Last Comic Standing 2, Episodes 14 & 15: Forward! Into the Past...

Since we have always started there, let us kick off this column with a look at Thursday night's ratings for the reveal on the final three. No joke about it, once the voted-off comics were gone, the ratings have shot back up, with Thursday's show getting a 4.7 and an 8 share and NBC's biggest rating grabber for the night. NBC also noted in a press release that Episode 13 gained them the highest ratings they've had this summer in that Thursday night time-slot for the 18-49 demographics.

Otherwise, it has been a very quiet week beyond some of the comics now doing some interviews to help promote the finale and LCS3. There was something of interest on Todd Glass' official website, however. Although no counting of the votes was officially published, Todd Glass states at the head of his website that he lost the Wildcard by one vote against Jay London. Interesting, if true, but it really just shows how much people loved the two of them. [Note from Mike: No offense intended to anyone, but I think at this point if Todd told me that the sun would rise in the East tomorrow, I wouldn't believe it without checking first.]

As ratings continue to climb back up for the program, we should turn our attention to the two-hour episode tonight.

The program starts off with footage of the three remaining comics -- Alonzo Bodden, Gary Gulman, and John Heffron - arriving at the theater. After a short preview of what is to come that night and the opening credits, Jay walks on stage to a standing ovation by the crowd.

By the way, speaking of Jay walking on stage, it should be pointed out that a rumor is going around on the internet that Jay flipped off someone in the audience the previous episode. At first, I thought the same thing, but if you slow the footage down you can see that Jay is actually extending his index and little finger on both hands as he looks at someone in the crowd. While it does look like a bit like he's giving the finger, it is really the result of a bad camera angle.

But now, back to the show.

Jay discusses what viewers will be seeing on the show tonight, including clips that have never been seen of the comics in the house, some "best of the worst" auditions, some of the comics they saw along the way before getting to the finalists, and - of course - the final three performing for the viewers in order to win their votes for the finale. Jay then introduces the other seven finalists in the audience. Corey is up front and waves to everyone. Bonnie, on the other hand, shows what a professional she is by having her head down, reading a magazine when Jay calls her name. It was probably that displays of warmth and caring for her fellow contestants such as this that made her the favorite to be voted off at the beginning of the series.

Jay is lost in the crowd, while ANT has some nice-looking women around him (which seems to always be the case with gay men for some reason). Kathleen and Tammy are the only two contestants sitting together and are introduced next, although they are very close to Todd Glass. Jay moves on to talk about other things before "realizing" that he hadn't introduced Todd to the audience. Jay mentions that Todd looks like a drunken Treat Williams more than anything as Todd laughs.

After introducing himself as Todd Glass ("lost a bet" is Jay's excuse for doing so), Mohr introduces a montage called "the best of the worst." Some of the clips have been seen before of individuals that tried out for the show back in January, but some appear to be new as well. I have to admit that I laughed out-loud at the guy doing the "gay pirate" gag, but a majority of it was rather painful stuff of people dancing, singing, eating, falling, singing, forgetting jokes, doing ethnic humor, staring, and more singing.

With the montage done, Jay brings out a comic from the Tampa, Florida try-outs that certainly was NOT one of the worst, Grandma Lee. She receives a brief recap of her audition and then appears on stage, getting a standing ovation in the process. She does a set covering getting old, connecting his death with Krispy Kreme, how to punish kids, and her daughter informing her that she "ain't a virgin." It's funny stuff and she gets a well-deserved second standing ovation as she leaves the stage.

After commenting on Grandma Lee's hair ("I want the 'Moe.'"), Jay introduces another montage of auditions that were terrible, this time being individuals trying out there Arnold and Michael Jackson impressions, not understanding how the microphone works, and one guy not realizing that his fly was down.

Alonzo is briefly shown in his dressing room with his eyes closed and headphones on. Later on, he'll get to play "Fast Money"… no, wait, that's Family Feud. The headphones just had me confused. Anyway, Jay introduces another comic that made it closer to the semi-finals than Grandma Lee, Marina Franklin. A brief recap is shown for her and she does a set talking about what her name means, the white/black experience of her childhood, and Baptist preachers. She is good, and I know I liked her earlier in the series, so it was nice to see her again.