We had late lunch/early dinner with FOS Steve Ochs (AKA Steve O, who, you’ll recall, is a former SHECKYmagazine columnist– “Ask Steeves”) and his lovely wife FOS Julie. They took time out from their busy enterprise, Hero Product Placement, to have a leisurely meal with us at a vegetarian/Mexican joint in Burbank.

Earlier, we cruised by our old apartment in Burbank and marvelled at all the new construction in the formerly moribund (but still charming) old Burbank neighborhood.

We determined that we would visit the Synergy Cafe “Pro-pen Mike,” hosted by FOS Dan Rosenberg later on, in the early part of the evening. From our perch in Pasadena, we plunged south on the 110 and, nine minutes later, we were exiting into Culver City. Who says it’s hard to get around Los Angeles? (Traffic pussies from New York City, no doubt!)

Synergy/Rosenberg’s pro-am show is typical of many in the L.A. area– two dozen or so comics go up, in front of two dozen or so comics, in a room in the back of a coffee shop or a laundromat or a Mexican restaurant. (We poked our head in the room once or twice. It’s a tough situation; not an easy way to start! We recalled just how fortunate we were to have started standup in a time and a place that afforded us the luxury of fat crowds and generally favorable conditions for an aspiring comic. Such is the bitch of starting out in a fiercely competitive market like L.A. or N.Y.C. Don’t we have this all upside down? Aren’t veterans supposed to moan about how tough they had it way back when?) Rosenberg, being the author of “How Not To Suck As An Emcee,” runs a tight ship and offers a structured show and support to the participants.

After a quick stop at ASAP California Pizza Kitchen (the Thai Chicken Pizza is, as always, wicked good), we headed to Hollywood to hang at the Improv. We were misled– we had the mistaken notion that Montreal was holding auditions this night, but it was instead Pretty Funny Women and a show produced by CollegeHumor.com stacked with heavyweights like Louis CK, Dave Attell, Mike Birbiglia and Joe Rogan.

We immediately spotted (or were we spotted by?) our Montreal Festival Buddy Jenny McKenna (whom we still refer to as Jenevieve Santoriello), who was hanging with comics Ritchie Angeles and Pat Mellon.

We took a table in the corner and were alternately graced by the presence of Todd Glass, Ric/Rick Overton and Louis Katz among others. (Mr. Katz expressed his gratitude for SHECKYmagazine.com– It was our humble publication that enabled him to gut through his temp jobs in the early years and eventually become a real, pro comedian. Perhaps the nicest compliment we could receive!)

The forecast for today is rain. That means that we should probably leave ourselves four or five hours to get from Pasadena to Hermosa Beach tonight. If there is one group of motorists who are more tentative, more dangerous and more moronic than Atlantans after an ice storm, it is Los Angelenos after/during a rain storm. (We witnessed the abovementioned Atlanta metro area after an ice storm and it closely resembled those old demolition derbies from Islip that ABC’s Wide World Of Sports usta broadcast. Los Angelenos are a deadly combo of Traffic Pussies and Weather Pussies!)