Studio Time

So, it’s about 2am Aspen time.  Currently, the Walshes are attempting to comendeer some sort of transportation to get to a mythical billionaire’s mansion, where we’ve been told a party is being held.

Their final show was for a standing room only crowd and they not only killed them, they ressurected them, just to kill them again.  Amazing.

After the show we got over to the wrap party, and I meet Norman Lear (photographic evidence to follow).  On top of that the party had an entire chest of free ice cream and fried chicken.  So not only did I get to meet Norman Lear, I got to utter the phrase “Hey Norman Leer, want some ice cream?” and not look insane.

So I’m there, dancing with the guy who played the Matre De (Snooty) in Ferris Buhler’s Day Off, and we get the call.  Dave Chappelle is over at the tent, doing a set, out of the blue.  We hi-tail it over there, and sure as hell, there he is.  Just winging it, doing some of the best material that’s not material I’ve ever heard in my life.  Just out and out incredible.  Chappelle ends up just asking the audience what they want him to talk about, and he goes on doing amazing stuff, for almost 2 hours.  My favorite part of Chappelle’s set - I’m standing in the back, the whitest, clearly rich, Aspen guy walks in, taps me on the sholder and goes “Who is this guy?”. Perfect

That’s the story for now, more to come…

Ok, this is going to be tough.  Far too much has happened since the last blog so I’m going to do some bullet points and try and get it all in:
Last Night’s Walshes show went fairly well.  After the show we all had yet another in a series of Hot Tub Parties, while the hotel was gearing up for the Swingers party.  We didn’t know it was a party for the movie, so we thought we were a couple steps ahead by already being in the hot tub.

We headed over to the Tent to see Jim Norton and Louis CK.  Boston Comedy Festival champ Ryan Stout opened, doing a similar set that he did during the festival.  Jim Norton had a good set and as usual Louis CK cracked me up. 

We stuck around after the show for the Alternative Show, in which the Walshes did “Escapo”.  Kristen Schaal hosted the show.  I had never seen her before but she was hilarous.  Great stuff.  Escapo went very well, thanks in no part to the whispered “escapo”s being uttered into a mic off stage by yours truly.  I’m totally putting on my resume that I performed at the Aspen Comedy festival. Shut up, it counts.

After the alternative show it was back to the condo where we prettied ourselves up to go to the Swingers Party.  Upon attempting to enter the swingers party we were informed we weren’t marginally talented enough or vaguely famous enough to get in.  So it was back to the condo to formulate a plan.  The plan – we make ourselves some PB and Js, get in our swimming trunks and enter the party, via the hot tub.  So we’re back in the hot tub, looking into this party, as Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughn fained interest in “Swingers” being shown on a loop on the big screens. 
We were far more interested in our Hollywood good times being had in the hot tub, so we just stayed in there until around 3am when a Frenchman who worked there told us they were closed and we had to get out.  Oddly enough the fact that all of the lights in the pool and the jets had been shut off about a hour before that didn’t tip us off.

Sleep.

Cut to this morning, we wake up early to see the Walshes rushing off for a lunch meeting an an entertainment lawyer. Oh, I forgot to mention that the entertainment lawyer was none other than Jeff “Chunk” Cohen.  You might know him from Goonies, I like to think of him as Mindy “Natalie Green of Facts of Life” Cohen’s little brother.  We walk over to meet the Walshes and I witness one of the most surreal sights of my life.  Chris Walsh, talking to Chunk from Goonies, about Zombies.  That would be weird if it happened in a DREAM, nevermind real life.

We say our good byes to Mr. Cohen, and head over to the big festival awards show.  Totally unexpectedly the Walshes managed to win the covented SILVER OWL AWARD!! So Congratulations to the Walshes for their well deserved concrete tangable evidence of their comedy excellence.  The Silver Owl is coming to Boston!

Outside of the awards we run into none other than Jeffery Tambor.  We talked to him for a while and I managed to both make him laugh and creep him out by following up his mention of the storm coming in and how we might all get trapped there, by discussion how it will be just like “The SHining”.

We say our goodbyes to our new Arressted Development friend and we run in to John Favroue and Janine Garafalo.  They were extremely excited to receive official Walsh Brothers Moustaches, which I’m sure they are currently wearing proudly.

We then headed over to watch Brian Finklestein’s one man show.  With no hyperbole needed, this was easily one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen in all my 25 years.  Amazing.  The guy is incredible.   We talked to him a bit after the show, well I say talk, but it was more me stammering something about being completely blown away, although he seemed less freaked out by me than Jeffrey Tambor did with my discussion of killing Scatman Corother’s with an axe.

We walked over to the hotel to pick up official “HBO Comedy Festival” watches as gifts and I find myself standing next to Bob Zmuda, being completely struck dumb.

So after I got over that, we headed back to the Condo and the Walshes are currently gearing up for a pre-show hot tub party, and then it’s the finale, followed by the wrap up party.

Also, this just in, and update from the UCB Party.  For the last two hours of the party, David, Joe and Myself spent all our time and energy in the corner trying to help a former studio alumni make sex with lovely young lady.  Today I was informed we were a sucess, we all got laid, through someone else.  First the Silver Owl, then this. Everything’s coming up Walshes.

Renata is taking over the keyboard for this post, as I was sleeping during these momentus events.  - Ken  

Mid-day update:

The gentlemen are back at Chateau du Sex after one of the greatest mornings ever. After coming back from last night’s party just before sunrise, Chris and Dave had to be up at 8AM for an interview literally atop the mountain for Plum TV, a local Aspen television station. The deal was a shuttle would pick them up and -along with a couple other comics - bring them to the gondola-lift that would take them to the skilodge where the interview would be shot. I was the only maniac up that early who was lucky enough to accompany them; so the three of us wake up after about 2 hours’ sleep, while Joe C and Ken stayed in and cuddled.

The van pulls up and inside are the driver, just enough empty seats, and two comics; Veronica Mosey (on comedy showcase C) and Mr. Bobby Kelly, who until now we only saw at a party sitting with Jim Norton before Jim threw on his Dallas Cowboys coat and blew outta the joint in true headliner style.

After a little delay at the gondola lift about us being allowed up to the lodge up top, and after a very strange exchange with the old ski-lift attendant who innitially stopped us, (who Bobby Kelly affectionately dubbed the “Cackling Cunt”), the five of us pile into a gondola and spend an awesome 25 minutes riding up the mountain together. It was awesome; the view was beyond incredible and the conversation was insane. You could see all of Aspen from there, and Veronica and Bobby both fell in love with Dave and Chris by the time we were at the top.

Once we got to the top of the mountain, we ran for cover from the severe winds and went inside of the beautiful lodge where the interview eventually took place. We were told the winds were the worst they’ve been in a long time; someone even said ever. The lift was shut down for a bit, so we relaxed inside while waiting to see what would happen with the interview.

After about 1/2 an hour, the Walsh Brothers were interviewed live wearing their stache’s.

Once they were done, Bobby Kelly and Veronica Mosey were gonna be interviewed too, but it never happened. The interviewer from the station screwed up, and so Bobby and Veronica went all the way up there for nothing. So we sat around and listenned in awe and amazement as Bobby spoke the most hilarious foul hateful things about the situation that a person could conjure up on the spot. It was brutally funny, we were all doubled over. The funniest thing moment on record was when Bobby Kelly angrily remarked how he was bumped and forced to watch an interview with the ridiculous “Lovely Brothers”.

The way back down was awesome; we all waved at gondolas coming up as we went back down, and once we got the attention of the people inside, we gave them the finger. Veronica Mosey mooned about 10 gondolas, mostly occupied by nine-year-olds.

Once we got to the bottom of the mountain and Bobby and Veronica had officially admit ted becoming fans of the Walshes forever, we went to lunch together. Veronica was the hero of the day for mooning strangers in sub-zero temperatures, and Bobby was relentlessly hysterically shitting on everyone, it was freaking great.

At the diner, the waiter we had was a total character, a wicked funny psychopath of a guy. So David and Chris invited him to their show today at 5, and then to Dave’s massive-scale hottub party later tonight, which is currently a top priority. Everyone in Aspen is invited.

Bobby and Veronica are both coming to Chris and Dave’s shows either today or tomorrow, and everyone agreed that this morning’s fiasco was one of the best experiences they’ve had.

Ah, so I’ll start where I left off.  I went and saw FIRED! LIve at this really cool venue called the Belly Up.  It was more or less a lot of the same stories from the movie, including the complete story by Paul F Thompkins of him being fired from two video stores, but, Brian Unger was also on the show telling this amazing tale of being fired from the show “EXTRA”.  All of the essays are also in a book, called FIRED, that I think I’m going to have to pick up.

So, then after a return back to the house, and a round of PB & Js for all involved, we went over to the Tent for the first Walsh Bros show.  The show was about 2/3’s full (which was probably about 200 or so people) because it was up against Louie CK’s show.  But the Walshes KILLED.  Probably the best reaction to their stand up I’ve ever seen.  They opened with the Levitator, did about 15 minutes of stand up, showed the zombie video and closed with the Brothers Walsh.  I stood in the back behind the lighting guy to make sure he didn’t screw up the guys, via my intimidation skills and watched as various celebrities in the audience laughed dangerous amounts in such an altitude.  (one non celebrity even passed out during the show, from FUNNY, the woman needed to be taken in the back and give oxygen, I think she ended up being ok though, so no death by comedy, yet.)  Fred Newman, the former host of The NEW Mickey Mouse Club (or MMC for those who are down), yes, THE version of MMC that spawned Justin Timberlake, Brittney and Christina, was sitting in front of me laughing nonstop for the entire 30 minutes.  I may be mistaken but I think I saw in his eyes and his knowing smirk that he saw the Walshes as older, male, versions of Christina and Brittney.  I also think he definetly saw Chris as Brittney and Dave as Christina.

Sharing the bill with the Walshes was a sketch group called Cime Scene that was great.  I’m looking forward to seeing them again over the next couple days.

After the show I overheard these two girls who looked like the type of California girls that David Lee Roth sang about (which are different than the ones the Beach Boys sang about) if they were created with computers by 14 year old boys, talking about the celebrities they saw at the show to one of their friends.  They were most excited about seeing star of stage and screen, Bruce Willis.  I found this very odd as I think I would have noticed Bruce Willis.  My confusion was alleviated however after one of the girls pointed out “Bruce Willis” to their friend and I realized that Bruce Willis was actually Ed Regal.  I have to say I was shocked.  Leading a double life like that, Mr. Regal really must be commended.  I understand why he dosen’t always go by “Bruce Willis” though, it IS hard to get any rest in the spotlight.

So after the crowd cleared out the Walshes were rushed to a back stage area where a film crew was set up to interview them for what I assume is material to fill time between movies on HBO, now that they don’t show Braingames anymore and their rights to Hardware Wars ran out.  The Walshes did about 30 minutes of great stuff about all manner of topic and had the film crew laughing far more than a professional film crew should.  After that was over, some girls who seemed to be groupies, but assured us they wern’t groupies came in and a guy who wrote a movie, that apparently is a comedy, but needs to be made funny (his words not mine) used his Boston Celtics Green Stuff Sweat Shirt to bond with Los Walshes and attempt to get them to look at his comedy script that needs to be made funny, and in turn make thus comedy script funny. 

So then we went over to some Aspen Townie bar, complete with Shuffle board and “bar dog” and sat for a bit, while Dave talked to some aging hippies about a mechanical Mastadon skeleton they apparently built, until around 1:30 am when we started The Trek.  The Trek was an epic walk to the outer edges of town to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Mansion.  They were having some sort of “after party” there.  So we rolled up to this gigantic house on the outskirts of town, and enter into a world of eccentric ceiling fans and bidets.  All of your favorites where there, Brian Unger, Paul F Thompkins, interns from HBO’s LA offices, all there.  The house was a bit beyond my scope of understanding and I kept expecting the asian houseboy from Boogie Nights to stroll in lighting off fire works.

We rolled back in here around 5am Apsen time, and currently the Walshes are being interviewed by some TV station, at the top of a mountain (the interview, not the TV station intself) and tonight we have show #2, followed by the Walshes doing “Escapo” on The Aspen on the Edge alternative show.  Watch this space for further developments…

So pre-Walsh Bros initial show, If anyone is reading there, here are some things I forgot. 

Last night Los Walshes, myself and miss Tutko also ate dinner with a group of people that included the head of development for Comedy Central right after we picked up yesterday’s copy of Variety which featured a short bit AND a photo of the Walshes in it.

 We also just had a bought of outdoor hot tubbing, in the snow with some Austrailians.  There is a hot tub at the bottom of the ski slope and people can literally ski down the hill, unzip their snow suit James Bond style, and hop in a hot tub.  And to top it all off Joe Cronin just rolled into town. 

 T-minus 2 hours, 30 minutes until showtime.

Ok, so this post should include something a bit more interesting than the first one.

We got us some passes last night and hit up some shows.  We went to the “Experts of Comedy Show” and saw Dana Gould and Paul F. Thompkins.  Dana Gould was pretty spectacular. Although the audience was a bit odd.  Long stretches of the show involved the four of us laughing in an otherwise silent room.  Dana Gould was one of the first comedians I ever really became a huge fan of when I was a kid so it was pretty monumental.  Easily one of the best stand ups I’ve ever seen.  First time I’ve ever seen Paul F Thompkins as well.  Really dug his set too. 

 After that we headed over  to the Tent to see Eliza Coupe’s one woman show along with the Whitest Kids You Know sketch show.  Eliza’s show was pretty interesting, really talented gal, really great well formed characters.  Whitest Kids You Know had a rapid fire sketch show with lots of really slick videos. 

 We used our VIP status to get our way into the VH1 “Best Week Ever” Party, which was fairly unfullfilling, aside from Paul F. Thompkins exclaiming his love for the Walshes, whom he’d been solely introduced to via postcards, via the medium of hi-fives.   And, Renata pulling her best paparazzi impression by snapping shots of Jim Norton while he was trying to get his Starter jacket out of the coat check.

This morning we went to rehersal for the show tonight, then I headed over to see Annabell Gurwitch’s movie “FIRED!”.  Really loved it.  I’m a bit biased in that I’ve had a life long crush on her since my pre-pubescent eyes saw her on Not Necessarily the News, in the mid-80s. Plus I’m a sucker for documentaries, I still recommend checking it out. I’m heading over to see the Live version in about 15 minutes.  More to come…

Ok, so let’s see if this thing works.  I’m currently stealing some wireless internet access from the adjacent hotel, so hopefully they don’t catch on.  Where to start?  After a terrifying drive from Denver to Aspen on what looked like the moutain equivilent of Snakes and Ladders we met up with Los Walshes here in Aspen.

Lots of people in furry boots with small dogs.  Also, the greatest caramel apples I’ve ever laid eyes on but was too scared to purchase and eat.  Tonight at 9pm, we’ll be seeing the dirty Muppet Adult Improv, followed by Dana Gould at 10pm.  I’ll attempt to post a more actual festival content related post tomorrow. 

- Ken 

Hello, all!

We’re going to give this blog thing a shot.  What’s it gonna be like?  I have no idea.  But, for starters, Ken Reid will be blogging about The Walsh Brothers‘ trip to Aspen and possible stardom.

Stay tuned!