F.O.B. Robert Buscemi has more Chicago/NYC comedy dish for us today.

(Just to clarify, F.O.B. is "Friend of the Bastion," not an anti-immigrant sentiment, nor a nod to well-placed Clinton associates, or even members of AA, although there are certainly lots of F.O.B.'s who are one or two of those things. Thanks to Kumail for gently pointing out to us the multiple meanings of this acronym, and thus preventing us from establishing a "lose friends and alienate people through use of derogatory terms" policy.)

Anyway, here's Bobby's latest report on the ground in NYC, and is it ever chock-full of Chicago-ey goodness:

"Saw the most killer lineup at Invite Them Up night before last—including Chicago's Mike Burns and (from WAY back in Chicago comedy history—before my time) Brad Steuernagel . (I hang out with Steuernagel pretty much all the time when I'm in NYC.) They went up in character and showed a film of Burns's dark "Caleb Hodgekiss" character (used to appear at the Lincoln Lodge) with the hideously taped up glasses and hands. The film was a masterpiece of tension, and people really went for it.

Sharing the illustrious bill were a limping host Bobby Tisdale (who jumped while skinny-dipping into an overly shallow part of a river near Woodstock, NY), A.D. Miles (from Man Bites Dog)—he was VERY funny. Also great was Eugene Mirman (who played a very funny phone interview some company randomly conducted with him about the current Middle East conflict—Mirman's at his best mixing it up with people like that I think, because he's highly sharp and satirical, but never mean-spirited), Todd Barry (who's an absolute master of understatement and crowd work), Aziz Ansari (bringing home tales of being able to enjoy Pitchfork Music Festival's mockably hippyish "sonic forest" only in an altered state). Also a VERY funny Mike Birbiglia talking about fly fishing and bears in Alaska. All for $5.

ITU feels like it's at an apex of excitement, I think—it has a serious fan base that follows all the little inside jokes of the show and everything. The room's star right now is so high it's crazy. The old Lyon's Den had nights like that, believe it or not. Fifty-plus comics at an open-mike and--no kidding--a large handful of them were (and remain) some of the best comics you'd ever seen. Quite a time (he says, arthritically).

I fly home Saturday, so I will get to perform a standup showcase "Sweet Paprika" Friday, and last night I saw co-Sweet-Paprika-host Ophira Eisenberg's one-woman show about being a comically timid dominatrix while researching a journalistic assignment she once took, then I was on to "Oh, Hello" at Rififi, where John Mulaney (funny young comic—just performed on Gotham Live on TV) and Nick Kroll (all over the air in a billion commercials, VH1, etc.) host a show in character as these Upper West Side middle-aged guys from circa 1976 who adore Alan Alda. They put so much into it, and the characters are so ludicrous. It's great. They've put me in their August 17th show, when I'll be in town for Don't Spit the Water's NYC Fringe Fest run."