BEST BETS Thursday 6/22

COSTA MESA

5:30pm

Benefit

You can sample some of Orange County’s finest cuisine and enjoy some fine wine at Summer Solstice 2000: A Festival of Food and Wine. More than 30 restaurants, including Bangkok Four and Troquet, will offer samples from their menus. All proceeds--from admission, drawings and private contributions--will benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County and Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa. Lovers of gourmet dining can enjoy delicacies while helping a good cause.

* Summer Solstice 2000, South Coast Plaza (Crate & Barrel wing), 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa. Today, 5:30-9 p.m. Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. (714) 435-2160.

BREA

8:30pm

Comedy

Rocky LaPorte is a Brooklyn-born, former Chicago truck driver who moved to Brea in the early ‘90s to be closer to Hollywood. In getting to know Orange County, the blue-collar comic has found certain sections to be, shall we say, rather amusing: “Most big cities have drive-by shootings; Newport Beach has drive-by insults. There’s guys driving around in Rolls-Royces: ‘Hey, you got a little boat, and your kids go to public school.”

* Rocky LaPorte, Brea Improv, 945 E. Birch St., 8:30 p.m. Also Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8 and 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 8 p.m. $10 to $12. (714) 529-7878.

IRVINE

8:30pm

Comedy

Jake Johannsen is a self-described “raconteur of weird stories,” such as the one about the humongous bug that crashed into his windshield (the story ends with a squeegee funeral at the next stop), and the story about his shedding cat, which always overestimates just how much fur it’s going to need.

* Jake Johannsen, Irvine Improv, 71 Fortune Drive, 8:30 p.m. Also Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 7, 9 and 11 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. $12 to $15. (949) 854-5455.