Janeane Garofalo doesn’t make it easy to love her. Which is why you love her. If you do. And if she lets you. Yes, her aggravated wit—a kind of unforced contrariness—effortlessly endeared her to Generation X after her breakout role in Ben Stiller’s 1994 Reality Bites. Yet Garofalo would likely counter such a claim by crabbing that she’s never yearned for fame, that she hates the Gen X label, that her past association with Stiller—which began with his short-lived TV sketch show—is of no consequence, and that it’s pointless to be discussing something she did in the ’90s. Garofalo’s confident crabbing, actually, means she holds her own against the best men in her business (who better to play Jerry Seinfeld’s “female me” fiancée on Seinfeld?) and the worst men in the media (regularly forcing Bill O’Reilly to dodge her left hooks). She holds an unflinching gaze on both pop culture and politics, has enlivened every movie in which she’s appeared, and can boast an enviable résumé of television work—including The Larry Sanders Show, The West Wing and, most recently, 24. She’s here to tape a live DVD of her standup comedy. But don’t make a big deal out of it. STEVE WIECKING

Sat., May 8, 7 & 9:30 p.m., 2010