COMEDY: Off-the-wall comedian Maria Bamford has a knack for introducing the audience to her myriad of multiple personalities/dysfunctional family members during her stand-up routine, and we especially enjoy her occasional appearances on Tim & Eric's Awesome Show. Larry Vazeos and SF's own Chris Garcia open.

8 p.m. // Punchline Comedy Club (444 Battery St) // $18.50, 21+

SCIENCE: Matt Walker, Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at UC Berkeley will discuss recent sleep-related discoveries, including "sleep-dependent alchemy" and why you shouldn't skimp on sleep, at Ask a Scientist's Secrets of the Sleeping Brain.

7 p.m. // Axis Cafe (1201 8th St) // free

LECTURE: (Our apologies for posting this last week. It is in fact happening tonight.) Roger Thurow, author and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal looks at the geopolitics that allow some countries to prosper while others starve in The Forces Behind Famine.

6 p.m. // World Affairs Council Auditorium (312 Sutter St) // $5-15