Ok I’m back home now. It took me a whole day to write this after returning, but that’s how long it has taken me to somewhat recover. It was a wild trip, and I had a great time. Normally I’m a bit of a loner, but I really enjoyed the after parties and the close quarters with Big in Japan.

I’ll pick up somewhat where I left off. Friday was a pretty relaxing day. We got directions to a nearby mall. James and Bob and I had lunch while Sarah and Allison went off to buy fancy underwear, or whatever it is that girls do in malls. I’m not kidding. They came back with fancy underwear. We were allowed to see it, as long as we promised not to imagine them wearing it. I bought a new belt that looks like an old belt.

You may imagine me wearing it if you’d like.

The Friday night shows were great. Louis CK filled in at the last minute for Horatio Sanz, who was supposed to be headlining the whole festival. Horatio had a bit of an emergency on Thursday morning, which caused Zach no end of stress trying to find a replacement. It was amazing to get such a great performer on such short notic, and a major relief to everyone. The crowd at the Cat’s Cradle would have been mightily disappointed with anything less. It was an amazing crowd too.

It was not easy to shoot in there. The place was packed, and the floor was flat, so there was no great vantage point for taking photos. It was a rock club, not a theatre. I worked my way to the front of the stage and leaned on my elbows to try to stabilize the camera. It was dark, and I had to shoot at ISO 800 to have any kind of reasonable shutter speed. Even so, the shots aren’t the clearest, but I’m satisfied enough that I captured the event as it looked. It was a great show. The Upright Citizens Brigade opened the show, followed by one of my favorites, Bassprov, and then Louis CK.

After the headline show, I went to the Arts Center and shot some photos of Aphasia, which is a great three-person group from Chicago. Then I headed back to the DSI theatre to cover the Cagematch. It was exciting to see the ITC team win the crowd in the 6-minute preliminary round, but they were bested by the 10-time champs, Siegelprov in the 22-minute round.

There were a couple parties afterwards, of course. We went back to the Cat’s Cradle and stayed there until it closed. Then we headed to a house party and drank… green tea. Wild times! We grabbed a cab back to the hotel and stayed up until 4 or 5 goofing around and listening to music.

Saturday was a blur. We spent the day walking around downtown Carrboro. At 7 I shot the family-oriented Comedy Sports show. It’s a big hit with the kids, and a great way to get people interested in improv. After that, I shot some stuff at the DSI theatre and studio space. Then back to the Arts Center to cover Josh and Tamra’s puppet improv show, another of my favorites. After that, back again to the DSI to shoot the All-Star set. Then back to the Arts Center to shoot Death by Roo Roo. That was one of the best sets of improv I’ve ever seen. Aggressive, smart, funny, physical, amazing stuff.

There are a ton of other photos, which you can find here.

The after parties were great. We went to Tyler’s (a bar) for drinks, and then when that closed, we headed to the DSI Theatre, which the DSI staff had transformed into a dance club. I had a blast, despite ending my evening prematurely by re-injuring my knee badly during an ill-advised attempt to use Rob Norman as a stripper pole. The pain in my knee prevented me from busting any more moves, or indeed, for a few moments, remaining conscious. We headed back to the hotel and stayed up until about 7 or 8 talking.

Getting all 7 of us checked out of the hotel by 11 proved to be a tremendously painful experience. The BiJ improv wagon loaded with improvisers hit the road at 11 for the long drive home, and I waved bye to them.

After a brunch at Mamma Dips, I hung out at the theatre until Lauren picked me up and drove me to the airport. The trip home was uneventful. Dad picked me up at the airport, and we had a late Chinese dinner before he dropped me off at home where I finally collapsed.