Hot damn! After years in the making, and many more in the void, Portland's finally getting a real comedy club.

Now, perhaps you're thinking, "wait a minute, Grumptown already has a comedy club dedicated to stand-up. It's called Harvey's, I think." Well sir, ma'am, or abusive commenter, if that's what you're thinking I'd say you need to read the story on the evolution of Portland as a comedy town coming out in tomorrow's paper—which happens to be the same day Helium opens!

But we're just too damn excited. And to celebrate, we're giving away 25 free tickets (each includes a guest) to the 10:30 shows this Friday and Saturday. That's 100 goddamn opportunities to check out Auggie Smith and Helium's new space (on the corner of SE 9th and Hawthorne). Smith, by the way, is a caustic, flaming libertarian—so don't say you've weren't warned.

All you have to do is shoot an email to heliumtix@portlandmercury.com and include the following:

- Your full name
- Daytime phone numer
- The show (Friday or Saturday) you'd like to attend. Put this in the SUBJECT line.

That's it. First come first serve. We'll let the winners know by Friday afternoon.