Last Comic Standing 6, Episode 2: He’s Eddie Pepitone!

Quick personal note this week – Amazon.com has listed pre-orders on the updated “Tenth Anniversary” editions of two of my early books: The Illustrated Collector's Guide to Alice Cooper and Black Diamond: The Unauthorized Biography of KISS. You can check out the details and the cool new covers to the books by clicking on the link to my books here or at the end of this article.

While I had exciting news this past week, it looks like NBC and the LCS crew had mixed news when the ratings came in for Episode 1 of Season 6. Even after following an epic presentation of Deal or No Deal, the first episode of the new season of LCS lost a third of the viewers watching NBC thanks to the finale of Grey’s Anatomy on ABC. Still, the ratings climbed as the show went on and ended up being the #8 show for the networks last week. So a bit of a sweat at first, but things looked good by the end of the evening. Wonder how this week’s show will do against the finale for Lost; after all, my wife was upset we were missing that in order so that I could review LCS this week! Fortunately we found someone to record it for us.

I hope. Or else, I’m really, really, deeply in trouble.

This week’s show starts off with a short intro by Bill that is pretty much the same as last week’s opener and is followed by a recap of the winners and losers from New York & Tempe. This leads into Bill arriving in Los Angeles for the tryouts held on January 29 at The Improv. Yep, for those reading from last week’s article, this is another step back in time from the February 7th show in New York and the February 26th show in Tempe. But there may be a reason why L.A. wasn’t the first tryouts shown in this season, as we’ll see.

The judges in L.A. are Angela Kinsey and Oscar Nunez from NBC’s The Office. Angela evidently took improvisation classes with The Groundlings in L.A., which shows that she has interest in improv on a high level (you don’t get much higher than The Groundlings when it comes to comedy improv, with the exception of Second City), and of course being on a program that works on a improv-like feel to the comedy like The Office, one can see why she is a judge on the program. Nunez has worked with The Groundlings as part of their company for a time and has also made some pretty memorable appearances on Reno 911 over the years as well, so he’s a safe bet as a judge as well. Angela starts off by stating her concern as a judge is that the comics’ performances are sharp and polished.

First out for the tryouts is Ron G., who talks about a former girlfriend who was a “dreamblocker.” Although not the strongest material, it is a good start and he is asked to come back. So is Dana Eagle, but Juan Alcala is not. Juan wears a dollhouse on his head and repeats that he doesn’t want to be a comic. Both Oscar and Angela appear to believe that it is for the best that he moves on with his life and tell him to go … then can’t get rid of him, as he appears to believe that repeating his mantra about not being a comic will convince them to keep him on. Either that or he’s having a breakdown of some sort. Hard to say which, really.

Melissa Tracey comes out with a sword and starts slicing it in the air. She’s trying to be dangerously funny. Instead she just sucks and is asked to leave. This cuts (See? Sword? Cut? No? Well that’s about as good as Melissa’s act.) into a montage about people trying way too hard to be funny and failing before we meet Amber Tozer. Tozer is shown in her day job, selling mattresses. She then performs for the judges and we get a good idea as to why she is making a living selling mattresses instead of being a comic. The judges ask her back, so maybe the viewers didn’t see something that really got her over in the tryout.

In the funny booth – a photo booth that is being used so that people auditioning can say one or two funny things to the camera (or at least, attempt to) – we see a guy asking if something is on fire, “besides THIS guy!” He then points at himself. It’s so cute that you just want to give him a pinch in the mouth. The guy turns out to be Adam Richmond, who we next see perform for the judges.

It is at this point that you have to wonder what it is about L.A. that seems to create a comedy vacuum, as so far no one has really stood out from the pack and only the first couple seen – Ron G. and Dana Eagle – at least got a couple of chuckles out of me. I recall this being the case with last year’s L.A. tryouts as well. One can see why they decided to open the new season with the tryouts in New York, which were excellent, compared to the mediocre material seen in L.A. No wonder so many L.A. comics fly out to other parts of the country to try out for the show – there’s some type of evil temporal black-hole of comedy in L.A.

Certainly would explain According to Jim.

Richmond is asked back anyway and we finally move on to an entertaining duo calling Dos Spanish Flies, made up of Ron Carlos and El Cassival. They perform a funny little song called “L.A. Super Mom” and are asked back for the showcase. Chris Fairbank is also asked back after a pretty good bit about screwing up a handshake. After a weird act about a guy in wooden pants (or maybe he was just glad to see everyone … ew … even my jokes are being affected by the L.A. black hole … at least that’s my excuse …), Jacob Sirof talks to the camera about being a Star Wars geek while showing off his tattoos. He talks a bit about being a geek in his act, using a very staccato delivery that’s a bit jarring. He’s asked back as well.