I haven't been out to LA in years, so going out to do a show and then just getting to goof around for a few days was a great treat.

Steve has done an excellent job of covering the business side of our LA trip, so I'll just point you at his series of posts on the topic:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Daily Grind
• So Close

But the trip wasn't all work. Tuesday night we got to see our friend Philip perform at iO West and then scoot over to the UCB to catch Ken and Blewt-friend Brady perform in the See You Next Tuesday standup showcase.

Wednesday was all show day. Jeremy drove up from San Diego to be a contestant (yes, we pre-picked the contestants. We figured that everybody other than The Price is Right pre-vets their contestants in some way.) I want to second what Steve about the staff at the Hudson -- everyone was delightful to work with and their help was an enormous part of making the show the success it was. And it was totally a success -- the place was packed, the comedians were hilarious, and the audience laughed as though there was a giant "Laughter and Applause" sign over the stage. (There wasn't.) And Jeremy won.

Thursday, after the show, while Steve was being meeting-guy, the rest of us got to go tourist it up and hang out at Venice Beach. That evening, we all met up again at the Dresden (best known to us for the scene from Swingers with the lounge singers) for a schmancy dinner. After dinner, we went over to the lounge side of the place where, in fact, those same lounge singers -- Marty and Elayne -- were plying their craft. Everyone had a martini to feel appropriately fancy.

Friday we had planned on being Hollywood-touristy, but ended up our hotel by the airport in the afternoon (we had to move out of our other hotel because of a convention) and just went out for great Mexican food and then saw Iron Man. We had a v.late night In-and-Out Burger and then got up way early Saturday to fly back so I could do two shows.

Photos from the trip.