(S04E05) What the hell? I used to think that once the choice of who stays and who goes is put in the hands of the audience and not the producers -- who, let's face it, used other factors besides talent to see who made it in -- the choices would make more sense. I mean, everyone's tastes are different, but the audience in that "Last Comic Theater" can clearly tell who's funny and who's not, right?I guess not.
Like last week, there wasn't a lot of time spent on house interaction or tension. We see the comedians talk a little amongst themselves and watch belly dancers perform during a Moroccan dinner. We see a game of football where Joey Gay is catching nothing, and Josh Blue -- who has CP, mind you -- catching everything. And we see Josh repeatedly kick a ball into Kristen's crotch (don't worry; she thought of the game. Hm, maybe I should worry).
They didn't even spend a lot of time on the challenge, for reasons that will become abundantly clear in a little bit. The challenge was to come up with one minute bits based on whatever boring magazine they were given and do the bit on Adam Carolla's morning show (*Sigh*, more Adam Carolla. He's starting to become the male Kathy Griffin, isn't he?), where he would vote for the winner.
Apparently traffic is so bad in L.A. that everyone had to be off the Queen Mary at 3:30 AM to get to the Free FM studios by 6; either that or they just wanted to make sure the comedians were good and tired. No matter; mostly everyone did a pretty bad job. Kristen was good, but she only went 47 seconds, so Adam eliminated her (asshole!). Bil (yes, Bil Dwyer spells it with only one "l") was good, but he came in second to Rebecca, who won the immunity. Wow. What were you thinking, Carolla? I could think of three other people that were funnier than she was. Jeez. Glad we get O&A over here instead of what I'm sure is Adam's "hilarious" radio show.
So they went to the vote, and -- surprise! -- there was a four-way tie at two: Joey, Bil, Michele, and Chris. The final vote was from Gabriel, who again picked names out of a hat (that was endearingly diplomatic last week, but for some reason, annoyingly wishy-washy this week), and he picked Chris. That's why the vote took place so early; they needed time to show four routines! Which is actually a good thing; I've always liked it better when the show concentrated on stand-up over reality bullshit.
Joey was decent; he had a nice joke about why no one will marry him: because they don't want to be "Mrs. Gay." Chris was really good; he acknowledged that he decided to use his "A" material so he wouldn't have any regrets if he was voted out, and it showed, especially with his condom jokes. Bil was pretty good; he had a joke about when people ask "who's watching your kids?" "Why do you care? It's obviously not you!" Michele, as usual, was lame, with jokes Dat Phan would have rejected for being too dumb. The only decent line was about bicycle cops bringing in suspects: "Get in the basket! Let's go!"
So, this is pretty clear-cut, right? Chris and Bil would stay, and Joey and Michele would leave. I mean, nothing else made sense. The audience would have the good sense to vote the right people back into the house...
Uh, no.
Bil got the lowest percentage, so he's gone. Double wow. I really thought that, due to his veteran status, he had staying power and would last at least until the final six. Don't know what the audience was seeing, but there's no way he had the worst set. Maybe it was the "DOS 1.2/punch cards" joke that threw the youngish audience. Oh, well, these things happen.
So, the audience decided to send back Chris and Joey then, right? Well, that's half-right. Chris was the audience favorite, but Michele came in second. Michele! A woman who made a joke about wanting to get saline implants because she's a contact lens user, which would have been a good line if she didn't have to fuggin' explain it after she said it! Christ! Did the producers cut out her good jokes? Because I have no idea how she's survived in two consecutive head-to-head competitions.
I'm starting to wonder if Michele is the new version of Phan; a mediocre comic that for some reason makes it farther than anyone expects. Yeesh. I'm losing more and more faith in this show every week. Oh, and here's a memo to Anthony Clark: could you talk off the cuff, just once? I mean, Jay Mohr was smug and arrogant, but at least he didn't look like a complete robot out there. Anthony, I've seen you be funny (yes, believe it or not, I have... remember Boston Common?); don't be afraid to show it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-27-2006 @ 11:45PM
Mase said...
A large part of the reason I think Michele made it as she was the only female up against three males. Add to that the fact Joey has his weakest set yet (compared with past ones) and Bill's was also just OK. Thus, with Chris hitting it out of the park, the audience was 'diplomatic' and had BS PC'nish give Michele the other slot (and her being much older probably added to the Dat Phan pity-factor). By the crowd reaction after each comic, it was obvious that both Chris and Michele were going to stay.
Now, I agree that Chris and Bill are the best of these four (with Joey coming in behind them and Michele a distant fourth). I was suprised that Michele made it last round. April Macie was, from the bits shown, far superior to Michele (and Stella is not worth mentioning beyond the fact she is worse than even the insipid, tired, Ant).
However, audiences are not necessarily known for being great judges of comedy. Take "Two and a Half Men", "According to Jim", "The War at Home", etc.
Now, any guesses on who gets kicked off from violating the house rules? My guess (and likely just about everyone else's) is Roz.
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6-27-2006 @ 11:53PM
Gavin said...
I can't figure out why Michelle made it either...her material and delivery is quite hackish.
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6-28-2006 @ 1:10AM
Mark Kawakami said...
Yeah, I can't stand that Michelle "Banal" Balan survived two of these, she really does suck. But I completely agree with sending Dwyer packing. He's the epitome of the smug, pretentious comedian, and it shows in his comedy. I mean, yeah, maybe he was funnier than Michelle, but he wasn't funnier than Joey Gay.
Plus, I thought Last Comic Standing was about giving a shot at the big time to unknown, not has beens. Dwyer's hosted game shows, for god's sake. He wasn't funny on Battlebots, he's not funny now.
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6-28-2006 @ 1:17AM
Lacey said...
1. I used to watch Boston Common....LOVED it. Does anyone know if that's coming out on DVD? That would be awesome.
2. I like that Bill went home, and I'm thinking it MAY be because he already does have a fairly big status in the comedy world, a lot of people may already have heard a good portion of his jokes...I know I have, and that makes it less funny.
3. I too think it will be Ros who ends up going home for violating the house rules, but it sucks that we have to wait 2 weeks to find out who it is.
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6-28-2006 @ 2:04AM
Lee said...
the comics left ( exception: Chris)
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6-28-2006 @ 7:49AM
Michael J said...
Wow!!!
I didn't see Bill Dwyer getting knocked out just because of his veteran status, though I do agree that his routine last night was his best. I didn't care for Joey Gay as I thought he is an arrogant Pompus Ass! I think Bill and Chris should have moved back into the house and Michelle and Joey sent packing.
I am going for Gabriel Iglesias as his familia is from San Diego and I have seen him perform on George Lopez comedy tour and he had people rolling.
Go Gabriel!!!!
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6-28-2006 @ 7:52AM
Jeff Goebel said...
Maybe I should have been in the audience. I would have voted the same way, and am as shocked as you that YOU disagree. Bill is a horrible comic. Not quite Henny Youngman old style, but certainly not current or good. He has no routines... just tired jokes.
Joey Gay may be funny... but he yells. His act is personality, not so much humour. He yells it out.
I saw the same show you did, and it was clear the two who won should have.
Thats what makes audience participation special. Everyone is different, but majority rules. I'm happy to be in the RIGHT majority today. (hehhehe)
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6-28-2006 @ 8:02AM
Brent said...
I had a hard time deciding if it was going to be Michelle or Joey. I thought Bill's set was a little lacking. Of course I am a computer junkie and talking about DOS 1.6 or whatever version he said was really lame. At least make it a little more relavent. Chris by far had the best set and I was glad he didn't go.
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6-28-2006 @ 8:10AM
Blahman said...
Man you guys need to GETALIFE.
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6-28-2006 @ 9:20AM
Allison said...
I too am surprised that you were surprised. My husband and I watched it together and right after all four were done he said that Joey and Bill were gone and I agreed. Joey screamed the entire thing (I don't remember him doing that before; maybe nerves?) which got annoying and Bill's set seemed disjointed (no segways; but that could be editing). Chris and Michele seemed the funniest and most polished. I don't think Michele is one of the best in the house, but I think the audience got it right last night.
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6-28-2006 @ 9:32AM
Me said...
I personally think Michelle is funnier than people give her credit it for. She did way better than Stella and April in the first head to head. I don't know why people thought April was funny. I really dislike the voice she uses when she does her stand up routines. People don't give women comics a lot of credit but she was definitely better than Bil Dwyer, who I thought was VERY unfunny, and Joey Gay, who was just okay at best. Michelle is really pulling her weight around and maybe people should give her a break at the next head to head.
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6-28-2006 @ 10:40AM
lurch0773 said...
first off the editing sucks... period! on this show-when they were doing the adam corolla portion they had them all mixed up and when adam was saying who he was leaning torward (i.e. #'s 3 and 10) i had no idea who he was talking about (note to editors: if they have name tags on with numbers on them it might be wise for continuity sake to put them in the proper order).
second anthony clark is just bad-i remember boston common as well-even during the house vote he dosen't even try to be funny-seriously bring someone in with a personality.
third michelle is about as unpolished as you can get-could her segways and explanations have been any worse-you shouldn't have to explain your jokes-she seemed almost surprised by the fact that the audience was laughing (like i was) and she would lose her composure. joey gay was amusing-just not funny-bil was old-chris was histerical and deserved the majority of the vote (i'm just worried that he broke the house rule next week).
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6-28-2006 @ 11:30AM
MrsEldubya said...
I'm in the minority here, I think Bil was boring! My husband and I both agreed that Chris was by far the best and Bil was by far the worst so it was down to Joey and Michelle. I didn't really care between those two. Chris was by far the funniest and that should be all that matters.
So we've been voting on NBC for weeks now and so far two comics have won the polls. Are they going to bring these people back? Is this why we are eliminating two at a time instead of one at a time? Or is that because NBC only gave them six weeks or something on this series.
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6-28-2006 @ 11:37AM
j1d3sam said...
I thought Michele was okay, she very new yorkish so I don't know if other parts of the country will like this humor.
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6-28-2006 @ 11:43PM
Jim said...
I vowed not to watch this show again after the finalists were chosen. I was channel-hopping last night, though, and caught the four stand-up acts at the end of the show. I wish I hadn't. These comics really suck.
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