On the road again: Balticon, day 4

I managed to grab another decent night's rest. My exhaustion condition has consequently decreased from Defcon 5 Red to Defcon 4 Red--a marked improvement.

At 1:00 today, I debuted the Mr. Poor Choices stand-up/spoken word show. The house was quite full--best estimate is somewhere well north of 400 folks--and their energy was great. I won't know for sure until I see the recording, but I believe it was my best show yet--though, of course, I already have notes for myself. Still, for the first time I was not immediately depressed about the show as I walked off the stage.

I rushed from it to a panel that was supposed to be about good and evil in SF and fantasy. Instead, it ended up focusing on favorite heroes, primarily comic-book heroes, but I was wrung out enough from the show and I am enough of a comics fan that I was able to contribute reasonably and without getting unduly annoyed at the topic swerve.

From there we rushed to a quick lunch, and then I hit my 4:00 panel, which was 50 minutes of improv comedy. The moderator and all three of my fellow performers knew their stuff, so we had a good time keeping the small but packed room howling. My energy wasn't as good as it should have been, but I think I more or less held my own, and we all had a fun time. From the laughter, the audience did, too.

Dinner this evening was at a Baltimore favorite, Woodberry Kitchen. Every single thing we tried was delicious. If you live in this area and haven't eaten here, you are missing a great treat. I highly recommend it.

Tomorrow, I moderate a morning panel and then hit the road.