Okay, so normally I'm one of those possibly irritating "I don't have a television" people. I hope I don't come off as much as a douche as
this but, you know. I might. So, a bit of a confession: I'm totally, unabashedly, addicted to a reality show.
Last Comic Standing. It took a mere five years for me to notice it was here.
I have always loved stand-up. My brother and I would watch hours of it on Comedy Central growing up, back before it was Comedy Central; when it was just C, or the Comedy Channel, or HA!. Joel Hodgson before MST3K. Jon Stewart before
The Daily Show. (Did anyone else on earth ever watch Short Attention Span Theater?) Jerry Seinfeld before
Seinfeld. Jeanine Garofalo, Ray Romano, Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Maher, Liz Winstead, and dozens of others before they had their own shows or became writers for well-known shows. We watched them all as grainy clips from Evening at the Improv or the A-List or the Half Hour Comedy Hour. We watched
SCTV and
The State and
Almost Live and
In Living Color and
The Kids In The Hall and
Who's Line Is It Anyway? Last Comic Standing is the reality show answer to stand up comedy. I'm watching it as it's slowly becoming available on hulu. I know the end has happened already but I don't want to know who wins (so if you know, don't say anything!) My favorites are Jeff Dye and Iliza Schlesinger. They are The Supercutie and The Girl, which doesn't hurt my pulling for either of them, but more importantly, they also both totally crack me up. Jeff's bit on taking Ecstasy at the gym is
hilarious. It doesn't surprise me that he lists Brian Regan as an influence at all. Iliza 's cuts on empty headed girly-girls are smart, immaculately timed, and tempered with just enough poking fun at herself to not edge over into cruelty. The other comics don't seem to like them very much, so I kind of fear they won't stay in it to the end, but I hope they do.
