Talk about a HEYDAY

POYKPAC has the Internet to thank for its fame, but the Brooklyn comedy troupe still likes to do things live.

At the new monthly show “Heyday” at Public Assembly, the troupe behind the satirical “Hipster Olympics,” will, yes, be trying out new video pieces, as well as stand-up and sketch.

“We get to do things that we could never do online,” said Ryan Hunter, a member of the troupe, whose acronomic name stands for “Pictures Of Your Kids Pooping And Crying.” “There’s nothing truly organic about the experience of watching a screening, no relationship with the audience, whereas on stage, you get to have that relationship.”

Their videos — including a live-action spin on the classic Mario Brothers video games that has more than 23 million YouTube views — are hugely popular, but POYKPAC doesn’t like to follow the same recipe.

“We try not to repeat ourselves too much,” said Hunter. “Even when something’s successful, we want to come out with something different.”

Still, the group likes the video game format — a recent video, “I’m Not Drunk Game,” is a short in the style of an old school game where the objective is to make it to your car and drive home without getting stopped by friends, or the cops.

The troupe has also been at work on a TV show, a comedy in the vein of a travel channel show, but where the inept hosts get run out of town each episode. The pilot has the cast backpacking across Queens — the poor man’s Europe.

That video should be ready to screen at the Heyday. Sometimes you just have to give the people what they want.

“Heyday: A Night of Comedy” at Public Assembly [70 N. Sixth St. between Kent and Wythe avenues in Williamsburg, (718) 384-4586], May 18 at 8 pm. Tickets $3. For info, visit www.poykpac.com.

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The Weekend: 5.14-5.16

Here's our guide to the weekend and what's going on in a neighborhood near you.

Friday, May 14

DUMBO: See rare photos by Mark Garanger at St. Ann's Warehouse in DUMBO.

Fort Greene: The zombie king - George Romero - takes Brooklyn.

Dyker Heights: The Genesis Rep performs "Romeo and Juliet" like you've never seen it before.

Boerum Hill: Re/Dress NYC hosts a fashion show.

Saturday, May 15

Red Hook: A new venture by the Red Hook food vendors opens today.

Fort Greene: It's a holy trinity from Sarah Ruhl at the Irondale Center.

Park Slope: Celebrate spring with puppets!

Sunday, May 16

Park Slope: Score a new (for you) used bike.

Williamsburg: Get a taste of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Then head to the after party at Brooklyn Bowl with the Postelles.

Prospect Heights: Raise your toes and raise some funds for LAVA at the dance troupe's handstand-a-thon.

Park Slope: Hear "Tusk"in its entirety by some Fleetwood Mac devotionals.

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South-of-the-Border sass

By Helen Klein

I’ve been cooking long enough to know that pretty much any recipe — other than for baked goods — is eminently malleable.

All you need is to apply the concept from one recipe to a different set of ingredients and, voilá … a whole new dish poses for its close-up.

Take, for instance, one of my family favorites, shepherd’s pie. That stolid British-inspired dish — perfect for a cold winter night — gets South-of-the-Border sass, leaving rainy-day tweeds behind for sunny serapes, thanks to the addition of corn, colored peppers, garlic and tortillas.

Now, I’m not saying to scrap tradition. Rather, I believe that taste buds react favorably when a tried-and-true favorite is upended and updated.

That certainly was true for my Tex-Mex take on a dish that’s heartening and hearty, flavorful but not fabulous.

Topped with homemade mashed potatoes, the dish saluted its country of origin while living large thanks to big flavors such as chili powder, oregano and pepper jack cheese.

If you have leftover mashed potatoes, you can finish this recipe reasonably quickly. Leave yourself about 45 minutes to an hour to pull this one-dish meal together, including oven time.

Tex-Mex Shepherd’s Pie

Serves six

Ingredients

1-1/2 lb. ground beef

1-2 small colored peppers, cored, seeded and diced

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 15-oz can kernel corn, drained

2-1/2 large plum tomatoes, chopped

1 cup white wine

1 tbl. chili powder

1 tsp. ancho chili powder

1 tsp. oregano

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

3 eight-inch tortillas, or as needed

2 cups mashed potatoes, or more as needed

1-2 tbl. butter, cut into small bits

1/2 cup grated pepper jack cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray large frying pan with cooking spray, then brown beef in its own fat over medium heat. When beef is browned, add onion, garlic and peppers, and continue cooking till vegetables are soft and golden. Then, add tomatoes, corn, wine and spices and continue cooking, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, till mixture is reduced and flavors are combined, about 15-20 minutes.

Place one tortilla at the bottom of a nine-inch diameter casserole. Add one third of the meat mixture, then another tortilla and continue layering until all meat is used. You should end up with meat at the top. Then, add mashed potatoes, spreading across the top until meat is completely covered. Sprinkle with butter and cheese.

Place casserole in oven, and cook until cheese is melted and golden, five to 10 minutes.

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'Lion' roars

Two Zimbabwean greats combine for a poetic fusion of dance and music this month.

In a new collaboration between choreographer Nora Chipaumire and Afro-pop legend Thomas Mapfumo, running May 21 and 22 at the Kumble Theater, even the title is poetry: “Lions Will Roar, Swans Will Fly, Angels Will Wrestle Heaven, Rains Will Break: Gukurahundi.”

Both dancer and musician are in exile from their native country, but their homeland remains integral to their art. In “Lions Will Roar,” making its New York premiere at Kumble, Chipaumire explores the migrant experience within and outside of Africa and examines how the continent is portrayed to a western, globalized world.

Moving solo or with dancer Souleymane Badolo, the Bessie Award winner is accompanied by the buoyant melodies of Mapfumo and his band, The Blacks Unlimited, playing live on stage.

“It’s the biggest, most critical collaboration I have done so far,” said Chipaumire.

The piece also uses video projection to explore what it means to be away from home. Though Chipaumire’s emotive physicality and Mapfumo’s intoxicating rhythms should be enough to draw you in to the poetry.

“Lions Will Roar, Swans Will Fly, Angels Will Wrestle Heaven, Rains Will Break: Gukurahundi,” presented by 651 Arts, in association with Dance Theater Workshop, at the Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts at Long Island University [Flatbush Avenue at DeKalb Avenue in Downtown, (718) 488-1624], May 21–22 at 8 pm. Tickets $25. For info, visit www.651arts.org.

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Pumps & Pleats: This raincoat is rad!

Photo by Joe Maniscalco

Story by Michèle De Meglio

Rain, rain go away!

There’s always some brave — or eccentric — folks walking down the street during a rainstorm holding newspapers over their heads or wearing plastic ponchos resembling garbage bags. But what’s cute about that? Nothing!

Pumps & Pleats believes fashionistas must be chic at all times — even with hail hitting their heads.

My search for a rad raincoat began at Eponymy, a cozy women’s apparel and accessories boutique on Bergen Street between Flatbush and Fifth avenues in Park Slope. The shop’s collection of Melissa and Vivienne Westwood rubber shoes is quite cute and practical for puddles but there was no raincoat in sight.

Up next — Epaulet, a men’s and women’s clothing shop on Smith Street between Douglass and Butler streets in Carroll Gardens. A navy GANT parka was waterproof and casually cool but sadly, it was a men’s jacket — and $295. Too rich for my blood!

Looking for a wallet-friendly option, it was time to hit up the Atlantic Center Target in Prospect Heights. The bull’s-eye recently released a capsule collection by Zac Posen which included a neon yellow raincoat with black trim and industrial hook and loop closures. So stylish! But upon closer inspection, the designer frock was shapeless and unflattering. Ugh.

Defeated, I nearly gave up my raincoat search until I stumbled into Sears in the Kings Plaza mall in Mill Basin. Now I never shop at this frumpy chain but was looking for a new purse for my grandmother (she loves the place). I was pleasantly surprised to discover a range of casual apparel and footwear from Lands’ End, which seems like a more affordable version of L.L.Bean.

I quickly made a beeline for a row of bright jackets (that’s my natural response upon spotting cute clothes). A lightweight and waterproof windbreaker in the prettiest periwinkle fit like a dream. Finally! The best part — the jacket was reduced from $50 to $35. Cute and cheap! You better believe I’ll be singing in the rain!

Sears [5100 Kings Plaza at Avenue U and Flatbush Avenue in Mill Basin, (718) 677-2100].

Michèle De Meglio is a native Brooklynite addicted to all things chic. Check out Pumps & Pleats each week for more adventures as she scours the borough for fab duds and accessories.

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'Tusk' tusk! Fleetwood Mac-loving band honors forgotten, but great, album

“Tusk” fans unite.

This Sunday, The Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society perform the ambitious Fleetwood Mac double album in its entirety at Union Hall in Park Slope.

The six-person collective is comprised of members from bands across the East Coast who united over their love of the groundbreaking rock band and its lead singer, the ringleader behind the 1979 experimental album.

A failure by commercial accounts, “Tusk” is a celebrated piece of varied pop that drew comparisons to the Beatles’s “White Album” upon its release. From well-crafted folk-rock such as the dreamy “That’s All for Everyone” to Buckingham’s indulgent title track, which combines group vocals, African tribal drums and a marching band, the album shows the beginning influence of punk rock and New Wave on his work.

“ ‘Tusk’ is a record that’s been dear to my heart forever for its quote unquote subversiveness, and for the fact that once you get beyond the subversiveness, there are some beautiful songs,” said Patrick Berkery, the drummer in the bands Danielson, Pernice Brothers, Bigger Lovers, Mazarin and others, who formed the society with Charlie Hall, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who has played drums with Jens Lekman, The War on Drugs, Windsor for the Derby, Tommy Guerrero and others.

Don’t expect any impersonations or costumes — the society is not a tribute act. Rather, it’s “more a loving exploration of the album than a verbatim reproduction.”

The opening band, Fleetwood Mike, however, is a tribute act. So get ready for some blonde Stevie Nicks hair, long flowing dresses and songs from the quintessential Fleetwood Mac album — “Rumours.”

The Lindsey Buckingham Society plays Union Hall [720 Union St. near Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, (718) 638-4400], May 16 at 8 pm. Tickets $12. For info, visit www.tlbas.com.

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Photography from the front lines

The New York Photo Festival may be a spotlight on new photography, but this year’s highlight is images that still burn 50 years after the fact.

Now through May 16, French photographer Marc Garanger’s photographs of Algerian women, taken from 1960-62 during the country’s War of Independence from France, will be on view at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO.

The photographs were not any act of artistic anthropology; rather, Garanger took them under order by the French Army to serve as identity cards for Algerian women, who, as a result, were forced to remove their veils and show their faces in public, often for the first time. The black and white results are piercing, some, such as a woman in braids looking straight at the camera — at you — haunting.

Some of these photographs are being exhibited for the first time here, as part of the Festival exhibition “Bodies in Question,” curated by Fred Ritchin.

“[Garanger’s] extraordinary photographs of Algerian women unveiled are much more than the identity photos which the French army required of him 50 years ago; they show the women’s defiance, sense of betrayal, vulnerability, and enormous strength,” said Ritchin. “As such they become a revealing marker in the clash of civilizations that continues, and even intensifies, today.”

New York Photo Festival at St. Ann’s Warehouse [38 Water St. between Dock and Main streets in DUMBO, (718) 254-8779], now through May 16. For info, visit www.nyphotofestival.com.

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