Best comedy club

There's no pain quite like watching someone trying to be funny and failing. That brutal post-joke silence. Those sympathetic laughs. Your own face burning in empathy with the stand-up flop. At Improv Asylum, nestled in the North End, you don't have to fear this sort of torture. Offering a combination of sketch and improv, the Improv Asylum troupe relies on audience input, meaning you'll never see the same show twice (which makes the see-five-shows-get-the-sixth-free deal all the more appealing). One night might feature a riff on alligators and Elvis, the next it could be carpet salesmen and Barbie dolls. The only painful part might be the muscles in your gut aching from laughing so hard.

"If you can't laugh at life," said a gray-haired, twinkle-eyed, rosy-cheeked Joe Flynn at the Cantab Lounge on a recent Friday night, "it's not worth living." Joe had just nearly fallen over, stumbling over some folding chairs, much to the amusement of his buddies at the bar. On Thursday nights at Central Square's multiethnic, all-ages, semi-seedy Cantab, you can laugh at life and at the improv comedy that takes place downstairs. And the rest of the week, the Cantab offers enough variety to suit any mood, with bluegrass, poetry slams, open mikes, and of course the inimitable Little Joe Cook and the Thrillers.

Improv Asylum, 216 Hanover Street, Boston, (617) 263-6887; Cantab Lounge, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 354-2685.