I was hoping Craig Robinson might get to do a short stand-up bit, but no luck. Instead, he sits in a chair and pets a long-haired white cat. A well-brushed cat, I might add; otherwise, with every stroke there would be a cloud of cat hair floating down to the stage floor. Hey, a lot of people have cat allergies. Hope all you comics have had your allergy shots!
Tonight we see the first group of semi-finalists. Each does a short bit and then receives a critique from the three judges. I think this is new to Last Comic Standing, but probably matches what's done on a lot of other reality shows I don't watch. The problem is, every comic we see is fairly talented, so we hear a lot of "hilarious," "very funny," and "great material" from the judges. Kudos to them for not coming up with a lot of phony critiques, but they must have felt like broken records by the end of the evening.
First up is Myq Kaplan, who makes fun of religion—in particular, religious homophobia. It's funny, but yikes!—is it too edgy for broadcast TV?
Jamie Lee (who was identified as being from Dallas) talks about rooming in New York with a model who does coke. She also talks about being in a relationship with a comedian. Pretty good stuff.
Mike DeStefano continues to lean on his Italian ethnicity and rough upbringing. In the old neighborhood, even the Chinese guys had Italian names. Quite funny, but how far can he go doing a "character"?
Kyle Grooms talks about Jersey being hated, and about Detroit being worse off than Haiti. Not bad, but it would have been a lot funnier a decade ago.
Shane Mauss goes dark with a bit about a horrible amusement park accident inconveniencing the people waiting in line. It's better than his previous Seinfeldian bit, though somewhat in the same spirit. Is "I'm a jerk" all he has?
Adrienne Iapalucci talks about her mother; and again she explains that she doesn't hit kids. (She just manipulates them into hitting each other.) Funny and a bit edgy.
Felipe Esparza talks about the creepy people he sees on the bus and makes fun of his own looks. Just a wan smile from me.
Jonathan Thymius slouches up to the mike and does a funny/gross gag about stomach surgery. He does a joke about his wife, and then does a slow-developing ventriloquism bit. I love this guy's delivery, even though half his material keeps getting mail from AARP.
Lil' Rel does an extended bit about his mother's funeral, portraying some stereotypical characters from the black church. I'm only slightly amused.
Jason Weems contrasts the greeter when he enters a certain chain store with the
Ryan Hamilton tells a funny skydiving story. If you dig skydiving, you laugh; otherwise, meh.
Paula Bel commiserates with the Obamas, talks about life without health insurance, and jokes about pedophile priests. Funny, but that last bit was on a trite topic.
Jesse Joyce improves over his monkey roadkill bit from the tryouts, but his story about getting caught in a traffic jam that he had caused is a little thin on laughs and even a bit hard to understand.
Rachel Feinstein talks about a guy with big hips and other men with a strong feminine/feminist side. OK.
Kirk Fox tells a long story about an infirm upstairs neighbor with a gun. Pretty good payoff—not great.
Amanda Melson talks about working for an employer who wants to be edgy and cool—the clothing drive for the homeless should not include any unfashionable jeans, fer gawd's sake. I smiled.
Chip Pope makes a halfhearted joke about office work, then talks about growing up poor and gay. (They couldn't afford a closet for him to come out of.) He does a passable Paul Simon impression.
Alycia Cooper talks about airport security checks and Tiger Woods's mistresses. There's some talent there, but I wasn't greatly amused.
David Feldman talks about his two daughters and the bad choices they are already making at a young age. He also talks about women who don't listen. I give the first bit a thumbs up for edginess; otherwise, so-so.
Wait, that's all we get? Yep, we've been listening to severely truncated stand-up for an hour and forty-five minutes, and it's time to announce the finalists.
The semi-finalists are organized into groups; each group will have one finalist announced.
Group 1 is Amanda Melson, Felipe Esparza, Alycia Cooper, and two guys who are carefully kept off-camera. (One of them is named Joe List, according to Brian McKim's blog. [Update July 17: The other is Jeff Maurer, according to McKim.]) Of the three on-camera comics, I'd probably go with Amanda Melson; but the finalist is Felipe Esparza.
Group 2 is Paula Bel, David Feldman, Myq Kaplan, Kyle Grooms, and two more off-camera guys. (They turn out to be the comedy duo of Stuckey & Murray.) Feldman had the best material, I thought, though I wouldn't complain if Bel were promoted; but Kaplan is the finalist. Well, if you like seeing organized religion smacked in the teeth (and there are definitely times when I can go for that), Kaplan's your guy.
Group 3 is Rachel Feinstein, Kirk Fox, Adrienne Iapalucci, Jason Weems, and Shane Mauss. I'd probably rank them Iapalucci, Mauss, Feinstein, Fix, and Weems. Feinstein is the finalist.
Group 4: Lil' Rel, Ryan Hamilton, Mike DeStefano, Jamie Lee, Chip Pope. Easy pick: DeStefano, though eventually I want to see more than Italian tough-guy jokes.
Group 5: Jesse Joyce and Jonathan Thymius. Thymius is my overall favorite for the night, and he goes to the finals.
My ranking of the finalists: Thymius (best), DeStefano, Feinstein, Kaplan, and Esparza. But every one of the semi-finalists tonight gave me at least one smile. A talented group.
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