I hosted a show at Maxum Bar and Grill last night. It was a show. That’s about it. Fun times with comics Dan Brennan and Ryan Andrews though, check them out sometime.

I’ve been watching The Simpsons a lot lately on DVD and are finding them hilarious. Seasons 8 and 9 have some great episodes so far. Great show to fall asleep laughing to.

I’m reading the third Harry Potter Book. I’m very behind in the whole popularity of the series, but it’s a good read all the same. I get the hoopla, but each book isn’t that much different from the previous one so far. We’ll see.

I have been reading hilarious “true” ER Horror stories on doctor’s websites. If you’re bored, google it and cringe away. Here’s a good list to start with.

I now am the proud possessor of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s complete filmography. Every movie ever. It’s a glorious day in the history of my life.

Next weekend, Ash moves up to Chi-town, The Dark Knight comes out, I get paid, I’m featuring at the Barrel, and two of my best friends are having blowout graduation parties. I don’t think it gets any better than that. What an orgy of fun times.

I know I mentioned that I saw Wanted last weekend and that Angelina Jolie’s ass was in it, but I thought I would mention it again because people searched the terms “ass” “angelina jolie” and “wanted” and found my blog frequently over the holiday weekend. So I’m just seeing if that happens again. If that’s the case, then I’ll have to change my website to “Angelina Jolie’s Ass’s Blog” to get more hits.

I saw absolutely no fireworks this weekend oddly enough, and didn’t miss them at all. They’re cool and all, but so are movies that I haven’t seen before and I’d rather watch them with the lady. We watched Charlie Bartlett, In Bruges, Sleepwalking, Stop-Loss, and The Ruins.

They were all good except for Sleepwalking, which was a terrible drama about nothing. And The Ruins wasn’t that great, but it was watchable. Not much happens at all. In Bruges was probably the biggest surprise/unique movie I saw and it was pretty gnarly. Colin Farrel was funny and solidly acting. Charlie Bartlett and Stop-Loss were both very good movies but not the absolute best of their kind. All of these, except for Sleepwalking with Charlize Theron, were worth watching.

I featured at Barrel of Laughs on Saturday night, followed by a set at The Final Countdown later that night. Both shows were a lot of fun and I tried out some new bits that went very well. Good times in Chicago.

I’ll be at Maxum Bar and Grill this Thursday for the third time, which is always a blast. See me there.

I saw this movie Wanted today. It’s based off of a series of comic books and it had some awesome action and a good cast. Very insane action, actually. Very entertaining. And it was a good “R” rated movie because they didn’t hold back with any of the graphic scenes, which is always nice to see. And you get to see Angelina Jolie’s ass for a short second. Again, awesome.

I did a guest set at Barrel of Laughs in Oak Lawn, IL on Friday night and it went extremely well. Very cool crowd and lots of laughs all around. It’s always a good confidence booster to do a great set randomly at any given time. I’m slowly trying out new bits here and there and they seem to be going well.

Then I did a show at the Edge Comedy Club later that night and that was good too. Fun show and lots of laughs with some great Chicago comics. I always wonder if other cities have half as good comics floating around like Chicago has. I’m guessing they do, but not nearly as great of a variety.

Saturday night I did a guest spot at Comedy Comedy in Aurora thanks to Mr. Bert Borth. The show featured the headliner Vince Maranto who was very funny. Vince Carone, a booming comic and buddy of mine, did an awesome set and threw me a copy of his newer DVD. Very funny stuff, and an all around great guy. Check out Vince’s video on dealing with hecklers, it’s fantastic. I can’t wait to tell people in the future that we rocked the town of Aurora at one point. Without a supply of illegal drugs, that’s hard to do.

I just had a great weekend at the Chicago Improv in Schaumburg, IL emceeing with the hilarious Blaine Capatch and Greg Behrendt.

They were both incredibly nice guys and we had an awesome weekend of shows. At one point during the last show, I asked the crowd, “What’s everyone doing after the show,” to which a very special lady in the front row replied, “YOU!” I had no idea what to say and just laughed with everybody else for a bit. It’s always fun to be caught off guard when you’re least expecting it.

We saw Indiana Jones this weekend before the last show, too. It was…interesting. A little too out there for my Indy taste but it was entertaining. Some good trailers were before the movie, including a much more explanatory one for Hancock. It shows that he’s like a cocky superhero, which I thought Will Smith kind of already was. After all, he makes “this suit look good,” in like every movie.

I’ve been reading a ton of comics lately, mostly Batman. I read Volume One of Hush and a ton of other short collections. I’m working on Alan Moore’s The Watchmen right now, so I’m caught up for when the awesome looking movie comes out sometime in the near future.

My mom asked me what I thought of her wearing some sort of Usher fragrance she ripped out of a magazine the other day. I don’t really know what I think of it. Why is Usher all up on my mom?

I’m going to be hopefully getting some viral videos up and running on YouTube and here soon. I have a web series I’m working on with my pal Steve Nelson and it should be glorious. Stay tuned.

I’m sitting in my college-cluttered room trying to find places to put all of my beer bongs and Animal House posters. Just kidding, I’m actually trying to find places in my house to do crossword puzzles where my parents won’t offer their advice on filling in the squares.

My phone got run over today on Harlem Ave. in Palos Heights, Illinois. That was sad/rad. I was crossing the busy street with some friends on bikes and I had this pouch on mine that holds stuff. It was holding my friend’s cell phone and my cell phone when they suddenly decided they wanted to check out the ground during our crossing. By the time we heard the clickity click of them bouncing off the ground, they were exploded into the sky into several pieces by a barrage of traffic. We picked up all the pieces, recited several situation-appropriate jokes like, “Can you hear me now,” and “Hey, looks like I’m not going over my minutes this month!” and then went and got smoothies at a Christian bookstore/cafe. The whole story sounds like a scene from a movie where some bike riders go missing on the campus of a Christian college, so I might just get to writing that semi-autobiographical tale soon.

I’ve got a lot of cool stuff coming up. Tons of shows all around Illinois, a lot of writing projects with various people, and possibly some speech coaching at my old high school in the summer and fall. I’m applying for jobs, too, so that could add some extra mayhem to the incredibly open (so far) summer days.

I’m going to start my screenplay about Rollerblading soon.

That’s right. Rollerblading.

Hey I’ve got most of my stuff transfered over to my new site from the old one, but it’s not perfect looking yet. Bio, History, Shows, Videos, and Links all look OK but Pictures needs a little work. There’s this flash gallery thing I’m trying to throw in that looks awesome, but it doesn’t look exactly the way I want so I have to keep tweaking it. The header at the top of every page with pictures of me performing fading in and out looks pretty swell, though I have to throw a “Ryan Budds.com” logo up there somewhere, too.

College is over in one day! Insane. Time flew. It was a blast though and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’ve got an open summer ahead of me to write, perform, and try to find a day job. Exciting stuff. I’m doing a show at the high school I went to, Alan B. Shepard, this Saturday night May 10th. Check my shows page for all the details. It’s only $5 and there’s some awesome live comedy going on in the form of Shepard’s Comedy Troupe, the sketch group Big Dog Eat Child, and myself.

Holla.