After a series of auditions in various cities including New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Houston, and Miami, among others, plus a semi-final round held in Las Vegas, Nevada,
Last Comic Standing finally revealed its final 12 contestants. Read on to learn something new about the newest batch of people who will try to make America laugh, either at them or with them.
- Adam Hunter, a former wrestler in high school, used to work at kids' parties and have to dress up as Spiderman, Barney, Batman, and other characters.
- Esther Ku, who once worked as a movie usher, counts her eighth grade talent show when she was 13 as her first stand-up routine.
- God's Poetry, who once worked at the beach as lifeguard assistants, say they've always been able to make each other laugh, especially when they "cut loose" after Sunday School.
- Iliza Shlesinger says her first experience with stand-up was in her junior year of college where she wrote a forty-five minute one-man show and performed it.
- Jeff Dye says that her first stand-up gig was in a bar where he had no business being in. Furthermore, he knew hew was funny early on in first grade since every time his teacher said something, he would say something out loud and all the kids would laugh.
- Jim Tavare, whose first solo stand-up gig is at a sleazy comedy venue called The Tunnel Club in East London. He also knew he was funny at age 8 when he looked in the mirror and thought, "You look ridiculous."
- Louis Ramey, whose first solo stand-up gig was at a jazz club in Atlanta. At age 6, he told his mom a very good joke, and that's when he knew he was funny.
- Marcus worked in radio before, doing voices and stuff. He said he has always been a bit of an entertainer and he loved comedy, he just didn't know it could actually turn it into a real job.
- Papa CJ once worked as a business controller at IBM.
- Paul Foot, whose first stand-up gig was in a student cellar bar in Oxford. Back then, he didn't know that comedians are supposed to prepare jokes, stories, or observations in advance. So he just ad-libbed, and it went well.
- Ron G., who once worked at Target, knew early on that he was funny when he would act out Redd Foxx from Sanford and Son to make a girl laugh in elementary school.
- Sean Cullen counts a lunchtime gig at a college outside of Toronto as his first stand-up experience. He had about fifteen solid minutes of material and the gig was meant to be an hour long.
-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: NBC
(Image Courtesy of NBC)