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Last Comic Standing: Season 4 Premiere
by Joel Keller, posted May 30th 2006 11:26PM
(S04E01) A couple of things about Last Comic Standing has always bugged me a little bit: 1) Even in the later rounds of the show, they don't show nearly enough of a comedian's routine for the audience to get a good feel for what he or she can do, and 2) Half the people who get picked to move on are selected not as much for their comedic talents but for their backstories. That feeling hasn't changed in Season 4, the first time LCS has aired since it's ill-conceived "Season 1 vs. Season 2" year ended with a whimper in December 2004.This time around, we're back to the usual format, opening with a two-hour show where talent scouts Ross Mark and Bob Read comb the country for candidates to take to the semi-finals in L.A. They went to L.A., Tempe, Austin, New York, Chicago and Miami, auditioning what was considered the city's "best" -- and worst -- stand-ups. What struck me about the audition phase this year is how they decided to not show as many bad comedians as they had in the past, instead concentrating on maybe a half-dozen good comedians who happened to have nice back stories to tell.
But here's another thing I noticed: Many, many more comedians made it to the call-back performance that night than were shown performing. You can see in the group that gather to hear Ross and Bob's selections that there are many faces that weren't familiar to you, because you didn't see them perform. I felt bad for those people; not only did they not get selected to go to the semis, but they didn't even get identified on the show! Talk about a missed opportunity.
I will say that some of the anonymous rejectees that I glanced at were a little familiar, though, because they went out for LCS in previous seasons: for instance, like the married comedians from that WE network show who competed against each other in the Season 2 prelims. But, for the most part, if you saw a comedian do his act at the call-back show, chances were pretty good that they'd be selected.
Of course, there were a few ringers in the group, especially in Los Angeles. I mean: Bill Dwyer? The guy's been on every talking head show in the last six years and hosted GSN's Extreme Dodgeball. He's actually pretty famous as far as stand-ups go; there was no way he wasn't going to the semis and an unproved schlub was. Then again, previous credits didn't gaurantee anything: Marc Price, who played Skippy on Family Ties, and Jimmy Pardo, who's emceed game shows and had character parts on many sitcoms, didn't make it to the semis.
Perhaps they needed a better backstory. A few of the comics were most definitely chosen for their background and not their comedy (although they were decently funny). One of the comedians, Josh Blue, had cerebral palsy, and had a good joke about how his mother is the only person who knows when he's drunk. Another comic, the mono-named Roz, has had some drug problems in the past. Another comedian, a pretty blond student named Nikki Glaser, got picked for the semis after Ross almost turned her down in the audition (Ross looks like all the bad comedy he's seen has gotten to him; he barely laughed at anyone) but got a call-back after asking for an opportunity to tell one more joke, which turned out to be a winner.
We also saw a blast from the Season 2 past: Jim Wiggins, who made it all the way to the finals round (the round that determined who goes into the house) that year, putting in a great performance after being called in when Jim Norton (who I saw Sunday night in Jersey. Damn, he was funny) had to drop out at the last moment. My guess is that if you didn't make the house, you were eligible to enter again. But it was disheartening to see some of these familiar faces, knowing how many good comics probably didn't get a shot because of the ringers.
Then there was Buck Star. Just like in Season 2, he went to every audition city and annoyed the hell out of Bob and Ross, but they finally let him do a call-back show (in, suspiciously enough, the Miami, the last city they went to. Wonder if they planned that out between themselves before the auditions even started?). Gotta tell you, he wasn't bad. But he didn't make it out of Miami; the odds were against him, as they only selected two people from there to go to L.A. (and only three from Chicago... what gives? It's a comedy mecca, but they gave more slots to the hopefuls in Tempe).
Anthony Clark, taking over as host from Jay Mohr, was largely unseen; he worked the audition line in New York, but mostly he was just heard in voiceover. We'll see more of him next week during the L.A. semis.
Overall, it looks like there are going to be a nice mix of knowns and unknowns this year, but no one stands out for me right now. Again, I didn't see enough of their routines to judge, or even distinguish one comedian from another, at this point. Hopefully, things will get fleshed out some more as the number of comics gets winnowed down.
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