the comic's comic

J. Chris Newberg, Geechy Guy join Melissa Villasenor in top 48 of America's Got Talent 2011

If you appear on America's Got Talent and make it to Vegas Week, but they never identify you by name, then does it still count as a credit? While I wait for Nick Cannon to get back to me on that one on behalf of the three "comedians" who didn't make the cut, three other comedians did make it through to the top 48 who will be performing on the live shows for this summer's voting audiences.

Melissa Villasenor got fast-tracked by the judges to Hollywood along with a few other contestants with varied talents (including the more circus-y big-tent types), while J. Chris Newberg (at left) and Geechy Guy both received approvals following Vegas auditions.

And Newberg got to tell Piers Morgan: "Suck it."

Watch Melissa Villasenor's audition for NBC's America's Got Talent 2011

Melissa Villasenor, a "new face" in Montreal last summer who also has auditioned for Saturday Night Live, got a chance to showcase several of her celebrity impersonations on another NBC series, America's Got Talent.

Here is Villasenor on tonight's episode from the Seattle auditions, in which she calmly breaks out her best Barbara Walters, Natalie Portman, Miley Cyrus, Kathy Griffin, Christina Aguilera.

She did done good!

Review: First (or second) impressions of Montreal's New Faces at Just For Laughs 2010

Timing really can be everything. With this year's crop of New Faces at Montreal's Just For Laughs, that was most certainly the case on Wednesday night (aka the second of three nights for the two groups of hopeful stand-ups, but really the first (and maybe only) night to impress the agents, managers and comedy bookers arriving from New York City, Los Angeles and points beyond the Canadian border). It's more than just the timing of your jokes that matter. What time is your show: 7 p.m. or 9:15 p.m? Did your show start on time? Did you time it right to hit the right shuttle, and not get lost and find yourselves looking at the city's skyline from across the bridge? Where are you in the lineup? How far along in your career are you when you're faced with being a New Face?

And if you've been riding along with me for this lifetime comedy joyride for more than a New York minute, then you know some of these faces are not exactly new to you or me. So let us take all of this into account when processing what went down Wednesday night for our two groups of New Faces in Montreal's Cabaret Juste Pour Rire. (Pictured at right: Nick Vatterott) They'll all have one more chance tonight at New Faces (some will also be featured in other themed showcases around the festival).

Here they are: Your New Faces class of 2010 at Just For Laughs Montreal

Here is the list everyone in comedy has been waiting for the past year to see, your New Faces at the 2010 Just For Laughs Montreal comedy festival, performing for live audiences and the industry of show business tonight, Wednesday and Thursday...