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Last Comic Doesn’t Stand in Line
Last Comic Standing
I’m not whining.
In fact, I’m applauding the deception. Nobody wants to watch hacky comics do bad sets, and no unproven comic deserves to win a career on a game show. That being said, let me add this:
Shame on you, Last Comic Standing. Shaaaaaaaaaaaame on you!
As became clear in the last season of Last Comic Standing, the producers of the show are not interested in foisting unknown, unproven amateurs upon their audience. What they want are talented veterans who will deliver strong material week in and week out. I have no qualms with that.
In season one, they gave us Dat Phan, a lovable newbie who had ten fantastic minutes of material. After those ten minutes were used up, as Rich Vos so eloquently put it, “he’s not funny.”
Hilarious!
The format of Last Comic Standing Season One had Jay Mohr shaking his head on a weekly basis as Dat Phan used his tiny set of perfectly crafted jokes to pick off much more talented and prolific comics.
“Never again,” I can hear those producers whispering. “Never again.”
In subsequent seasons, you saw guys with more than ten years of experience under their belts. I saw Todd Glass headlining shows at the Hollywood Improv three years before his stint on Last Comic Standing.
But here’s the problem, Last Comic Standing wants to be the American Idol of comedy. They want to pretend that if you’re funny enough, they will pluck you out of obscurity and make you a star.
Oh, they’ll pluck you, alright.
They plucked me all night long.
Attention comics, there was no open casting call for Last Comic Standing. Did you hear that? There was NO OPEN CALL for Last Comic Standing.
Viable candidates for the TV show “Last Comic Standing” had separate auditions set up for them by their agents and managers. The show will be cast from this stable of talent, and America will get a terrific television program because of it.
“But Eric, I was at the L.A. audition and I saw a hundred wannabes get auditioned.”
I know you did. And those auditioners will not be picked to be in the Last Comic Standing house. A few of the absolute worst auditions will be shown on television to illustrate how bad open mic comedy can be, but that’s the extent of it.
The problem is…
It rained like a bastard at the open audition. No tarps or tents or umbrellas were provided for comics in line. The camera crew made the people in line jump around like trained seals from 8:00 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon.
Then, at 3:30 PM … the crew announced that only 100 of the 300 hundred comics in line would get to audition.
Aspiring (yet unsigned) comics had traveled from all over the country to Los Angeles for a two minute audition.
Sorry.
Comics who had camped out since early Friday night… were told to beat it. They weren’t needed.
No kidding.
Let me ask you a question? If a show was really interested in discovering talent, do you think they’d hold only two auditions in the whole country? Do you think they’d limit themselves to 100 possibilities?
There are 300 million people in this country.
Of course producers weren’t interested in casting anyone from the casting call. They just wanted to create the illusion that they are to comedy what American Idol is to music.
My problem is… one of the guys who didn’t get to audition was a guy in a wheelchair who’d spent the night on the sidewalk and the day in the rain.
My problem is… I met two girls who had driven almost all the way from Phoenix to L.A. before their car broke down in Rancho Cucamonga (they took a cab they couldn’t afford the rest of the way).
My problem is that Last Comic Standing host Craig Robinson did an on-camera interview with a guy AT THE END OF THE LINE (about what the guy was going to say in his audition) at 3:28. This was exactly two minutes before they told this guy and the 199 people in front of him that it was time to go home.
My problem is that Last Comic Standing abused the trust of aspiring comedians. Say what you will about the quality of the singing on American Idol, at least the auditioners get to sing for somebody, and the ones who make it come from the casting calls.
That being said, I’m looking forward to watching season 7 of Last Comic Standing. It will be populated with really good professional comedians. And I hope that by this time next year, I have an agent or manager who can get me a real audition.
10 Comments to “Last Comic Doesn’t Stand in Line”
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Yes, that’s Last Comic Standing for you!
you couldnt have explained it any better. And all these reasons are why i decided to skip the auditions. with the main reason being I knew its damn near impossible to make the show if you were one of the many standing in line
Here is the thing, the invite some great comics to be on the show, and still end up picking some of the worst comics in the competition to move on. Happens every year, it has very little to so with being funny, they are casting a tv show and need a few whit guys, few blacks, a few women, and most of them suck hard.
its a horrible show.
That’s why I only audition for So You Think You Can Dance.
Hey Jason, how dare you mock me! This column’s important (not like those trivial columns you write about the war)! Also, when is the next “So You Think You Can Dance” audition? Like most comics, I also krunk.
That guy in the wheelchair was me. We drove down from the Bay Area on Friday, and froze on the sidewalk until 8am when they came to pump us up for the crowd line shots. Actually bumped into a friend who had an appointment to audition @ 3:15, while it was supposed to be open call. One of the guys that did get to audition wouldn’t leave and got arrested and taken away, so that was fun to watch. That and the Veyron I saw in Beverly Hills were the highlights of the trip. I would have been great for the show though. I’m not saying I’m great, but I’m really good. Don’t believe me? Check out my youtube comicdrewonwheels It’s funny to me.
So you were that last guy in line?
(Insert Last Comic Sitting joke here)
no, I wasn’t the last one in line. I was in the first 150 or so. I got there @ 2AM. And yes, I get the sitting joke a lot. I want to get t-shirts that say “stand up my ass!” that or “f#ck standing”
How about, “Real comics sit down.”