Suzanne Westenhoefer

Comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer will appear at Chapman University next month as part of a series of events celebrating gay and lesbian pride. Westenhoefer, whose credits include an HBO special, performs at clubs nationwide. She will be at Chapman on April 13 for Pride Weeks, which runs from April 5 through 15. All events, including a lecture by Chastity Bono at 7 p.m. April 8, are free. Westenhoefer's show begins at 8 p.m. at Memorial Hall, 333 N. Glassell St. Information: (714) 997-6735.

* The comedian, whose HBO comedy special was nominated for an ACE Award in 1995, performs at the Coach House May 10. Regular Folk: I like the Normandie Room on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. It's just a little bar where they make a really great martini with a shaker. It has a non-pretentious gay crowd--like regular gay people--and there's a pool table. But it's not like a scary pool bar. There's no great big dance floor and you're really just walking in to hang out and talk.

As an openly lesbian comedian, Suzanne Westenhoefer is used to fielding naive questions from comedy fans. "People used to ask, 'You're not really gay, right? That's just your act?' " said Westenhoefer, who began working as a stand-up comic nearly six years ago. "That just kills me. Like I would pretend to be . . . "They're [also] under the assumption that I want to sleep with every single woman," she said. "I had one relationship with one woman for 10 years, and we broke up.

Comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer will appear at Chapman University next month as part of a series of events celebrating gay and lesbian pride. Westenhoefer, whose credits include an HBO special, performs at clubs nationwide. She will be at Chapman on April 13 for Pride Weeks, which runs from April 5 through 15. All events, including a lecture by Chastity Bono at 7 p.m. April 8, are free. Westenhoefer's show begins at 8 p.m. at Memorial Hall, 333 N. Glassell St. Information: (714) 997-6735.

* The comedian, whose HBO comedy special was nominated for an ACE Award in 1995, performs at the Coach House May 10. Regular Folk: I like the Normandie Room on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. It's just a little bar where they make a really great martini with a shaker. It has a non-pretentious gay crowd--like regular gay people--and there's a pool table. But it's not like a scary pool bar. There's no great big dance floor and you're really just walking in to hang out and talk.

MUSIC Royal Crown Revue will perform at Bloomingdale's Court, Fashion Island, Newport Beach at 6 tonight. (949) 721-2000. Free. $10 preferred seating. LECTURE The financial realities of divorce will be discussed at the Mariposa Women's Center, Orange. Tonight at 6:30, (714) 547-6494. $10 donation requested. COMEDY Suzanne Westenhoefer will perform stand-up comedy at the Irvine Improv, 4255 Campus Drive, at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. (949) 854-5455. $10-$12.

The label "lesbian comedian" could close more doors than it opens. Perceptions can lead to questions, such as: Will her routine focus exclusively on homosexuality? And will heterosexuals in the house feel targeted, or at least uncomfortably like outsiders? But when Suzanne Westenhoefer, one of the most prolific gay performers around, played the Coach House on Friday night, these became nonissues.

1 & 8pm Music If you are devoted to the masterpieces of Benjamin Britten--and "masterpieces" is the right word--you can hear and experience two of them, live, today, both in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. At 1 p.m., Los Angeles Opera gives its second (of seven scheduled) performances of "Peter Grimes," conducted by Richard Armstrong, with stage direction by John Schlesinger. At 8 p.m. Antonio Pappano conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the L.A.

Music * The Santa Ana College Concert Choir, Chamber Choir and Choir Club perform in the campus' Phillips Hall Theatre, 17th and Bristol streets, Santa Ana. 7 tonight. Free. (714) 564-5661. * Soprano Megan Weston and baritone Aram Barsamian sing pieces by Mozart, Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti and Massenet at the Cal State Fullerton Recital Hall, 800 N. State College Blvd. 8 tonight. $5-$8. (714) 278-3371. Pop/Rock * Jani Lane, Madd Tea Party, Face and Vendetta play at Cowboy Boogie, 1721 S.

Miss Venezuela, the poor thing, was bummed out. "Someone pulled the plug on me," she lamented, standing in a parking lot, hands on hips, referring to a technical snafu during her "Disco Inferno" song-and-dance routine at Saturday night's irreverent Quest for the Crown beauty pageant spoof for drag queens.

As an openly lesbian comedian, Suzanne Westenhoefer is used to fielding naive questions from comedy fans. "People used to ask, 'You're not really gay, right? That's just your act?' " said Westenhoefer, who began working as a stand-up comic nearly six years ago. "That just kills me. Like I would pretend to be . . . "They're [also] under the assumption that I want to sleep with every single woman," she said. "I had one relationship with one woman for 10 years, and we broke up.

It's been 14 years since Kate Clinton left her job teaching high-school English in upstate New York for a career as a stand-up comedian. But that doesn't mean she's stopped acting like a teacher. "If somebody is not paying attention in the audience," she noted with a chuckle, "I've been known to turn to the person and say, 'Would you like to share what you were talking about?' You fall back into those really annoying habits."