When I arrived at LeMoyne Elementary School in Lake View in seventh grade, I knew nothing about Puerto Ricans, and there were a whole lot in the neighborhood back then.

I started taking the first of what would be several years of Spanish classes in school, because I wanted to know what all the Puerto Rican kids were talking about. I knew if I wanted to have any friends at LeMoyne I’d better learn the language — and fast.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of all my old wild and crazy Puerto Rican friends, and their families, at Lake View resident Elizardi Castro’s one-man comedy act, “Made in Puerto Rico.” I laughed my butt off at the show, which only costs $15 ($10 on Sundays for students and teachers) and runs through May 1 at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green St.

“I describe it as a party,” said Castro, a former New York attorney who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a masters degree in communications, and a law degree from the Florida State University College. “Some days it’s too rowdy, but it’s always fun.”

The Puerto Rican-born and New York-raised Castro — who likes to collect degrees and considers himself a Renaissance man — shares funny stories from his childhood, his career as an attorney, and his experiences as a father to four-year-old Alexi. He also jokes about his observations of the universal struggle to plant roots in a new culture.

Castro called Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, “tightly knit and very special.”

“In Chicago, everybody can be themselves but yet they share and embrace each other’s cultures,” he said. “It made me feel proud yet welcomed at the same time.”

He’s also proud of the fact that his act is family-friendly.

“It was challenging to keep it clean. Personally, I talk dirty all the time,” said Castro. “But when it comes to material … I don’t go there.”

Bewitching … is Lincoln Parker Sara Schoch in “Some Enchanted Evening,” running through June 5 at the Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, 6970 N. Glenwood Ave. It’s worth it to venture out of your ’hood and into mine if you’re a show tunes lover like me.

By day, Schoch is nanny to a newborn and an 18-month-old, work she said she finds “exhausting, but fun, and very rewarding.” By night, however, she’s a beguiling performer with one impressive set of pipes.

“I’m proud of this show,” said Schoch, one of six North Side actors and singers in the show, all of whom are fabulous. “It’s one of the best and most beautiful things I have ever been in, with a wonderfully talented cast. The melodies and lyrics are timeless and still very relevant to society today.

“Rodgers and Hammerstein were very good at bringing issues to the table that no one had ever talked about before, and though taken out of context in our show, the songs are still poignant and reverent,” she added. “This is a beautiful tribute to men who changed the way we looked at the American musical.”