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Originally aired on Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Written by BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Episode Rating: ** (2 stars out of 5)
Episode Overview: The twelve selected comedians get to their new digs: the permanently-docked Queen Mary cruise ship. After a heckling contest, two comedians receive immunity and three find themselves on the way to the head-to-head immunity challenge.
Episode Highlights: - The twelve comics arrive at their "house:" the Queen Mary cruise ship, and discover their bunkmates.
- They are then paired up with another comic for a round of heckle and be-heckled, with immunity on the line.
- Three comics are selected to be first to compete in the head-to-head elimination challenge.
Recap:
The comics take the "short school bus" to the permanently-docked Queen Mary, which, they learn, will be their home for the remainder of Last Comic Standing.
There are some interesting pairings in the small cabins: Josh Blue, the comedian with cerebral palsy, is rooming with Gabriel Iglesias, a rather large man. Their separate twin beds are close together and Josh remarks that if Gabriel rolls over, he's dead.
Roz, the "I don't have jokes I have problems" comedian and Stella Stopler, the pregnant woman with the old school take-my-husband-please! schtick, are roommates. Roz is quite open about being less-than-thrilled about this.
That night, all twelve go to dinner, and Joey Gay comments that it will be a good chance to see how the comedians behave "in a social setting." Which begs the question: who cares? This is Last Comic Standing, not "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." Another comedian's inability to select the correct fork will not make your act any funnier to the audience. But whatever.
It's a typical getting-to-know-you reality show dinner, with thinly-veiled competition and slightly more aggressive ribbing than one normally sees at these events.
The next day, they head to their first challenge. Each comic will be randomly paired with another comic. One member of the pairing will do his/her act, and the other will heckle from the audience. Then they will switch. The best comic and the best heckler will be given immunity.
The pairings and highlights are as follows:
Josh Blue/Chris Porter: Chris has a momentary quandary as to whether or not he should heckle Josh regarding his disability. Josh uses it in his act, which would sort of make it fair game, but then again, Chris doesn't want to become known as the guy who tormented the guy with CP on Last Comic Standing. So he doesn't veer too far into that territory, but the two of them do get a decent spar on and manage to both be edgy and aggressive while maintaining the humor.
Kristin Key/Michelle Balan: Although Kristin is the one non-professional, she's is able to hold her own and occasionally outwit older New Yorker Michelle.
Rebecca Corry/Roz: Rebecca never has a chance; Roz digs in and never lets loose throughout her heckling, and then tries to stare Rebecca down when it's Rebecca's turn to heckle. Roz is definitely a master of the alpha dog domination, but I didn't necessarily see that she was being that funny.
Gabriel/Bill Dwyer: Bill's heckling was not particularly memorable, and Gabriel's was mainly a continuous outsized hysterical laughter that nevertheless seemed to throw Bill completely off his game.
Ty Barnett/Stella: Stella seems to be more focused on being a true heckler (obnoxious and loud) than actually being a comic; she's certainly disruptive, but it's not remotely funny. And when it's her turn to be heckled, she just powers over him with volume and tenacity but no actual comic skills.
April Macie/Joey: Joey, oddly, decides to not heckle, saying later that he "wants to stand on [his] own merits." Right, and to be funny and clever on your feet in response to someone else's act is a good chance to prove your merits. I'm starting to think maybe this guy is a loon. April tries to heckle him back and he seems to go from zero to nasty in no time flat.
After the show, host Anthony Clark announces that Roz was voted best heckler, and Chris Porter, best comic, beating newbie Kristin by only one vote. They are safe, but tonight the three that will vie to stay in the house will be selected.
Back at the house...er...ship, Stella and Roz get into a fight and need to be separated. Tensions are high running into the evening's vote. At the vote, each comic picks who they think they could beat. Stella and Michelle wind up tied, with four votes each. After conferring, they pick April to be the third person to compete in the head-to-head.
The three then perform at the Last Comic Standing theater. As mentioned before, humor is very subjective, so although this author felt that April was clearly the funniest and most polished of the three, Michelle Balan turns out to be the audience's pick, even with an act that included talking to folks in LA about the difficulty in parking in NYC!
Michelle is, obviously, happy to have won and feels she can return to the house with more confidence than she had before. She might have been nearly "voted off" this week, but the audience gave her 83% of their vote, so the other comics ought to take notice!
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