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Thursday, March 28, 2024
Michelle Barbera, Sasha Goldberg and Rachel Rosenthal are all involved in the Women in Comedy Festival, coming in March to Central Square and available now in a podcast.

Michelle Barbera, Sasha Goldberg and Rachel Rosenthal are all involved in the Women in Comedy Festival, coming in March to Central Square and available now in a podcast.

Three comedy and spoken-word performance happenings of note, all from Cambridge’s Central Square:

Stash’s Comedy Jam is returning to The All Asia Café as of Feb. 2. This open-mic event, which started nine years ago, returns from hiatus with prizes: $50 for the best comic of the night, $25 for the second-best and, according to Stash, $25 for third-best. That should take the sting out of coming in third. The café is at 334 Massachusetts Ave. The show is 19-plus.

There’s a Women in Comedy Festival podcast. The festival runs March 24-28 at ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect St., with a schedule due to be announced this month, according to festival producers Maria Ciampa and Michelle Barbera. But the podcast is available now and is the next best thing to being there (better if you plan to listen to comedy while jogging or doing dishes). The first is 44 minutes of music and chat, including a segment with a party-game question (You’re stranded on an island with a puppy and a baby — which do you eat?) that goes some surprising places.

A story-telling slam comes to the Enormous Room on Jan. 31. Competitors get five minutes to tell a story based on different themes, with the theme for this first event being “It’s relative.” Winners will go on to other rounds and may eventually compete nationally, as in poetry slams. The 10 people whose names are drawn randomly from a bag will get a chance to compete for the audience and three judges, and there will be improv games and other interactive entertainment between rounds. (Along with Doria Hughes, the story-telling slam is hosted by Will Luera, artistic director of ImprovBoston.) The action runs from 6 to 9 p.m. in the leveled-living-room-style space of the Enormous Room above Central Kitchen, 567 Massachusetts Ave. It’s $5 to get in, and there’s a one-drink minimum.