#4 IN A SERIES... Just a month into my Big Move to California, I packed my bags and headed to Aspen, Colorado, for HBO's 12th Annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. The mission was threefold: to see the world premiere of "Behind The Smile" (the Damon Wayans movie in which I appear); to somehow run into fellow FOS Adam Gropman; and to catch some great comedy.

First, let me begin by saying that I'm from Hawaii and we don't know diddly-squat about cold. It gets down to 66 and we're setting fire to the sofa for warmth. In fact, before this trip I had never seen falling snow. Really. This explains why I packed t-shirts and shorts instead of thermal underwear and parkas. Aspen is not the place you want to be when you discover you need to buy new clothes. The people who frequent this place pull into town in their $40 million Gulfstream G5's. Obviously I would need to pay out the ass for one cheap, warm, long-sleeved shirt and find a laundromat where I could wash it everyday.

Arriving on Thursday, the second day of the USCAF, I had already missed a full day and a half of events. Bummer, too, since among the shows I missed was "Jim Henson's Puppet Improv (For Adults Only)." Raunchy muppets? Damn! Sounded like fun. I even missed "Puppet Master Class (For Adults Only)," a behind-the-scenes look at the Puppet Improv show. (Let's take this time to remember Fozzie The Bear, the very first stand-up comic puppet.) This late arrival meant that I missed one of two guaranteed opportunities to run into Adam Gropman.

I did manage to catch a screening of "Unbeatable Harold," at the Isis Theatres. The Isis is the spot where "Behind The Smile" would be playing, so I went to check out the venue. "Harold" was a charming comedy/romance (Romantedy? Comedance?) with some big name stars: Dylan McDermott, Henry Winkler, Phyllis Diller, Gladys Knight and Taryn Manning. Something to look forward to at festivals like the USCAF is the Q&A session with the film's director following the screening. You invariably come away with a different appreciation for the film you just saw after hearing the perspective of the director first-hand. After "Harold", I learned that director Ari Palitz was married to lead actress Nicole DeHuff. Palitz and DeHuff dreamed of working together someday on a film with her starring under his direction. Palitz pitched DeHuff to star/writer Gordon Michaels without informing Michaels of the couple's marital status. After she won the role, however, Michaels was let in on the truth. Sadly, DeHuff became ill after completing the film and passed away. But the couple got to live out their dreams, and the result is now immortalized on celluloid.

After "Harold", I quickly plodded through the freshly falling powder to the St. Regis Hotel. The St. Regis was the headquarters of the USCAF and held some of the bigger shows of the festival in its Aspen Ballroom. It was there that I ran into my friend, comic Amy Anderson, and her hubby Kent Emmons. Kent runs several comedy-related empires: All Comedy Radio, National Lampoon Radio and Comedy Express TV. Plus, he knows everybody. I can't even remember all the folks he introduced me to in the hallways of the St. Regis, but they were all important people in the business and I should promptly punch myself in the cojones for forgetting. He's even on a first-name basis with Norman Lear. Yes, that Norman Lear.



The big show at the St. Regis ballroom on Thursday night was "Round Midnight", hosted by Damon Wayans. Damon brought to the stage a selection of comics performing at other shows in the festival, as well as surprise guests. The capacity crowd was in for a treat as Jim Breuer, Bill Bellamy and Chris Tucker popped up to do time, as did Dave Chappelle, who was in town premiering his "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" film. The crowd enjoyed every minute of this star-studded show. One mission objective down, two to go!

Friday afternoon was my chance to scratch another objective off the list as "Behind The Smile" had its first of two world premiere showings at the festival. The story revolves around Danny Styles (Marlon Wayans), a Cleveland comic who moves to L.A. to "make it big" at the urging of manager Michael Green (Mike Binder). Styles has to convince his stripper-wife (Shakara Ledard) that he must make the Big Move to the West Coast to fulfill his dreams. (Hey, that sounds familiar!) Upon his arrival, he meets his comedy idol, Charlie Richman (Damon Wayans). We then get to see Styles' career take off, while his personal life deteriorates. I don't want to give away too much of the story, especially the ending, which Dave Chappelle said was, "some of the darkest shit I've ever seen!" (More on Chappelle later.) But look for me in the scene where the comedy club owner, played by Camryn Manheim, is assigning gimmicks to comics aspiring to work her stage. She tells my character to be a Chinese "karate guy" who can't fight. I loved the not-so-subtle dig at Larry The Cable Guy, as Rick Overton's assigned character fails miserably.

Damon Wayans explained to the audience during his post-screening Q&A session that the movie was a "smorgasbord of stories" that he experienced or had heard throughout his 24 years in the business. This gives an added element of enjoyment to comics watching the movie as they get to pick out which real-life people are being depicted in the movie's scenes. I heard some talk that the club owner character had Mitzi Shore-like qualities, but I never met Mitzi so I can't say.

Having sated my ego, I set about to see more comedy shows. While standing outside the Belly Up (one of the four locations for the festival's live stand-up shows), I was approached by two L.A. comics, Dan Reutter and Brian Ferrell. Even though it was just a small part, they recognized me from the movie and congratulated me on my "work" in the scene, as it was one of their favorites. I asked if they were in town performing at the festival, and they said, "Yes, but not at this festival." They then handed me the program to the other comedy festival in town that week, the Aspen Laundromat Comedy Festival. That was not a typo. Laundromat.



No doubt, as readers of SheckyMagazine, you have seen the episode of Last Comic Standing where they made the comics perform at a laundromat. Perhaps you've even been to the actual laundromat show or even performed there. The L.A. show is the brainchild of comic Christy Murphy, who decided to forego sending in a submission to the USCAF and create her own festival. The ALCF, in its inaugural year, was not a bad first attempt at taking on the juggernaut of the HBO-sponsored USCAF. Christy's ALCF even grabbed a bigger front-page story than the USCAF on the front page of Saturday's Aspen Daily News.

On the ALCF program, I perused the list of comics scheduled to perform (Yes, these folks drove 20+ hours to make it to the ALCF), and I came across the name of fellow FOS Adam Gropman! Ah ha, it was all falling into place! I could scratch off my final objective (getting together with Adam to create a SheckyMagazine mini-convention) and wash my only long-sleeve shirt at the same time. Like Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith always said, "I love it when a plan comes together." I had missed their first of three scheduled performances, but had a chance to catch the two remaining shows on Saturday. They even offered me a slot on the show. How could I say no? I said thanks, and made plans to hook up with them the next day.

Then it was off to see the midnight "U.S.C.A.F... U!" show at the Belly Up, hosted by Louis C.K. According to one person in line with me, this was sort of the "Round Midnight" for white people. The show featured Ryan Stout, Juicy McNasty, Jim Norton, and Russ Meneve. Stout showed up on stage buck naked, except for a sock over his junk. Note to aspiring nudist-comics: if you wander on stage in the raw, be prepared to garner zero attention for the important speaking part of your act. They'll still be too shocked, appalled or aroused to listen to your jokes. As Louis said when Stout left the stage, "There's nothing worse than bombing naked." I was happy to finally see Louis perform live, as I'd always seen him on Letterman and thought he was funny. But to see him at the "F U" show was an added treat as he's really the master of carrying out that kind of raw material while still remaining totally likable. There is no one better at it than C.K.

Early Saturday afternoon, I opted to pass on the USCAF in favor of seeing "the other" festival, the Aspen Laundromat Comedy Festival. Unfortunately, I learned after getting there that Adam Gropman was not in the house as he returned to L.A. the previous day. Well, two out of three objectives met isn't a bad percentage, right? All was not lost however, as I was treated to a rocking show by the craziest bunch of mother-effers there ever was. Big props to Christy Murphy for having the ovarios de cobre amarillo to set it all up. And kudos to Sunshine Laundromat owner Richard Winn for buying into such a bizarre concept. When all was said and done, Winn commented on how impressed he was and he even began plotting for the Second Annual ALCF. Performing to a standing-room-only laundromat crowd (there were only six chairs) were Reutter, Ferrell, Murphy, Brett Gilbert, Vance Sanders, Nosmo King, Damon Epps and Marty Laquidaro. In keeping with the laundry-theme, the comics even kept it clean.

A second showing of "Behind The Smile" at 5:15 PM followed the early Laundromat show, and I went again. This time I could only stay half-way through the movie, as I had the 6:00 PM ALCF show to attend. Conveniently, I was able to once again catch the scene I was in before having to leave the theatre. It's all about me, brah! Another packed house at the Laundromat, another great show.



The final live show of the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival took place 11:00 PM at "The Tent". The Tent, as the venue name implies, is a tent. In the middle of a snow-covered field. But of course, it's done right with solid floors, electricity and the always important heat. The show featured Paul F. Tompkins, Dana Gould and Russell Peters (in that order) and was scheduled to run 60 minutes. At the end of the show (which was performed "tag-team" style with no MC), Peters informed the crowd that he was supposed to be the last comic but better comics showed up, and introduced Chris Tucker. Tucker pulled about 25 minutes and then introduced Dave Chappelle. The crowd, needless to say, went nucking futs and were treated to over an hour of Chappelle riffing, ranting and improvising. He took requests from crowd members on subject matter and answered questions from curious fans. It was pure gold when a white audience member yelled, "White people love you Dave!" He responded, "If there's one thing I never thought I would have heard shouted at me it's, 'White people love you Dave!'" He even reviewed "Behind The Smile" onstage, which I thought was cool because that meant that Dave Chappelle was at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival watching me! Good times.