Last Comic Standing 6, Episode 4: Shock and Auditions

Before we get started, let’s have a quick look at the ratings from last week: Last Comic Standing did get a slight bump from the 4.37 it received in the second week, but only up to 4.94, while it sunk a tad in the 18-49 demos to 2.1. CSI on CBS and So You Think You Can Dance on Fox dominated the 8-10 slot, and then got blown out of the water by the NBA Finals game on ABC, forcing NBC and the CW to just hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. Of course, with another NBA game this week, no doubt LCS will see another week of weaker than normal ratings.

Also, the tryout episodes usually burn out the home viewers after a while as well, so that no doubt played into the ratings. However, such episodes are cheap to do and they fill up time in a long schedule of episodes, so we get some more tonight and then another round next week (but more on what that will come next week at the end of the article). So sit right back and hear a tale of a fateful trip … to Minnesota. Yeah, I know – I started heading towards the theme of Gilligan’s Island and then just gave up. What can I tell you? It’s been a long day.

The tryouts in Minneapolis, Minnesota took place at the Acme Comedy Club on February 19, putting it chronologically between Toronto and Houston in reality, but for the sake of the show, we get Minneapolis this week instead. The NBC judges for this city are Brian Baumgartner and Kate Flannery, two actors from The Office. Flannery has had experience with Second City in Chicago, and she was also part of the Annoyance Theater. Kate helped to create The Real Live Brady Bunch (which my wife and I were lucky enough to see back in the early 1990s when they did the Davy Jones episode). As for Baumgartner, he served as an artistic director in Minneapolis for the Hidden Theater, so both seem to be a good fit for judging the tryouts. As I’ve stated before, I think NBC and the producers have done a very good job in locating excellent judges this time around for the tryouts. I’m certainly enjoying this more than watching ANT every week trying to mug for the camera.

First up in Minneapolis is Pete Lee, who looks a little like David Hedison from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. There’s no joke there; it’s just something I noticed. He talks about his name and about blonde guys who try to look tough with a mustache. They ask him to come back for the showcase. Same with Alex Thomas, who talks about trying to outrun rollerblading cops and dancing until it’s time to go to work.

The two judges, however, don’t care for Jared Logan, who does a gay joke that Flannery is shown being very uncomfortable with, but it seems rather innocent and funny. Flannery then speaks about how some of the contestants should try to be more original, so perhaps Logan’s gag had been done before? Otherwise, I’m not quite sure what was throwing her about the joke. Either way, it’s the usual setup for a montage of other performers that didn’t make it. You know the routine, so let’s just jump ahead.

The Amazing Arthur is next and he does a lot of excellent juggling and is amusing. Baumgartner seems to wear a number of emotions on his face during the act: He appears to like the skill involved with the juggling, but immediately also feels it is not right for the show and then gets anxious for the act to end so they can move on to other comedians. Baumgartner tells Arthur that he’s great, but not right for the show, which seems to throw Arthur a bit. But he should have realized that – while the act is a fun one and definitely worth seeing – it’s not particularly uproarious.

We return to stand-up on stage with the appearance of Dan Cummins, who is introduced in an interview where he discusses getting back to his Norwegian roots by learning the language. His tryout is about vegetarians and goes over well enough that the judges ask him back for the showcase.

Stan Chen, the next comic, doesn’t do as well. Working with somewhat weak “Asians in sports” material, Chen notes that Baumgartner is staring down at the table instead of watching him. Chen shouts out, “Office, eyes up!” in order to get Baumgartner to look his way, and one can instantly tell that both Baumgartner and Chen knew it was a bad move to make. Baumgartner states, “I don’t like being in the audience and being called out,” as he feels it’s too easy for the comic to get a response that way. Chen tries to cover with a bit of defiance, but it’s over and he knows it, as the judges tell him that they are passing.

Doug Mellard is next and he talks about doing things at bars to cause problems with the clientele. They tell him to come back. Tim Harmston is merely okay with a bit about internet-dating-services, but the judges seem to think he’s “off the wall” and love him. He must have done something really “off the wall” in a segment “not seen on my television set.” Not that the guy was horrible, but I wasn’t seeing the wackiness there that they saw.

You can see the wackiness with the next act, which is Karla Smith. She comes on and begins talking on her cellphone and playing with a rain-stick, as if she doesn’t realize that the judging is going on. It’s actually quite clever at first, but she pushes it too far when the judges ask her to stop a couple of times, and then it gets into the area of being plain annoying. Too bad, as I sense there’s something quite imaginative in the works there, it just needs fleshing out.

Darlene Westgore is shown at home with one of her sons, getting ready to go to work as a waitress. Her tryout is mostly about drinking and weed, and Baumgartner doesn’t appear to be thrilled with any of it, and calls her out on bringing in rather weak material. Darlene jokes that she thought she was brilliant and makes a very nice save, forcing Baumgartner to change his mind and ask her to come back for the showcase.

Also asked back are John Evans, after a bit about shoplifting in a thrift store, Tracey Ashley, with a gag about her big forehead, and Carl Lee. Lee has been working as a comic for seven years and really wants to step up to bigger things, but he is obviously nervous and rushing through his material like crazy. Both judges tell him so, but they relent and tell him to go calm down and come back for the showcase. Lee is very happy with the news, as he thought he had shut himself out before they finally said he was in.

The showcase starts off with Tim Harmston talking about working as a clown, and about a guy with bees on his face. I think the problem with Harmston is not that he doesn’t have funny material, but rather that he spends so much time setting up the gags that the punch lines aren’t quite worth the long journeys to get to them. A little tightening or more off-shoot gags that play on the set-ups would probably do the trick for him.

Harmston is better than the next act, which is David Landau. Landau has material, but its all stuff we’ve heard from a lot of other comics over the past thirty years. Just not really anything unique to catch the eyes or ears there. Tracey Ashley, however, has a very, very good bit about her mentally-ill mother. It takes a little bit to get there (like Harmston), but the punch line is worth it and a bit out there, while somewhat sweet at the same time. Nice work and I like her best so far of the Minnesota comics.

Alex Thomas talks about the odd way people in New York talk about their addresses, while Dan Cummins goes through a long bit about a pet called the squirellador. They’re both fine, but nothing special. Carl Lee still rushes a little and could have been better if he had slowed down, like he had no doubt planned, while Darlene Westgore is the other really brilliant comic in the showcase with a funny bit about a “parent-teacher” conference with a cute teacher.