Diary of a Mighty Bastard

There's no show on tv screwed up more than NBC's Last Comic Standing.

It's a simple idea for a show- take a bunch of comedians, have them perform, eliminate one by one until there's a winner. People like to laugh, it can't cost much money to produce, comedians desperately the exposure- seems like an easy winner.

But for a simple concept, NBC screws it up so badly, time and time and time again:

* They spent five weeks, at two hours a pop, on the 'tryouts'. The tryouts were mainly an excuse for judges (stars of other NBC shows) to mug for the cameras as they showed the 'worst of the worst', going for a William Hung effect.

* After that, they spent 2 weeks whittling from the 30 invites to the final 12. Only they didn't invite 30- they invited about ~45 comics, and then un-invited 15. Which REALLY pissed off some of the comics involved.

* They seemed to be going for archtypes instead of the best comedians. I know that's just my opinion, but I can't see how Bob Biggerstarff and Jackie Kashian didn't make the house over Ron G and Ester Ku.

* So they get to twelve, and have two hour shows where they end up with eliminting two comedians per show. But it's basically throwaway gags (Comedians posing for a calendar! Comedians at a car wash!) for an hour and twnety minutes, with one immunity challenge, before voting (which takes forever). Total time of actual stand-up performance: Maybe 10 minutes, tops.

* And couldn't they just split up to one hour shows where it a one-on-one showdown, instead of three people competing at once? Show two in a row to fill up the timeslot.

* After only two showdowns, NBC suddenly realizes the Olympics are showing up, and decide to go from eight comedians down to the finals, eliminating three (who didn't even get a chance to perform until this show). This, after wasting all that time with the early nonsense.

* And, to top it off, they announced the winner last night, only it was the start of NFL Preseason football, so half the country (including here) didn't see it.

Look, I can make LCS work easily. Pick 32 comedians, have an elimination tournament. Each show is eight minutes of person's A act, 8 of person B's act, and the rest is setup/discussion/commercials. Get to the final 8 or final four an lengthen then time, so the final 2 have 20 minutes apiece. Viola- Last Comic Standing, 20 hours of tv, no garbage.

It's not that hard. And NBC spends a lot of time screwing up a show it shouldn't.

... to stand-up comedy.

About twelve yers ago, I used to perform on the Monday Night open mic night in St. Louis. Then I moved to Cleveland, and stopped performing. In the past ten years I've only gone up about 2-3 times at most.

Well, at Borderline Comedy Club, they have an Open Mic Night on Mondays. And I went down there last night to perform.

Only about six people were there (I'm hoping it'll pick up once Monday Night Football is over), which is too bad- it's a free show that gives people a chance to see stand-up comedy. I recommend coming down to the show if you get a chance.

I had a couple decent jokes, but I was nervous as hell- as usual. I'm hoping that by going on more often, I'll get better on stage. I'm already planning on coming back next Monday to try again.