Chi-town and the Bammer

Tommy and I went down to Chicago this past weekend to see Maria Bamford and Jackie Kashian do a show at the Lake Shore Theater. It was simply awesome. It had been a while since I had actually sat in the midst of a crowd during a show but this time, we sat 4th row center. I chose those seats because Maria Bamford does a lot with her
face during her shows and I wanted to see how she did it - to learn, if you will. I've gotten ahead of myself, let's start from the beginning, shall we?

We left Minneapolis at around 7:30am Friday and arrived in the Chicago area at 2:30pm. We stayed in a skeezy Days Inn motel - a motel, really? We couldn't poney up and go for vertical lodging? It was cheap but clean and we were only staying for a night, no big deal. We went to Target, because that's what you do when you go on a trip - go to a place that's exactly like the one in your home town. And it was. Targets don't change from state to state from what I've noticed. We walked back to the motel, I took a shower and Tommy took a nap and then we headed to the theater. Mapquest claimed that the drive to the theater would take approximately 10 minutes. It was 8 miles or so from the hotel, but due to the horrendous Friday night rush hour, one lane roads, lack of parking, one ways and asshole drivers not to mention the homeless people who have the balls to actually walk INTO traffic to ask for money, the trip in total took a half hour to 45 minutes. Thankfully, we left early enough that we didn't miss anything and we still got there early. We did, however, have to pay 15 dollars for 4 hours of parking... ridiculous.

Since we know the incomparable Jackie Kashian from ACME, she was kind enough to put us on the comp list for the night - we saved 50 bucks just from that. Before the show, Tommy and I were walking around the neighborhood looking for a coffee joint (driving for 7+ hours wears you out pretty fast - granted, I was the passenger for the entire trip so I really have nothing to complain about) and we saw Maria Bamford walking down the street, looking very determined and very much not like what I thought she would look like. Seeing her on teh webzorz and on tv, etc I thought she was much shorter than she is. Granted, she was wearing a pair of black heels that made her maybe 2-3 inches taller, but still - apparently she's 5'6". Interesting. Anyway, the show started and was opened by the artistic director of the theater who is not a comic and was very nervous to introduce Jackie and Maria. Not much to say about the actual show other than it was amazing - I'll get to my thoughts on Maria in a second.

After the show, we awkwardly stood around waiting for Jackie and Maria to tend to their adoring fans. We weren't sure if it was kosher to ask them to go out for a drink or not, but they ended up asking us to go out for coffee with them which I'm right glad about considering booze + nerves = vomit and subsequent embarrassment. Then again, caffeine + nerves = not much better. There were six of us total, Jackie and her brother, Maria and some guy she went to highschool with and Tommy and I. We went to this posh little cafe called Argo where the drinks were surprisingly cheap. I paid for Jackie, her brother, Tommy and I but Maria insisted on paying for herself, saying that she had just gotten paid but thank you for the kind offer. It wasn't long before the shop closed and we had to part ways, but talking to Maria about comedy was eye opening and wonderful. I shook her hand and she said "us women gotta stick together in the comedy business" and I was like, "f'real, shiiiiii(t)" and she laughed, saying that she hopes to come to Mpls for a couple days to do a show and an open mic. She hates coming for weeklong shows because of the radio, she says it depresses her.

To wrap it up, we went back to the motel, passed out on the bed, woke up at around 8ish, had our free continental breakfast, explored Chicago for a bit going to the pier and the Field Museum and then made the journey back home, getting back at around 10:30pm. All in all, it was a decent trip but I wish we could have stayed longer or hung out with Maria and Jackie for a little longer.

My thoughts on Maria Bamford: I think she's wonderful. She has such off the wall ideas that the only way I can think of even thinking of those types of ideas is to imagine crawling deep inside my brain and pulling things out at random without censoring myself. I wish I could do that, but I'm really not confident enough yet. It was interesting to hear her thoughts on her own comedy. She said she was worried that she was doing too much material on her family and she was afraid people would get bored with it or it would pigeon hole her into some genre of comedy. It's so cool to hear a successful comic like that whom most fellow comedians consider to be a 'genius' not be confident in some of her material. Also, I realized that her voice onstage isn't really her voice offstage. She has a relatively high, squeeky-ish voice onstage and I think she does that to enhance her other voices, make them seem even more different than her real one... if that makes sense. When I got back to Mpls, I wrote her an awkward Myspace message saying that is was nice to meet her and I hoped the Saturday night show went as well as Friday's show. She wrote back and pretty much said "ditto, hope to see you in MN or LA!" - sweet.

Anyway, this entry has gone on far too long - ACME is tonight and I need to brainstorm.

Holla!

-- C.Blo