Last Comic Standing 3, Episode 5: Taking Cues from Roddy Piper

The fifth week of LCS3 starts with all the remaining comics on-stage and it looks like it'll be another week of comics going up against each other, three from LCS1 against three from LCS2. That's just not a guess either, as it was explained even before the season started that this week and next would see a "three vs. three" competition, followed by a "four vs. four" competition in Episode Seven, a "two vs. two" in Episode in Episode Eight, and then the reveal of a winner in Episode Nine.

Sounds straightforward, right? Well, as Roddy Piper once said, "Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions." And, you know, I think Jay Mohr could probably pull off a good Roddy Piper impression because he certainly has the logic down pat, as the rules have suddenly changed this week on LCS3.

Well, some of the rules, that is. There's still going to be a "Three vs. Three" competition in Episode Five, but next week's episode will be a little different.

That's getting a little ahead of ourselves, however. First, we will take a look at what happens at the beginning of Episode Five, as Jay comes out to announce the winning team from last week. It is LCS2 and the team is cheering. So is the LCS1 team, come to think of it, as they're probably to the point where they are hoping to never win. To paraphrase a cliché, you're going to lose, lose big.

Ralphie and a couple of the others look like they're going to head off stage - and possibly out the stage-door - but they remain to hear which two comics run the chance of being voted off this week. For LCS1, it is Sean (who does a great "confused/worry" look as he moves upstage) and Geoff. For LCS2 it is Todd and ANT.

The groups remain on stage as Jay then announces some changes for the following week. Instead of a straight "Three vs. Three" competition in Episode Six, the two teams will be participating in a "roast" of Jay Mohr.

As an aside, for those of you wanting to see this particular show, the taping for next week's episode of LCS3 has been moved to Monday, September 27 at 7:00 pm. Plus, as was advertised during the show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien's own Triumph the Insult Dog will be hosting the roast that night. So it should be a pretty wild night. [Note from Mike: Make sure you check out Triumph's DVD - it's freakin' hilarious.]

It is also announced that each team this week will have a new teammate to help boost the voting for the teams in the $50,000 competition. Louie Anderson will be coming out to do a set for the LCS1 team, while Carrot Top will do a set for Team LCS2.

Boy, that's sad to see to comics so hard up for cash that they have to take part of the $50,000 the winning team wins. What? Oh, that's probably not the case actually. Still, it would be funny to see an enraged Louie Anderson beating the crap out of Carrot Top in the parking lot after the show next week. "Give me that share or the money, or I'll beat you like a red-headed step-child! You're halfway there, anyhow! Besides, you at least have those 1-800 commercials to live off of!"

But I kid the comics… mainly because I don't know why they are there. Why not give the competing comics another half-minute each to do their sets? Maybe it was felt that the comics on the show should not or did not want more time each week? Maybe it was a way to show the competitors that seasoned well-known comics could perform short sets? Either way, it was a very curious thing to throw in from out of the blue.

Before the teams leave the stage, however, Jay points out that there is one more surprise waiting for them all in the war rooms. When they get there they find out that tonight's competition will be the "Three vs. Three," but it will have a big twist - only one of the three will remain after next week, with the two lowest vote-getters from each team leaving the show.

You see - just when we thought we knew the answers, they switched the questions on us. It is mentioned that Episode Six will also follow this change in format, and thus will leave two comics from LCS1 and two comics from LCS2 to compete in Episode Seven. So that leaves us with Episodes Eight and Nine to worry about. Then again, the ticket site for LCS3 shows tickets being offered for the September 27 Roast, the Episode Seven on October 5 and Episode Eight on October 12. So where is the final episode that was to appear on October 19? Possibly just not up on the ticket website yet. We'll soon find out either way.