Can You Feel It? Bridgetown!

BRIDGETOWN COMEDY FESTIVAL returns for its triumphant third year in April, from the 22nd-25th! The comic's roster and other details will be released this Monday! Please follow @bridgetowncomedy on TWITTER for the inside scoop on the festival and all the wonderful happenings! BLOCK OUT YOUR CALENDAR AND START STOCKPILING UNDERPANTS, because this festival will have you wetting your pants night after night! Comics come down from El Lay, See Attle, Noo Yawk City, and all other points!

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!

Bridgetown Brings the Heat!

Andy Wood had a nice interview with the Portland Monthly with lots of cool news about participants in this year's Bridgetown Comedy festival, and today he announced that headliner Janeane Garofalo will be appearing all four nights!
The SCHEDULE is finally up and it is amazing! 200 people have already purchased their festival passes- $50 for four nights of shows! Shows that are not sold out the night-of will charge at the door- but if you're serious about seeing Tig Notaro from the Sarah Silverman show, Nick Thune, Jimmy Dore and Todd Glass, buy now to avoid disappointment!

Here's the schedule with pricing- $2 off individual shows with canned-food donation! I promise we're donating it to charity and not eating it backstage.

Out-of-towners, here is a map with the (rough) locations of all the spots- as you can see, they are within walking/biking/carpooling/crawling distance on Hawthorne Blvd!

The fun starts TONIGHT! Come on out!


View Bridgetown Comedy Festival Map in a larger map

Postscript: The Festival got off to an amazing start last night, featuring a secret late-night set with Janeane Garofalo, a powerhouse performance from the Famous Mysterious Actor and his crew, amazing drop-in comedy at the Tanker, Jimmy Dore leaping at a heckler in defense of the legendary Brody Stevens, and a good time had by all! To paraphrase San Diego comic John Ryan, it's like the Disneyland of stand-up- with booze!

The Continued Adventures of Dr. Spaceman!

Postscript: Dr. Spaceman donned their scrubs and surgical masks, and with the assistance of 5th Spaceman Kris Lutsock, who is on the Famous Mysterious Actor crew, took the win in last night's Trivia Titans contest! It was touch and go for awhile, with two tie-breaker questions- the answer to the final question was Steven Patrick Morrissey, so I felt at that time that we were born to win.

This year, my compatriots and I have become increasingly obsessed with the excellent, multi-colored, ridiculous and divine trivia of the Shan-Rock Empire. We started going as a joke and as an excuse to eat french fries in a basement, but we accidentally won a few times and things got weird. Our team includes Andy Wood, who is founder and chief operational officer of the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and Rylee Newton, former Hollywood Squares writer and Jimmy Kimmel guest, myself, a tap-dancer, comic, and fighter, and my spouse, whom I make drive me around and tell me childhood stories about the Hundred Years War.

For awhile, our team was named after various things from 30 Rock, the best living television show, including MILF Island, Never Follow A Hippie To A Second Location, and Every Week Is Shark Week, until another group that had used Werewolf Bar Mitzvah threatened to drop us like jive turkeys in the parking lot, so now we have settled on Dr. Spaceman, the physician who warns Tracey Jordan that bread is a silent killer and that science is whatever we want it to be.

Team Facts:
Team Leader: Andy Wood, A.K.A. The Cute Beatle- Science and Sports
Historian: Thom Jones-because he was there. Also, elf-related triv.
Arts and Stuff About What The Japanese Eat: Virginia Jones
Television, Film, And Weirdness: Rylee Newton
Team Motto: "Let Go and Let Garp"
Favorite Question Type: Natalie Portmanteaux
Members Most Likely To Dance Obnoxiously In Order To Annoy Other Members: Thom and Virginia Jones
Skee-Ball Specialist: Virginia Jones/Rylee Newton (shared duties)
Favorite Movie: All Coen Brothers Except The Ladykillers
Favorite I Don't Feel Tardy Song: The Strangler's Peaches
Special Team Trivia: 100% of Dr. Spaceman is blue-eyed
Our Nemesis Team: There are other Teams?

It all comes down to the finals this weekend, the Clash of the Trivia Titans at 5PM on Sunday. We may come back winners. We may come back losers. But we will come back...men. At least, those of us who were men to begin with.

Wish us luck! We'll need it!