Last Comic Standing 2, Episode 4: Vegas Finals, Part 2

Another Wednesday night episode of LCS2 means another week of two reviews back to back here at RNO. For those of you who missed our comments on the Tuesday night episode, you can find that article here. As to the earlier reviews, you can find the one for Episode 1 here and Episode 2 here. So if you're not caught up, take a look there first and we'll wait for you.

No, it's okay. Go ahead. We'll wait. The rest of us will shoot the breeze a bit while you're gone.

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--and another thing I can't stand about a Johnny-come-lately is - Oh! You're back! Great. Um. Okay, well, there are a few things of note we would like to mention before going into the recap of Episode 4 and the second half of the Vegas Finals:

First off, although we rarely mention other sites doing reviews, we did want to make mention that Dave Mordal (who last week honored us with some comments on what he had been doing lately) is now doing "rants" of the new program over at the official LCS website. You can find his comments here.

It should be noted that Dave's comments about the first week's episodes were edited within the past couple of days. Last week, his rant covered a lot of ground, including his thoughts on Ant and how he seemed to be a one-trick pony when it came to his material. That portion of the "rant" is now no longer there. Why it was pulled is a question to ponder. Most likely someone in NBC's legal department worried that Dave's comments could be misunderstood as a slur against gays instead of just Ant's act, even though there was nothing derogatory at all in his comments. No way of knowing for sure at the moment if that was the case or not.

Oh, and by the way, Dave: We applaud you for adding your voice to the mix this year when it comes to the reviews. Unfortunately, as a fellow reviewer, you are now our sworn mortal enemy and we have sealed a blood pact to end your reign of terror come hell or high water. Or any other cliché that comes to mind.

Oh yes. Oh yes.

Heh.

Second, we were fortunate enough to hear from Alison Begeman, a reader who attended the Paris show back in February. She mentioned that she was going to watch this week's episodes with her friends that attended the show with her, so we've asked her to send us their stories about seeing the show live and what they thought about how it was presented on television this week. Her response on the first Paris episode alone is excellent, and we are anxiously awaiting her response to the second episode right now. In fact, we had originally planned to just make her answers part of tonight's review, but we have now decided to post them early next week as an article dealing just with her thoughts about the Paris show and the comics that performed that night. For those who want a teaser, we can tell you that Kathleen Madigan received a standing ovation after her set that was not seen on the program (which may help to explain in better terms why she made the house), while another comic seen getting a standing-ovation received it not for their act, but for their response to the Q&A session that occurred afterwards. So check with us early next week for more details.

Third, Jay Mohr appeared on The Jimmy Kimmel Show Tuesday night. He had some very interesting things to say about the show, yet many East Coast fans probably didn't get a chance to see it due to the show being bumped back to an earlier time-slot thanks to the NBA Finals. In fact, the game was still ongoing as Jay came out to talk to Jimmy and the talk immediately turned to the game. After some other small talk about spelling-bees and having a little bit of help in buying a car, Jimmy turned the attention to Last Comic Standing 2 and the controversy surrounding the show.

Asking Jay straight out, "Do you pick the comics?" Jay responded in an easygoing fashion that if he did, not only would all his friends be on the show, but he would be setting himself up for a massive lawsuit. Jimmy jokingly told Jay that "what you are doing is wrong," and then touched on the subject of allowing comics who had appeared on late-night talk shows and on Comedy Central to appear. Jay stated that as the Executive Producer of the show, he felt that the program would be restricting itself too heavily by not allowing such comics to compete. "Why take a third out of the equation," Jay asked, "when trying to find the funniest comics around?" Thus, Jay stated, he made the decision to drop the restriction and allow others to try out as well.

Of course, this led directly to the big question of the night - what was the deal with Drew and Brett at the Paris Finals back in February? Jay starts off by mentioning that Drew cried, which surprises Jimmy. "He's a Marine. He didn't cry." Jay claims that it was true. The problem stemmed, as Jay stated in a rather haphazard way thanks to Jimmy awkwardly jumping in a couple of times, to how the "talent scout" judging was based. If all four judges voted for someone, then that person made the house. Then after those were looked at, the comics that landed on at least three of the judges' cards were put up on the board.

The problem, however, came when they found there were only seven names on the board and twelve comics not being picked by a majority of the judges (Yes, this makes 19 instead of 20, but Jay does not explain on Jimmy Kimmel why it only added up to 19). Jay also makes mention that Anthony Clark only wrote four names down, which may have something to do with why only seven names made the list.