Making a good impression

New York City-based humorist Polly Frost returns to Northern California with a new one-woman show, Bad Role Models and What I Learned From Them. In it, the writer-slash-performer explores her relationships with the people she says helped most to shape her worldview.

“My show is about who we learn from the most,” Frost says. “[Is it] the so-called ‘good' role models, or the less than perfect people?”

Frost, whose previous works centered around myriad topics including family, social mores and sexuality, has been described as a mix of Edith Wharton and Garrison Keillor. In Bad Role Models, she tells stories of a scotch-drinking horse-riding instructor and the free-love hippies in her native Santa Barbara, as well as a cast of colorful artists and writers—all of whom made an indelible impact on her life and art. Sunday, July 28, 2:30 p.m.; $12 members, $15 nonmembers. The Center for the Arts, 314 West Main Street in Grass Valley; (530) 274-8384; www.thecenterforthearts.org.