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Originally aired on Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Written By BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Episode Rating: ** (2 stars out of 5)
Episode Overview: Forty comedians were selected during a nationwide talent search. Last week, half of them were whittled down to the select five who will be entering the Last Comic Standing house. This week, the remaining twenty will face the judges, and again, only five will move on.
Episode Highlights:
- This week's bunch has a greater disparity between the good and the apathetic-shrug-inducing, but most of the comedians hover right in that middle, "meaty part of the Bell Curve."
- There are, however, some more experienced performers who might be familiar to the general audience.
- The selections are made...and there are some real surprises!
Recap:
We are back to finish up the eliminations. Tonight we'll slog through twenty more performers, each with three minutes onstage, to ultimately get to the selected five to join the others in the Last Comic Standing house.
Once again, there are three guest "talent scouts" (aka judges): sitcom guru Garry Marshal, SNL alum Tim Meadows, and comic/notorious D-Lister Kathy Griffin. The host is Anthony Clark, a stand-up himself who is best-known for his role on the CBS sitcom "Yes, Dear."
And also as before, it's hard for the show to do justice to the performers; we're only seeming a few moments from the full three-minute performers. Here are some of the highlights.
Gabriel Iglasias - a large man in a Hawaiian shirt, he does a bit on cops and donuts. I know, you're thinking "Yawn!" But he's got an engaging style and some humorous physicality and the audience seems to like him.
Ty Barnett - his jokes were also not ground-breaking, but he had a solid, confident delivery that elevated his material.
Nikki Payne - she's the "girl with the lisp" whose not afraid to joke about it or to do some physical comedy with duct tape.
Rebecca Corry - she's a four-foot eleven inch woman who has the best response to the judges' "Why did you start being a comedian?" query: "I hate myself a lot so it seemed like a good idea." Ahh, self-loathing, the seamy underbelly of comedy.
Bil Dwyer - he's a minor somebody, so I was surprised to see him on the show. He does a lot of work on the VH1 clip shows, so he is probably familiar to much of the audience. His act is not as humorous as I therefore expected it to be.
Stella Stopler - a very pregnant woman. It could just be the editing, but her jokes seemed so garden-variety that I was a little surprised she made it on at all.
Michele Balan - she's the oldest of the group, she says, and has some mildly humorous jokes about living in New York.
J. Chris Newburg - comedian with a guitar. He has a few good bits, one about how rappers aren't afraid of anything but "spell-check," and a rather resourceful way to shut up kids on airplanes.
Doug Benson - like Bil Dwyer, he's also a VH1 alum, and is regularly featured on "Best Week Ever." He has a pretty funny meta-bit about comedian's segues. I'm really surprised that someone with a regular VH1 gig would go on "Last Comic Standing." I thought this show was for amateurs, but I guess any exposure is good exposure when you're trying to make it big.
After the performers have all done their sets, the decisions are made. The audience picks a favorite who will get $1000 in addition to joining the house. They select Gabriel, and he's thrilled to not only be selected to continue, but to be the audience's favorite for the night.
The rest of the five are announced: Bil Dwyer, Michele Balan, Stella Stolper and Ty Barnett. I'm shocked. Other than Ty, I was singularly underwhelmed by those comedians. Either I'm hard to please or some of the selections are more about the potential for good reality television (pregnant lady in the house!) than actual humor.
Next, Anthony Clark informs us that there is a twist! Two additional comics will be added to the mix! He announces that Kristin Keys (who was so unmemorable I didn't even think to include her in the highlights) and Rebecca Corry.
Well, these choices certainly include some puzzlers, at least to me. But comedy is subjective, so I'm game to see how the audience responds to this group moving forward!
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