Fun and offbeat events around Columbia, March 17-23

Thursday

OYSTER ROAST AND ST. PAT’S PARTY

Get your shucking arms ready. The Greater Lexington Chamber and Visitors Center is hosting one of its biggest parties of the year – the seventh annual Oyster Roast & St. Patrick’s Day Party. Price of admission includes all-you-can-eat oysters and barbecue, all-you-can-drink beer and wine, and live entertainment.

JOKER AND JESTER COMEDY TOUR

If you love comedy and magic, this Jake Daniels and Justin Rivera tour is for you. Where Daniels has produced several award-winning films, Rivera has performed magic and comedy on several TV shows, including “America’s Got Talent,” where he was named a judges’ favorite. The show is part of Third Thursday Comedy Night.

Friday

LOADED LATE NIGHT SKETCH COMEDY SHOW

You’ll laugh for more than an hour as hilarious characters and sketches take the Main Stage. The cash bar will be open at Marv’s throughout the show, and you can take your drinks to your seat. Singer-songwriter Marshall Brown will be a special musical guest.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE PRESENTS ‘VIN ET VIGNETTES’

The Club Théâtre is mixing it up a bit this spring. In lieu of a full-scale production, the club will host a wine and cheese tasting, enlivened by a short, informal theater workshop featuring classic La Fontaine fables. Audience participation is encouraged. Tasting and conversation in English; workshop in French and English; fables performed in French with English translations.

Saturday

32ND ANNUAL PALMETTO SPORTSMEN’S CLASSIC

Classic-goers will find hundreds of exhibitors with the latest fishing, hunting and outdoor equipment for show and sale. John Godwin of A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” will be a featured guest, signing autographs 1-5 p.m. Saturday, March 19 and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, March 20. Other highlights include the Extreme Raptors Show, Keith Johnson and his Bass Tub, W.O.W. (World’s Outstanding Whitetails), Outdoors With Joey Mines and more.

SODA CITY MARKET

Don’t feel like fighting the Five Points crowds? Stroll Main Street and check out produce, dairy, baked items and other goodies at this weekly Saturday market.

Sunday

FREE PARKER QUARTET FAMILY CONCERT

The USC School of Music’s “quartet-in-residence” concert will include Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence,” one of the composer’s rare chamber music works. It has remained one of the most popular works in the chamber music since its creation and abounds with gorgeous melodies. Joining the Grammy-winning quartet are USC faculty members Robert Jesselson, professor of cello, and Daniel Sweaney, associate professor of viola.

WCOS LEXINGTON BRIDAL EXPO

Get ready to plan your big day! Spend the day sampling cakes, checking out bands and DJs, and attending all of the great events that are part of this Bridal Expo. Compare photographers, cakemakers, dress shops and more.

Monday

NIKKY FINNEY’S FILM SERIES: ‘WATTSTAX’

South Carolina’s only nonprofit art house film theater is hosting a guest-curated series by Nikky Finney, a National Book Award-winning poet, on Mondays in March. Each film explores the characters’ search for and definition of freedom. Finney introduces each film in person. In “Wattstax,” the year is 1972, seven years after racial tension erupted into violence in South Los Angeles’ Watts neighborhood, and the R&B label Stax mounted a daylong concert intended to bring the devastated community together. Intersplicing exuberant performances from the label’s heavyweights (Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, a young Richard Pryor) and interviews with Watts residents about their experience, “Wattstax” is a multifaceted document of black life.

‘IDENTI-TEE: EVOLUTION OF THE T-SHIRT’

From undergarment to outwear, the simple white T-shirt has evolved into a casual wardrobe staple over the past 100 years. Its simple, iconic design has made it ubiquitous and timeless, a universal symbol within today’s popular culture. “Identi-Tee” recasts this timeless symbol, demonstrating how its function and meaning changed over time. This exhibit considers different cultures that wear T-shirts, the time periods that forged new cultural meanings for them, prominent people who donned them and the historical moments that made the T-shirt an important symbol of youth, activism and change.

Tuesday

OWLETTE ACADEMY: GARMENT ALTERATIONS WORKSHOP

At Owlette Academy’s Garment Alterations Workshop, students will learn basic altering techniques, such as hemming, taking in side seams, and strap or sleeve adjustments. This workshop is designed for adults with a basic knowledge of simple garment construction and experienced sewing machine use. Do you have some projects at home that you want advice on, too? You can bring those with you, and the last half-hour of class will be dedicated to answering your questions.

Wednesday

‘TIME AND PLACE: THE ARTWORK OF JAMES FOWLER COOPER’

Beautiful Lowcountry landscapes, farm labor and life growing up in rural South Carolina are all scenes depicted in this exhibition, telling the story of the Lowcountry through the eyes of South Carolina printmaker James Fowler Cooper. Cooper (1907-1968), a self-taught printmaker who grew up on a Williamsburg farm, chronicled the people and places near his hometown through his work.

‘PAT CONROY: A RETROSPECTIVE’

The first major exhibit of the newly acquired Pat Conroy Collection at USC is now open. Visitors will be greeted by a large poster, suspended from the ceiling, once used to promote Conroy’s first novel, “The Great Santini.” An exhibit case dedicated to the writing and publishing of “The Great Santini” shows how the book and movie forever changed Conroy and his family. The exhibit fills 14 display cases and includes numerous photographs, manuscripts, first-edition books, screenplays, scrapbooks, correspondence, posters and book art and other illustrations. Closes Thursday, March 31.