Last Comic Standing: Bring Back The Gorilla! Episode 7 Recap by CC McCandless
August 2, 2007
Now that Last Comic Standing has given us a field of ten not-as-good-as-they-could-have-been finalists, the American Idolesque auditions and semis are over and the real show truly begins. This week three comics will perform and only one will survive, which should be a great way to trim some of the unfunny fat right off the bat. But more importantly, how will these ten incredibly diverse personalities get along in the Last Comic mansion?
Apparently we'll never know, because there is no Last Comic mansion this time. No Scooby Doo castle, no ex-porn movie site nestled in the Hollywood Hills. Alas, all is not lost, as the ten finalists did arrive on the patented Last Comic Standing short bus for their first challenge. And even better, Mel Silverback was at the wheel. No, I'm not kidding. Doug summed up the outpouring of emotion the comedians must have felt at the mere sight of the wonderful vehicle, as he noted "My dream has been to get on a short bus with nine other comedians…one of whom barely fits through the door." He referred, of course, to Lavell, who narrowly avoided a Winnie the Pooh type disaster upon entering.
Our favorite Jewish simian promptly drove the comics to The Ice House in Pasadena, where they learned that their first task would be a Last Comic staple: the heckle challenge, in which random pairings are drawn and the twosomes take turns performing and heckling each other mercilessly. "I already know I'm not going to be good at this," moaned Jon, and he was right.
However, he certainly wasn't the only one that had trouble with the challenge. First, the format was a little too broad. Not only were the hecklers introduced to the audience before each set, but they were prominently placed at the very front, making the actual performance coming from the stage almost feel like a complete charade. What ensued wasn't really heckling so much as front row, pre-scripted insult hurling. Most of the heckles and many of the retorts were just uncomfortable to watch. They weren't all especially bad-I thoroughly enjoyed Amy's asking young Brit Matt "Do you tell that joke when you're studying at Hogwarts?"-but many simply fell flat. The best performance was turned in by Lavell, not during his turn as a heckler, but in the way he manhandled Debra's attempts to get the better of him. It was like he had a heckle force field working, and everything hurled his way rebounded back at his tormenter. "He destroyed me," admitted Debra after skulking back into the green room, and there's no more accurate way to put it.
Thankfully, the audience agreed and selected Lavell as the challenge winner, for which he scoops a cool G, immunity, and a trip to Montreal to perform at the Just for Laughs festival…all in all, a very impressive haul for week one of the competition. Then, the comics were driven to the Los Angeles Coliseum for no evident reason, where they met at the fifty yard line to cast their votes in a photo booth in the standard Last Comic "I know I'm funnier than so-and-so" process. The top vote-getter would then select two people that voted for him or her and all three would perform, with just the winner remaining in the game. It seems easy enough.
And yet, as we've learned from watching this show, it's never easy. Initially, there didn't seem to be too much strategy employed in the voting process, as selecting terrible comedians was always a safe and logical way to go. However, it has become nearly standard to actually vote for the more talented comedians in the early going, simply in hopes that nobody else will do this, thus ensuring that the voter in question will be completely safe from having to perform at all. Sometimes, this strategy can work a little too well. If you don't believe me, ask Kathleen Madigan.
So were the votes straight up or strategic? It seems to be a little of both. There were terrible comedians that didn't get a single vote *cough* Debra *cough*, but favorites like Doug also went untargeted. With one vote to go, we were reduced to two possibilities: Ralph or Dante. Gina cast the swing vote Dante's way, sending him into a mandatory tete-a-tete-a-tete with her and Ralph, the only eligible performers due to Lavell's immunity.
With no comic mansion, we didn't get the usual amounts of pre-show bluster, arrogant talk, or mild-mannered ironing of pants. Instead, we got some quick, clichéd sound bites. Honestly, do you even care who said "I have to win tonight" or who followed that up with "this is what I do?" Of course not. The closest we got to an inflammatory crack or a bold call of any kind was Ralph's statement "I plan to go out there and give the people some thunder."
I wouldn't call his performance thunderous, but it was strong enough for him to be the clear-cut winner with 62% of the vote. He cinched it with a fast, breathless bit about himself as a child, and while the crowd seemingly ate it up, I'm already growing weary of his reliance on goofy voices. I didn't think he was very funny and I look forward to seeing him branch out as the show moves on. However, Gina and Dante were downright disappointing. Gina, who seemed so quick, confident, and clever during the early going, just didn't bring much to the table tonight. She did a bit about advances in the world of face transplant technology and it just didn't hit the mark. Meanwhile, Dante exhibited an odd combination of arrogance coupled with nervous tension on stage. He recited a horrible song that his daughter ostensibly wrote and ended his set with a triumphant spike of the microphone on the stage, despite the blatant lack of a joke or a set that warranted such a move. It came off horribly.
And there you have it. Gina and Dante are gone, and the remaining comics seem especially pleased to see Dante go. With just eight comedians remaining, the voting strategy will get much tougher next week. But if the final showdown is as bland as this one, they should seriously consider letting the bus driver back into the competition.
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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