Last Comic Standing 4, Episode 12: The Finale!

The networks got the overnight ratings for Tuesday, August 8th, which saw Episode 11 of LCS4 air, and NBC was Number One in the timeslot for the hour. That helped bump up their ratings for the evening, where they tied with CBS for the night (tied in second, but still …). After all of this, it appears that NBC finally understands for good that LCS is a strong summer series for them and that is where it should remain.

We still have a finale to look at here, however, so let’s jump into it. Anthony Clark opens up the show by doing the usual introduction of the remaining finalists, Ty Barnett and Josh Blue. Both walk through the audience, slapping hands and saying hello as they make their way to the stage. Clark then tells them to take a seat backstage as he continues with the show. It would have been funny if Ty and Josh mutinied and refused to leave the stage until Clark tells them who won, but I admit that it may just sound funny to me alone. Still, bringing them out only to shoo them off is annoying enough to viewers as it is; no doubt it is doubly-so for the contestants.

With Josh and Ty gone, Clark leads the viewers into a montage of clips from the try-outs. Wait! Where’s Klaus?! Oh, it’s okay; this segment is only reviewing the BAD performers at the try-outs. That explains why Klaus wasn’t there! What a relief!

After the clips, Anthony sits in the audience instead of on-stage. Because that’s what this show is about – Shock! Yeah! Right! Okay!

Sorry, slipped into Nozin’ Aroun.

Anthony is sitting with Stella and Joey Gay as he introduces a short series of clips that covers the entire season. In the first couple of minutes, ironically enough, we see more of the comics spending time and having fun together on the ship than we ever did in four hours of television earlier in the season. We also see the argument between Stella and Roz, a look at the challenges, Gabriel’s Blackberry incident, and then the final five competitions.

Back in the present, Anthony interviews Stella to find that she gave birth to twin girls. People applaud. As for Joey, he thought the show was a thrill to be on. People applaud rather half-heartedly. This is mainly due to the fact that it just didn’t seem like a proper place to clap, but they had to move back to Anthony to setup up the next clip, so that’s the magic of television for you.

The next segment is a new short scene from the ship where the comics have a séance with Mark Edwards. It’s just a setup for a magic trick that involves Josh finding knots in a rope. If that doesn’t sound very exciting, it was actually ten times more boring on the program and quite understandable why it was dropped from the show until now, when filler was needed.

Cutting back to Anthony Clark, he asks the comics to stand up and nine comics do so from various places in the audience. The only one missing is Gabriel. Odd in a way, but he was kicked off the show, so they may have extended that to the finale as well. Of course, I guess he always could have swung a ticket to see it and stand up with the others anyway, but who is to know what his thinking may have been to not turn up for the finale of a show that gave him a chance to be seen.

After a commercial break, Anthony Clark announces the winner of the Online competition that saw Josh Wolf and Theo Von perform the night before. Clark does not go through a lot of setup for the winner, nor do we see the two comics come out to stand for any dramatic tension as Clark names the winner. Instead, Anthony quickly tells the audience that Theo won. Theo trots out, thanks everyone, and disappears in a thankfully short moment on-air. Again, another curious element on the show tonight. One would assume that they just had too much to cover on the program to spend a lot of time going over the Online winner. Then again, they had plenty of time for that séance gag from the ship. Most probably, they just wanted to get that whole embarrassing segment of the show over with as quickly as possible.

With all that out of the way, the time comes for the past winners of LCS to perform. Winner of LCS1, Dat Phan, is introduced with a variety of clips. He comes out looking like the Asian Heatmiser, but fortunately has brand new material for the show. He discusses how Sulu is gay, being confused with the “She Bang” guy, playing with G.I. Joes as a kid, Asians getting mad, MySpace, and his mom. I’ve always had a soft spot for Dat, I admit, so I was happy to see him prove that he could do something new. Mind you, he’s had a couple of years to think up some new material, but it’s still good to see from him. By the way, for those curious about Dat’s career, he’s still performing a lot at the Harrah’s in Las Vegas these days.

LCS2 winner John Heffron has a recap of his time on the program before coming out to do a set. He starts off with a bit about starting a car that I remember from years ago (and am assuming that I must have seen him do it at one point, just as I remember one of the first jokes he did on LCS2 being one I had heard before). He also talks about driving mad, wetting himself, marriage, losing his roommate, and going to the store. It’s a consistently good set and the show is beginning to form into one of the best episodes of the season now that we’re getting into straight comedy sets without any competition going on.