LCS 2010: Final 6

In the interim between episodes, NBC or some other lowlife has posted an Internet video of Andy Kindler ranting, Mel Gibson-style, at an LCS contestant. I don't think it's particularly funny, and I wonder if it was Andy's idea, or if the network made him do it.

Back to the show. We have a new ad: A woman and a man lounging in beach chairs, side by side, reading their Kindles. The imagery reminds me of another ad campaign. Sure, she's reading, but he isn't—everyone knows men don't read. He's waiting for the Cialis to kick in.

And saints be praised, we have two musical bits, both of which work. I'll get to one later. The other involves Craig Robinson asking for a drum roll and getting one—on a steel drum. Droll drum roll.

We eventually learn that Rachel Feinstein has been eliminated. Looking back on last week, her naïve/sarcastic character rant about Las Vegas not being the center of the universe's sweetness may have run a bit long. In light of the elimination of Feinstein and Adomian, it looks like people are not into characters.

With only six performing, there's time for each to have a little pre-recorded skit before their bit of stand-up.

Jonathan Thymius has a cute little film about his side business, the Comedy O Gram. His on-stage stuff is the usual: slow, baffling, and sporadically hilarious. (Best line: "Birds.") The judges are puzzled and admiring.

Next up is Roy Wood, Jr., who [We interrupt this blog for a bout of antenna wrestling. Channel 2's broadcast seems to be at war with, well, the atmosphere. Jeez. I mean, would you buy a car if it doesn't get along with, um, roads? So I'm up there, twisting the rabbit ears back and forth, and random unfunny digitized bits are popping up on my TV. Communication is not happening. When I finally start getting a coherent signal, the judges are congratulating Roy for being his usual brilliant self. Luckily NBC makes the episode available for replay on the Internet.]

As I was saying, Roy Wood, Jr., tries to get his mom to wear a sling on her arm to garner sympathy. I give that one polite heh. OK Roy, but our hearts already went out to you when you told us you were from Alabama, our world's third world. In his stand-up bit, Roy talks about a guy who thinks there's a racist conspiracy to short him on chicken nuggets. Then he switches to octomommery: These women who take fertility drugs and end up with multiple births shouldn't keep all the babies; they could go on a show called Last Baby Standing! Pretty funny. In his critique, Andy works in a reference to "Dance Your Ass Off," which is a callback to that video I mentioned earlier. Did Andy do that on his own, or was he "encouraged"?

Myq Kaplan's film is a little song he performs, accompanying himself on guitar. Pretty funny stuff. His stand-up is about cell phone avatars, final (non-)burial instructions, and a run on one of the Final Destination movies. (He kind of assumes people haven't heard of the movie series, but isn't it popular among young audiences?) A lot of Kaplan's humor is, "This is how clever I am. See me being clever? I overwhelm you with my cleverness and my superiority to most of the world." Luckily, he really is quite clever. Natasha delivers an interesting critique—that he would win Last Comedy Writer Standing—which a lot of people probably felt was a put-down; I took it to be a slightly left-handed compliment.

Tommy Johnagin's intro plays up his middle-America roots; he's from St. Louis, and thus America's comic. He does a rapid-fire routine that goes from pregnancy to baby care to a run on masturbation. The judges all think he was very funny, and Andy likes his posture.

Mike DeStefano's little film shows him getting a manicure and pedicure. At the mike, he talks about heroin addiction, has a "good one" about a submission to a Chinese restaurant suggestion box ("free Tibet"), and disses a Blackberry addict. I loved the judges' comments: Natasha—your core audience is in prison; Greg—one of the few likable violent people; and Andy—best set yet.

Felipe Esparza is introduced with a clip on his East L.A. workout routine, which is pretty funny. He talks about Arizona's anti-illegal immigrant law and custody sharing.

My rankings, from top to bottom: Johnagin, Wood, Kaplan, DeStefano, Esparza, Thymius. Yes, I'm hammering on Jonathan Thymius every week. But it would be a pleasure to see his act; I just rank him below these other talented comics.

One more comic will be eliminated. Next week will be the final performance show. (Although I am hoping in the finale Robinson, Kindler, Leggero, and Giraldo will all get a chance to do a bit of stand-up; I'd like to see what they've got.)