Last Comic Standing 5: They Showed Us The Funny! Episode 2 Recap by CC McCandless
June 21, 2007
Last week's premiere episode of season five of NBC's Last Comic Standing was so bad, so unfunny, and so painfully dull that I was ready to give up on the show once and for all. I was so numbingly bored by the end of the show that I couldn't even remember anything about the comics that made it through to the semi-finals. It seemed that this once promising show had reached the point of no return; that the parade of no-talent hacks had given us the last freak we would ever want or need.
I was wrong.
Episode two began in Los Angeles, in what can safely be considered a comedian-rich environment. Alonzo, Kathleen, and Ant were back and ready for some better performances. "I'm expecting great things," said Alonzo, thus cueing a string of horrible comics. "I love a train wreck," he added for good measure. He was in luck then, because the freak show parade that started last week continued right through Hollywood. Maybe it's just that my standards have been lowered so much but a couple of rejected comics actually made me laugh out loud, including the guy pondering his own racism because he slept in the master bedroom…and tried to sell his roommate on eBay, as well as a joke that simply can't be translated well in this medium that involved a guy trying to "play" a really old song by banging a stick against a rock and making caveman grunting noises. Utterly bizarre and genuinely hilarious.
The showcase round in L.A. gave us a handful of comedians that have a real shot to make the final cut, including Sean Rouse, who had a unique presence and some inspired bits about basketball coach Bobby Knight; and Sarah Collona, who failed to impress Alonzo from the start yet still was solid with her dating and relationship material. A guy singularly named Dante won the "blatant product placement audience favorite" award and he was fine, as was the North Carolina redneck type who grabbed the last slot.
The real beauty, and perhaps even the saving grace of the entire series, came in the second half when the judges headed to Sydney, Australia. Sure, we were subjected to an actual kangaroo waiting in line-honestly, does NBC hire a cliché wrangler for each audition stop?-but it was worth it. As Alonzo explained, this locale was great because "some of them will bring a brand new perspective…and an accent." Little did I know that he was absolutely right, and fresh off watching the show I'm still not sure which one made Sydney work, but as a whole they were funnier than any other Last Comic audition group I can remember. There were all kinds, and they all brought it: guys, girls, young, old, white, black, you name it, and they killed.
Some of my favorites included the woman who joked about her mother's decision to move from West Africa to London, a place known for "a lot of drizzle and subtle racism." There was also the refreshingly unique guy that included visual aids during his set, asking the crowd to name the opposite of words that he would throw out, culminating in "cat," for which he stated that the opposite is "inside out cat," complete with a hand-drawn image of one. Brilliant. The self-described horrible drunk and bad mother was also great, as was every single comic that made it through to the semi-finals. As Alonzo sagely noted, maybe a fresh perspective is exactly what this show needed to break out of their usual "casting reality show character types, not comics" approach. And the accent certainly didn't hurt either. At this point, I'm ecstatic at the prospect of a mansion in Hollywood absolutely filled with Aussies. It could truly make this show funny again. Next week: London. Bring on the Brits!
C.C. McCandless is an independent filmmaker and freelance writer. He has a Bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
You can contact C.C. here: cc.mccandless@gmail.com
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