It is almost hard at this point to express The Chicago Improv Festival Experience, as, but I will try.

It was incredible. Wonderful moments. Strange moments. Joy, bewilderment. Great shows, emotional shutdowns fits of laughing all mixed with Viva Las Vegas, The Rat Pack, it being on like Donkey Kong all wrapped in Midwestern Sushi.

The Irish Mutts did it. We ruled the day. Kevin McShane and myself are hot sexy bitches even when we are hurling, doing back up as Ike and a dancer to someone's Tina Turner...or waking each other up to have use of the bedroom to sleep in.

Did I mention our show was good. No? Our show was good. There I said it. Goddamnit, I said it.

Saving Money the Peapod Way.

Before I even arrived in Chicago I got online to Peapod and ordered a bunch of food. Beef, chicken, pork, pasta, bacon, eggs, milk...etc. I figured I could share this with Festival Producer Jonathan Pitts, his roomies along with Kevin.

Well the food arrives and I find out putting it away that not only do these guys barely use the kitchen (I had to buy "Super Essentials" like flour and butter later)...that two of the roomies are what I call "Eating Impossible"

One is a straight on Vegan. The other informed me that he does not eat anything "That walks on four legs" I swear to god nothing that "Walks on four legs" He informed me that he eats Fish and Chicken.

"And apparently humans" I quickly responded. He is also allergic to ONIONS. How nightmarish for him and the poor souls who have to cook for him.

This meal would have made him wince. McShane and I (when he got into town) had a grown up dinner with nice plates at the dining room table. That is a pork loin (FOUR LEGS!) with pasta spinach, roma tomatoes garlic and ONIONS. Jeepers. One room mate would leave the meat like it was Satan Spawn...and the other would break out in a rash. The other roomie stayed at his lady's house.

He was the non allergic meat eater. A really swell fellow who would eat his own mom with a side of fries if push came to shove. Oh well. His bad. He gets the extra food left behind.

We rule the day.

There are so many shots of the Irish Mutts performing (and hosting) at The Chicago Improv, that it is really hard to choose which one to throw up here. I'm sure the two of us have varying opinions on which one is the coolest?

But it is this one that I like the most. For a lot of reasons. The main one is the emotional context of the picture and only the people who were there can still laugh at it.

A very serious, warm and tender moment (and it was, really)

The context: We are getting ready for our child's graduation and I remember how I thought that she was RETARDED! I just made this character so happy that their kid was not retarded and "Only had a lisp"

What is even personally funnier to myself is I find myself going to "Source material of my life" for comedy.

My mother told a friend of mine and my husband during a Thanksgiving Dinner at my grandmom's house (around the table when my aunts were so happy about me being in Second City and all the accomplishments I had) that they thought I was retarded. It was sort of like "You know all of us thought Shaun was retarded (awkward silence by everyone but my mother) can you pass the cranberry sauce, baby? My mom thought this because I did not speak much when I was a kid and indeed had a lisp.

She always thought I was retarded because I would not speak.

I don't think she realized until much later that I did not speak BECAUSE I had a lisp...or the idea that if I said something, she in return would say something awkward and hush me back into silence.

Thank god for some fucked up shit. I would have no source of comedy whatsoever.

So many moments of that show: The Cougar. The Emotionless Fiance and her even more emotionless father at the funeral of her dead boyfriend.

And the McShane Strip that brought the house down.

There are a million pictures located on Flickr

It was a wonderful time. A good wonderful time for a Mutt who is originally from Chicago.