With Lost on it's 8-month hiatus (and the NHL two months away from another season), I have no regularly scheduled TV to watch, except that I'm kind of watching Last Comic Standing. I've watched this show irregularly since its inception about six years ago, because, well, I love stand-up comedy (correction, I love good stand-up comedy). However, LCS isn't so much stand-up comedy as it is a reality TV show, since it's more interested, at least in the onset with showing drama and American Idol-style scenarios of hopefulness and heartbreak rather than the goods of the plentiful comedians who bother to show up to these things. And no doubt about it, most stand up comics who don't already have an HBO or MTV show or some recurring role on a Fox or CBS sitcom will be standing in line to audition, because stand up comedians earn shit for a living. Only the most successful of stand-ups (RIP George Carlin) will actually see the fame that they seek, and most not by way of their stand-up... there will be more than a few who succumb to their dark place first (Richard Jeni, Mitch Hedburg, Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks). So it's no surprise that stand-ups will reduce themselves, like regular attention-seeking gutterfolk (like me), to the sordid world of "reality" TV.
I don't blame a single comedian for jumping at the chance to achieve (compared to their current status) the massive exposure that LCS provides. Moreover, the truly good comics deserve a shot at more prominent notoriety, and not for being the sidekick on a "chubby guy-hot wife" sitcom. Although the reward from winning Last Comic Standing has diminished since the first season (where the winner got a first-look, pricey television deal as well a stand-up comedy special) so too has the hoops the show makes the cast degradingly jump through (the first season wound up big-brother style with the comics having to perform stupid tasks and embarrass themselves on TV stirring up drama with one another). This season and last, it's more focussed on material and performing, although I'm not sure if they've eliminated the inane tasks altogether.
They've begun casting the show internationally, last year actually going to different cities in the world, this year cheaply hosting an international try-out in Miami, but also heading to Canada to check out the talent there. Last year they turned up in Montreal, where I noticed a lot of the Toronto scene had descended. Familiar with a lot of the comedians I knew who would work and who wouldn't work for the American show almost immediately, and was generally pleased with their picks last year (Deborah DiGiovanni was absolutely my top pick and cudos to her for making it deep into the final rounds). They did however, through editing, make more than a few really talented comics look foolish (crickets anyone), which is the tragic part of the show.
I missed this years showcase in Toronto, but I see that Sean Cullen - a personal favourite since his classic Corky and the Juice Pigs days back in the early '90's - has made it through to the semis. Sean is a storm of funny, and probably the biggest talent that show has ever had on it. Sean has appeared on Mad TV, the Americanized version of Fawlty Towers (with John Larroquette), has had his own CBC radio show for many years now, has had his own six-episode CBC TV series, and more than a few gut-bursting Comedy specials on CTV/Comedy Network (not to mention a starring role in the Toronto casting of The Producers, and other stage work locally). He is a force to be reckoned with, he can improvise like no one else and his sense of surreal and bizarre are often unparalleled. Will he win Last Comic Standing. I don't see how he can't. But then again, he's not a fat black man or a redneck, so I don't know if the common American audience will connect with him. Doesn't matter though, if he keeps his cerebral A-game up, he's going to land himself some crazy production deal on Showtime or something.
The thing that annoys me about the selection process on LCS is the obvious intervention of the producers. I think that all the semi-finalists should be decided by the crowd in the clubs where they perform. Unfortunately, the producers select the finalists (not the two celebrity judges that are trophied in the room) and they do so based on "demographic appeal" or "quirkiness" rather than talent. The inexperienced cute Asian girl from New York... well, she got picked because she's a cute Asian girl. That tattooed comic book geek version of Rich Little... he got picked because he does really good impressions, even though he's absolutely not funny. That weird British guy they chose in Miami... totally not funny, just very weird, and British, and not in a good way. About 1/2 the picks for finalists the producers were obviously looking for "interesting" and not "talented". As an aware viewer it's maddening.
I'm looking forward to actually seeing some full sets from the finalists, even though the bulk of them are mass-audience pap-comedy producers whose angles and punchlines you can see a mile off.... but I do like the surprises. Plus I want to see Sean KILL. Fingers crossed for that (he certainly has most of them at a disadvantage)... oh and cudos also for choosing God's Pottery. I don't think enough people will get the joke, but they're great. Also... very disappointed to see Bill Bellamy back. With all the talented comedians in need of work out there (even former contestants), why him?
Anyway... in Canada, more specifically Toronto, if you need some quick cash you audition for Video On Trial, a show on much music which scams the VH1 Best Week Ever formula of having comedians riff on news stories, and has comedians poke fun at music videos. It sounds cheap and easy, and it is, but it's sometimes deliriously entertaining. This past weekend they took on teen sensations, including a classic Menudo video, and I cried. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. Of course I was a bit tipsy and over-tired but nevertheless, hysterical stuff. Always worth watching when there's nothing worth watching.
I don't blame a single comedian for jumping at the chance to achieve (compared to their current status) the massive exposure that LCS provides. Moreover, the truly good comics deserve a shot at more prominent notoriety, and not for being the sidekick on a "chubby guy-hot wife" sitcom. Although the reward from winning Last Comic Standing has diminished since the first season (where the winner got a first-look, pricey television deal as well a stand-up comedy special) so too has the hoops the show makes the cast degradingly jump through (the first season wound up big-brother style with the comics having to perform stupid tasks and embarrass themselves on TV stirring up drama with one another). This season and last, it's more focussed on material and performing, although I'm not sure if they've eliminated the inane tasks altogether.
They've begun casting the show internationally, last year actually going to different cities in the world, this year cheaply hosting an international try-out in Miami, but also heading to Canada to check out the talent there. Last year they turned up in Montreal, where I noticed a lot of the Toronto scene had descended. Familiar with a lot of the comedians I knew who would work and who wouldn't work for the American show almost immediately, and was generally pleased with their picks last year (Deborah DiGiovanni was absolutely my top pick and cudos to her for making it deep into the final rounds). They did however, through editing, make more than a few really talented comics look foolish (crickets anyone), which is the tragic part of the show.
I missed this years showcase in Toronto, but I see that Sean Cullen - a personal favourite since his classic Corky and the Juice Pigs days back in the early '90's - has made it through to the semis. Sean is a storm of funny, and probably the biggest talent that show has ever had on it. Sean has appeared on Mad TV, the Americanized version of Fawlty Towers (with John Larroquette), has had his own CBC radio show for many years now, has had his own six-episode CBC TV series, and more than a few gut-bursting Comedy specials on CTV/Comedy Network (not to mention a starring role in the Toronto casting of The Producers, and other stage work locally). He is a force to be reckoned with, he can improvise like no one else and his sense of surreal and bizarre are often unparalleled. Will he win Last Comic Standing. I don't see how he can't. But then again, he's not a fat black man or a redneck, so I don't know if the common American audience will connect with him. Doesn't matter though, if he keeps his cerebral A-game up, he's going to land himself some crazy production deal on Showtime or something.
The thing that annoys me about the selection process on LCS is the obvious intervention of the producers. I think that all the semi-finalists should be decided by the crowd in the clubs where they perform. Unfortunately, the producers select the finalists (not the two celebrity judges that are trophied in the room) and they do so based on "demographic appeal" or "quirkiness" rather than talent. The inexperienced cute Asian girl from New York... well, she got picked because she's a cute Asian girl. That tattooed comic book geek version of Rich Little... he got picked because he does really good impressions, even though he's absolutely not funny. That weird British guy they chose in Miami... totally not funny, just very weird, and British, and not in a good way. About 1/2 the picks for finalists the producers were obviously looking for "interesting" and not "talented". As an aware viewer it's maddening.
I'm looking forward to actually seeing some full sets from the finalists, even though the bulk of them are mass-audience pap-comedy producers whose angles and punchlines you can see a mile off.... but I do like the surprises. Plus I want to see Sean KILL. Fingers crossed for that (he certainly has most of them at a disadvantage)... oh and cudos also for choosing God's Pottery. I don't think enough people will get the joke, but they're great. Also... very disappointed to see Bill Bellamy back. With all the talented comedians in need of work out there (even former contestants), why him?
Anyway... in Canada, more specifically Toronto, if you need some quick cash you audition for Video On Trial, a show on much music which scams the VH1 Best Week Ever formula of having comedians riff on news stories, and has comedians poke fun at music videos. It sounds cheap and easy, and it is, but it's sometimes deliriously entertaining. This past weekend they took on teen sensations, including a classic Menudo video, and I cried. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. Of course I was a bit tipsy and over-tired but nevertheless, hysterical stuff. Always worth watching when there's nothing worth watching.