Last Comic Standing 6, Episode 7: Semi-Finals, Part 2

Good news for NBC this week – Episode 6 of LCS had the highest rating of the season so far with 5.26 million watching and the highest rating amongst the 18-49 demos for the hours of 8-9 with 2.1 and a 7 share. Everyone’s has got to be breathing a sigh of relief over that after some of the numbers these past few weeks.

As readers and viewers know, this week saw the remaining seventeen comics (one being a duo, thus only sixteen acts) appear in the semi-finals. The judges were once again Richard Belzer and Steve Schirripa, and the only difference this week was that instead of a few jokes from Bill Bellamy to kick things off, Bill came out with a few short people dressed as Gene Simmons, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn. The show then got right off into the comics performing after Bill introduced Belzer and Schirripa.

As with last week, I’ll be listing everyone by name first, which tryout they came from second, and then a little bit of what we see of them in the semi-finals.

Marcus (Tempe): As I stated before, I’m not big on impressionists because most of the time we’re just supposed to laugh at them being able to do a voice and there’s no joke behind the impression. Marcus evidently wanted to prove he could do more than impressions by doing a set about Willy Wonka. He did have a clever gag here, but the set-up should have been much shorter and it appeared he was fumbling around a bit to get where he needed to go. The follow-up gag also takes an extraordinary amount of time to build and one has to wonder if he’ll have any chance to move on at all.

After he’s done, Steve Schirripa asks him where his impressions are. Marcus then does Christopher Walken, which is Impressions 101 material. Everyone seems to love it, though, so maybe it’s just me. Backstage he mentions getting two standing ovations. As regular readers will remember, however, the audience is told to give the comics standing ovations whether they’re good, bad, or just so-so. Thus, it doesn’t really mean much, but sounds nice to people out in televisionland who don’t know better.

Dan Cummins (Minneapolis): He did the squirellador bit that some viewers may remember from his showcase appearance. I thought he was okay there. He is surprising in his set for the semi-finals as for every joke, I am able to say the punchline before he can. That probably isn’t a good sign.

Iliza Shlesinger (San Francisco): She is interviewed before her set and she discusses how she wants to be the first “girl winner.” Wow. I remember in the first two seasons were the women comics were pretty adamant about not being referred to as girls; now evidently it’s the way to win. Then again, she does look like she was stumbling over the word when she says it, so maybe she realized how it sounded as the words were leaving her mouth. She does a segment about drinking and is much better than in her showcase and tryout, so I can see her making it.

Eddie Pepitone (Los Angeles): C’mon! It’s Eddie Pepitone! He talks about a bunch of things and he’s great! That’s all that needs to be said. Okay, for those curious, he talks about messing with his cats, having himself as a heckler, and getting fat. I love Eddie.

Papa CJ (Miami/International): Indian comic who comes out and does much of the same act that we saw in the Miami tryout and showcase. Does the same annoying thing where he picks someone out of the crowd that hasn’t done anything in order to use his heckling material on him. I thought that looked cheesy the first time and it doesn’t get any better the second time.

Next is the Last Comic Driving ad, which features Erik Griffin in the car doing his act. As always, you can see more of his act and vote for him on the NBC website.

Stone & Stone (New York): As with Papa CJ, they do much of the same material already seen in their tryout and showcase. I still like the act and Richard Belzer states so as well afterwards. Possible move forward, I feel.

Mary Mack (Nashville): I was convinced after her winning in the showcase in Nashville that she had killed a man backstage in order to get seen again after her tryout. After tonight I think there should be some FBI investigation into that notion. Okay, she wasn’t that bad. I’m just making a joke there. She was okay, but I can’t say that I really got into her act either, to be honest.

After her act, Schirripa asks her why she wasn’t quicker with getting the material out. Mack stays in character and gets a laugh, but Schirripa doesn’t go for it and tells her again to speed it up. It is like Schirripa doesn’t care that she’s trying to play this character on-stage and forcing her out of the role could kill the act. That was a bit surprising to see, really. Then again, it appears that both Belzer and Schirripa are getting antsy as the acts continue.

Bob Biggerstaff (Houston): Has one of the best and most solid acts of the night and goes over well with the audience.

Louis Ramey (New York): Repeats some material from his tryout and showcase, but it’s still a solid showing. The joke about using a taser on his date may steer some people away from him, however.

Sean Cullens (Toronto): Does a song about porn that is mildly amusing, but a bit too long. I do laugh at the extreme examples he had for “what happens in Vegas,” however.

John Evans (Minneapolis): Has a decent set and a funny interview bit where he wants to appear just to “shut up an eleven-year-old” classmate of his son’s who doesn’t believe he’s a stand-up comic.

Heath Hyche (Nashville): Perhaps we should have guessed something is up when Bellamy goes out of his way to talk about how much of a nice guy Hyche is. Hyche is a prop-comic who was one of the better comics seen in Nashville. Instead of going with solid stuff from there, he does a bit about a World War II pilot that not only has a lot of setup time with no jokes, but also uses a Japanese stereotype costume that was the type of thing Jerry Lewis was getting called out on as being racist back in the 1970s. I mean, if Lewis couldn’t get away with it thirty years ago, Hyche certainly isn’t going to now and one can tell that the judges instantly hate it … although the audience is laughing.