Moving trucks occupy expanses of alleyways throughout the city of Chicago this time of year. Fall leases expire and renters displace to new neighborhoods and different living situations. In the world of live performance, individuals have to decide whether to stay in Chicago another year to continue honing their craft, or to make the next step: moving to the coasts. Over the past year, a handful of stand-up comedians have decided that they are ready to tackle the wilds of L.A. and NYC, and following on their heels is a veritable glut of others leaving this fall. This exodus is fairly cyclical, with a three to five year turnover time -- the last great exodus of stand-up comedians was in 2002. Mike Bridenstine, one of the upper echelons to emerge in the last two years, will be giving us some thoughts about his individual experience in making the decision to move and the accompanying process. Last week he shared some preliminary words -- before the physical moving process began but after the decision had been completely solidified.

8.20 --
I have twelve days to move and I am still basically clueless as to where I'll be living or working in Los Angeles. That's not fun. But I do have a minimal amount of money saved and have some paid gigs in the next two weeks to help out. I'll be visiting my family in Iowa over Labor Day weekend and then driving to California on my own. Pretty crazy. I haven't officially told my current day job my plans yet either. So this week, I'll be hitting Craigslist pretty hard and calling any favors I can think of from the small network of people I know out there. I've talked to a handful of people about being potential roommates, so maybe if we put our heads together we can come up with something. In the meantime, I've been going through my stuff in Chicago and trying to minimize as much as possible. I'm only taking the things I can fit into my Ford Fusion. It was hard saying goodbye to my prized kegerator, but I know that it's in a good home with my cousin in Iowa City. I hope I can have a better idea of where my home will be by the end of the week.

8.23 --
About a week until the big move. Things are about to get interesting. Every time someone asks me about my move, they ask where I'm living and/or what I'm doing for a job. When I tell them that I don't know, they look at me like I'm crazy. Maybe I am. But I want this move to be an adventure. Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer to have everything laid out in front of me and figured out, but it's gonna have to be the way, so be it. When I moved to Chicago four years ago, I didn't know anybody or anything anyway, so fuck it. I'm a world fucking champion, Bastion. I've got this.

Oh, I'm quitting my day job tomorrow. I've worked for the company for almost four years. That's gonna be weird, saying goodbyes and stuff. But I need to take a week to work on moving, getting an apartment and getting a job and stuff. You know, the boring stuff that'll help me not be a vagrant and have my first big break be on Bum Fights. And I also figured out that I don't have to drive all the way to California by myself now. Mike Holmes, who is also moving at the same time as me, is going to drive out there with me caravan-style. The last time we took a long road trip together we wrote that goddamned Eminem parody, so it could be a great time.

My current feelings about the whole thing are positive. A friend of mine wrote me an email when I said I was stressing out over the move. Basically the gist of it is that I can stay in Chicago if I want. Chicago is nice and safe and I know what I like here. I mean, if I really want I can just cancel the whole thing and keep doing what I'm doing. I can also put a gun in my mouth when I'm 35 knowing that it was all worth it just to do the same shit I'm comfortable with year after year after year.

On the other hand, I can leave, suffer again as a newbie like I did in here four years ago and do it all over but on a bigger scale. I'm prepared for some of the move to suck. But it has to suck to make me better. You get material from that. I'm looking forward to that. Blerds has a monthly show at UCB out there. My management is out there. I have a few things I can do because of that. There are a couple web-based pilots we'll be working on pretty soon. I have a decent network of comedy pals out there, which is nice. And my special lady friend is out there. It just means I have to work twice as hard and hustle twice as much. But I think I'll get some things done. And I will keep you updated.