I met Eugene Mirman for the first time at South By Southwest in 2004. My friend Ross recognized him and struck up a conversation.  I had no idea who he was and little did I know that a few years later I would become a regular at his weekly comedy show Invite Them Up.  When Rififi closed down so did the show and I started going to less and less comedy, but when I saw Eugene was hosting his own comedy festival I knew I had to make and appearance.  The opening night was Thursday and they had a big pig roast which I missed.  I did get to eat some pulled pork at the end, but by then they had run out of plates and forks so I was eating it with my hands off a napkin. At the show I saw a lot of old friends and got to hang out in the card board VIP space ship that Eugene built and had guarded by a bouncer. Since anyone could go into the VIP fort, it was pretty clear that the crowd was nothing but A-listers.

Eugene opened the show followed by one of my favorite comics on earth Pete Holmes.  He was great as always and even though he did the shortest set of the night, his 12 minutes were probably the longest I have ever seen him do.  After Pete one of the great the loves of my life, Kristen Schaal, did an amazing three part bit full of dancing, magic and my favorite childhood game MASH. After pulling him up on stage it was determined that he was going to live in an outhouse with 57 kids, be married to Kristen and drive a convertible Boogermobile (Not that they even make Boogermobiles in hard top). After that Eugene joined her on stage to preform a hilarious play with an audience member.  That audience member immediately got on Eugene’s nerve and the got in a fight on stage that may have been every bit as funny as the bit. You can see in the pictures below her glaring at Eugene in genuine anger.  Fun times!

Up next was Jon Benjamin who did 5 minutes of toilet plunger material before bringing out Larry Murphy (a fan of DBB) doing a character of a Brooklyn cab driver who has directed a movie about his life as a CIA Black Ops operative/ cab driver.  This was followed up with questions from the audience which pretty much consisted of Jon mocking a British guys accent for 10 minutes. At that point Posies front man Jon Auer gave the crowd a short musical break which was not without humor as he asked a girl in the front row to take a picture of him on stage so he could prove to his mom that he did a show with Eugene Mirman.  I found out later that he was a fan of my site after stumbling on it after seeing naked pictures I took of Misti Dawn.  Finally to end the night famed British stutterer Daniel Kitson came out and did 45 minutes. He probably had about 10 minutes planned, but he couldn’t quite get all the words out.  In all honesty he was hilarious.  I was nearly crying at parts, but he called me out for taking photos and said that all photographers were pedophiles, so I had to shit on him a little bit.  Funny guy though, despite his handicap… being British.

Overall it was a great night and probably the longest comedy show I have ever seen.  Luckily I got a seat after the girl doing the door saw me limping around.  So I gotta give a big thanks to her, and of course to Eugene for comping my ticket. Anyway click here to see all the pictures from the night. Admittedly stand up comedy pictures are not the most exciting, but there are a few nice backstage shots at the end too.

PS. Shots from last nights Invite Them Up reunion show will hopefully be up later tonight.

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