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Last Comic Standing 7: The semifinals, Part One

Someone decided it was hot enough in here to buy some ice cream treats, stay home, and get giggly with it tonight. OK. Fine. It was so hot in NYC today that my brain obviously isn't working, so maybe the mush of the TV will make everything right in the world again. Either that, or Craig Robinson and a kitty cat will tell me it's time for the first part of the semifinals of season seven of NBC's Last Comic Standing. Finally we're getting somewhere. UPDATED: Now with video clips!

Are you ready for your first semifinalist, Myq Kaplan? I put the comma in the wrong place there, because he is more than ready, he is already done because this was a taped performance. Don't call in with your votes just yet. Kaplan is feeling bookish this evening, telling us about books, movies, and movies about books. Kaplan also is the first, at least if we're presuming they haven't edited the placement here, to have to deal with the hyped-up live audience at the Alex Theater in Glendale, Calif. Judges Andy Kindler, Natasha Leggero and Andy Kindler all have nice things to say about Myq Kaplan. Kindler says Kaplan "absolutely killed" which means he lost the pool? "I can't think of a funnier line in comedy than Brad Pitt is in this book." And we're getting judges notes, as if it really is going to be the American Idol version of LCS. Then again, we did hear judges give notes to comedians during the semis in previous seasons, so maybe it's just time for a commercial break. Any predictions? I have one!

Jamie Lee is up next, and she admits backstage that she is terrified about being seen by millions on the TV. Too late! You're on TV! Lee gets whoops from audience members when she says she's originally from Texas, but wants to joke about her model roommate in NYC. Lee also mentions dating a comedian, and knowing it's bad when even their inside jokes were bombing. (Note: Lee already has told me that her jokes about her comedian ex are not really about her comedian ex, for those of you who were thinking about someone specific just then). Leggero says Lee has "huge potential," while Giraldo says it wasn't her best set. Based on these notes, you could swap them out with Idol, couldn't you? You could. You could.

Mike DeStefano wants to be so good, the audience sets the place on fire. I'm not sure that would actually be a good thing, but it makes for a soundbite. DeStefano jokes about how everyone in his neighborhood was Italian, including the old Chinese guy and the young black kid. Did you know that Italians shrink and get mean when they get old? This audience is so hot, they're hooting and handing out applause breaks for everything. DeStefano keeps saying "thank you, thank you" like a politician trying to get back to his stump speech. Because he wants you to know how he deals with pretty ladies. Kindler finds him "hilarious" and could not criticize any portion of his set. "And you have screamers," Leggero added. She asks about his Jesus tattoo, and DeStefano corrects her: "It's Jim Caviezel."

Mr. Zed: Robot Comedian of the future since before Y2K? Watch him on "Regis and Kathie Lee" in 1993

When you and I saw "Mr. Zed" show up Monday night on NBC's Last Comic Standing as the "Robot Comedian of the future," it was rather easy to dismiss his audition as just another lark. Judge Greg Giraldo quipped, "Is this a character that you're doing?"

How's this for an understatement?!?!

Not only is "Mr. Zed" a character that David Kirk Taylor has been doing, but it's an alter ego he developed two decades ago and has been entertaining audiences with, both here but even more over in Italy, ever since, performing for the Pope and the president. Here he was back in 1993 with Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford. Taylor starts to talk more like a human toward the end of the interview, but I've got to hand it to this robot for staying in character for so many years. Roll the clips.

Last Comic Standing 7: The NYC auditions, Part Two

In real life, maybe you audition a few months ago for a comedy competition that's going to be televised everywhere in America and beyond. Maybe your audition goes well. Maybe it goes well enough that you get asked to perform again at a live audience showcase, and then that goes well enough that you receive a red-ticket envelope to perform again in Hollywood. So maybe, just maybe, you're excited to see yourself on television and so are your friends, family and loved ones. So what happens when you and they turn on the TV and, an hour later, are wondering, did we and they blink and miss you? Hold that thought.

Because we're living by TV producers' rules. And in Last Comic Standing's seventh season, even when they say it's not business as usual, it's still show business. Last week, they edited the New York City auditions together to allow some comedians to get better treatment than they should have, while putting others in the background to tease you. What's doing for round two in NYC?

Well, first, host Craig Robinson tells us what happened previously on LCS, which was that nine comedians received tickets to the semifinals. Wait a minute! Nine??? That cannot be right, no matter how you edit it, because they let 12 people through on the night I watched live and in person, and apparently another 12 in the other showcase, so already, you and I know that there are going to be some comedians who were happy a few months ago, but who are going to be much less happy tonight.

Cue the actual and the artificial tension!

Brian McKim -- for people born before the Y2K bug wiped out the first version of the Internet, you may know him as "The Male Half" of Shecky Magazine -- gets the first uncredited one-liner of the evening, followed by a montage of comedians we should expect to be seeing later in the hour. By the way, if anyone has been watching all of the pre-season promos, Robinson is sneaking in his proposed catchphrase mantra for the season: "Be about it!"

We officially start the night off with Jerry Rocha, from Dallas, who says he has been a professional stand-up for eight years, and vows to hug anyone and everyone if he doesn't advance. He jokes with the judges about his racist uncle who doesn't quite get racial jokes. Our judges are given the superimposed title of "Comedy Jurist" this evening, which sounds much more foreboding than before, when they were judges. Now they're judges and jury? Me no get it. But me still likey Andy Kindler, Natasha Leggero and Greg Giraldo, so me no stop recapping. Calise Hawkins apparently is from Illinois (I know her as a Jersey girl, where she lives now, while you simply know her as a single mother with a big Afro!), and she takes us into her home with her daughter, and how adorable are they? Kindler isn't a big fan of her material about a homeless guy on the subway, but he and Giraldo both think she's a good performer, and Leggero enjoyed it, so Hawkins gets another chance to perform. Mike Vecchione jokes about his New York City cop look, and I know and you know and we know that he is funny, and even Leggero, who happened to see Vecchione the other night at the Comedy Cellar agrees. Who wants a pretzel?

Zed is the future of stand-up comedy? Somebody better tell Ron Lynch about this competing comedy robot. "Is this a character you're doing?" Giraldo asks. A woman has a whip on the sidewalk. For some reason. Kindler talks about clowns and jugglers, and jokes about all comedians starting out as novelty acts. You remember Lenny Bruce the sword swallower, right? Kindler prefers seeing a comedian sweat. Take that, deodorant ad!

Kyle Grooms doesn't have to worry about that. He did an Obama impersonation in the early TV ads for this season, and he does it for the judges, too. Giraldo says he is not a fan of impersonations but knows that that's not a big part of Grooms' act, so no worries. He's through.

Last Comic Standing 7: The NYC auditions, Part One

OK, comedy fans. We're back with the first (of how many? of how many???) episodes from the New York City auditions, and after some more glimpses of Tommy Johnagin and a naked Andy Ofiesh, here's Craig Robinson strolling down the sidewalk of West 23rd Street on his keytar with judges Andy Kindler, Natasha Leggero and Greg Giraldo, plus wannabes in tow. Who here wanna be?

Alycia Cooper from Maryland is our first billed auditioner. She made Giraldo laugh with her jokes about D.C.'s horrible sports teams, but she is adding tags that he and the other judges do not condone. She moves on to the night showcase nevertheless. Our first featured contestant of the evening, however, is Mike DeStefano who shows us his fellas in the Bronx to bust his chops and deliver some classic stereotypical Bronx gruff and stuff. "Hey Mikey, if you win, what's in it for us?" I've told you about DeStefano before. I will be telling you more about him in the future. His jokes about dealing with a potential agent show off his style and personality and the crew loves him as much, perhaps more, than the judges did.

Kevin Bozeman of Chicago said he is pro-life except for two times. Jamie Lissow jokes about not getting the NY Times crossword. New Yorker Claudia Cogan jokes about wanting to be a nasty stripper, while I wonder when she'll reply to my email from months ago. They are all part of a montage of yes votes for the showcases, and there is Elon James White brunching hard but not getting his name on camera. Andy Ofiesh, on the other hand, got almost all of himself on camera since he went onstage without any clothes on. Of course, readers here (or people who have been to a Naked Comedy Showcase show in Boston, NYC or Edinburgh in the past few years) knows Ofiesh is an avowed nudist and comedian. All we see and hear, however, is the judges not being happy seeing all of Ofiesh and he kicks off the night's first montage of horribleness.

Kurt Metzger says he has done comedy for 11 years and wonders about performing for three people, especially when at least one of them works with him regularly at the Comedy Cellar. No need to wonder, since Metzger is moving to the showcase.

And we're back. Robinson walks out to inspect the line of crazies. I also inspected this line outside Gotham Comedy Club the night beforehand. Want to see that?

Tommy Johnagin invites the cameras into his hotel room(?) to watch him write his jokes on toilet paper. Johnagin jokes about how women suck for asking him about keeping track of the one time he had sex. Kindler jokes that he feels threatened by Johnagin's humor.

Todd Catalano brought his mullet across the bridges and tunnels from New Jersey, and guess what, he is Italian. Guess what, Giraldo isn't sure if he was laughing with Catalano's insults about women, and this kicks off a montage of stereotypical Italian New Yorker shtickery.

Jamie Lee from Dallas says she quit her corporate job to pursue stand-up (and it was a job with Comedy Central where she had to deal with people like me!) and if you saw the ads of the past week, you already saw her running with joy after whatever the judges said. Giraldo said she felt "still pretty new" to him, which is absolutely correct, and all three of the judges would like to see her perform in front of an actual audience.

When we return from commercial...

Last Comic Standing 7 is selling tickets to see its finalists on tour, before we even know who they are

If you're one of the 10 finalists in season seven of NBC's Last Comic Standing, and you know who you are (as do I and other comedy sleuths, though the final 10 won't be revealed for a couple of weeks yet), and if you feel good about your chances on making the final five or so, then perhaps you want to start keeping fall and winter dates open on your schedule.

Because Ticketmaster already is selling tickets to the next NBC's Last Comic Live Tour?!

Dates include Sept. 10 at the Warfield in San Francisco, Sept. 11 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, Sept. 12 at the Grove in Anaheim, Calif., Sept. 19 in San Diego, Oct. 1 at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, Oct. 2 at the Theatre at Westbury, N.Y., Oct. 8 in Waukegan, Ill., Oct. 14 at the Nokia Theatre Times Square in New York City, Oct. 16 in Glenside, Penn., Oct. 22 in Portland, Ore., and all the way to Jan. 14, 2011 in Englewood, N.J.

Now, sure, people buy tickets all the time for a comedy club to "go see comedy" without knowing who the headliner is, but this is on another level entirely!

Last Comic Standing 7: The Los Angeles auditions

And so it begins again. Two years since we last left NBC's Last Comic Standing with an abrupt five-person finale, the show has returned to us, reborn with a new host (Craig Robinson), new judges (Andy Kindler, Natasha Leggero and Greg Giraldo) and a new promise to focus firmly and seriously on the business of comedy. Do they mean it this time?

For one thing, it's more than entirely possible that we already have seen this year's winner on TV before. By we, I mean the collective we and not just the you and me we, although that's also true -- Oui! Oui! -- because by taking comedy seriously, the producers already have made it clear that even though all of our contestants could be called up-and-coming and even aspiring, they are by no means rookies. When LCS first hit network TV in 2002 as comedy's version of American Idol meets Survivor, the bounty of a televised stand-up comedy special and development deal meant so much more for the field of participants. In 2010, so many more half-hour specials, late-night slots and cable showcases have given stand-ups a chance to grab a TV credit or two or more. So much so that as we, in real-time, already have our 10 finalists, we know that many of them are in this game for a lot more than a half-hour TV special. They're here for primetime network TV exposure on a regular weekly basis, the national theater tour that's sure to follow for the final five, and fame, fortune.

But first. We open Craig Robinson playing the keyboard and singing about the show's return, to reveal the Hollywood Improv and contestants behind him, as we saw in one of last week's teaser videos. Then we get the first montage of our judges as well as many quick looks at comedians, including a sneak peek at a naked Andy Ofiesh. Andy Ofiesh! Each of the judges gets an introduction, which is nice and also weird since they are peers or idols of the contestants. Giraldo gets a clip from his 2009 DVD special, while Leggero gets meta with a clip mocking reality TV competitions from Leno, and Kindler is even more meta as Robinson specifically credits Kindler for "The Hack's Handbook."

Our first contestant featured at the Hollywood Improv is Maronzio Vance. He says he auditioned way back in season two, and his first joke is about the woes of living in a studio apartment. Kindler gives him props for playing to the production crew, and they go at it. "We will see you tonight!" Kindler says. We will see him again, yes indeed. Our second featured contestant is Felipe Esparza, who shows us his apartment and friends in Los Angeles before we see him telling jokes. "What do you guys think? More? Less?" Giraldo says he knows how funny Esparza is, but thinks his audition set didn't showcase him fully, and he makes it to the night showcase despite getting a no from Leggero. "These guys pushed you through," she says. How far will they push him through, you may be asking?

And then there's a guy with a guitar and a red devil outfit. He wants to call himself my professional clown name, so even before the judges say no, I say NO! A KISS something or other. Other nuts. A guy who opened by saying, "No joke." Interviews with the longshots standing on the sidewalk for hours, with Robinson telling them eternal truths such as NBC giving the prize to Jay Leno.

And we're back to actual comedians, with Kirk Fox. We saw him in a teaser video, too, although here we see him surrendering during his routine. No surrender, though! He makes it through to the night showcase.

Our next featured contestant is Laurie Kilmartin, whom I think of as a NYC comedian but is listed here as a Walnut Creek, Calif., resident, showing us her new home with her son, talking about being a single mom and stand-up comedian. Now here she is onstage joking. And the judges like what they see. Hmmm. We are less than 20 minutes into the show, and already this much good news? They are trying to win us over early, it appears.

In the first running non-sequitur bit of the series, Giraldo sets up Kindler by giving him more time to come up with wardrobe suggestions for Kilmartin (whom, fun fact, seemed to wear the same outfit in her backstage and onstage appearances; and even funner factor, has been someone I knew about from when I first started in comedy in Seattle in the 1990s because her headshot stood out from the others along the wall of the Comedy Underground), and then we see him testing the confidences of several other comedians, starting with Renee Gauthier (in an unbilled cameo) and going through several others. "I want you to wear your hair up AND down," he tells one woman.

Watch a new Last Comic Standing teaser, semifinal action this week in Los Angeles

I'm in New York City, so I can only tell you half of the season seven story of Last Comic Standing with firsthand knowledge, but I almost don't want to tell you how much I know already. You've figured out by now, if you've been looking for intel, that I didn't post names of any of the 48 people to make it to the semifinal rounds, which will tape tonight and tomorrow night in Los Angeles. For now, let me just say that at least half of the semifinalists already are veteran feature and headliner acts with TV credits, so that bodes well. We'll have to see how they winnow down the field, and what they do with the finalists.

Apparently, you can still ask for tickets to find out who those people are, at both Last Comic Standing tapings at the Alex Theater in Glendale.

And NBC has released this new teaser featuring footage from the initial auditions and callbacks at Hollywood last month. The show returns June 7. Roll the clip!

Scenes from outside Gotham, Bryson Turner, #67 in line for auditions for NBC's Last Comic Standing

As I scanned the line outside of Gotham Comedy Club overnight, with several hours still remaining before NBC production staff for Last Comic Standing would arrive to open the doors for the "open call" auditions for season 7, I was surprised to see Bryson Turner walking toward me.

You see, the last time I was face-to-face with Turner, we were sitting in the green room of the Cap City Comedy Club, minutes after he had won the "Funniest Person in Austin" contest last May. You can see that here and now (or whenever). I wasn't expecting to see him sitting (and perhaps sometime soon, sleeping) on the sidewalk or right lane of West 23rd Street. He said he was naively aware that he could have gone about this process differently, as he watched other comedians he knew go in and out of the club Saturday afternoon, and see them see him and have that moment of surprising recognition. Could he have gotten an appointment? Perhaps. But he seemed to be OK with his plight for now. And as he told me, he already has his bags packed for Detroit, where he is headed Monday to perform in a showcase for Laugh Detroit (aka the 3rd annual Detroit Comedy Festival) hosted by Lewis Black.

So at least he has that to look forward to, no matter what happens for him today in NYC. Here is a portion of our chat from this evening outside of Gotham. Roll it!

And here is a recent clip of Turner actually performing stand-up.

Scenes from the line outside Gotham, 8 hours before auditions for NBC's Last Comic Standing

After catching a couple of comedy shows and a comedy-community birthday party, I swung by Gotham Comedy Club at 1 a.m. to see what kind of line had formed outside for the "open call" auditions for NBC's Last Comic Standing, season 7. Turns out the line, which had only a handful the first time I checked it two nights earlier, had snaked back and forth along the sidewalk and along one lane of West 23rd Street, with the addition of multiple portable toilets. From the anecdotal evidence, half of this line had formed just since noon Saturday.

Auditions begin Sunday morning for the general public, although I learned that several professional stand-up comedians actually did their initial auditions on Saturday and received callbacks for Sunday night's showcase. There's also a callback showcase on Monday night. Anyhow. Would you like to see the "slice of life" outside of Gotham earlier this evening? Roll the clip!

Scenes from the line outside Gotham, 60 hours before auditions for NBC's Last Comic Standing

On may way into Gotham Comedy Club last night to see a show, I saw a half-dozen people sitting along the sidewalk inside parade barricades. They couldn't be. No. Not already? Yes. Already. The "open call" auditions for NBC's Last Comic Standing 7 happen at Gotham on Sunday. But a guy named Angelo from Sicily, Italy (by way of his extended family in Queens) had set up a tent outside the club as early as 5 p.m. Tuesday.

I came back outside at about 9:30 p.m. last night and thought I'd find out who these aspiring comedians were, who were willing to sit in line for another 60 hours -- making it a total of 112 hours for Angelo, at least -- all for a two-minute audition. As I told them, the odds are overwhelmingly against them. But still they come. From Birmingham, Ala., from D.C., and points around the country, they come here for their big break in comedy. What struck me was how most of them were relative newbies to stand-up. At least they'll get noticed, right? But will it be worth it? Time will tell. And the weather is great. So their relative suffering/enjoyment quotient also is lower. So they've got that going for them.

(Note: YouTube is being weird/slow today -- March Madness, anyone? -- but if you go to The Comic's Comic YouTube page, you can see the video below. If you have problems seeing the video below, that is.)

Oh, here is that video Angelo was showing me of himself dancing in his long johns if you want to see it.

Earlier: Last Comic Standing 7 audition information, tips and notes.

Related: The show's site for NBC's Last Comic Standing.

Last Comic Standing 7's judges for the Hollywood auditions: Another promising sign?

Producers for Last Comic Standing's return promised that this seventh season would be different. Comedians who showed up for the Hollywood auditions over the weekend had two minutes to impress an empty room, save for the TV crew and three judges: Andy Kindler, Greg Giraldo and Natasha Leggero. How's that for different?

There's one more showcase showdown tonight at the Hollywood Improv.

New York City auditions happen March 21 at Gotham Comedy Club, with callback showcases March 21-22.

Related: More of that information.

Last Comic Standing returns: Season 7 auditions, a June premiere, and advice from a former winner

Are you ready for the seventh season of Last Comic Standing? Dozens of would-be comedians already are, judging by the Tweets I'm reading from Chucklemonkey, who already is in line outside of the Hollywood Improv. Wait. Don't the auditions take place tomorrow? Yep. But as of four hours ago, Chucklemonkey told us there were at least 45 aspiring comedians in line at Hollywood. Yikes.

If you follow Last Comic Standing on Facebook, you can learn some "helpful" tips. Not helpful enough to tell you that you'll have a much better shot if you have an agent and manager who can negotiate a scheduled appointment for you, and even better if you're repped by Barry Katz and New Wave, since they're behind the scenes of LCS. Which also means that even though LCS is only holding open calls in Hollywood and New York City, New Wave presided over local comedy showcases in recent months in both Chicago and Boston, so some stand-ups there already have gotten an initial look-see for the show.

Among the tips from LCS: Auditions run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (March 6 in Hollywood, March 21 in NYC), with no guarantee on how many people the "judges" will see. No parking. Bring a picture ID and proof of U.S. citizenship. There's lots of paperwork to fill out. You get two minutes for your initial audition. You must be at least 18 years old. And if you get passed through to the showcase, those are happening March 7-8 at the Improv in Hollywood, and March 21-22 at Gotham in NYC. Check those club links or Laugh Stub if you want to be in the audience for those showcases and watch the sausages get cooked. The series will return to NBC airwaves with new host Craig Robinson on Monday, June 7, with episodes penciled in through the summer at 9 p.m. Mondays.

In the meantime, former LCS winner John Heffron wants to sell you on his new program, called Perfect State University, which purports to put you in the "perfect state" to perform each and every time you get onstage, whether it's a comedy club show, a one-nighter hell gig, or a big audition. Heffron explained to me: "The big thing I want to get across is IT'S NOT A MOTIVATIONAL tape. Just some easy stuff to help with nerves before stage. I'm not a guru :) just tying to give back a little, that's all." All for the low, low price of $20-$27.

Well, let him explain it himself with his "mind coach" Andy.

NBC taps Craig Robinson as new Last Comic Standing host, modifies audition dates

NBC and producers of "Last Comic Standing" announced a new host late Friday in Craig Robinson from NBC's "The Office" and films such as Pineapple Express, Knocked Up, and the soon-to-be released Hot Tub Time Machine. In a separate email, producers for the seventh season also noted they had changed the dates for their two open calls --- LA: March 6th at the Hollywood Improv, and NYC: March 21 at the Gotham Comedy Club.

The casting of Robinson as host is more than a little bit intriguing. The guy has comedic and musical stage chops, but doesn't seem like the sort to do the traditionally mechanical hosting duties we see out of reality TV competition hosts, LCS or otherwise. Considering earlier hints that this season may focus more seriously on good stand-up, well, I'm certainly looking to see how they reload LCS for thus summer's run.

I repeat: NBC's Last Comic Standing returns for season 7! March auditions in NYC and LA

I'm surprised that nobody in the mainstream media decided to pick up on my report from Jan. 20 that NBC's Last Comic Standing is returning after a year hiatus for season seven this summer. Maybe they were all too focused on Leno and Conan to notice?

So let me repeat it with additional information. Yes. Last Comic Standing 7 will be on NBC this summer, with live in-person auditions limited to New York City and Los Angeles.

Lest you need further proof, visit the show's official NBC home, which I said needed an update -- and lo and behold, it now forwards you directly to the casting information that I already gave you. Last Comic Standing 7 also has its own Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages.

Don't ask me to get you a place on the show. Ask the LCS people themselves. As they indicated in their initial email to me, and also on the NBC casting page:

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you can submit your act electronically to [email protected]. You still must attend one of the auditions for the chance to appear on the show.

They told me and industry people that they're looking to focus less on the "house" and "challenges" this year to be more about the stand-up comedy. That's a good sign. On the other hand, I did spy this posting on a reality-TV casting site that indicates the early audition episodes still will feature just as many "zany" idiots -- a la American Idol's audition episodes and past LCS seasons -- as they will professional stand-ups. More news when I have it for you!

Last Comic Standing is back! Season 7 auditions in March!

The rumors are true, and you didn't have to look at NBC's spring and summer schedule to see this was going to happen...Last Comic Standing is coming back out of the network's retirement bin for season 7 sometime later in 2010 (most likely summer).

The show has announced open calls for both Los Angeles and New York City -- and ONLY those two cities. Talent scouts for the show told me today that they're going to make it even more competitive this go-around, and are "looking for the cream of the crop." So if you really think you're funny enough to be telling jokes in a primetime network TV contest, be forewarned.

You'll have two minutes at each of the preliminary auditions...

MARCH 6 or 7, 2010 (TBD):  LOS ANGELES, CA IMPROV COMEDY CLUB

MARCH 14, 2010: NEW YORK, NY GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB 

Please send your electronic submissions to lcs7submissions AT gmail DOT com. Please include name, contact info, and your audition city, as well as any questions.

Last Comic Standing last aired on NBC in 2008, with its finale the night before the Summer Olympics (coincidence that it's coming back after the Winter Olympics?). And its web page is still stuck in 2008 (complete with a promo for the ill-fated American remake of Kath and Kim!). Be on the lookout for an update in the very near future. No word yet on whether Bill Bellamy or Fearne Cotton will return as hosts yet, either.

The end for NBC's Last Comic Standing?

NBC unveiled its summer slate of TV programming for 2009 today, and Last Comic Standing is nowhere to be found. Not on the schedule. Not on NBC's home page. Not on NBC's page of upcoming shows. The show page remains stuck in time in August 2008. Normally, we'd already be knee-deep in the nationwide auditions for aspiring stand-up comedians, and this year, we have heard nary a peep from the producers or any of the comedy clubs about auditions. A source at the network told me a month ago that no decision had been made yet, despite an announcement made before season six that there would be a seventh season. So, this is it The NBC message board for the show has been placed in its "vault" for shows no longer airing on NBC, and my source told me this afternoon there are no plans to pick up the show. Do you miss it? Or do you think this showcase for stand-up comedy was mercifully put out of its national misery? Should another network take up the cause for aspiring comedians?

Where are they now: Jeff Dye, Iliza Shlesinger

You saw that title and perhaps said to yourself, "Where are they now? More like, who are they again?" That's because it was only a few months ago that Iliza Shlesinger was winning NBC's Last Comic Standing and Jeff Dye was finishing in third place. Maybe you watched, maybe you didn't. Well, Dye sent out this video message to his fans over the weekend to let them know how he's dealing with it all.

Tickets for the LCS tour? Check availability after the jump...

Iliza Shlesinger joins Jubilee show, Aug. 24-27

The Las Vegas Sun reports today that Iliza Shlesinger will claim part of her Last Comic Standing prize next week, joining the cast of Donn Arden's Jubilee! at Bally's Las Vegas from Aug. 24-27. And no, she won't be topless, you perverts. She'll be the stand-up comedian among the showgirls. Why such a short stint? Because she's joining the other four finalists on a nationwide tour starting Aug. 29, that's why.

I caught up with Shlesinger this afternoon to find out what she has been up to, and this was her reply via email:

I've been going up twice a night every night since the last show, sort of polishing any jokes that needed work. Las Vegas will be relaxing and a ton of fun. Quite frankly, I wish I could come back home and do more spots in the Original Room at the Comedy Store -- that place is a fantastic training ground.

Everyone keeps making an issue out of the fact that Shlesinger is the first female comedian to win LCS. Louis Ramey took issue with the show in an interview he did last week, saying his fans were more likely to DVR and TiVo the show, rather than watching it live. On the show, cameras captured Ramey trying to get his fellow male comedians to keep Shlesinger off camera. He told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: "It's the show's sixth year and they never had a woman win," Ramey said. "Through the whole life of the show, they kept saying 'A woman has never won. Could it be Iliza?' That's when I went, 'That sounds too planned; we have to get rid of Iliza.' So I pulled the other guys aside (during the second elimination round) and said, 'We've got to stop voting for Iliza.'" In the Desert News, meanwhile, reporter Scott D. Pierce said Marcus was the real winner, and only lost because he split the male vote. Shlesinger defended herself in a recent conference call with reporters, saying “I think to a lot of people it means a lot of different things,” she said during a conference call with reporters. “But for me, I’m just Iliza and I won. I’m a comedian that won. The female thing I can’t comment on because I just don’t feel that in my heart.”

I asked her about this, too, and her response to the whole debate? "Who cares, really?" She continued:

I'm a comedian and I happen to be a women. While I realized that it's not so cut and dry for most people- I can't do anything but be honest. I didn't win this show for any other reason than I worked the hardest and earned it. I performed every week and never ran out of material and consistently delivered good stuff. Funny is funny and America got that.

Related: Tickets to the Last Comic Standing live tour are available via Ticketmaster here or here for most dates.

Last Comic Standing 6: Who really won?

Who really won the sixth season of Last Comic Standing? Hint: It's not a trick question. First off, anyone who missed the initial broadcast on NBC last week due to football can find it replayed this week on the Fox Reality Channel (check your listings) on Tuesday and Thursday, and on Bravo on Friday. It should make it onto Hulu.com someday, too.

I caught up with the finale over the weekend. And, um, what? God's Pottery got to open the show with a special song that really was an ode to the Olympics, and that only made me think, what did they do four years ago during the last Summer Olympics? Right. That was "season three," the year they brought back the first two seasons of stand-ups and didn't air the finale on NBC. So off to a good start! (Not really) Having Joel McHale and Triumph the Insult Dog on hand to mock the finalists only served to take them down a peg, which is not exactly how you want to feel about your favorite comedian. Why is Iliza's dad clapping after they show her in a bikini? Argh. Having last year's champ, Jon Reep, also reminded us that in past years, we've actually gotten to see and hear more stand-up comedy in previous seasons. What happened this summer? Outside of Iliza Shlesinger, the only finalist to compete in elimination challenges, we barely heard from the others. When Reep won (and Josh Blue and others before them), they appeared live -- live! -- for several weeks performing stand-up to a national audience. Which means it's not a surprise who won...

Iliza Shlesinger! $250,000, a new car, development deal with NBC, slot on Jubilee show in Vegas, yes that's called a solid victory. You don't need to believe in conspiracy theories to see how she won this season, as the producers showcased her both onstage and offstage as much as possible -- and certainly more than any of the other finalists. And in a five-way vote, she had the definite advantage. Have I mentioned yet how severely odd it was to crown a champion in a five-way vote? That's how NBC and the producers wanted to roll this year, though. LCS has its first female winner, and she is only 25. Though the show hasn't turned any of its previous five winners into big stars yet, that only means that Shlesinger doesn't have a high bar of expectations to cross, and whether or not she turns this title into a huge stand-up career, her presence and voices will draw interest from NBC and other networks in creating screen roles for her.

The final five all are winners, as the rest of their 2008 is booked with a nationwide club, theater and casino tour that begins Aug. 29 and doesn't end until Jan. 31, 2009. The 62-city, 63-date tour is listed under several different names on Ticketmaster (Note to Ticketmaster: Stop that! Consolidate!), but you can find the dates here.

A surprise winner was Brit Lady, aka Fearne Cotton. Yay, Fearne! Though kept on the sidewalks in the early episodes, and then trapped in a car for Last Comic Driving, then almost disappeared entirely, she returned big-time by the finale, proving to be a more friendly and appealing host than the host himself (that was Bill Bellamy). She could be the Cat Deeley of Last Comic Standing if only the producers could figure out how to have this show hosted -- ever since Jay Mohr left, it's been a ragtag missionary position. Ahem. Not that Bellamy has been bad, but he has been more bluster than luster, more about shouting for our attention than about endearing us to him and the show. Whereas Cotton makes us care. More Brit Lady, please!

Sean Cullen. Even if his onstage songs didn't win over America, he actually was the funniest guy on the show this season, through his many asides and on-camera confessionals throughout the program. Like Doug Benson the year before him, Cullen made the most of every moment he appeared on TV, and producers loved giving him the airtime. The comic relief on a show that supposedly honors comedy. So Cullen should get some more TV offers out of this.

Marcus. Made himself known for impersonations, so much so that he tried to avoid them altogether in some of his showcase performances (including the finale!). But viewers and Playmates alike have loved his many voices, even the ones that were voices of other comedians. And the club circuit always has room for an impersonator or two, and with Frank Caliendo busy on his TBS sitcom and Darrell Hammond heading back to work on SNL, that means more gigs for Marcus!

Jeff Dye. His aw shucks demeanor and neon shirts won him many new fans over the past few months. Was it only a month ago that Dye was a New Face in Montreal (yes, yes it was, and so too, was Shlesinger, so what does that tell you!)? The nationwide LCS tour will allow him to build his fan base even more, and give him a chance to prove he deserves more stage time. Dye is only 25. Lots of potential. If Barry Katz has his way, he'll turn Dye into the next Dane Cook, or at least the next Gary Gulman. Either way, he'll be an even bigger hit on college campuses in the year to come, and likely move up to headliner status at bigger venues, too. Just like Gulman did after 2004's LCS appearances.

Louis Ramey. He finished fifth, apparently (we never heard the actual vote totals, mind you). But the veteran road comic dominated the NBC promos for the show and will get more work and better pay out of this TV exposure.

Whitney Cummings wins Last Comic Driving

If you missed last night's finale of Last Comic Standing, then you also missed the melodramatic conclusion of the ancillary Last Comic Driving contest, which forced 10 other stand-up comedians to tell jokes to paid actors while sitting cramped in a hot car without air conditioning, as nice Brit Lady Cotton Fearne read her lines over and over again. And comics had to tell jokes over and over again. But we did have a winner...Whitney Cummings! Cummings wins $10,000. A lucky viewer also would win a Honda Pilot. Congrats!