Three Chicago-focused blogs down…three Ragdolls members as writers. But, as we all know, good comedy comes in fours (or something like that), so here’s the final Ragdoll Colleen Murray (far left), here to take us back to sweet home, Chicago.

Enter Colleen Murray:

Saturday was our last full day in Aspen to end an overall amazing festival experience. The weather had dramatically improved, to reveal a clear and sunny sky, the picture perfect Aspen day. Most of us started by sleeping in a bit to recharge, but Megan Grano, the bravest member of our ensemble, hit the slopes to participate in a ski race sponsored by the festival. Grano made it down the run in about 30 seconds, motivated both by the will to survive and the awesome gift bag at the bottom. And talk about swag!  Inside the bag was a collection of the hippest ski accessories, including a kick ass green and orange reversible down jacket and sporty white and silver ski goggles. Grano looked in awesome in her new gear and we were all in envy. Meagan, Emily and I tried getting one of these precious swag bags too, but to no avail. We tried negotiating, but we didn’t have much time, because we were en route to our last performance that afternoon, a 1:30pm matinée.

Back to the Tent for the last time for our final show of the 2007 US Comedy Arts Festival. Wow, it still doesn’t seem real! All three shows (Ragdolls’ Moist, Misled, kevINda) were great and the audience, although our smallest house yet, was terrific and so supportive. Afterwards, we scattered around town with our respective family and friends to enjoy the beautiful day.

At 5:00pm, the Festival Awards hosted by Jaime Kennedy were underway at the stand-up venue, Belly Up, and the Best of Fest Awards were given out for Live Performance and Film. It was great to see highlights from some of the acts we didn’t get to catch, and nice to see recognition for some of the great acts we did get to see. John Oliver from the Daily Show was given Best Male Breakout Performance, and his show definitely deserved all the hype.

We spent the evening seeing shows and relaxing with our guests, not fully grasping that the next day we would begin our decent back to sea level in Chicago. We all met up for the closing night festival in the Ballroom of the St. Regis. It was dance party central and the rumors were brewing of a crazy after-after party at the Goldberg Mansion in the mountains. I couldn’t resist my curiosity of this fabled mansion party, and soon my friends and I were getting the details to this secret hideout. To make this adventure even more colorful, we grabbed Eric Charles Nielsen, a quirky stand up from LA, along for the ride. He provided many moments of levity in our journey upward.

After winding our way up into the dimly lit mountains, we rolled up to the base of the property and we were stopped by security. They informed us that we would have to park at the base and walk a snow packed trail to the house. We all just assumed that was a short distance, but were grossly mistaken.

After walking uphill for what seemed like two hours, we finally arrived at the front of the house out of breath and fully psychotic. It was insane—less like a house and more of a strip mall. It went on forever and ever and ever. The views of Aspen were incredible, and inside the party was rocking. We walked into a sprawling great room with a sunken-in seating area and fully accessible stocked bar. The house stretched on for miles with outdoor decks jutting out from every corner. Downstairs there was an enormous exercise facility to rival Bally’s and a huge state-of-the-art movie theater. Unreal. Unfortunately I overserved myself and spent the next day trying to recover from a seemingly bad ice cube. At one point there was a rally around a grand piano where one of the stand-ups and Wesley Clark were leading the group in a sing along to Billy Joel’s greatest hits! Who knew that General Wesley Clark would be there?!

Certainly a fitting farewell to Aspen and all of it’s fabulousness. This festival has been amazing, one great adventure after the next. Later I would be at the Aspen airport discovering that Michael Ian Black and I had accidentally switched laptops while we were in line for security. This was my closest brush with fame yet. And Michael Ian Black couldn’t have been nicer to me.

So, well done. A festival to remember.