Last Comic Comes Through
Last Comic Comes Through by Roxanne McDonald
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After a lackluster season in the opinion of many, “Last Comic Standing” hosts a finale that made most of us utter the words of the Comic Book Guy on “The Simpsons”: best episode ever. |
And not just cause John Reep won it, either. Congrats John!
Yeah, there was just too much sand and not enough glass this season. The comics going through early on were unrightfully usurping the spots of much better comics. [Still stinging from the loss of Matt Kirshen, for example.]
The replacement host was, eh, okayyy.
And the challenges were less than original or entertaining, save the one called “Last Jester Standing…,” and that was only hilarious when the contestants joked about their ridiculous costumes.
Nyuck-Nyuck Goes Bye-Bye
Nyuck-Nyuck Goes Bye-Bye by Roxanne McDonald
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Maybe she is funnier in person. Nya. I don’t think so. Think it was past time for Debra DiGiovanni to go home. |
Don’t be mad, DiGiovanni fans. [Hello???? Anyone out there?] And don’t worry too much about where she’ll go from here. Debra is, according to the
“Last Comic Standing” blurbs, “one of Canada’s fastest-rising stand-up talents,” “the Best Stand Up to see after a Messy Break Up” [NOW, Toronto], and “presently a sought after headliner with a growing fan base.”
And evidently, I am in the minority (not caring for that style of nyuck nyuck hyberbolic hilarity), for she won the first round between her and Matt Kirshen.
But Matt came back with a voice bigger than his diminutive body, and nailed the head-to-head—I suspect with the bacon-eating Jew bit and the most clever and last-minute addition of the joke that piggybacked on Debra’s set minutes earlier. Clever boy. Witty boy. One of my favs.
Yes, we all know appreciation is subjective, and our criteria for “funniest” is all over the program’s playbill (if there was one). But how many years one has been doing stand-up just miiiight. not. be the deciding factor. (Though we sure appreciate the subtext, which so many reality shows fail to use, thereby lending to many mistakes for recappers. I love NBC.)
Comic Overkill
Comic Overkill by Roxanne McDonald
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As Eric on “That 70s Show” would say, “What the hell?” What is the deal with the weaker comics who overdo their sets getting through to the top ten instead of our favs? |
I know, I know. I asked this last week during part one of the top ten selection.
But do ya think ya could leave the decisions up to the larger audience that is America—a group that laughs when shit is funny?
I’m thinking that right there would be the indication.
But okay, we need a few to go home first in the finals, so I will let all the politics go.
For now.
This week, again, was part II of the semis: of the sixteen comics, the second group of 5 will join the first group of five…to make up ten for the finals.
After Bill Bellamy tells some white people jokes, the sixteen do their slamming thing. I’m out of breath and I’m just sitting on my fat ass watching.
John Reep does some aggressive bit on America as all about red, white, and blue: red neck, white trash, blue collar…and I am delightedly chuckling, able to identify as I am with two of the three.
Fiona O’Loughlin does an our family is so big… bit that receives okay attention.
Ryan Hamilton—the white Chris Rock who exaggerates his already exaggerated facial features—is hilarious before he even steps onstage, telling us with his white, white collar, white bread looks and persona how it is hard not to anticipate groupies at this point…for it comes with the bad-boy image. He is just brilliant with original one-eye lasik (sp) surgery jokes for the crowd, who loves him.
Gerry Dee does a complex but easy to follow set involving the parallels of bars and churches, of choosing drinks and choosing chicks. It works well and he gets big, raucous laughs to go with his big raucous personality.
What the? Who Said?
What the? Who Said? Frustrating Last Comic Standing Semi-Finals I by Roxanne McDonald
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Why, oh why are the funniest comics sent packing? |
Every so often, we get lucky and get those we find the best actually getting passed through during the semi-finals of “Last Comic Standing”. But more so often, we get the marginal comics.
So it went last night when Sabrina Matthews got snubbed, Spencer Brown got smudged out, and Laurence Moony got overlooked.
Screw the typecasting. Let go of the quota protocol. Bring on the FUNNNNNNIEST, fools!
In the first of two semi-final episodes, sixteen comics competed for five of the ten spots in the finals:
1. John Caparulo, No Hassle Pass winner, audience favorite, one of my favorites, with the I-hate-people humor and his new material on the human imperative to be un-healthy, un-pc, etc..
2. Debra DiGiovanni, oversized, overacting, overdone. Sooo done.
3. Tommy Johnagin, another audience favorite in the semi-semis, still green—but funnier than DiGiovanni.
4. Dante, just Dante, also a Cap One NHPass winner, sounds like Kevin Spacey and does stand-up like an inverted Kevin Spacey, including some uncanny impersonations that while moderately humorous might have better been saved for “The Next Best Thing”?
5. Joe DiVitio, the implicit Mafioso/explicit geek, does some giggle-inducing stuff.
6. Gina Yashere, the complete comic package with immaculate timing, super stress and self-effacing family stuff, as well as an edgy and fresh act.
7. Laurence Moony, with the most twisted, expressive, and dynamic presence—coupled with accessibility to his topical material—would be one we would have on our list of “You Can Only Bring Five People with You to the Moon”, that entertaining he is.
8. Sarah Collenna, with really funny stuff but that which was rushed, so the laughs were on the down beat and on the lowdown, for that matter.
9. Dwayne Kennedy, who actually said one of the funniest g-damned things…BEFORE he went onstage [about how the stress of the moment was intense but how there was nothing he could do about it…save start killing people (pause) and that could take a long time]; and one of the more un-pc and I’m a jaded joker comics who you know has a hell of a lot better material that wouldn’t make it on a PG show.
Everlasting Comic Standing Auditions in Tempe
Everlasting Comic Standing Auditions in Tempe by Roxanne McDonald
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The horrible auditions seemed to go on and on, but so, delightfully, did the stand-up performances at the Improv in Tempe, Arizona. |
What a fantastic treat was “Last Comic Standing” number 4, where judges Alonzo, Ant, and Kathleen suffered through so many bits as devoid as the desert but where we all got to hear some humorous entertainment as hot.
After auditions that include some strange bit by a man whose brother introduced him, so the question of his feigning a
mental disability was answered; after some whack job named Rusta Rhymes announced he was there for the MC battle and therefore would share with us a long and dreary rap/rhyme; and after a very long issuing forth of icky sickos and sad sacks who were, obviously, not funny, the real auditions ensued.
Minneapolis Amusement and London Laughs
Minneapolis Amusement and London Laughs by Roxanne McDonald
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The global efforts to find candidates for “Last Comic Standing” bring more laughs of several varieties. |
In London, England, Alonzo says he loves English humor, and points out there are two types: so high brow you have to pretend you get it or [the kind where] you get a pie in your face.
A little interpretation and we’re off at the Laugh Comedy Store:
The nighttime auditioners perform, having done some super silly to super humorous daytime bits:
Matt Kirschen had done a great bit on unhealthy children
Spencer Brown from Londontown was so engaging that Kathleen Madigan had said if she bought a toy Englishman, wound it up, and went “Do it”, it would, she had claimed, be him.
Josh Howie had said out on the line (that would be the queue) that he lives so close to the audition spot that if he wanted to he could go home and change his underpants.
Also making through to the nighttime gig:
Tiffany Stevenson, with deadpan survey humor
Ava Vidal does a bit I feel like I have seen before (on a mother expressing how she feels about celebrities adopting-here, take my kids bit), but she is a crowd-pleaser.
Buddy (who was the only one shown to bomb so badly that there was the dreaded silence during his routine and there was Ant, making the sounds of explosions)
Benny Boot, whom we didn’t get to see during the daylight—maybe a good thing.
Rick Kisewetter tells the comedy clubbers it’s hard being Chinese…because he’s Japanese.
Those going through to the semi-finals:
Matt Kirshen
Ava Vidal
Spencer Brown
If There is a Camera, They Will Come
If There is a Camera, They Will Come by Roxanne McDonald
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Not all the “Last Comic Standing” final choices are the ones on my list, but the rejects, I agree, just had to go. |
No, they just had to go.
I love virtually everything about “Last Comic Standing”—the use of former LCS contestants (and a winner) as judges for auditions; the sparse bit of comments by the judges; and, especially, the really funny deliveries thus far. I only chaff when one of my favorites (as I see him or her) is not sent
through to the semi-finals.
Okay, so it goes. At the Improv in California, the judges saw really weak comics like Chad Lehrman, who did a bit on how he was “edgy”, but almost insulted the panel with his sophomoric format. [Alonzo even chastised him, saying he couldn’t say he was edgy, he had to be edgy.
And a couple of the others were a bit weak, but made it through on the 2 against 1 rule, of course.
Then there were those whom even we at home get zero pleasure from watching—those that spur Ant to interview that it seems these yokels are just walkin by the line, ask what the line is for, and, hearing there are cameras, jump on line, too.
The ones I love are those who have a great bit, and then, stay “in charcter” when offstage: John Reep, for instance, was hilarious onstage (doing some physical and other comedy schtick), then off (but on camera) called to announce he made it through and when he gets home to the receiver of the call he will “be looking forward to some awesome make-out sex.” Then he disconnects, looks at the camera, and says, “My brother.” Yeehawhaw.
Those who made it through to the nighttime public audition are as follows:
Stephen Somebody (sorry, missed the last name)
Dwayne Perkins
Lizzy Cooperman
Thea Vidale
John Reep (yay)
Alycia Cooper
Dante
Sean Rouse
Sarah Colonna
At the end of the night, Thea, Dante, Sean, and Sarah were moving forward, with Dante winning that coveted Cap One award/hassle-free pass.
No Pass for You!
No Pass for You! by Roxanne McDonald
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Installment 1 of “Last Comic Standing” 5 brings us the world of comics—this time from New York, Canada, and Texas. |
And why no Capitol One No Hassle Pass for Canada? Do they not honor Cap One there? And does it matter? The audience-driven prize consists of money and a pass to
Vegas, not a credit card, so the advertising power is still there.
Ahgh. Anyway.
Last Comic Standing installment 1 saw auditioners through to the second round and then select comics from those groups through to Vegas:
New York auditions at the Gotham Comedy Club
Through to Round 2
Matt Kazam
Pete Dominick
Victor Varnado
Dwayne Kennedy (my pick)
Wali Colins (my pick)
Michelle Buteau
Chris White
Lori Chase
Jay Oakerson
Jane Condon
Calise Hawkins
Joe DeVito (my pick)
Jason Scarlatti (my pick)
Arg Barker (my pick)
Amy Schumer
And another (in a red shirt, like that helps) whose name I missed–sorry
Through to Vegas
Dwayne Kennedy
Lori Chase
Jane Condon (Cap One No Hassle Pass winner)
Joe DeVito
Amy Schumer
Well, two of my picks made it. Harrumph.
Worldwide Search, Worldwide Joy
Worldwide Search, Worldwide Joy…for Some of Us by Roxanne McDonald
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As if the redeeming characteristics of “Last Comic Standing” were not sufficient, the show takes the search around the world! |
Some well-regarded critics are not as excited as I am about the return of LCS, saying it is not funny and is therefore just more fodder for the machine that is summer programming. But I welcome this show for its, well, comic relief, as well as for its more streamlined content, especially during the
audition stages.
The format is tight enough—the initial audition segments not too long and the second-leg auditions (performances in front of a comedy club crowd) shared with us in full.
The very nature of the competition content—comedy—lends a particular catharsis that is seldom matched by other reality shows (save “The Next Best Thing” with Elon Gold and Jeffrey Ross as well as Lisa Ann Walker making as many entertaining jokes and plays on words, etc., as we would expect from the comic contestants).
The only thing worth griping about, and this is minor and really has nothing to do with production, is the insipid commercial break promotional interactivities: one would think they could come up with a more creative way to make more money other than to offer a joke straight line and call for people to pay to get the punch line. I mean, even “take my wife…” jokes would be more appealing.
Ralphie May: Risqué as Ever
Ralphie May: Risqué as Ever by Roxanne McDonald
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The runner-up favorite of “Last Comic Standing” 3 continues to bring the giggles and the grudges. |
Ralphie May got my vote all the way through the third season of “Last Comic Standing”. He makes no apologies for his appearance, his style, or his un-politically correct inclusion of subjects which include midgets, retards, and races…including white–though he gets great laughs for all of the above.
That’s what makes his humor work.
In his solo show, “Girth of a Nation,” for instance, Ralphie kills with comments about retardation as a goal for all of
us–who drink and do dope to “get retarded,” really. But he was censored, he tells us, for wanting to use such skits on Jay Leno (I think…. One of the talk shows, anyway.)
With just as much iconoclastic, bombastic wit, Ralphie also rags on the pope followers/mourners, who are to him silly for being shocked that the man died—for, he reminds us, the pope was old and old people, that’s what they do, they die. He kicks around gangs, plays on street lingo, and just brings irreverence and truth to every bit, using as an extender his wide-eyed facial expressions and laid back stance to drive audiences wild with shocked guffaws.
And despite his being censored, ridiculed, and dismissed for being fat, racist, and a rip-off (when all art is a take-off of sorts anyway, has to be…), Ralphie May is likely chuckling his way to the stage, the bank, and the bedroom with his beautiful (Lahna Turner) bride.
SirLinksAlot Last Comic Standing Links
Is the Last Comic Standing Really Funny?
Last Comic Standing is Josh Blue!
It’s not that you need a PhD in the psychology of humor to write about such television programs, but it is tough to capture or encapsulate the appeal of really good comedic shows.
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I mean, if I could translate with any accuracy and effectiveness the likes of, say, Seinfeld, with its hallmark repetition of lines for comic effect or its relatedness of events, instances, and issues the characters share, for example, then I would be ON the show…or WRITING it. |
So it goes with a blockbuster entertainment show like Last Comic Standing.
Still, I feel impelled to sing the praises of the efforts to bring back some damned levity (if not outright raucous laughter) to our pitifully stressful, overworked, overburdened, overwhelmed lives. (read more…)
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