“There is not one female comic who was beautiful as a little girl.” -Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers, for all of her current flaws, truly paved the way for female comedians.  She was beautiful and honest.

I love the quote above because I find it to be very accurate.  From my own experience, the majority of comedians I know personally, read about, and/or admire all have self-esteem issues.

I love Rivers’ style from the 60s: beautiful, elegant, brash, eccentric, daring.

I have performance anxiety, and while I enjoy attention and the whatnot that goes into a performance, sit me in a dark room with coffee and cigarettes, let someone perform my words, and I find it to be just a hell of a lot more fun.

Apparently, when I finally read Bossypants, I’m going to have an epiphany…

Ready for that!

Sometimes somethings show up at the most perfect moments… Sometimes somethings seem perfect at the most inconvenient moments… Sometimes things are just outright odd….

I found these awesome stencils on my walk Monday morning...

It should have prepared me for my evening with two of the funniest ladies on Earth!

Leah Kayajanian stopped into Denver around 2pm on Monday afternoon, the last stop on her way to a life of fame and fortune in Hollywood.

We took our dogs to Cheeseman Park, got free Slurpees from 7/11, and I took her into her first dispensary.

Then we came back to the APT to freshen up and get ready to go to an open-mic in Fort Collins with Kristin Rand.  It was my first time to Fort Collins, and it was very beautiful, but we had to speed through a scary thunderstorm to get there on time.  Leah had vertigo, and Kristin and I just smoked a lot to calm ourselves.

We ended up arriving with plenty of time to enjoy Old Town, where we ate a cheap slice of NYstyle pizza while KRand got us excited about “REAL LIFE COOKIES” that we had to get across the street.

“Real life cookies? As opposed to fake cookies?” I asked.

“Real LIFE cookies! One awesome cookie with a hugeass scoop of ice cream and another awesomeass cookies on top!”

Oh.  Hell.  Yes.

I don’t even have to tell you they were fantastic.

The girls tried to talk me into doing a set, and I had to explain that I’m just done with performing.  Of course, that got me ridiculed all night!

Leah dominated the FoCo open-mic and was the only comic to get a spot at a showcase scheduled for later that evening.  KRand and I wanted to show Leah the Denver-scene, so Leah gracefully declined her title, and we drove back down to Denver for open-mic at the Lion’s Lair, which is conveniently located across the street from my APT.

Of course, she dominated, and after a bit of mingling, we said our goodbyes to KRand and walked home.  I pulled out the sofabed, and we quickly said our “goodnights.”

In the morning, I found a note and a bouncy ball.  See, Leah has a thing for bouncy balls, and she’s been dropping them all over the country on her trip to LaLaland.  She dropped one in Cheeseman, Fort Collins, and at my APT.  The note was sweet and encouraging, but the bouncy ball sent me a stronger message: bounce on….

Whit