Nazi-bot returns in a new episode of Chatroom of Solitude with Phil Lamarr, Carolyn Hennessey, Felicia Day and more.

LOVE!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure/privilege of performing at the 6^th annual Bridgetown Comedy Festival. It was my third time performing at the festival (read: Junior year) and since I didn’t write a journal, I thought I’d see what came to me as I sat down and tried to recall my favorite moments in a non-edited or backspaced stream of consciousness.

Thursday 4/18

Sharing the Virgin American, Thursday 10:05 AM flight with some of my comedy faves Dave Ross, Paul Danke, Cornell Reid, Chris Fairbanks, Zack Sherwin, Shawn Pearlman, Jim Hamilton, Sean Greene, Tess Barker, Sam Verela, Bryan Cook, Mark Agee and a few more whose names escape me at the moment. If our plane went down, there would have been a half a moment of silence and a hand full of other comics would have gotten a few extra sets at the festival.

Taking the MAX red line from the PDX airport to the Hotel 50 and feeling like an environmental baller.

Getting hamburgers with Howard Kremer and Paul Danke at a restaurant named after the owner. I want to say Joel’s or Murray’s, even though I’m 100% confident that that’s not the name of the place. While we were there, there was a photographer taking pictures for their Yelp page, as you do.

Getting an email from my agent and having to book a flight to fly back to LA for a meeting the next day. 600 bucks, gulp. A career in show business is always a gamble but sometimes you’re more acutely aware of how much you’re betting.

Jumping in to Moshe Kasher’s rented Subaru with Natasha Leggero, Karen Kilgariff, Chip Pope, April Richardson and Paul Danke and heading to the meet and greet reception at The Mt. Tabor Lounge for free beers and “Hey buddies.”

Going to the Tanker Lounge and doing a set at the open mic. It was really just an excuse to play the skeeball machine with a microphone in my hand and hang out with local faves Emmet Montgomery and Veronica Heath. If you’ve ever wanted to get a sense of what the enthusiasm for comedy is like in Portland, there were 50 people there to watch an open mic. Amazing.

Doing a set at The Bar of the Gods and enjoying the comedy stylings of local comedian David Gborie. Relaxed, funny, cool.

Trying to find a ride to the after party to avoid paying cab fare. Success! The festival volunteers were amazing.

Friday 4/19

4:30 AM wake up call came much earlier than I expected. Walked down to the train station feeling significantly less like a baller.

Back in LA for meeting that went OK but hardly worth the 6 bills. Heading straight back to the airport for shows that night. My biggest regret was missing the free arcade play at Ground Kontrol.

Going to see shows at the beautiful Bagdad Theater with the lovely and talented Karen Kilgariff, Greg Behrendt and Nate Craig. Not unlike TBS, they are all very funny.

Jumping over to watch The Super Serious Show at The Hawthorne Theater with the incomparable Dana Gould and one of my faves, Baron Vaughn.

Closing out the late show at The Hawthorne Lounge with Allen Strickland Williams and Mary Patterson; 2 funny and solid people. For a show that went until about 1AM, the crowd was amazing and on board the whole time.

Skipping the after party and sensibly going back to the hotel at 2AM.

Saturday 4/20

420, right?! 420! For the record, it’s 420 in Portland pretty much every day.

The Hotel 50 had a Bloody Mary and VooDoo Donuts brunch. As if I would miss that. In the process, I did a walking podcast with Seth Herzog on Andy Peters iPhone.

Going to The Simpsons panel at The Bagdad Theater with writers, Dana Gould, Matt Selman, Bill Oakley and Brian Kelley. They screened the “Portlandia” episode with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and did a Q & A afterward. Matt Selman used the question that I asked him on Twitter, “Do you recall a specific pitch that you loved but no one else did?” The stories were interesting and hilarious. I’m an unabashed Simpsons nerd.

Grabbing a vegan lunch with Myq Kaplan and Ken Reid at The Blossoming Lotus. No one lost their tempah.

Going to the live Who Charted at Mt. Tabor with Howard Kremer and Kulap Vilaysack and their special guest Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz. It was fun to see the live audience rap along with Dragon Boy Suede. Howard is the best.

Closing out the early show at The Mt. Tabor Lounge with John Vargas and TJ Chambers. The venue is all neon paintings and black lights and reminds me of the kind of bedroom I would have had as a teenager if I were allowed to make my own decisions.

Going to The Bagdad Theater for Kurt Tub with Kurt Braunholer and seeing one of my favorite and innovative comics Reggie Watts. At the end of the show, Kurt invited the entire audience on stage to take a, “Class photo.” Cool and hilarious.

Catching the end of Holy Fuck with Dave Ross. It’s always one of my favorite shows in LA and it was cool to see it done to a packed house on the road.

Going to David Huntsberger’s record release party for his new album Explosion Land at The Mt. Tabor Theater. David is hilarious and one of the nicest guys you could meet.

Heading to the White Owl Social Club for The Tomorrow Show (At midnight of course) with bar none one of my favorite performers and personalities Ron Lynch. Ron is the best in every sense of the word. Joining him to co-host the show was SNL alum Laura Kightlinger. Some of my favorite performers were Portland local Tim Hammer, Alice Wetterlund and of course Blaine Capatch.

After party? Um, yeah.

Sunday 4/21

Sleeping in till 11 but still coming down to the lobby in time to go out to breakfast with Christian Duguay, Andrew Overdahl and Andy Haynes. We got the stink eye for bringing in outside coffee but I just had to buy a cup of joe from the place that had it’s own DJ.

Going to see the Probably Science podcast with Andy Wood, Matt Kirshen and their very special guests Gallagher and Peter Serifinowicz. If you like racial profiling and awkward situations, you should give it a listen. The line of the podcast came from Bridgetown founder Andy Wood, “Can we talk about supernovas now?”

Seeing Theme Park with Oscar Nunez, Janet Varney, Michael Hitchcock and Ian Brennan. They were all great but Cole Stratton really crushed it.

My last show at The Mt. Tabor Theater with Nick Thune, Dave Anthony and Barbara Gray. Nick Thune had a broken hand and I’m proud to say that I was the one guy that didn’t make him talk about it. Super great crowd and a fun dismount to performing.

Seeing the Put Your Hands Together Show at Mt. Tabor Theater. Cameron Esposito is a comedy stick of dynamite and killed doing crowd work. Also on the show were my faves Ben Kronberg with his bone dry one liners, Seth Herzog wearing a Wonder Woman costume and Andy Wood instructing the crowd on the importance of the order of people when you’re streaking.

Going to the closing party at The White Owl Lounge and enjoying the last of the 2 dollar PBR tall boys. Fun seeing everyone in a relaxed environment when they weren’t all preparing for or heading off to a show. Getting my “Bridgetown Class Photo,” from Mandee Johnson with a bounce fill courtesy of Joel Mandelkorn.

Heading back to The Hotel 50 only to find out that word had spread about an after after party in room 422. I was staying in room 422. Within ½ hour of getting back, my room was filled with 40 comics who didn’t want the party to end. My most vivid memory of the night was saying goodbye to people at 6AM and preventing a comedian from stealing the bible that was in my room.

Monday 4/22

Grabbing a morning beer with Mike “Dad Boner” Burns at the Hotel 50 bar followed by a food truck lunch with Ron Lynch.

The Virgin America 3:35 back to LA was filled with many of the comics that I flew up with. There was a collective relief knowing that if we died, the festival wouldn’t have to reschedule any shows.

Good times with good people is what life is and should be about. Hope to see you next year Portland and in the mean time continue to keep it weird.

(*Photo courtesy of Pat Moran @PatMoran252)

I’ll be performing at The Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon the weekend of April 18th – 21st. The lineups are always great and I’m looking forward to seeing as many shows as I can. If you’re in the neighborhood, pop in and say hey.
http://bridgetowncomedy.com/

Hey buddy, I’m headlining The Hollywood Improv on Saturday, April 13th at 10PM. I’ve invited some of my favorite comedians along for the fun and it’ll be a great show. If you don’t believe me, take it from this random assortment of people on Hollywood Boulevard. You should totally come.

I wonder if Dennis Rodman got to bring a friend to North Korea.

Unfortunately, they didn’t let me keep the track suit.

Greetings true believers. This is a pic of the Nazi-bot recuperating after having his ass handed to him by an elite force of super heroes. I don’t feel like I’m spoiling any plot points by telling you that a character named Nazi-bot does not prevail. After shooting a pilot for Stan Lee’s World of Heroes and having it premier at Stan’s panel at Comicon, the powers that be have ordered the show to series and it will be rolling out soon. I had a great time and am always happy to work with my buddies Jeff Lewis and Sean Becker of The Guild fame. You can check out the original pilot by clicking HERE. Excelsior!

I had always known that Snowball was a pretty girl, I just didn’t realize that she had moves like this.

I just wrapped a project called SOMEBODY MARRY ME; which just set the world record for the longest continuous take feature film. We rehearsed the entire movie like a play for 3 weeks and shot it all in one 89 minute take without cutting. When I first heard about the project, I just assumed they were going to do it all in one place but alas, there were multiple locations and even street driving. I played Officer Wickwire and pulled the lead over 3 different times in 3 different places. While we were shooting, there was a documentary film crew shooting a “Making of the movie,” movie called ONE SHOT. After several false starts and even a take that we got 75 minutes in to before having to cut, we finally got THE ONE. It’s currently being submitted to festivals and I’ll keep you posted. In any case, it was a fun way to close out the year.