Mondays at the Urban Well in Kitsilano

Van City can be a depressing place in the winter. Daylight retreats in the late afternoon, heavy sheets of rain flood the streets day after day, and our spectacular mountain vistas are lost in a heavy blanket of fog. Given the foul weather, it's often difficult to decide what to do with one's evenings. Do you go to the trouble of getting all tarted up and heading out to a nightclub only to get drenched and miserable? Or do you throw on your PJs and make it a movie night-again?

The Urban Well offers a good reason to leave home for a few hours with Urban Improv Night. Featuring good food (we recommend the dark-chocolate críƒ ¨me bríƒ »lée), cheap cover ($7), and a friendly atmosphere, it's not difficult to kick back and be entertained by local up-and-coming comics.

On a recent stormy Monday night, Diana Frances hosted, inviting members of the Urban Improv troupe on-stage for spontaneous sketch comedy. For prizes, she regifted her stash of dud Christmas presents-including a tiny SpongeBob Square Pants lunch box and an erotic novel. Throughout the evening, suggestions from the audience provided inspiration, which resulted in an absurd hip-hop western and a remarkably funny scene set in a second-rate video store called Busted Block. It was well worth getting up off the couch for.