Things to Do in Hollywood

Santa Monica Bike Rental rents out bikes for 1-, 5-, or 10-hour blocks, letting customers tour Santa Monica and Southern California's nearby beach cities. Located just a tricycle's throw from the Pacific Ocean, the rental shop serves as the perfect starting point for rolling explorations of Santa Monica State Beach, quaint side streets, and public recreation areas such as Ocean View Park and Santa Monica Pier. The business rents both standard beach cruisers and electric G-bikes—powered scooters that can zip down Santa Monica's shopping district or travel up the Pacific Coast Highway and on toward Malibu.

Home to two stages and an art gallery, the Edgemar Center for the Arts more than meets the needs of the local visual and performing arts communities. The center places an emphasis on collaboration, uniting creative minds of all ages and persuasions both in the classroom and on stage. Hosting musical performances, question-and-answer sessions with Hollywood actors, and theatrical productions old and just sprouted, the space has attracted the likes of Don Cheadle, Christian Slater, Malcolm McDowell, and Jason Alexander.

With 30 years' experience choreographing fight sequences for television and film, competitive-fencing instructor Tim Weske leads Swordplay Fencing Studio's intrepid teachers in demystifying the art of the sword for students. His combat choreography sequences have touched films and TV shows as diverse as I Love You, Man and Angel, and he has safely instructed celebrities such as Natalie Portman and Brad Pitt to convincingly parry with their onscreen opponents and dual for red-carpet supremacy.

At Swordplay Fencing Studio, once-a-week group sessions or private lessons in foil, épée, and saber provide pupils with fun workouts by engaging minds with subtle strategy while burning calories, increasing agility, and building muscle tone. Afternoon and evening sessions are held Monday through Saturday to fit hectic jobs and busy mornings repainting the neighbors' lawn flamingos.

Shecky's Girls Night Out makes planning a social outing between friends easy with its dozens of fashion, jewelry, and beauty product displays and samples to peruse. Having started as a published guide to New York City nightlife, Shecky's now stages stylish shindigs across the country and has garnered nationwide notice from media outlets—including Bloomberg News —for its ladies-only soirees. Drawing on its roots as a party-planning brain trust, Shecky’s relies on a talented staff to augment vendor wares with complimentary snacks and cocktails, goody bags, and makeovers. Take a peek at one of Shecky’s past events, where, like the locker room at a WNBA game, men are conspicuously absent.

J.R.'s Comedy Club stocks an ever-crisp rotation of established and up-and-coming comedians. At both of the club's locations, longtime actress and regular host Diana Angelina ushers each new crop of comics into the spotlight and around the stages' knock-knock-joke-activated trapdoors. J.R.’s Comedy Club also schools aspiring stand-up jokesters with its six-week comedy workshop, and works closely with the community to host fundraisers that benefit schools, churches, medical facilities, and sports teams.

Originally built in the late 1800s as a vaudeville theater and then seeing time as a German film theater in the 1950s, today Bogart's stands as a portal to a world of live music. Six bars stand at the ready to keep rocking bodies hydrated, and three concert-viewing levels ensure pristine sightlines so that lead singers can have midconcert staring contests with anyone they choose.