pocket of Hollywood received a face-lift. Launched in August 2012, the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project has brought more than two dozen murals to the now-vibrant hood, which has fared well as an Instagram-worthy backdrop for selfies. Next time you saunter down Tyler Street, be on the lookout for this splashy mural and resist the urge to dive in.

Take a stroll through Wynwood Walls, and you can't miss her: Lying in a dreamlike pose, surrounded by grapevines, a nude woman gazes into the distance. But it's not her nudity that's so arresting, nor her vibrant red hair or pointed, clawlike fingertips. It's not even the tiny alligator, with a cheerful, menacing smile, that sits on her elbow. It's her eyes, which artist Tatiana Suarez has rendered in hyperrealism with one fantastical quality: They're entirely white aside from soft red pupils. Striking eyes have long been a hallmark of Suarez's work; her earlier murals and paintings show women with oversized globes for eyeballs, making her subjects look more like thoughtfully created Bratz dolls. But these aren't just pretty portraits. Suarez's paintings have a surreal, dreamlike quality, one that invites viewers to imagine the story behind her captivating female subjects. Unlike so many of the women on display in Miami, these ladies aren't merely ornamental. Suarez gives them a realistic, human quality, even as she places them in dream­scapes and exaggerates their features. In a city full of objectifying billboards, advertisements, and even other murals, Suarez's work is a small, essential rebellion.

First, all you see is darkness. Then, in slow motion, a figure floats into view. It's a woman, naked, her face scrunched as if bracing for impact. Seconds later, you discover why: Her body hits and smashes a pane of glass. Shards fly through the air, gliding across the screen as the woman slowly falls back into the darkness. Until she shattered the glass, you hadn't even known it was there. This is Suddenly We Jumped, Antonia Wright's 2014 short film that screened at the Borscht Film Festival this year. It's just one example of a courageous and often dangerous body of work by an artist known for taking risks — not just in the message of her art, but with her physical well-being. For a Locust Projects exhibit last fall, she submerged her body in an icy lake, reliving a childhood accident. Wright has performed tai chi while covered in bees and rolled naked down a filthy Miami alley. Her series Are You OK? features her crying openly on busy city streets from Paris to New York to Havana. She sacrifices her own comfort, and sometimes her own safety, to make bold statements, created with insidery art theories in mind but resonant with anyone with eyes and a beating heart. Is it hard to watch? Sure. Mesmerizing? Absolutely. But the word that best describes Wright's work is fearless.

Hyam Plutzik, a Pulitzer finalist, poet, and University of Rochester English professor, passed away in 1962, but his love of poetry is still bringing working writers to Ocean Drive for a room of their own. That's because his son Jonathan Plutzik owns the Betsy Hotel South Beach and offers plenty of space at this establishment for the arts. The elegant, Georgian-style hotel does a little of everything cultural to enrich the community. Plutzik's generosity presents curated soundscapes, live jazz, fine arts on exhibition, and a variety of salons with experts. The hotel also works closely with the poetry festival O, Miami to stage readings and other events. And the hotel's Writer's Room gives visiting wordsmiths studio space and a desk donated by the Hyam Plutzik Centennial Committee. Jonathan Plutzik's philanthropy has enriched the careers of 400 writers since 2012.