Kara Buller takes New York! Comedian, Spitfire girl and stager of one-woman shows Kara Buller is packing her bags and heading for New York to pursue her comedy ambitions on a larger scale. She chatted a bit with the Bastion about her upcoming move and plans for the future.

What do you plan to do once you get to New York City?

I want to go vintage clothes shopping with Brooke Van Poppelen. I think she can help rectify my current sartorial crisis. No offense, but being in Chicago comedy and a deep depression resulted in a surplus of jeans and hoodies. I'm not a 16 year old lesbian or a 25 year old male comic and have no business dressing like one. Time to clean it up. I'm also going to try to get some comics to sit zazen with me. Really going to be looking for the Buddhist comics in NY. You know they exist. Hot six foot three Scandinavian buddhist comics. You know they're there. Then we're going to get down to the dirty business of making hot tall Scandinavian Buddhist babies. Mama's pushing 30. We got to act quick before the eggs go all tardo. Oh career-wise? I hope to write a new joke. I think that would be really exciting. I'm still talking about a 2002 road trip and magazine articles I read last summer. Time to get to work.

Will you be doing your solo show with the characters?

Sure. Who doesn't enjoy a lesbian in a mullet with a temper problem and zip-up moccasins? I'll cook that show up again. Not sure how. I won't have my corporate job and cheap theaters like the Cornservatory soo...I'm going to have to use people I guess. Flirt my way to some theater space. I will no longer have the "crippling handicap of affluence" as AJ Liebling called it. I read that shit in the Times on Sunday. See. It's like I'm already there.

What are you most looking forward to?

My bike, the parks, going to the Adirondacks, seeing the first house I lived in upstate, where my sister and I sang along to Olivia Newton John and cooked up eating disorders...I've got all sorts of fun stuff planned. I also want to go to a cafe and write my heart out. I'm hoping to get really, really peaceful so my skin gets good. Stress is terrible for the skin! I'm really convinced life is better for people with good skin. Good skin seriously helps your comedy career. Men are stupid like that. I'm not angry. I'm just saying men are visual beings and bad skin will close doors. Mama knows.

Are you scared of anything?

The U-Haul. It's a big one. Hard to maneuver. Might break down. And I have to hold the ghetto blaster the whole time. That could get old. Oh, and we don't have a lease yet. Just driving out there and meeting with a Chinese dude who says he has a brand new apt in Brooklyn for us. We'll see. Also, my shrink and I are going to be doing phone sessions. Could be awkward. I can't wait to have my shrink on speaker phone. Hellloo...so New York.

Who's us?

Me and the gay Puerto Rican friend-miracle I'm going out there with. He's a musician and has got a personality as big as his you-know-what, which is as big as his heart.

What will you miss about Chicago comedy?

I really liked hearing CJ Sullivan say "business papers." "I've got my business papers in it!" I love that bit. Nick Vatterot made me cry with joy one night at the Lyon's Den. He attached balloons to his body and popped them as he sang about football stars. I was going through some really insane personal shit that had to do with AIDS and losing a best friend to drugs and not being able to do anything about it--real bad stuff--then Nick is up singing about Kansas City football coaches or some shit. I cried. Anybody would have in that situation. I'm going to miss seeing Nick bounce-walk into a room. I'm going to miss Tony Sam indirectly attacking me or me thinking that's what it is and he and I talking about it a lot. I'm going to miss, most of all, my friend and comedy partner, Jeremy. I go to his "studio pad" as we call it and cook up characters--after he plays episodes of Lisa Kudrow's okay show The Comeback.