LCS 2010: Final 10

Tonight each of the final 10 comics does 2½ minutes of comedy, and the TV audience votes on its favorite; the 3 lowest vote-getters are to be eliminated.

Laurie Kilmartin takes a very long time getting around to a punch line about the "other" woman (with whom her husband was having an affair) being a bad speller. Are we laughing yet? She goes on to talk about her 3-year-old son, and finishes with a darker ending to The Little Engine That Could. Seemed pretty weak.

Felipe Esparza tells a whole series of unrelated jokes, including one about an encounter with a cop which I just didn't get. He leads off with the best—a gag about sharing bunk beds with his brother, and the brother sharing the upper bunk with a wife. Again, not a strong set.

Roy Wood, Jr., does an extended bit about a sports fan mistaking his Izod logo for a Florida Gator; for me the humor didn't build but petered out. He then questioned the popularity of swimming as a sport, and he described his failure as a Career Day speaker (he made the mistake of telling the truth). The last bit was the best, which is how a routine is supposed to work.

Maronzio Vance comes up with an original bit about Pay Attention Man and his sidekick Didn't He Tell You; the bit could have been developed a bit more, but maybe Vance didn't want to invest all his time in one gag. Instead, he goes with a bit which says, in essence, "If you can spell chlamydia, you must have it! Har har!" I'm sure the 12-year-olds in the audience were laughing their heads off.

Rachel Feinstein talks about her mother and grandmother being experts on rap. Apparently middle-aged and older Jewish ladies taking an interest in rap is just a scream. For some.

Tommy Johnagin talks about his mother and his grandmother, and how his grandfather drove a car into a beauty salon. And then he finishes with a couple of ugly stripper jokes.

Jonathan Thymius takes a slow approach to his 2½ minutes; at one point the room goes completely silent. He fiddles with the microphone, does a few weak gags, belches, and pretends his failure is due to lack of juggling equipment.

James Adomian goes after Aesop for being judgmental, and does an extended imitation of Paul Giamatti as a self-loathing John Adams.

Mike DeStefano talks about a friend with too much self-esteem, does a black guys/white guys joke, and tells an anecdote about his work as a drug counselor.

Myq Kaplan talks about his grandmother's work in the grammar police; being a vegan; street musicians; and the correct way of pointing.

It seems like everyone brought their B material this week. Maybe they all figured their chances of continuing were 7 out of 10. I thought Adomian was the best this week (though how much of the audience will make sense of the John Adams material?). Who will be eliminated? Probably Thymius; his style seems like the worst fit to the short time allowed. Maybe Kilmartin and Esparza, but I'm a poor judge of what will be popular.

This was a strong field, despite the weak material tonight. I'm sure each of the 10 could give a very solid 15-minute routine.

Other than the brief time allowed per routine, this format may be the best at sorting out the talent. But I will miss the old format of comics declaring, "I know I'm funnier than ...", followed by an elimination duel between the least respected comic and one or more of their adversaries. Season 1 is still my favorite, with Rich Vos and Dave Mordal scheming (unsuccessfully) against Dat Phan. (Perhaps that whole rivalry was a put-on.) Comics were thrown into odd competitions to try to get an exemption from the showdown. Sometimes these tested their mettle as a comic, and sometimes (often) these were just stupid. One of the better ones was when comics were turned loose in a department store to gather material for prop comedy; the routines were judged, of course, by Carrot Top. Regardless of these side contests, many comics stayed in the overall competition by keeping their heads down. It wasn't fair or a pure measure of comic talent; often it was cheesy and embarrassing; but it was kind of entertaining.