I flew into Louisville late on Thursday. It’s never good to start a road trip road weary, but I went to a friend’s show the night before (The River City Rebels put on one hell of a show.  Keep an eye out for their shows).

I connected with Kristin, comics and good friends from Louisville at the Mag Bar (my favorite super shit-hole I blogged about on my birthday).

We then proceeded to catch up and drink ourselves stupid. It was so fun.  I’m usually pretty good about adjusting quickly to being in a new part of the country, but it took me a couple hours to really realize I was finally back in Louisville and before I knew it I was gone.  I love Louisville. It’s one of those cities we’re probably all prejudiced about, but in reality it’s one of the best places on earth.  My favorite part?  No make up required.

Friday in Bloomington, we did a packed show for Indiana University with Donna Watts. The students were an awesome audience and we had a ton of fun.

Saturday, we did our 2 shows at Bear’s Place in Indiana with Kim Von, which set the tone for the rest of the trip. The shows were great, we drank too much and got a ride home from a staff member. Before leaving, I walked past some awkwardly positioned (big, clunky) chairs atop the bar and they all came toppling down on me.  No harm, no foul, just the worst “goose egg” the next day.

Side note of the night is that Emmy nominated sketch group, The Beef Train Incident, drove two hours, got a hotel, bought tickets and came to see the show before I could comp them. I had a blast with BTI, asking them to serenade Kristin with “You’ve lost that loving feeling.”  Meanwhile, a group of femi-nazi girls screamed “Sausage Fest! Sausage Fest!” from a distance, which I caught on my cell phone as a movie. Kristin had no idea how to react so she just froze.

I didn’t know the difference between sketch and improv until then. As a member of Beef Train Incident quipped, “We’re much funnier on the fifth take.”

I also discovered that the hand dryer at Bear’s Place is possessed.  There’s a “movie” for this also… but I can’t get that one off my phone, either.

Sunday, in Oxford, I made a girl in the front row on a cell phone cry.  It wasn’t my intention to make her cry, but I did and afterwards she cornered me in the bathroom, tried to get me to apologize until she randomly walked into a stall so I left. If you’re mad at me, you can have your say, but I’m not going to listen to you pee.

It was a godforsaken town and we again had to get a ride home but there are NO CABS in Oxford, Ohio, so in the morning, we had to walk a mile back to the car and it was freezing. When Kristin bitched, I said, “Okay I know you smoke, I used to smoke, but it’s ONE MILE,” to which she replied, “I can walk a mile, I just can’t do it without complaining,” and added, “yeah, I guess I can’t walk a mile in my shoes.”

Aside from the show, everything else was for suck and we wanted out of Oxford BAD (especially since we were going back to Bear’s, the home of happy comics). That’s when the next photo occurred for 10 minutes and we couldn’t stop laughing.

We also noticed a trend in Indiana: this is the home of captain obvious business name.  I only caught a couple on camera.

Monday night at Bear’s was maybe the most amazing show I’ve ever participated in (possibly excluding a 100% deaf audience, having someone onstage with me signing my act).  That’s right.  I said “amazing.”

When we found out that Mary Mack was swinging through town last night, we were stoked. Have you seen Mary Mack? She’s retarded funny.  That’s right.  I said “retarded funny.”

Brad (best host in the country) outdid himself warming up the audience so all three of us had fantastic sets.  Then we closed the show out together doing a blend of improvised, music and storytelling. It was AWESOME and probably the most fun I’ve had onstage in years. We found out that a large group was there in memory of their friend that passed away this weekend. I’m not really sure how you handle an audience member literally dieing. That’s a new one for me, but I do know that comedy is an art form truly appreciated by very few people. So it sucked to hear that a “comedy regular” passed away and that’s why I signed a DVD, “We’ll miss hearing Gabe laugh.”

Oh, I left my jacket there and would love it back.

Tuesday at West Lafayette’s Where Else? Bar, we were both exhausted, didn’t want to drink, talk to anyone, sell anything, we just wanted to get back on the road.  I knew really good news was coming, because I find anytime something really good happens to me, something equally bad happens simultaneously.  Two hours after my iPod died, Kristin was confirmed on the Bob and Tom show and was able to wiggle me on, too.  We wanted to get on the road so we could get to Indianapolis for the show.  We got to Indy, checked in, finally getting into our rooms at 2:30 or 3:00 AM.

Wednesday, we peeled ourselves out of bed at 5:30 AM, cross-eyed tired, smelly and delirious (optimal condition for doing the Bob and Tom show for the first time). Then we went checked out of the hotel, got breakfast, checked into another hotel, and finally slept.

If you aren’t familiar with Bob and Tom, I can definitely say that B&T is a big deal for comics.  So much so, that the club changed the marquee outside the club to advertise “Kristin Key from Bob and Tom,” replacing Last Comic Standing.  I’m extremely grateful to the entire staff Bob and Tom and Kristin Key for getting me on the show.  Tom made a really nice comment on air, which felt a lot being called to the Carson couch.  My website went from 8,000 hits to 20,088 in a couple days.  Also thanks to Shecky Magazine, for letting me know people were trying to find me using the wrong spelling.  If you are a Bob and Tom VIP member and missed it, you can listen to the segment here. If you aren’t a VIP member and want to hear it, it’ll cost you at least $7.

(Can I just geek out for a second and say that the Get Out Of Jail Free joke was listed as an “Editor’s Pick”?)

Friday morning, I deviated from Kristin’s path, sleeping late so I could drive to Charleston, Illinois to do a show for Eastern Illinois University – which was wicked fun.  I stayed late a bit to talk to a reporter for their paper and then hit the road back to Indy (I noticed a photographer in the audience, would love to see those photos).

If you didn’t catch the 75 press articles (new one yesterday) generated on this trip, you can read those here:

There are many, many misquotes and misleading statements in the articles. If you know me well enough, you’ll be able to spot them (i.e., the eating disorder I don’t remember having… I have an exercise disorder or rather a lack of exercise disorder, but I never had an eating disorder and never will).   Since these were college students, the misquotes don’t bother me.  I’m grateful for the articles and enjoyed reading them.

I finished up a great week at One-Liner’s in Greenwood, had lunch with people from Crash Avenue, Label X, my best friend the ballerina, then hopped on a plane back to LA…

I’ve been handling all aspects of my career (except for my wonderful college agency, Neon Entertainment) and it’s getting sort of nuts.  So please bear with me.

Oh and if you know how to get a big video off a Treo, let me know. I’ve tried everything.