Lifestyle

Rachel Dratch, ping pong and other weekend events

Dublin Down

Having played second fiddle to her sister Andrea in the Corrs, you’d expect Sharon Corr to feel a little intimidated about stepping into the limelight as a solo artist. But the 43-year-old Irish violinist — currently on her first solo tour of the US — is relishing being front and center. “It’s not daunting at all. It’s fabulous and the reactions have been great,” she says. Her show Friday at City Winery will certainly offer something for all: Corrs tracks, her own work (including songs from her forthcoming album “The Same Sun”), covers and traditional Irish songs. Sadly, she won’t revisit any of the music from “The Commitments,” in which the Corrs had a bit part, although Sharon still has fond memories of the 1991 film that launched their careers. “We were so young, and it seemed so glamorous — I remember feeling like a country bumpkin compared to everyone else!” 8 p.m. at 155 Varick St.; 212-608-0555, citywinery.com. Tickets start at $25.

— Hardeep Phull

Bio-graphic

Rachel Dratch is getting into stars’ stories.

When Rachel Dratch was writing her memoir, “Girl Walks Into a Bar . . . Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters, and a Midlife Miracle,” she tested it this way: “Could I hear this thing being read at ‘Celebrity Autobiography’?” If so, she says, she’d have to rewrite it — or risk being skewered on the comedy showcase. Because not even Debbie Downer, Dratch’s “SNL” alter ego, could deflate anyone as well as the stars themselves — whose pompous prose turns into comic gold when read aloud. “People write the most inane things,” says Dratch, who’s done “Celebrity Autobiography” since it began five years ago. “Neil Sedaka wrote about everything he had for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Marilu Henner wrote about her romance with Tony Danza — and we read from that while Tony was standing there!” Maybe they’ll do it again, when Danza and Dratch, among others, read this weekend. Friday at 9:15 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m. Stage 72, 158 W. 72nd St.; 212-868-4444. Tickets, $35 to $50.

— Barbara Hoffman

What a Racket

Watch out, Susan Sarandon — there’s a new spinmeister in town! City Lore, a nonprofit that celebrates home-grown culture around the five boroughs, is hosting its first “Ping Pong in New York Night!”

“Pingpong is so hot now — a sort of ‘revenge of the nerds’ thing,” says event organizer Molly Garfinkel. “It’s an egalitarian sport, and you don’t have to be a great athlete — just strategic and savvy.” Paddle on over Friday to see crossword puzzle maven and Westchester Table Tennis Center founder Will Shortz battle Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor of the New Yorker. Mankoff promises to show his pingpong cartoons and judge the on-the-spot caption contest. Stay for a doc on the late NYC table tennis sensation Marty Reisman, along with a brief history of the game, which began in NYC in 1901 — and then play the game!

6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at 56 E. First St.; 212-529-1955, citylore.org; $15.

— Doree Lewak

A Real Pearl

John Belushi as a determined pilot in “1941.’’

A critical, but not financial, failure, Steven Spielberg’s epic historical comedy “1941’’ (1979) holds up far better than some of his more prestigious films. Very loosely inspired by real events, including a race riot, it’s a sprawling farce about Hollywood going into panic after a Japanese submarine surfaces off the West Coast a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The enormous cast includes John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, Treat Williams, Tim Matheson, Robert Stack (in a role turned down by John Wayne), Slim Pickens, Christopher Lee, Toshiro Mifune, John Candy — and swimmer Susan Backlinie, who spoofs her appearance in the opening sequence of “Jaws.’’ Worth seeing just for the spectacular Ferris wheel sequence, it’s having a rare showing 6:30 p.m Sunday at the Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Avenue and 36th Street, Astoria. Info: movingimage.us.

— Lou Lumenick

Cooking the Books

The James Beard Foundation may be best known for its annual restaurant awards, but its founder never actually owned his own restaurant. Instead, Beard was a prolific culinary writer: “He wrote 27 cookbooks,” explains the foundation’s Victoria Jordan Rodriguez.

On Saturday, the foundation celebrates tomes by toques with its biannual cookbook sale within its historic West Village town house. Thousands of books will be on offer, some dating as far back as the late 1800s. Lightly used professional kitchen equipment — sheet trays, glassware — will also be for sale. Books will be priced between $5 and $20.

Use the money you save to buy some fancy ingredients — or leave the cookbooks on the coffee table and go out to dinner.

10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the James Beard House, 167 W. 12th St.; jamesbeard.org. Admission is free.

— Hailey Eber