The reports are rolling in now that everyone is back and intact from the whirlwind of the Aspen Comedy Festival. The Apiary gave our boy TJ Miller a shout-out yesterday; we'll be excited to catch up with him in person when he finally comes back to Chicago after L.A./Aspen/L.A.. Time Out has been keeping track of the festival, with a daily blog and commentary from the Ragdolls. Pete Grosz kept everyone awares of his shenanigans in Misled's MySpace blog. We here at the Bastion were lucky enough to get first person reports from KevINda:

"Aspen was so rock star. The Chi was well represented by kevINda, Brendan Hunt, TJ Miller, Misled and the Ragdolls. HBO spent money like a major cable network. They hooked us up with a lunch buffet everyday. I'm thinking "buffet" as in Old Country. Yeah, right. The first day it was lobster and portobella bisque. Ridoncalous! We met and hung out with some cool folks: Gregg and Evan Spiridellis of JibJab Media, Katt Williams (who came up to kevINda to introduce himself because he had "heard" about us -- WHAT!?), Jamie Kennedy, Lavell Crawford, Nilaja Sun (who's bringing her one-woman show "No Child" to Chicago's Lookingglass in the fall) and Phil LaMarr. I had to resist the temptation to scream, "Does my garage have a sign over it that says dead nigga storage?" We were in the airport at the time. Didn't seem appropriate. Plus, LaMarr has done a lot of other things since "Pulp Fiction." (I only add this last sentence for those who didn't get the garage reference.) Anyway, Kevin and I felt like rock stars the entire time."

And Chicago ex-pat Kyle Kinane, who we're just going to go ahead and claim as our own even if L.A. has him now, had a few things to say as well:

"My sets were good. White millionaires don't necessarily relate to jokes about loneliness, but it was fun regardless.

Every show i saw had standout moments. The feel of the whole fest was comics vs. the richest six percent of the country. That being said, the bookers did a great job of picking out intelligent, provoking comics (myself excluded) and sketch groups.

Biggest personal laughs are awarded to Lavell Crawford and the videos from the Summer of Tears sketch group.

Also, the film "Color Me Kubrick" will become the indy-nerd hit of the year, so get on it quick, hipster numbnuts.

Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, and John Landis on the same stage together. Rickles is DNA of good comedy. Newhart is the skin. John Landis needs to learn to keep his mouth shut when on the stage with the both of them."