On Thursday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m., celebrity chef/scientist Alton Brown returns to the Performing Arts Center with a brand-new, fresh-from-Broadway show: “Eat Your Science.” In a follow-up to the smash “Edible Inevitable” sold-out SLO show, “Eat Your Science” will mark the best-selling author and wildly popular TV personality’s third visit to the Central Coast.

While fans can expect more comedy, talk show antics, multimedia presentations and music (yes, he still sings!), Brown is adding a slew of fresh ingredients, including new puppets and bigger – and potentially more dangerous – culinary experiments. Brown has a knack for mixing together a perfect blend of science, music and food into two hours of pure entertainment, topped with a heavy dose of hilarious audience participation.

“You’ll see things I’ve never been allowed to do on TV…(I’m) contemplating more sophisticated protective gear for folks in the first few rows…just in case things get messy…again.”  Alton Brown said.

Tickets: $44 – $78

Show sponsors: City of San Luis Obispo, Hampton Inn & Suites/SLO


On Sunday, March 19 at 7 p.m., acclaimed bluegrass power couple Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn blend their banjo talents for a truly unique concert.

In the abstract, a banjo duo might seem like a limited musical concept. But when the banjo players cast in those roles are Washburn and 15-time Grammy winner Fleck – she with the earthy sophistication of a post-modern, old-time singer-songwriter, he with the virtuosic, jazz-to-classical ingenuity of an iconic instrumentalist and composer with bluegrass roots – there’s no denying that theirs is a one-of-a-kind pairing, with one-of-a-kind possibilities.

“(Through) carefully arranged slivers of Americana, Fleck and Washburn explore roots music using the tones and coloration options that arise when two banjos join in conversation…Alive and in constant motion.”  npr.org said.

It was inevitable and eagerly anticipated by fans of tradition-tweaking acoustic fare that these partners in music and life would eventually do a full-fledged duo album project together. In support of their recent release last October – and with a desire to spend time with their new baby – Washburn and Fleck are happy to be on tour together. “I come from a broken home and I have a lot of musician friends who missed their kids’ childhoods because they were touring,” Fleck said. “I don’t want to be somebody that Juno sees only once in a while. We need to be together, and this is a way we can be together a whole lot more.”

Pre-show lecture: 6 pm, Philips Lecture Hall, Russ DeAngelo (La Guitarra Festival Director)

Tickets: $27.20 – $54

Show sponsors: The Ignatius Family/Karen S. Kolba, M.D., Roy & Linda Rawlings, KCBX 90.1 FM


All tickets may be purchased in advance at the Cal Poly Ticket Office, Monday – Saturday, noon to 6 p.m., located on Grand Avenue on the Cal Poly campus; by phone at 805/756-4849; online at www.calpolyarts.org.

For more information on all Cal Poly Arts events, including audio and video samples, please visit www.calpolyarts.org.