Last Comic Standing Review

Overall 3.00 of 5 view all 2 reviews

LauraBelle
South Elgin, IL

Missing Jay Mohr

Entertainment Writer, reality TV junkie

Pros

New comedy

Cons

No Jay Mohr, No segments of comics in the house

AUG

2007

These days we have reality TV contests for everything, all to find new talent. We have American Idol crowning new signers, So You Think You Can Dance crowning new dancers, America's Got Talent crowning best overall talent, etc. Last Comic Standing crowns new comics, but falters from the original idea a little more every year. This has to go back to them unceremoniously canning of show creator and host, Jay Mohr.

The first two years the show was on, Joy Mohr hosted, and it was very successful with his formula of finding the best comedic talent out there. After the initial auditions, the final ten were named and sent to live in a mansion together, and that was where the real fun began. The comedy that would flow between the comics in their everyday dealings with each other at the house was sometimes funnier than their standup routines. The most unique part was that the comics would find out their challenge every week from a card from one of those old fortune teller machines.

NBC got ahead of themselves, though, and after two successful seasons, scheduled an All Stars type of season within weeks of the end of season 2. Viewers seemed tired of it by then, and it didn't do so well. They never even finished the season. Sure, they crowned a winner, but it was done on cable TV instead of primetime, and Mohr was canned from the show he created. Fans feared the end of the show, but it came back last year with a new host, Anthony Clark, and the comics stayed on the QE2 instead of in a mansion. We got a great comic in winner Josh Blue, but the season lagged a little.

Now NBC comes back with the current season of Last Comic Standing and cans Clark and picks up Bill Bellamy as host. Gone is the mansion and QE2. There are virtually no scenes at all of these comics in the house, and they completely rushed through the eliminations, getting rid of five comics in three weeks. It's just not as fun as we aren't allowed to get to know the comics outside of who they are on stage or in their canned interviews with the camera. Also missing is the fortune teller machine.

Not that the comics aren't great, as they are, but they're pushed out the door so quick. I so wish that I'd gotten a chance to hear more from Debra DiGiovanni. I'm not even sure who was let go this week yet, as I've had the past few weeks sitting in my TIVO. I just wasn't all that concerned to keep up with it, but I'm really hoping Lavell Crawford will make it. There isn't anybody, though, that makes me laugh the way Josh Blue did last year, or Ralphie May the inaugural year of he show. It's just not the same.

It just isn't the same, and it just seems as if they have slowly destroyed Mohr's original concept, and to not have him on top of it, and not get to know the comics away from the stage, it just seems empty, like watching any other comic showcase on TV, except with comics we don't know.

Last Comic Standing is not recommended by LauraBelle

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Comments about LauraBelle’s Review

Very nice review!

LCS is a great concept and Jay Mohr had enough of a edge he really added something to the show as a host. Unfortunately the safest, blandest comics survive over the quirky original and edgier ones. I've watched every season. Anthony Clark was the worst dullest host I've ever seen. Bill Bellamy is a huge improvement but the format change I agree is problematic. Good review.