San Francisco's Finest Comes to Portland!

I rang in 2008 with a show in San Francisco by the world's finest Smiths cover band, This Charming Band, and I've been keeping my eyes on the skies for the news I finally got this week- they're doing a show in Portland at the Wonder Ballroom next Friday, May 29th, with Depeche Mode project Black Celebration and New Orders inspirados Love Vigilantes. The only sad, sad omission is Portland's finest Cure cover band, The Exploding Boys, but maybe sometime in the future we can bring these powerhouses together.


Clear your calendar. Find your winklepickers. Let's go!

Family Time

I was so excited to do stand-up in Austin, TX with my mother and sister in attendance. That feeling cooled as soon as I took the stage and every thought in my mother's head fell out of her mouth. Sometimes in life, you get heckled- but rarely by someone who is supposed to love you unconditionally.

And don't worry, I am throwing that dress away. I thought it looked cool and breezy and casual, but I look like a big silver building.

A New Dance!

A talented young comic in the area has developed a new dance for use at Suki's, called the slip-and-fall. I thought perhaps you would enjoy it. I find watching Christian fall down over and over again to be sort of hypnotic, so please don't do it while operating heavy machinery.

There's a brand-new dance but I don't know it's name
Oooh-ha. Ricketts.
The people at Suki's do it again and again
Ooooh-ha. Ricketts.

The Dangers of Fun

I am back from Austin, TX, where I had a lovely time performing alongside New York's Selena Coppock, Amy Albert, and sketch troupe Skinny Bitch Jesus Meeting, along with a compendium of one-woman shows, improv troupes, cabaret acts, and local luminaries. I had the opportunity to hang out with some long-lost friends, and of course members of my family, who are always exciting to be with. They nearly did not attend my show, because it sold out and advance tickets had not been purchased- I can only imagine because my sister thought something more important might come up at the last minute that would trump seeing my act.
My mother heckled me for a large portion of my set, prompting admirers to ask where I had gotten such a talented plant, to whom I could only weakly respond that it had been my actual human mother. I will have film up soon.
The LAFF festival had a dinner event on Saturday night at Vivo, a restaurant on the long list of local eateries that my sister Laura has been fired from, and I drank the most delicious margarita ever. It was full of fruit and tequila and an orchid and evil. Having consumed a single beverage, I saluted my fellow funny ladies, and went to meet my family.
After I left, I got on the highway and was mildly disturbed at the smell and sound my rental car was making. Since I was nearly to my destination, and since it was a rental car, I decided to persevere despite the thumping and odor, until I got to a stop light and a tramp on the highway on-ramp walked up to my car and pulled a valet parking cone out from underneath it, with a gesture of disgust.

Austin, you continue to kick my ass.

Bridgetown PostMortem!

My brother and I got a cheap one-way ticket out of town, just for the rest.

The Second Bridgetown Comedy Festival is over, and the only thing that happened is that hundreds of comics, fans, and locals had the BEST TIME EVER for four days.

Pictures of Portland comics, out-of-towners, famous people, and random stuff is in the Flickr Bridgetown pool here.

High points:

SHIRTLESS RANDY LIEDKE
VS.
THREE OF PORTLAND STRONGEST STRIPPERS- Liedke wins!

Brody Stevens called out a drunk "trustafarian" for peeing in the green room hallway. It was an amazing event, where ALL the comics converged on this guy and the situation. He eventually had someone go grab him from the bar next door. He was subject to questioning, audience beat down, and a good final judgment from Todd Glass.

The AMAZING Reggie Watts did shows on Friday and Saturday, and appeared on the Podcast Sounds of Young America, although seeing him in action is really a treat.

A guy yelled "Better be funny!" at Brody Stevens, and Jimmy Dore tore over and screamed "YOU'RE NOT FIT TO LICK THIS MAN'S BALLS!" or something very much to that effect.

Gabe Dinger says: David Koechner yelled at me from across the street to give me my notebooks that I left at the previous show, we met in the middle of the road and he said "How could I forget a name like Dang-gerr?" when I told him it was Dinger he said it was ok, no one gets his name right ether. Then we almost got hit by two cabs simultaneously. Lesson? Never ever under any circumstances correct David Koechner or you might die.

Veronica Heath says: Hanging out with Janeane backstage at the Hawthorne show where she educated me and we talked about botox, grapefruit juice, sweat, powells books, and the Bay Area. I'm so glad she wasn't an asshole. Very down to earth, very nice, and much tinier in real life than I had imagined.

And everybody, local and out-of-town, has been talking non-stop about the hilarity of Dax Jordan's Comedy Robot. I am heartbroken to have missed it. If I could only be at two places at once, you know? But I cannot.

It was awesome seeing my brother John have some great sets, and introducing him to my friends and associates. I hope one day we will do a double act that will make people very, very uncomfortable.

Many thanks to Andy Wood, Matt Braunger, the dozens of volunteers who all worked hard to keep things running on Festival Time, i.e. half-hour to one hour late, and a special thanks to LiveWire's Courtenay Hameister, who gave us some awesome press and who took over special Twittering duties.

I swear to Jebus

I was surprised, after my appearance on OPB, to have heard not a peep from my mother, whom generally is known to be into that sort of thing. I asked her a guarded question about it, and she laughed and said she hadn't seen my update because her work firewall has flagged badinia.com as being pornographic.

I may use toilet language, but I swear to my mother, I am not making pornography. At all.

I was also on the very funny Comedy and Everything Else podcast from Bridgetown, where they also said some very nice things about Andy Wood- but I don't know if my mother would really like it. Anyone can download it free from Itunes!

OPB- A Laugh A Minute!

I made all of my mother's dreams come true by appearing on an NPR affiliate! Last Thursday, I spent some time in the OPB studio with Emily Harris, David Miller, Auggie Smith, and Ron Funches. Anyone interested in hearing it can download it here. I got to talk to Andy Norris, who heads up Manzanita's weekly Laugh-In, where they posit that standing in the street and laughing like a**holes for five minutes is just as fun as seing a comic that tickles your fancy and makes you laugh. The Oregonian covered this phenomenon this week here!

Postscript: The Portland Mercury heard my abuse on the radio (of course, when I said "Portland Mercury", what I meant was "local alternative media") and responded with a sweet blog on it.