Last weekend, I had one of the best times of my entire comedy career. I got to travel to Lexington to be part of the first ever Laugh Your Bluegrass Off Comedy Festival.

Firstly, it was just amazing to be chosen to be part of the festival. I sent my clips in and found out a couple weeks later that I had been accepted. It was the perfect weekend: the weekend before I went back to school.

I drove down to Lexington on Friday to my cousin’s home. She is a professor at UK. Like I’ve mentioned before, I tend to do comedy where my family lives. I’m not paying for hotels. That’s crazy talk.

The festival was set up much like a comedy beer crawl. Thirty-two comedians met at the first bar at 6 p.m. and 8 of perform. The audience votes on their favorite and then we go to the next bar where the next 8 perform and so on until everyone has performed.

I performed first of the 6 p.m. show on Friday. There wasn’t a large crowd, but if you are funny that shouldn’t matter.

The festival also built in an extra show later at 10:30 p.m. just for fun. I was on the just for fun show Friday where I probably did better than I did for the actual contest. But what are you going to do?

I went home with my cousin where we hung out until 3 a.m. I woke up the next day and started getting ready. I found out I was in almost last place in the contest, so I decided to re-do my set, which might have been my downfall.

There were events during the day Saturday for comics including free lunch and writing workshops. It was pretty cool to be able to drive and walk around the city before performing.

On Saturday, I performed at 7 p.m. and my set didn’t go so well. I changed it up and the crowd wasn’t into it. I did a joke about cocaine and was referred to as the “cocaine girl” for the rest of the evening.

I went to the rest of the shows and watched some amazing comedy. People from all over came to this festival. I met so many people and made a lot of contacts. The amount of fun I had was unparalleled. Big word, but the time I had is definitely worthy.

Some standout moments for me were the fact that so many young men in Lexington wore polo shirts and loafers. I started my own game of “Loafers and Polo Shirts.” If a guy had both on, I got a point. I got 25 points.

One girl came up to me and told me my set Saturday was better than Friday. She said my Friday set made her uncomfortable and my immediate reaction was to say, “Good.” I did a 15 one-liners about how fat I’ve become. She felt uncomfortable?

The final show Sunday had the top 8 comedians voted in by the audience and some of my favorites made it through. The winner was Jeff Allen. My good friends Andy Frampton and Leslie Battle were in the finals, too.

This festival was probably the most fun I’ve had doing comedy in a long time. I learned how being in a different place can inspire you and give you more confidence. I hope to do more festivals like this in the future.

I want to thank my friend Joe Deuce for running things and just being an awesome person. Thanks!

And if you were wondering, I tied with another girl for last place. But it’s the experience that counts, right??

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