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Don't get me wrong, this is NOT what is always feels like when I perform, but this is what is feels like at the FunnyFest is Albuquerque.  I love co-producing this event.  If you take out the stress, the hours of planning, the shameless self-promotion, the gray hairs that come along with watching ticket sales so we know we'll be able to donate money to our charity....everything else just falls into place. :)

It helps tremendously to have an incredibly talented line-up like Amy Boyd, Roxanna Ward and Michele Balan to help ease the production nerves.  After I got the crowd fired up with a few local jokes, a few gay jokes, and a few Palin Jokes (in my best Palin accent...."and I said thanks, but no thanks....to that condom for my daughter), these other three women had the crowd in the palm of their hand.

Amy Boyd has the most amazing energy on stage.  She keeps the crowd on the edge of their seats, bellied over laughing, and cheering for more when she exists a stage.  Her routine is absolutely hysterical and I'm pretty sure I lost five lbs just watching her bounce around the stage for 25 minutes.  The woman's physical comedy is absolutely incredible.

If you have never seen Amy perform and she's in your neck of the woods, you have to check her out, she's wonderful!

Next up on stage was Roxanna Ward.  Now, I have heard about Roxanna Ward through my dear friend Lisa Koch and Vickie Shaw. I'm surprised there isn't bail involved when those three get together.  Off the stage Roxanna has this amazing energy about her, a calmness that you just can't help but absorb.  She loves what she does and it flows out of every part of her when she is on stage. She has the audience crying with her musical comedy, her almost unbelievably funny stories about her mother and father, and her natural ability to just take you in to her world.  I watched from stage left and laughed my ass off while she held the crowd in the palm of her hand.  It was inspiring.

Closing the show was the incredibly talented, and self professed neurotic, Michele Balan. I met Michele a few years ago when I was performing at Caroline's on Broadway for the Ms. Foundation Comedy Hour.  I have spent time with her on Olivia Cruises and a couple of other gigs, and every time I see her perform, she has me in awe.  She's brilliant on stage.  She drops lines at the end of a joke that will leave you crying.  It was a perfect way to end the show.

Spending two entire days with these three women was incredible.  They are all so very different and all have amazing stories to share from the years of being on stage, behind he scenes, eaves dropping. ;)  I will be making trouble with Amy Boyd and Michele Balan in Turks and Caicos with Olivia Cruises and Resorts at the end of October. Tour/Schedule I can't wait!  I was reflecting on the weekend thinking how incredibly lucky I am to work with such amazing talent, but more than that, how blessed I am to have these women, not the comedians, but these women in my life.  It was truly an amazing night.