The last day of SXSW 2023 is always bittersweet. Even after a tiring ten days, it’s a little sad to return to real life. This year’s last day was odd though. Not much was happening until midday, when Bill and I watched an excellent comedy, Theater Camp, at the Paramount. Afterwards, we wandered over to the Austin Convention Center, but everything related to SXSW was being disassembled and packed up. We attended a comedy podcast, ate dinner at a favorite restaurant, Moonshine, and then looked for some music without much success. We finally ended up watching the UT men’s basketball playoff game on TV. That turned out to be a good decision: UT won the game to advance to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament.

Theater Camp

The Paramount audience loved this comedy about a children’s theater camp in New York State. Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, and Noah Galvin attended this Texas premiere. They said the film was semi-scripted—mostly improvised—and shot in 19 days. Some takes were 45 minutes long, but the film came together in the editing room. This was my favorite movie of the festival.

Doug Loves Movies Podcast

Doug Benson did an in-person taping for his podcast in a comedy venue called The Creek and the Cave (formerly Barracuda). Doug’s three guests included John Ehrler, a favorite local comedian (with Master Pancake) in our household. The guests played three games. First, they tried to guess the top four movies or TV shows listed for various actors on IMDB. The next game was guessing which months were most included in movie titles. (It’s not what you would think.) Finally, the guests named movies with either Michael Jordan or Michael B. Jordan. A fun time for movie aficionados.

Housekeys

The audience was introduced to Mervin, the plant on the red tablecloth in the left side of my photo. Leads were attached to Mervin and interpreted into ambient music by a device called PlantWave. I looked around, and half of the audience had their eyes closed. After ten days of SXSW, I doubt if they were all meditating.

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