Bridgetown Comedy Festival 2012

[Liezl]

jon glaser counts to 30 and makes everyone admire his rod.

[J.B.]

Take two at a half-assed re-cap:

Thursday:
The AST House has chickens in the backyard! Later we let them out to roam around the backyard and Sam just shouts at us about how we're going to be torn apart by their claws.
I didn't see any comedy because I was off doing my screening... a well regarded Portland filmmaker named Vanessa Renwick walked out half-way through, and I feel oddly proud of that.

Friday:
Yearly trip to Mothers with the "congolia"s. Fucking salmon hash is fucking delicious.
Kurt Braunohler was great on Gelmania.
Dash off to Grawlix - Ben Roy was my first new-to-me surprise.
Quickly over to Improv for Humans and rush over for Persona! - Friday was a clusterfuck of shows for me.
Persona! is always a great show. Persona! & Iron Comic should be at every Bridgetown.
Ron Lynch's late night show was one of the highlights of the whole festival for me. So much loopy fun - and Dan Mintz had some absolutely brilliant lines.

Saturday:
Pok Pok is yummy, sure - but maybe a little over-hyped.
Who Charted? is entertaining as hell and moves into my very short list of podcasts worth seeing live.
Maria Bamford's RISK! story is harrowing and hilarious at times - people were talking about it all weekend.
Burnside's Sweat Heat scotch bonnet pepper beer is surprisingly good - I like it even though I normally don't like that sort of thing. I felt the same way later that day about DJ Real.
Best of Austin was a super solid show. Everyone was good, and Howard Kremer's rambling vegetarian harangues are way funnier than they have any right to be.
Nick Rutherford was the highlight of the Eagles Lodge show I didn't get to see in it's entirety as Ameen and I get in a long conversation with Martin, the blue-tooth wearing security guard. He tells us that he knows he's "notorious in LA."
A don't remember the name of the guy at the Benched show who talked a lot about a knee injury, but I quite liked his set.
James Adomian as Dov Charney at the Tanker is super-fun.
Some kid who says he works for Lance Bangs says this to me: "Ron Lynch? Is he a DJ?"

Sunday:
The Eagleheart forum had a very funny guest appearance from Jon Glaser.
The Bar of the Gods can sometimes be a hard place to see comedy. I really enjoyed Steve Benaquist's "jayyuhz" bit.
We close out the festival at Eagles Lodge. Mary Mack was really great. And Aparna Nancherla's Dora the Explorer story was so fucking good I hope she was greeted at the afterparty with a Brody-Stevens-style chanting of her name.

[scamboogah]

Sorry I never made it to AST House. To say that time gets away from you during Bridgetown is the understatement of the century.

My two things:

1) Jay Larson's story about someone calling him by mistake and him lying to that person for several weeks before they noticed.

2) My friend and I saying "Jimmy Doooore" in Bill O'Reilly's voice every time we ran into him.

[pg13]

A don't remember the name of the guy at the Benched show who talked a lot about a knee injury, but I quite liked his set.

Patrick Keane. He also had a fun expectation-twisting set at the "Best of the Seattle International Comedy Competition" (he was a finalist in last year's competition) show at the Bossanova...that was criminally under-attended. (And he had a shot taken at him, later in the show, by Auggie Smith about "using notes" that showed that Auggie totally missed the point of what Patrick was doing...)

[darrylduffy]

I got to see Mike Upchurch and Chris Locke for the first time on Friday, with the bonus of seeing Paul Jay as well. to echo Scamboogah, that story Jay Larson told that heightened every step of the way was the highlight of Saturday night for me. Also was blown away by Matt Knudsen's set at Bagdad's closing show Sunday night. He has this Brian Regan-esque ability to mine incredible material from topics that seemed well worn but ended up coming out with unique, fresh, perfect 'how has nobody got to this premise yet?' jokes. Please seek them out. I probably should have mentioned this prior to the festival, but hope everyone was able to catch David Gborie. Aparna also killed at RISK! and Sean Patton told a hilariously insane story of his first paid comedy gig and the ensuing evening. The 3 Eagleheart episodes we got to see were fantastic, with Maria Thayer shining in the 'Little Dude' episode. The Delocated 'Reunion Show' episode outtakes of 'Jon' talking about crabs for nearly 5 minutes was also a high point of laughter. I finally got to see Kristine Levine on Sunday as well and am very glad that I did. I wish I were able to see more shows of friends rather than just get to run into them around town but there was just too many places to be at once. great job, Bridgetown organizers.

Thank you Andy, Braunger, Kimberly, Charlene, and every volunteer that makes this festival possible. It's such a pleasure to get to attend it and I'm impressed even more as each year goes on. Thank you AST friends for making the trip, it's always good to see you and catch up in person.

[scamboogah]

ME SO HOAGY

[Grant Pardee]

I also want to say I had the time of my life. I can't remember ever being so happy for so many consecutive hours. I got back to LA last night and I'm still coming down from the excitement.

Bridgetown rules.

[pg13]

Excellent work as the head judge for Talk Show-The Game Show, Grant!

[scamboogah]

Several more highlights as the fog clears;

Dax Jordan doing 'Comedy Robot' at the Ron Lynch-hosted open mic on Saturday night.

The Delocated 'Crabs' clip (that Daryl describes above)

Gelmania!!

Dave Hill hosting a show with Jay Larson, Andres Du Bouchet, James Adomian, Pete Holmes, an Eagleheart episode AND Janeane Garofalo

Myq Kaplan and Pete Holmes sitting dumbfounded whenever Mary Mack would talk during the 'Humor Code' show

Jimmy Dore's 'Left right and ridiculous' show.

Everything about the Eagle Lodge.

Eating PB&J Fries at Potato Champion at 2:30 in the morning.

Hanging out with Mark Agee, Ramin Nazer, Andy Sandford, and Emmett Montgomery in the hospitality room of the hotel.

Having a Scotch Egg at the Horse Brass Pub, along with 3 or 4 quality microbrews.

The delocated footage of Jon at his Hawaiian Themed Sub shop on a ski slope, 'Me So Hoagy'.

Walking into the hotel lobby at 3am to see Brody Stevens and Howard Kremer hanging out talking.

Seeing back-to-back-to-back sets by Braunger, Doug Benson, and Todd Barry at the closing show.

Jim Tews and Jon Huck at Bar of the Gods.

Other than all that, it sucked.

[scamboogah]

PICTURES!! AND SOME AREN'T COMPLETELY BLURRY!! (but most are)

[badinia]

Amazing pics as ever, Liezl. Thank you for making them.

[ronlynch]

A belated thanks to all who attended my secret midnight show at the Eagles. Pretty fun time.

[beccaBeccaBECCA]

I just got into Bridgetown! Any AST folk going this year? These threads make it seem suuuuper fun.

[J.B.]

Congratulations! You'll have a great time. Try a Viso, go to Saburo's, drink too much beer, have a conversation with the cashier at New Seasons about the steel drum band that played at her wedding, buy a book at Powells, try all the food trucks, go to a strip club. Just tell people you went to Voodoo - don't actually bother.

[Sabu]

Congratulations, Becca! You're going to have a great time.

Still waiting to hear about our show's application-- fingers crossed. Whether or not we get into the festival, I'll be going to shows every night as usual. Can't wait; it's always fantastic and I discover tons of new comedians to be fans of!

[beccaBeccaBECCA]

Now I'll just have to dabble in light prostitution to be able to afford to get there and stay for the duration!

[J.B.]

Now I'll just have to dabble in light prostitution to be able to afford to get there and stay for the duration!

The AST House is all booked up (I'm really sad about not going this year) - but use airbnb to find a place to rent that you can split with a bunch of other comics. When we stayed at the AST House, we paid less than $20 a night for people with a bedroom, and $10 a night for the couch-crashers. Plus, if you rent a house, you can just use the kitchen and save a shit-ton of money on food, too.

[Cameron]

I wish they would hurry up with all the acceptance/rejection emails (or at least give some sort of update on when we should expect them.) Seems like only a random smattering of people have actually gotten them so far (I know only 1 of the 20 or so Austin comics who submitted have heard anything.)

I'm sure they have some tough decisions to make and going through the crazy number of submissions is a big chore but it would be nice to know whether I should start making travel plans or start trying to fill that week with other work.

[Liezl]

I am going to miss everyone this year... but most of all, I'm going to miss Potato Champion.

[Adult Ed]

I wish they would hurry up with all the acceptance/rejection emails (or at least give some sort of update on when we should expect them.) Seems like only a random smattering of people have actually gotten them so far (I know only 1 of the 20 or so Austin comics who submitted have heard anything.)

I'm sure they have some tough decisions to make and going through the crazy number of submissions is a big chore but it would be nice to know whether I should start making travel plans or start trying to fill that week with other work.

This is supposed to be inside your head.