NBC's "Comic" Gets Dramatic

Wed., Jun. 23, 2004 4:25 PM PDT by Jennifer Godwin

The Last Comic Standing? No one knows.

The first comic booted? Bonnie McFarlane, the pretty blonde one, dumped Tuesday night.

The first comic standing up and walking out? Oh, that's Brett Butler.

Say what you will about Last Comic Standing, the reality talent competition for stand-up comics produced and hosted by Jay Mohr--and kicking ratings ass this summer on NBC--but don't say the show doesn't have drama to go with its comedy.

Brett Butler, the once-upon-a-time Grace Under Fire star, got all huffy about the 10 finalists named on Sunday night's episode, which was set at the Paris Hotel and Casino.

Although Mohr told reporters that seven of the 10 finalists were on all four judges' cards, it was the three debated slots that riled up Butler, who, along with fellow celeb judge Drew Carey, later spoke publicly about the controversy. Carey and Butler felt betrayed, believing that show producers, not the judges, got final say on the contestants.

Mohr explained that because all the judges didn't agree on those final three slots, the producers "have to choose behind closed doors [and decide] who was the funniest all the way through." In any case, Mohr said, "the judges' wishes were respected a lot more than they would like the public to believe."

Last Comic Standing awards an NBC talent contract and a half-hour Comedy Central special to the winner, who is allegedly the funniest person in America. Changes in this, the second season, permit the inclusion of non-amateurs--competitors can have appeared on late-night talk shows like The Tonight Show or The Late Show with Conan O'Brien--as well as a revised set of challenges, which are now restricted to comedy-related competitions, rather than random events like scavenger hunts.

Everyone who ever did an open-mike at the coffee house seems to have shown up to try out this year, as even last year's runners-up can take a funny LCS appearance to the bank. "Ralphie May's a millionaire, for cryin' out loud, from Last Comic Standing," said Mohr, also reporting that former contestants Rich Voss and Dave Mordal now make $10,000 per weekend for comedy appearances.

So, who are the nine comics still standing?

Detroiter John Heffron, who beat Bonnie McFarlane in the first LCS comedy battle with 94 percent of the vote, now stands at the top of the heap.
There's Jay London of Los Angeles, whom Jay Mohr describes as a "shtick comic." He offers up a Borscht Belt-style ba-dum-bump-bing humor.
London's alter ego might be tall, dark Bostonian Gary Gulman, a former college football player whose good looks earned him admiring comments from Brett Butler.
Ghetto fabulous Chicagoan Corey Holcomb already hates his roommate Ant, who is simply "fabulous, dahling." Ant made a splash last year as a finalist, and came back this year for a second shot. Look for a gay-ghetto smackdown between him and Holcomb.
L.A.'s Kathleen Madigan might seem too good for this show, with her crisp professionalism and sunny personality. Indeed, the petite redhead has been doing the comedy-club circuit for nearly 15 years and it shows in her deep and broad catalog of material.
Sicilian-American Tammy Pescatelli, a Cleveland native, can kick your ass and favors Mafia jokes. Long Islander Alonzo Bodden has already dipped his toe in the mass-media pool with appearances on Angel, Grounded for Life and Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue.
Philadelphian Todd Glass, who celebrity judge Colin Quinn intimated might have a "difficult" reputation on the comedy circuit, emphasizes his more spastic qualities and seems to enjoy writing and performing songs in the style of Friends' Phoebe Buffay.

Overall, "If you take 10 comics for 10 comics, this house is stronger than last year's house," said Mohr.

This house is also a lot cozier than last year's. And we don't mean the actual mansion--which is a cavernous, kitschy faux castle--we mean everybody already knows everybody, thanks to this year's pro-am competitors, many of whom have been in the club circuit for years. (For example, Corey won the first challenge and invited Kathleen to be his trip-to-Aspen buddy, not because they'd bonded on the show, because she was nice to him when he was just starting out.)

While the storylines play out for the rest of the summer as the funny folks jockey for the comedy crown, America's couch potatoes are apparently more than okay with the show's new structure. Last week's two Last Comic Standing episodes both placed in Nielsen's top 20, averaging about 10 million viewers apiece.

Because of the show's ratings success, NBC plans to rerun each episode, usually broadcast Tuesday at 9 p.m., on Wednesday at 8 p.m. through July 28.