Last Comic Standing 6, Episode 8: Let Me Take You Down

Well, let’s hit on this first before anything else. The first half of the semi-finals did feature six comics going to the house, but that made up five acts (since God’s Pottery is a duo). In the second half of the semi-finals, there were seven more acts of one individual each picked for the house, giving us a total of twelve acts, but thirteen contestants. Why is this even an issue? Because NBC’s promotional material said twelve contestants would be moving on. So when the first half of the semi-finals had six contestants move on, one would naturally assume that six would be in the second half. Instead it was seven and that just goes to show you that you should never completely trust promotional material.

Or, to put it in math terms for most of you reading: 6 + 7 = Who cares?

I’m not sure if I should care either, to be honest. But it is something people have asked about. If it helps, Bill Bellamy calls the thirteen contestants “twelve” in this week’s episode as well, so there you go.

As to other news: just a shout-out to Jay Mohr, the former host of LCS, and a congrats for landing the lead in a new sitcom on CBS this fall, Project Gary. CBS already has a webpage up for the program with videos and more information and you can find it here. Looking forward to seeing Jay on network television again.

Episode 7 of LCS saw another good week in the ratings. Although the overall rating was a little lower than the 5.26 of the previous week, the rating did increase as the two-hour episode went on and was also the number one show for the heavily sought-after 18-49 demos for the entire two hours. So it looks like the show will be sticking around for a while. Even if Entertainment Weekly incorrectly stated that this week was the finale of the series.

As everyone who is following the show knows, or would know if they read the first paragraph of this article, the semi-finals are over and the twelve acts (featuring thirteen… blah, blah, blah) are moving to the house. To bring everyone up to speed, here’s a look at the twelve and what I believe will be their strengths and weaknesses on the program. Keep in mind, this is only from the very few minutes we’ve seen of each act so far:

• Adam Hunter – Strengths: Seems to have a slew of material and has a rapid-fire pace to getting the material out. Also good-looking and this may help him get some votes. Weaknesses: Good-looking doesn’t always sell in comedy, but he doesn’t seem to be pushing that factor anyway, so he should be okay there. The machine-gun patter of jokes may be considered a weakness, as it’s a style not everyone enjoys watching in comics. He may be a bit overly aggressive in wanting to win as well.
• God’s Pottery – Strengths: Duo. They should have twice as many ideas as anyone else in the house (some have mentioned this as a reason they shouldn’t be competing, as it’s an unfair advantage). They also have an infectious style that people enjoy in a club setting. Weaknesses: It’s sketch humor and character-driven. Where do you go after the setup and can they keep the characters up for long in the house (which is where the comics tend to show their true personalities)? Probably one of the first to go unless they show something stronger beyond what we’ve seen so far.
• Ron G. – Strengths: Seems to have some routines that are character-driven as well, and the ability to tell stories instead of just joke, joke, joke. Weaknesses: We haven’t really seen enough of him to know what type of material he has, but in three-minute sets it is hard to build-up stories and still get the number of laughs someone like Hunter probably would.
• Paul Foot – Strengths: Can build up a nice set of steam and really flow through his material. Has that amazing British ability to place wit with rising frustration and anger, which can be quite fun to watch. Weaknesses: His material may be a bit too intellectual to really fly with a lot of viewers. If he does make the final five, I would be happily surprised. I doubt he could get enough of the audience on his side to win overall, however.
• Jeff Dye – Strengths: Young and willing to go out on the edge with a long drug reference in his semi-finals act that worked for the better of the comedy. Weaknesses: Seems a little too sure of himself when on-stage which can come off as a bit “full of himself” and that may turn some people off.
• Marcus – Strengths: He was willing to risk his semi-finals set on doing observational comedy instead of doing the impressions that were expected of him. And he pulled it off. That shows he can think on his feet. Weaknesses: Impressions need work on the mimicry and finding something funny to do with them. Right now he comes across more like a guy at a party trying to impress his friends when he does the impressions instead of a professional who really captures an essence of the person they’re imitating.
• Jim Tavare – Strengths: A battery of one-liners, smooth delivery and a great prop. Weaknesses: The one-liner comic is so old school that he may put some viewers off.
• Esther Ku – Strengths: Young, cute, and has good delivery. Weaknesses: If she’s going to stick with doing “Asians are wacky” material, she needs to bump up the game (her mom in her tryout episode had a gag that actually demonstrated this ability to a good degree). No doubt some will say she was picked only because of her looks, which will hurt her more than help if she sticks around for any length of time.