14

SUNDAY

While Colin Quinn continues to collect paychecks from Comedy Central despite hosting the cable-TV equivalent of being caught in rush-hour traffic, Eugene Mirman lives gloriously free of the curse of the topical comic. The New York–based Russian immigrant’s debut album, The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman, identifies history’s first true nerds (alchemists), why kids say the darnedest things (they have no education), and what is never funny to do when walking down the street (picking up a child and running—even for just a few feet). Mirman’s humor is comfortably right-brain—nonlinear, intuitive, and playfully abstract—as demonstrated by the short films on his Web site, among them Swift Truthful Vets, which sets John Kerry’s Vietnam record straight once and for all. (Wait; he wasn’t in The Deer Hunter?) Having recently completed tours with Yo La Tengo, Modest Mouse, and the Shins, Mirman is on the road again with sketch-comedy group Stella, some of the folks from mid-’90s troupe the State who aren’t now on Reno 911!. Pay these people and they’ll make you laugh at 8:30 p.m. at the State Theatre, 220 North Washington St., Falls Church. $17. (703) 237-0300. (Chris Hagan)