a rare post about TV

[spacebug]

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.

Comments

[azure-armand.livejournal.com]

Cool - I just checked out some of the bits from that show on YouTube. Iliza's a Supercutie and a Girl. Wasn't that Bill "booty call" Bellamy hosting? AJ Jamal is better. (remember comic justice?)

Let's resurrect our standup-watching tradition sometime. Maybe when I move back to MN.

[yaaren.livejournal.com]

The State... SCTV... Short Attention Span Theater! Ahhh... the good old days.

We got cable during the summer when I was either 10 or 11 and I became completely addicted to the Comedy Channel for *weeks.

I should probably check out Last Comic...

[pants-of-doom.livejournal.com]

Short Attention Span Theater!

[433.livejournal.com]

Ah, Short Attention Span Theater! I haven't thought of that in years.

I like Iliza a lot. I'm pulling for her because she's the last girl. One girl out of 12, yipes! Especially because there was another girl at the beginning who was funnier.

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

I think Iliza is funnier than Esther, but I think Esther just got voted for so much because she was so young and because her laugh was annoying, and not because she wasn't funny. They all seem to have a big axe about who's been doing comedy longer than whom.

[433.livejournal.com]

I was talking about the Wisconsin girl. She seemed like a girl version of Steven Wright by way of Fargo (the movie).

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

Oh! Mary Mack! Yeah, she was a favorite, too. I was thinking of just the post-Vegas finalists.

[nicholay.livejournal.com]

I often tell people that I was pretty much raised by stand-up comedians on Comedy Central and MST3K. It seems to explain a lot for some.