Sadly it has come to that time of year when most summer seasons come to an end to make way for the fall premieres coming up in September. I thought it would be good to do some write ups on each of the summer finales that I found most interesting. At the bottom of the list, was the largely disappointing finale of Last Comic Standing. While it has never been my favorite reality show, I liked that it was a bit more original than the more popular ones. I’m also a fan of stand-up comedy, so I watched it. The first couple of seasons were enjoyable and for the most part, the winner was deserving, but it was clear that the show struggled to figure out a format that worked.
Even the show's graphics were trying too hard to be American Idol-like
The season that started this summer seemed to try too hard to be an American Idol spin-off. Unfortunately it suffered from the same problems that American Idol suffers from too. Because there was no house for them to live in and no weekly challenges, it was very difficult to learn exactly who these people were. Every week, before their performances, a clip was shown about the comic, but it was never long enough to really get an idea of what they were like when not performing. So in the end the audience was just left feeling disconnected. Also, like American Idol, they tried to make the Judges “relevant” when really they had no place after the initial rounds. In the format the show attempted, all the judges are good for is to weed the potential talent down to the top 10. After that, since they don’t have a say in voting, there is no reason why they need to have screen time. In they end all they do is take up time that could’ve been spent focusing on the contestants. Their opinions were useless, too. Who cares if Greg Geraldo thought that the 3rd joke of the set was delivered poorly? If the audience found it funny, they’re gonna vote for it anyway. I thought that Craig Robinson was a mediocre host. He was occasionally funny, but a lot of his antics drew focus from the contestants and just made things drag too much, especially in the finale.
The final episode was two hours longer than it needed to be. Instead of just having the final group perform for the last time and announcing the winner, we had to sit through a performance from each of the judges, the reigning “Last Comic” Iliza Shlesinger, guest performers Tom Papa (host of The Marriage Ref) and Kathy Griffin, as well as musical performances from host Craig Robinson and Gloria Gaynor. Okay, I understand having Iliza perform, and maybe one guest performance, but I did not need to listen to every judge perform. Funny enough, I thought that Tommy Johnagin put out a better set than most of the judges. Which brings me to the topic of the eliminations. The final five consisted of Myq Kaplan, Mike Destefano, Roy Wood Jr, Felipe Esparza, and Tommy Johnagin. The first three eliminated were Myq Kaplan, Mike Destefano, and Roy Wood Jr. And right off the bat, the three funniest people in the top 5 are gone. This only further proves that the audience was clearly not connecting with the show at all (and have no sense of good comedy). Then we are graced with some musical performances by Craig Robinson and a surprise appearance from Gloria Gaynor, which has absolutely no relevance to comedy and was completely out of place. Tom Papa’s performance was surprisingly funny given his mediocre run as host of the The Marriage Ref. Of the judge’s Andy Kindler was probably the funniest, Natasha Leggero was alright, and Greg Geraldo used jokes that were 5 years old.
The most controversial part of the show was Kathy Griffin’s performance. Her material was its usual jabs at celebrities and was mostly funny, but it was very clear that she totally bombed with the studio audience. There was a very poorly done laugh track piped in after almost every line whether it was supposed to be funny or not. It was made even more obvious when they would play the laugh track and then show the audience where very few people were laughing or clapping. It’s almost as bad as when NBC piped in a laugh track for Sarah Palin’s guest appearance on The Tonight Show. The show ended with performances from the two finalists. Of the two, I though Felipe was more original, but Tommy was funnier. Ultimately Felipe was crowned the winner. He seems like a nice enough guy; your typical rags to riches success story that all these reality shows seems to thrive on. It’s just unfortunate that he had to win during a season where the show was so clearly not up to snuff. Last Comic has already been cancelled once and unless they can make some reasonable changes I hope that they cancel it again so we’re not subjected to this ridiculousness.