Sleepwalk with Me

 There was one movie at Sundance this year that I just had to see: Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk with Me. He's one of my favorite comics, and I've heard many of the stories that were in the movie on This American Life. So, I went up a few hours early and was like number 4 in the wait line. The way the wait line works is you wait in line to get a number, then you come back no later than 45 minutes before the movie starts, get in line in the order your number indicates, and then then sell as many tickets as they have left over, starting with number one. If you're even one minute late, you lose your place in line.

I found out that Josh had received an invitation to go to the "red carpet event" prior to the screening. He didn't really want to go because he was there to cover docs and, though the film was based on mostly true stuff, it had been fictionalized to some extent. But I helped him think of some doc-related questions he could ask and he agreed to go.

The red carpet event was much less glamorous than it sounds. Instead of picturing the Oscars, think of a small tent (maybe the size of a double garage?) with me ("the photographer") and Josh (with his sound recording equipment) and maybe two or three other photographers/videographers separated from "the talent" by metal gates.

But Josh was soon glad he had come. One of the first people to walk in was Marc Maron. It turns out that unbeknownst to us, he had a small role in the film. Josh is a huge fan of his podcast and I was glad that, as it turned out, my Ira Glass obsession wasn't the only thing keeping us there (because we were cutting it dangerously close to the wait line deadline).

My blurry I'm-trying-to-sneak-a picture of Josh talking to Marc Maron.

The problem with me posing as a photographer (well besides my totally inadequate camera) was the fact that I was much more interested in the stuff happening on my side of the metal dividers. I was sort of hanging on Ira's every word (this is the second time I've seen him in person, and it's still so weird to hear that voice come out of an actual human being) instead of taking pictures of the actors, etc. Josh had to remind me that I was supposedly there to photograph them!

That's Mike Birbiglia on the left--way different than I pictured him (shorter for one thing). Recognize the actor on the right from The Princess Bride? That's Carol Kane, and she played Mike's mom.

A less sneaky shot of Marc Maron.

A somewhat sneaky shot of me in front of the Sundance background. (If you haven't seen me with bangs yet, yes they are too short here.)

It was fun eavesdropping on Josh's interview of Mike. But then I abandoned him because my wait list number was way before his and I didn't want to risk not getting a ticket!

As it turned out, Josh get a ticket just barely, but then they said they couldn't find him and a few other people seats (even though there was one right by me!), so they didn't let him in. Total bummer, but I did still really enjoy myself. The movie was hilarious, and it was lots of fun to attend the QA afterwards--most of the crew and many of the cast were there.

Good Sundance times!