Wow, that was the best episode of Last Comic Standing so far this season, right? Not only were the comics given appropriate time to do their sets, but they were each accompanied by intro videos that allowed them to be silly and express a few things about themselves. It's almost as if this is becoming an actual reality show now. I still don't quite understand why Craig Robinson—aka, the black Justin Bieber—is given so little to do, but I suppose unlike the other hosts, he's just a face of the franchise. Keep giving the comics these types of sets, and I won't care.
Six performed, even though all marketing materials for the show said there were only going to be five. Thus Rachel Feinstein had the distinct "honor" of being the sole castaway this time around. I like the Last Comic Standing farewell videos so much more than other shows, because these guys don't take the rejection all that seriously. There will be other opportunities, unlike those weirdos on Survivor.
On to the jokes and things:
- Jonathan Thymius: Though Greg Giraldo thought this was his weakest—and showing strain of joke writing—I thought this was one of his strongest sets. He put his weirdness out there and really stuck to it, giving it time to settle in. He joked about how he wanted to be a cowboy when he was a little kid, but he didn't want to be milked. It took me a minute to get it, but the laugh was all the merrier because it festered for those precious few moments. Natasha Leggero didn't like that bit, though—we were so tight last week, Natasha, I guess all good things must come to an end. Also, how perfect is it that Thymius works as, essentially, a living novelty greeting card?
- Roy Wood Jr.: Once again, the best set I've seen him do. He was way more willing to show off his playful side, like when he jokes about random people complaining to him about having one less McDonald's chicken nugget. This leads to the strangers talking about racism and a secret "nugget coalition." He needs to be whimsical more often.
- Myq Kaplan: He gets bonus points each week for being the only comic to consistently call back previous sets. His own was as disjointed as his previous ones, but I didn't seem to mind. Kaplan finds the oddest parts of each premise and doesn't feel the need to tag his jokes with a million tangents. He mentions that his phone's caller ID is simply a picture of his own face reacting to that person calling him, and that's the end of the premise. When he lets things breathe, like his last Final Destination bit, the twists are more surprising since the rhythm has been broken. Plus, Natasha Leggero really doesn't like him, eh? "You'd win if this was called Last Writer Standing" sounded like faint praise coming from her.
- Tommy Johnagin: He was doing it more earlier, but I'd love to see him really commit to his premises. He had a joke about things he knows about caring for babies, one of which is "don't feed them chocolate—which might be for a dog." The self-mockery came out of nowhere, and it stuck. The joke about the penis popping in a car? It stuck, too, for other reasons. But his material about pregnancy scares lacked the added twist to make it his own.
- Mike DeStefano: Man, I sure knew he'd be sticking around, right? He's my least favorite on the show because I still can't quite figure out what artistically he's bringing to stand-up comedy. He spoke about a wussy guy he overhears say he'd be dead without his BlackBerry—so he took his BlackBerry and threw him in front of a train, so he was dead. The joke is naked without DeStefano's gruff delivery, and that much is wearing very thin as time goes on.
- Felipe Esparza: This wasn't his strongest set—there wasn't much build—but he saved it all with a great joke that maybe stuck with me because I recently saw Inception: His kid comes in to wake him up, and his sexy dreams now contain his kid's whiny voice in the background. He also joked more about Latino stereotypes, though I'd love for him to really embrace the weird and veer away from that stuff.
Hmm…not sure what else to say about this one. Very solid all around. Not surprisingly, the fewer comics there are, the better platform the show becomes for each of them. Who woulda thought?