Obligatory Fanboi Post

I’ll be the one thousandth person to suggest that you have to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.  Joss Whedon, the creator of Firefly, has done it again.  In 40 minutes.  On the intertubes.

While you’re at it, if you’re like me, you’ll want to start watching the Heroes and The Office webisodes as well.

Last Comic Standing: Season 6, Episode 4

Alright, hopefully I will get this post finished the night the show airs for the first time. Maybe we can even make it a regular occurrence. I watch on Tivo, and tonight watching it mostly live made me realize how many commercials there are. So many! Also, the Incredible Hulk bugs during the show didn’t help with that problem. In any case, the comedy is probably worth the commercials, but if you don’t have a Tivo, I recommend it.

I don’t really understand the little box they put the comics in. I think they did it last season during the show for voting, but when they do it in the auditions nothing really funny ever happens in the booth. They show those short tiny montages but they are not very becoming, in my opinion. I think they should probably just drop it.

Okay, so this week we’re in Minneapolis first. Our judges are Kate Flannery and Brian Baumgartner from The Office. Did anyone else think that there was some sort of soft focus filter on the interviews with Kate Flannery? It was almost like a Barbara Walters thing. I found it jarring given how clear the comics are shown adjacent to the interview.

Dan Cummings made another vegetarian joke! He struck me at my very heart, talking about vegetarians who maybe sometimes cheat a little bit. Like the vegetarianism joke in Episode 2, I didn’t find it funny, but that doesn’t mean someone not offended by it wouldn’t. In any case, Cummings pretty much won me back at “Chocolate Squirrelador.” Maybe. We’ll see how he does in Vegas.

They ended up choosing three guys in Minneapolis. Is that the first time this happened? After next week’s final audition episode I’ll try to post a list of people going to Vegas so I can find out. As to who should have moved forward, while watching the episode and before they chose the winners here, I wrote down “Doug Mellard might win the whole thing. And I love his hair.” (These comedians and their MySpace!) I think I’m going to have to say that he should have moved through.

Then, we arrive in Nashville, where super-promoed judges George Wendt and John Ratzenberger preside over the scene. Some of the celebrity judges have a good rapport and others not too much. The Office actors in Minneapolis and the 30 Rock actors who presumably work together and know each other closely tended to have a better rapport, it seemed. You would think Norm and Cliff would have this also, but it seemed like it wasn’t really there. They may not have had time to show it, but the way they were hyping that pairing, I think they would have done so if they could have.

Mary Mack was so very cute! Is her accent real or is it a put-on? Either way it sells the act and I will root for her for quite some time if I can. It’s very strange, because all three of my favorite comedians from Nashville made it through and I don’t think that happened any other time. Erin Jackson, from my hometown of DC, was one and Dale Jones, with his high energy shrieking and bouncing off the walls, was the third. I was all ready to proclaim one of these people the comic who should have made it through. I had to go back and review who else was there to pick someone, which I think is a good sign. I’ll go with Pat Godwin. It was pretty bold that he could get to to the showcase solely by singing Bingo. And he deserved it, too!

There was only one duo this week, and it was, perhaps coincidentally, also the only act they decided to air that would have fit into their “worst auditions” sequence last week. Are Minneapolis and Nashville just behind the times? It seems like duos and trios are what’s fresh and new in the comedy world! It’s okay though, I’m down with the old school, especially when the judges choose correctly like they did here.

Next week is the international showcase! They’re actually pulling comics from countries where they speak other languages this year, which should be interesting. Last year, some of the best comics, including my pick for who should have won, Matt Kirshen, came from over the sea. I am looking forward to it!

All my last comic standing posts.

Last Comic Standing: Season 6, Episode 2

I’m running a little late on this one (well, a lot late), but I did finally get to it after coming home from Iowa. I think I should be all over this weeks episode the day it airs or the day after.

Anyway, this weeks episode included the auditions for Los Angeles and Houston. It was two hours long, instead of the hour and a half of the first episode, and I think that was merited. It makes sense that Los Angeles is one of the strongest towns to find comedians, and all of the folks they found there should have made it on.

I don’t know if it’s a general trend in the comedy community or just a quirk that this season the show is highlighting, but there were yet again duos who were given a voice on the show. Neither made it to the semi-finals, unlike last week, but one did make it to the audience audition. Dos Spanish Flies were pretty good, a little reminiscent of Tenacious D, in my opinion, and that’s a compliment in my book. Does anyone who is more versed in comedy know if duos are the new hotness?

I kind of want to understand more about how the editors and producers choose which comedians to highlight with their own special video introduction. It seems like the people who get them usually don’t move on very far, though not always. I wonder if these are people the producers think might be up and comers but who the judges aren’t particularly interested in. I also wonder whether they shoot those introductions before or after the comics perform before the judges.

The judges in Los Angeles were Oscar Nuñez and Angela Kinsey from The Office. I think they did a pretty decent job of picking the best out of this group, and a very good group it was. It seems like Oscar was a little more discerning than Angela, but they seemed to always come together and fundamentally agree. I think there were more good comics in the Los Angeles group than in the other three groups I’ve seen the auditions from combined.

Especially impressive in Los Angeles were the female comics. They should make a Last Comic Standing just for women and stock it with everyone who showed up to this audition. It was a beautiful sight. Two of them made it through, but the judges opted for a more diverse cast to fill out the selection.

To continue the tradition of pointing out which comics I think should have moved through but didn’t, I’m going to have to go with the ladies who didn’t make it. If I wanted to be consistent, I’d choose the card-carrying Star Wars geek, Jacob Sirof. But, I just loved these comics so much, I’m going to have to go with both Amber Tozer and Ruby Wendell. They just blew me away.

Los Angeles was so good that the show devoted 1:12 out of a 2:00 show, leaving only 0:48 for Houston. The hosts in Houston were Alfonso Ribeiro from Fresh Prince and Neil Flynn from The Fugitive and the new Indiana Jones movie (and, oh yeah, Scrubs). Houston also got the short shrift with only two comics moving on. I think this might have been justified, I only wish a few more from LA could have been selected.

One set from Houston that I didn’t identify with was Mark Agee’s. It might be that I identified with it too closely, as he spent the whole time making fun of vegetarians, of which I am one. Other than that, he seems like a funny enough guy, he just chose a topic that I found distasteful. Andi Smith, one of the winners in Houston, seemed really really familiar to me, and I don’t know where I’ve seen her. Apparently she’s been on comedy central a few times, so that could be it. The other winner, Bob Biggerstaff, made me laugh out loud consistently with his final set. I think it was the funniest of the first two episodes, and I hope he goes far.

It’s difficult to choose who should have moved on from Houston that didn’t get to. I think Danny Rios definitely has a character and a shtick that I can respect, so I will go with him. Apparently his MySpace page plays music, though, so watch for that if you’re at work.

Again, hopefully I can get this weeks episode watched and posted about a little earlier than I did the last two. This season seems to be shaping up to be pretty good, though of course you can never tell this early how it will look in the endgame. I think I will at least enjoy seeing the comedians who have made it through in the semi-finals.

All my last comic standing posts.