Whuddup, Freaks?

Double-stuffed, ripe with choices, coming on like a clown car parked in a cornucopia, the K.C. Fringe Festival is your chance to gorge on all that its legion of artists, performers and exhibitionists have to offer. With dozens of events between today and Saturday, you gotta have your priorities in line. The lineup includes absurdist sketch-comedy troupe Bacon Shake (Bohemian Gallery, 200 West 19th Terrace, 816-221-1214, tonight, Friday and Saturday nights and at 2 p.m. Sunday) and the traditional dancers of Kurashiki, Japan (Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Crown Center, 2450 Grand, 816-274-8444). The Screenland Theatre (1656 Washington, 816-421-2900) offers up KC’s Jazz Underground, a showcase for the avant garde, on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon. Screenland’s offering is fringey, as in “challenging and artistic,” as opposed to fringey, as in “shock-your- parents hip.” Funkier but no less daring is long-running swing-reggae-spacedust collective BCR (6:30 p.m. tonight and 9:30 p.m. Friday at 7 East 19th Street). That protean beast of groove and spirit could be credited with keeping Sun Ra’s torch burning — except that torches need oxygen, and these cats are interstellar, their local zip codes be damned. The Central Library’s indie-film series peaks with K.C. Jubilee selection Missionary Kid, a documentary by Kendra Jones chronicling a Nairobi-born white woman’s impressions of her homeland (9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Central Library’s Film Vault, 14 West 10th Street, 816-701-3400). And at 10 p.m. Friday at XS Lighting (1632 Broadway), catch The Same but Different, Lisa Marie Evans’ excellent doc about transgendered Midwesterners. Finally, there’s boobs, which, when shaken and twirled in Fringe’s dueling burlesque shows, are more about empowerment than titillation. First up is Naughty Knickers (412-A Delaware, all nights and Sunday afternoon) an extravaganza of bloomers featuring the comely stars of local theater. Meanwhile, look to 7 East 18th Street for One More Night! In that girly-show summit, local stalwarts Michelle Kelley, Annie Cherry and the Hurly Burly Girlies bop and doff. There’s also theater and dance and fashion and poetry, much of which looks promising. For the full list of events, showtimes and performance spaces, see kcfringe.org.