The Evolution of Last Comic Standing

A quick story that relates to this week's recap, folks. Before this season started, a good friend of ours asked if they could borrow my video-tapes of the first season I had recorded last year. After they watched them, I got an email from them mentioning that it seemed every single episode we taped featured some cut-in by the local news talking about a thunderstorm warning or tornado warning that was occurring. It began a running joke in a way, because out of all the episodes from last season, two-thirds of them had such warnings going across the screen.

Well, last year, even with the warnings, I was able to tape all the shows and review them with no problems, even with the cut-ins by the local news. That is, until Episode 8, this week. A powerful thunderstorm came through the area I live at about 8:30 and just as the repeat of last week's episode was wrapping up on NBC, the power went out for many city blocks around. Worse yet, they didn't come back on until a little after Midnight tonight, so unfortunately I was unable to review this week's episode when it premiered.

On the good side, however, Mike DeGeorge did catch it and will be giving us a recap of the episode a bit later today, so keep your eyes on RNO for details. I know I certainly will, as I want to find out what happened this week just like everyone else! With that in mind, I plan on watching the repeat of the program on Comedy Central this weekend and if I have any additional thoughts I'll post them in our recap next week.

This will then be followed by my having to call some people in to cut down half a tree in the backyard that got knocked over in the storm. Seriously.

But enough about that; we do have a fair amount of news to cover this week and need to get started. First we want to congratulate Jay Mohr for hitting the LA Times' non-fiction bestsellers list this past week. As many of the readers know, Jay's book, Gasping for Airtime, was released in the second week of June, and the reviews have been predominately great for the book. (In fact, you can read my review right here.) Thus, hitting the bestsellers list is pretty much a no-brainer, but we're happy to be able to report it nonetheless.

In the past several weeks, former members of the house have been hinting in interviews about "surprises" that are in store for viewers near the end of the series. No one was quite sure what to make of it, but we finally have some additional news that may help formulate what is in store. A reader wrote to us last week to direct our attentions to " this linked site for "On Camera Audiences." The premise of the site is to list upcoming television shows that need audience participants. If you go to this link you'll find that free tickets are available for the following shows:

Tuesday, July 27, 2004: A one-hour performance show is available at 11:00 am.

Thursday, July 29, 2004: Two shows are available. A thirty-minute "reveal" show at 11:00 am and then a one-hour performance show at 2:00 pm.

Thursday, August 5, 2004: Two shows are available. A thirty-minute "reveal" show at 11:00 am and then a two-hour performance show at 3:00 pm.

Thursday, August 12, 2004: A one-hour "Grand Finale" show at 11:00 am.

So what does this all mean? Well, let us review what was done last year and then go backwards through this list.

Last year there were two shows done "almost live" at the Paris in Las Vegas, with a week between the two. The first was a two-hour show, where the first hour was spent with the ten comics doing a sit-down interview and recap of the previous events on the show. After that, the second hour was the five finalists performing in the last head-to-head.

The following week was the filming of the "Grand Finale," which lasted an hour and featured the five finalists being told who had the lowest percentage of votes on up, until only two remained – Dat Phan and Ralphie May. Both Phan and May then performed for a final time and then the winner was announced. These shows were then edited so that the final head-to-head was a one-hour episode during the next-to-last week, and the "Grand Finale" featured both the hour-long sitdown interview and recap, plus the announcement of a winner.

This is just a guess, but we would expect to see a similar process here this year for the August 5th two-hour performance show and the August 12th "Grand Finale." So, if you want to see all the comics on stage talking (albeit, not really performing), AND see the finalists do their last head-to-head, then you'll want to hit the 3:00 pm show on August 5. If you just want to be in the audience to see who wins, hit the August 12 show.