Robert Buscemi has returned from the Rooftop Aspen Comedy Festival and files this report, exclusively for the Bastion.

So a quick breakdown on the inaugural Rooftop Aspen Comedy Festival, which I performed at this past weekend.

First off, CHICAGO'S MATT BRAUNGER WON "BEST OF THE FEST"! He beat everybody. Amazing. His set was just blazing. He told that damned owl story that I've died at for years now, and people were just crying laughing. He beat people with credits you wouldn't believe -- half-hour Comedy Central specials, Letterman appearances, touring headliners, you name it. And apparently Nate Trenholm, also a Chicago guy, gave Braunger a full undercarriage man-goose as Braunger strode onto stage from the wings. Trenholm killed too. The three of us were lucky to be on a really strong showcase at 8:30 Saturday in front of a huge, awesome, sharp crowd.

The whole festival was just fantastic. It was just extremely well put on, everybody at Rooftop was sharp and a blast, and there was just a great communal feeling among all the comics. There was also some heavy industry, and there was a great afternoon panel on the future of online comedy.

Among my new favorite comedians ...

Robert Hawkins, who just smashed. He's now on a very small list of bread-and-butter, old-school uber-comics I'm keeping -- a list that includes Jimmy Pardo and Todd Glass. Hawkins is amazing. I mean it.

Andi Smith -- A young woman who's one of the biggest smartasses I've ever met. She's a corrosively hysterical hipster. VERY sharp material. I traded for her CD too, and the CD rocks hard.

Erin Foley -- A super-sharp comic with super-fresh material that I first met and heard about through Nate Craig a few months ago. Erin's on Last Comic Standing this season. She did fantastic.

Tig Nataro -- Oh my God. She just murdered me. I squealed like a pig. Super-understated, super-confident, super-fly. She spent like two minutes up top lurching around the huge stage with the mike stand looking for a good place to clear it away so it wouldn't get in her way of her set, making a big stink that her comedy is just "that big." She wound up leaving the stage entirely to stuff it off behind a stage-left curtain. The masses howled. She wore the ugliest sweater ever made like it was a royal ermine. I just can't tell you. She's the breeze.

I could go on. The talent was impressive as hell across the board. So yeah, it was the best ever. I was thrilled and honored and the shows just went on and on and there were parties long into the night.

Oh, and I played in my first poker tournament. I was DEAD-FIRST to lose all my chips, out of 35 entrants. That's a fact.

-Robert Buscemi