Bear with me as I tell you a story of geography and transit. Or go read about my amazing training regimen.

This year, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival has some different venues which is strongly influencing my tentative plan for shows. As a lazy bicyclist (and a city that fails to provide late night mass transit), I have been stuck with waiting for cabs to get from upper Hawthorne to my home at 2am. Apparently we don’t have enough cabs between 1am and 2am. Only really a problem for me once or twice a year, but it has kind of sucked.

This year, the festival venues make an interesting backwards L from the Eagle Lodge (not to be missed) at 49th & Hawthorne down to the Analog Cafe (720 SE Hawthorne) and the White Owl Social Club (1305 SE 8th — pretty much at SE Main) and then back to the Bossanova Ballroom and Doug Fir (both right around 7th/8th on E. Burnside).

As a side note, the Bagdad Theater is out (now showing first run movies), which is a bummer because the seats were more comfortable than other venues but a good thing because the theater just ate up the sound and energy of some shows (which might have been related to my tendency to fall asleep in the more comfortable chairs even though I tried to stay away from the couches in the balcony).

Okay, so we have these new venues — and guess what, I can walk home from E. Burnside and 8th relatively easily. So my schedule is largely based around trying to end my night at the Bossanova or Doug Fir. So there are probably great late shows near 50th and Hawthorne that you might want to explore depending on your eventual destination as well.

Without further ado, my tentative plan (no links but you can see the whole schedule on the Bridgetown website):

Thursday

• 8pm: Dead Authors Podcast with Paul F. Tompkins at Bossanova (I love Paul F. Tompkins and will pretty much watch him do anything. Full stop, as HG Wells would say).
• 10pm: Late Night @ Doug Fir (Yay, Late Night!) OR Stand up with Anthony Lopez @ Bossanova (Yay, stand up and Anthony Lopez).

Friday

• 7pm: Early show @ Eagles Lodge (I like going to the Eagles Lounge and as stated above, gotta go first thing to the far end of the backwards L. I don’t know any of these comedians yet, but I bet they will be delightful.)
• Go have dinner?
• 10pm: Stand up with Reggie Watts @ Bossanova (I think all of Portland loves Reggie Watts, but note that this is a show of lots of comedians along w/ Reggie Watts) OR Baron Vaughn Presents: The New Negroes @ White Owl (I love Baron Vaughn and the uncomfortable show name of the New Negroes)
• 11:30pm: Bossanova late show (better hope I like this venue!)

Saturday

Okay, by now, I may have either seen or heard about performers that cause me to change my plans or I’ve come to hate or love certain venues. So, things are starting to get quite tentative. But, I like having a plan!

• 2pm: Probably Science @ Alhambra (I like imaginary science and I can get to 48th & Hawthorne in the middle of the day. Maybe start with lunch somewhere beforehand?)
• 4pm: Hang out with me @ Alhambra (Why not? Sounds like fun!)
• 7pm: Portland Masters @ Analog (leaning towards this, but there are a bunch of other great shows at 6pm or 7pm.)
• 10pm: Brew HaHa @ White Owl OR W. Kamau Bell @ Doug Fir.
• 11:30pm: White Owl or Doug Fir shows (Probably depends where we have ended up.)

Sunday

Hope I have paced myself, because some years I don’t make to any Sunday shows.

• 4pm: This Feels Terrible @ Doug Fir (I will probably be feeling a bit terrible by now)
• Dinner and maybe another show along the bottom of the backwards L of venue.
• 10pm: Prompter @ Bossanova (I have very mixed feelings about Ted talks, so I think this show will do me good and would be a nice way to end the festival)

Monday

Make sure I am taking the morning off.

Did you note that my punctuation was inconsistent regarding parenthesis? Guess what, it doesn’t matter! This note is mostly to myself.

Do you have questions about the grammar regarding my use of “regarding” above? Me too! But it still doesn’t matter!

First night of Bridgetown was fun (as expected), a bit of an organizational mess (partly my own fault), and taking off Friday from work was a great idea.

Fun

Dead Authors Podcast with Paul F. Tompkins as HG Wells and Jon Daly as Oscar Wilde (who is not, despite having the same initials, Orson Welles) was all that I hoped it would be. Fun fun fun. Yay!

Sticking with my geography plan, we were looking at a collection of comics at Bossanova hosted by Anthony Lopez or Late Night Action at Doug Fir. Having the opportunity to see Late Night Action regularly (and availing ourselves of said opportunity fairly regularly) we made the perhaps flawed choice to stick at Bossanova. More on that in a moment. However, highlights:

• Sean Cullen: His rambling exploration of the audience and venue was fun, and makes me want to see other shows by him this weekend to see how they vary. I’m sure the more intense show for the small people on the tiny stage behind the regular stage was pretty amazing after we were all sent home.
• Emily Maya Mills: I really wanted some cake after this set.
• Janine Brito: I’m bummed I’m not sure schedules will line up to see her again. But go see her.
• Wil Anderson: Everything sounds better in an Australian accent. I think.

Organizational mess

Me: left my drivers license in bag from when traveling last weekend. This was discovered about 15 minutes before picking up wristbands at Doug Fir. Grabbed bus home and ran back to Doug Fir. I DO NOT RUN. This was for you, Paul F. Tompkins (and HG Wells). I had earlier had a nightmare about missing this show and having to climb up the outside of the building and then dangle off the balcony to get in. Fortunately I did not have to do this and got in and had a delightful time.

Festival: wristband pickup was muddled. But hey, it was the first night with volunteers. So no big deal.

Late show at Bossanova: I’m not sure if it was a weeknight crowd, the venue not at capacity, or the venue itself, but this show was dragging for sure. There was a lot of yelling at the crowd by the comics, even though we seemed like we were laughing plenty in the audience (and no one got heckly which was pretty nice on our part). Maybe it just felt dead from the stage? Maybe there were just a lot of comics who were planning to yell? Maybe I just don’t like being yelled at? Anyway, with the geography plan for shows, we may have a few more late shows at the Bossanova, so we’ll see how it goes…

Lazy Portland tropes covered: it’s rainy! lots of white people!

Plan for tonight!

• Eagles Lodge at 7pm
• Reggie Watts or Baran Vaughn shows at 10pm
• Bossanova late show at 11:30pm? Completely different set of folks except for hometown favorite of Anthony Lopez, so we shall see…

Okay, folks, it’s that time of year again when I post a series of updates about the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. The schedule is posted and it’s time to make a plan. You got your pass, right? This assumes you have a pass.

Training for the festival: notes to self

• Start working on staying up late. This is important. Shows are going to be running until 1:30am or so in the morning. If you’re falling asleep in a food coma on weekends by 10pm, you’re never going to make (by which I mean, if I keep falling asleep by 10pm in a food coma, I’m never going to make it).
• Think about how much alcohol you want to drink. If you want a couple of drinks per show, remember you might see 2, 3, 4, or more shows in a day. That’s a lot of gin & tonics (at least for me). It’s worth thinking about where the cheapest (or tastiest) drinks will be available and plan accordingly.
• Planning for food. Eating can actually end up be a problem if you bounce from show to show. Don’t forget to schedule food or aim for venues that will have decent food available (not only do they have to make it, they have to be able to handle a crowd or you have to arrive early. But not so early that they are not yet serving food).
• Shoes. Have some comfortable ones because you’re going to walk a lot and might end up standing (!) at some shows.
• Weather forecast. Hopeful tweets aside, it might be rainy or cold. Check the forecast and plan for things to change.
• Bus tickets/pass. Since you’re not going to bike or drive, purchase some paper bus tickets from the local credit union or supermarket in case your phone (which you normally use for bus tickets) doesn’t have battery power.
• Take some time off work? Friday and Monday might be worth taking some time off. It’s oddly exhausting to laugh so much.
• Purchase your poster.
• And more importantly, starting planning for which shows you’re going to watch!

Bridgetown Comedy Festival, y’all! It’s on! I went to a 10pm show last night on a work night and even made it work on time the next morning. Woot!

So, I’m in this highly disorganized pack of passholders staggering around together this weekend (I think there are currently 7 or so of us), but I have a couple of shows I’d like to see this weekend that I thought I would share with you, plus a couple of comics I find funny!

Show #1:
Iron Comic: Saturday at 5pm at the Hollywood Theater. It’s going to be good and funny.

Show # 2:
All Jane, No Dick: Sunday at 9pm at the Hawthorne Theater Lounge (tiny space)

Show #3:
Bagdad Closing Show: Sunday at 8pm.

Another way to go is to try to see certain performers. Here are a couple of out of town folks (figure we can see the locals later so sorry if you’re not local. You should go see the locals instead/as well):

• Moshe Kasher: dude can talk an excellent speed (and wear a hat with panache)
• Nato Green: smart political humor
• Tim Hammer: puns puns puns
• Kate Berlant: the embodiment my fake college thesis
• Seth Herzog: dude can dance and carry off an amazing outfit

You’re going to have to look them up on Bridgetown site ’cause I gotta work a bit more.

See ya!

..that I’m particularly excited about! And I’m going into training this week so I can stay up past by normal lazy bedtime of 9:10pm.

Okay, no doubt I’m overwhelmed by all the fabulous, wonderful, delightful known and unknown shows that are coming in the Bridgetown Comedy Festival.

Today, I’m going to try to pick four shows (one a day) that I’m particularly excited about. And we’ll see if I make it to these particular shows.

1. Thursday: Come Laugh with Us at 10pm (that’s going to be late night for me!) at the Bagdad because Moshe Kasher will be there. I am sorely torn by All Jane, No Dick (great fun separate festival) and the delightfully titled Don’t Get Bored of Us and Leave.
2. Friday: DadBoner and Friends, You Guys at 9pm at Mt. Tabor Theater. Selected purely on the basis of a RAD name.
3. Saturday: Iron Comic at 5pm at the Hollywood. This is a really fun format. You should come.
4. Sunday: Hawthorne Lounge Early Show at 7pm. Not surprisingly, it is at the Hawthorne Lounge. I love the small venue shows — some of the best parts of this event.

The 2013 Portland stand up comedy festival, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, kicks off in 2.5 short weeks!

Assuming you enjoy stand up comedy, you should haul yourself off to at least a few events. Although I’d recommend the wristbands…

This year they are using not just venues on Hawthorne, but also over at Hollywood Theater (the theater I would marry if it would have me, with an occasional special dinner with the Roseway).

Schedule is not yet up, but the performers are!

Anyway, wandering from comedy event to comedy event is a highlight of April in Portland. And if you’re feeling too weenie for a wristband, you can get single tickets as well.

Theme Park at Hawthorne Theatre

While this review is going to be a bit short, this was actually one of my favorite shows. Brody Theater did a solid job of opening for Theme Park, and then Theme Park really nailed it. I’m not sure how describe it exactly, but everything flowed together and was great fun! I seriously considered coming back for their second show, but there was too much going on.

Whitest Kids U Know

We selected this show b/c it was in the same venue and seemed like a funny concept. I had not seen the TV show, but yesterday my dad recounted a sketch of theirs he saw online involving stealing the meds of demented old people. He found it quite funny, but they did not do this sketch in person.

Meh. There’s a reason they are on TV rather than live, I think. But there was one truly brilliant sketch involving the Quest of the Schoolyard. Folks around us seemed to love the whole thing, though, and this was definitely the most packed show we watched. To name by broad generalizations: the fat dude was funniest to me, although he did lead the schoolyard quest. the slight dude was the most disturbing in a way that was uncomfortably funny. Otherwise, whatever…

Oh, but there was one MAJOR perk of this show: Moshe Kasher and Johnny Pemberton opened with stand-up monologues and they were hilarious! I really liked both of them and would watch them both again (and did). This might have raised my expectations too much. They were, frankly, more of what I expected from a bunch of white kids.

I love the idea of hitting a third show, but I was done. I am old.