8/8 (Finale) Show Discussion

[pg13]

It's beautiful here at Safeco Field, where the struggling Mariners take on the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays...

But, I know that the East Coast is about to finish up with the airing of the Last Comic Standing Season Six finale.

...And here's a new thread to discuss it.

(Barring a power outtage, I'll watch it when I get home...while sipping on a bowl of hot and crunchy crow soup!)

Enjoy!
pg

[paridy]

Well the

, I don't agree with that choice though.

[football_chick]

I actually enjoyed Marcus tonight. I like him better when he tells more jokes vs. doing impressions.

Oh, and "Boooooooooo" to the winner.

[Tigerusty]

I have to admit that I didn't think that Iliza was the funniest stand up comedian but I'm so happy for her. I've been a fan of hers for a couple of years thanks to youtube and her internet show "The Weakly News". I believe she shines better in the sketch comedy she does. I feel like one of my family won.

[hott4hill]

I feel her first two sets were KILLER. One of my favorite jokes of her was the one about the spraying colone in the gential area. <3 I think she ran out of material from being challenged so much and I HIGHLY respect that unlike every commic on this show, she didn't reuse her material and she actually took risks and tried new stuff out. She's a real feel good winner and I think she's probably the best female ever on the show.

[pg13]

OK, let's get the official stuff out of the way. I'm going to put this into spoiler tags just in case...

The show starts off with God's Pottery singing a song about how this is Judgment Day...which could have been funny, but the song is pretty straight in being completely about Last Comic Standing...and never really develops into anything but one of those annoyingly self-important but not terribly funny Academy Awards musical numbers...complete with orchestra, gospel choir...dancers pretending to be Olympic athletes (will the product/network placement continue throughout the show?--you need to ask???)...and finally, in full red, white & blue USA--I mean, LCS--track suits come our rather silly looking five finalists.

Bill and Fearne are our hosts...and they are never quite in sync with each other...or the attitude that they're trying to deliver...are they fun loving and casual...or are they trying to make it seem like this is the most important thing that has ever happened?

The Olympics theme continues over the next couple of breaks, as they show some filmed segments similar to the "meet an Olympian"...one for each of the finalists. They're mildly funny...and they'll show up in the show reels of all five of these performers as they look for commercial/sit-com/movie work in the future.

(I'm willing to bet that Jeff Dye will hear his friends calling him "Comedy Ninja" for a few months...)

Joel McHale, from E's "The Soup" (hailing from Seattle...yay!), is given a segment to do his "The Soup" style magic on the LCS crew. I happen to like Joel--but this is an interesting approach...to use up your valuable network tv time to have someone rip on the people that you've celebrated on your show. Joel did a fair job of pointing out that Sean is weird, Jim is creepy and a zombie, Paul Foot is hobbit-y, Marcus is well waxed, Iliza has skin and Esther had an annoying laugh.

Joel also had to deal with the shadow of one of the streamers from the opening music number's fireworks that fluttered directly between his key light and his face. Is there any pretense that this was being filmed live? Why not simply "cut" and fix the problem? Well, that would suggest that someone making this show is actually paying attention...

Next up, Jon Reep does comedy. He actually needs to be played off by music for nearly going over his time. When asked what advice he'd give the person about to claim his throne, he said "Whatever you do...don't read the message boards..."

I'll consider that a shout-out, y'all.

(Reep is still from Hickory, by the way...and he might want to send Foxworthy a few bucks for his new bit that is basically "...your town might be a small town.")

Howie Mandell takes up some of the show's time to do an extended plug for the new season of Deal or No Deal. I don't think he even mentioned LCS during that entire segment.

John McCain and Barak Obama each did pre-taped bits that were completely innocuous.

Next...we get Triumph The Insult Comic Dog...who will, again, be given valuable airtime to make fun of the very people that this NBC program is celebrating. Of course, all of the comics overcompensate by laughing hysterically at material that is not exactly Triumph's best. (You could kind of tell that Robert Smigel's heart wasn't in it towards the end.)

Triumph's comments: Louis eats and drinks comedy, that's how he ends up making crap. Marcus will sell more CDs than Dane Cook...because he'll work at a Virgin Megastore. Iliza's breasts grew from B to C cups. Because Jim Tavare is there, no one is guarding Notre Dame. And Jeff Dye won America's Next Top Model and sucks. That's pretty much it.

Eliminations begin...(more spoilers)

First to go...to the shock of the crowd, but not your humble predictatore (pretty certain that's Italian for nothing)...is

and we will get the obligatory "here was your journey" package as announced by Fearne and edited from their various highlights and hometown moments. Our fifth place performer had given up on getting to do stand-up on network television...but it happened and now this performer has had the chance to showcase on national television.

Fearne will truly miss every comedian as they are eliminated...which is odd, because this is the last show... It's not like they were all going to hang out tomorrow or anything.

I think this is where they had Jon Lovitz perform...FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.

Second to leave...and taking fourth place in the competition (exactly where I'd predicted)...is

. The crowd seems less shocked by this, but Fearne is still sad. This performer loves America and announces that

...

Then, they put sashes across the remaining three performers...and then they drag Steve Schirippa and Richard Belzer on stage (with a dog, for no congruous reason)...and they're going to "test" the remaining finalists to make certain that they've got what it takes to handle the responsibility of being Last Comic Standing. Basically, it's a really, really bad sketch that is trying to make a connection between this show and a beauty pageant's question and answer phase.

It's awkward and painful...and only mildly funny when one of the performers insults old people and Richard & Steve seem ready to skip the sketch and throw down right there...

The three remaining contestants all get tiaras...and I'm sure that made sense in the Pineapple Express scented offices of whoever is supposed to be writing this show.

Time to cut down one more performer. During this entire process

has looked constipated in every elimination scene, while

has looked down and twitched...and

has looked over at Bill. Well, looking at Bill didn't help this time...because taking third place this year is

.

More than either of the previously eliminated contestants,

didn't know what to say or what to do...and the dismount was awkward...and to see this performer walk off the stage, shoulders slumped, was as heartbreaking as this show is ever going to manage to get...

I think the reason that the third performer was so discombobulated was that immediately upon the exit of the third performer...the top two performers had to IMMEDIATELY perform. I can imagine that the third performer was going over their set...only to not need to worry about it in an instant. Sucks.

Anyway, we get a set from

that is rushed and scattered at first...and then it hits the exact same notes that this performer's set has always hit...to about the level that this performer's set has always hit--which I continue to maintain has not been the highest...nor the lowest.

And then, we get a set from

that was decent

No standing ovation or huge applause breaks here... Probably best that neither performer was judged on tonight's set.

Fearne went into the audience to awkwardly kneel and expose her slip while talking to

who was gracious to both competitors. Fearne then turned and talked to

who championed up his off-spring.

So...they run the "journey" packages of both performers and try, desperately, to make it seem like this is a big moment...which, to the people on stage, I'm sure it was...but this show has been so filled with stupid things like getting street jokes from drunks wandering the Las Vegas Strip, to dedicated commercials from Kath & Kim supposedly tying into this show, to a need to keep pushing the hell out of the NBC's coverage of the Olympics which starts tomorrow...and, in the end, my girlfriend just wanted the show to end so she could know and then go to bed.

...and the winner

of Last Comic Standing Six is...

And there it was. That's how Last Comic Standing Six, certainly...and possibly the series itself...went out.

[Krom]

Poor girl may bear the burden of having finally "killed" this show, when in fact its been dwindling for years. Really, its not her fault.

Yeah, I said "girl". A few earlier posters have implied the winner ("I enjoyed Marcus, Booo the winner", "I feel her first two sets were KILLER", etc.), so really I'm not givin' anything new up.

Really, you have to admire her ability to drum up new material. She had to generate considerably more comedy than the others. Even the finale didn't give her a break--being one of the last two? Meant she had to tell MORE new jokes. Again.

[pg13]

..and after all of that spoiler taggy work I did, Krom?




As far as the new material thing goes--Doug Benson said that the winner would have to have 11 four minute sets. I think we can all see why...and that's why it seems like the show should really favor more experienced performers who actually HAVE that sort of time...but many experienced performers aren't able to break up their act into 11 four minute bits...instead, they'll have a twelve minute bit and a six minute bit and some one liners and then an interconnected twenty minute story that ties in with a call back from the opening bit at the end.

The young performers, who are used to doing three to five minute showcase sets just to get opportunities, are used to that format...but they often don't have as many of these showcase length sets as they'd need.

Iliza may have benefited from what I still feel is a truncated performance finals... Had she had to fight her way through single elimination...week after week...she may have eventually run out of top quality material.

But, as this show was held...it turned out that Jeff, Marcus and Louis would all end up with a substantial amount of unused material in reserve...unnecessarily so...and Iliza had enough for all of the chances she was given to show what she had.

pg--Look ma! No Spoiler Tags!--seattle

[JenniferTVchick]

I love Iliza's steady crop of new material. No, it isn't all A game, but it IS new and refreshing. As someone who has had to deliver 16 4-6 minute entertaining sets each day, 5 days a week--every week for 15 years in morning radio-- I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who have been developing their craft for years and have little material to show for it. And I loved that she pointed out it isn't about "being a girl" it's about getting on that stage and being funny. Humor is subjective, as we are all painfully aware. I found her to consistently deliver some laughs...more than I got from Dat Phan after about 1 week when the novelty of his one act wore off.

[famita]

I, too, am ok w/Iliza winning. I would have been ok w/Jeff Dye winning also. Toward the middle of the extravaganza, I was motioning to the tv that it had to move on faster. It, of course, didn't listen to me.