Who's laughing now?
So another season of Last Comic Standing has started, and I can't help but think that for as much as this is an American Idol for comedians, why am I recognizing a number of the contestants from when standup was all over TV?

Last year's winner, Dat Phan (who I met briefly last year before he performed at the AAJA convention), was a relative unknown, as was runner-up Ralphie May. While there were seasoned vets like Dave Mordal and Rich Vos, I wasn't that familiar with them.

This year, among those who have advanced to the semifinals include Will Durst, who I've seen do standup since the now-departed Ronald Reagan was president. He's even done an HBO One Night Stand back in the day, and he even got back on the radar briefly during one of the first runs of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? when, as a phone-a-friend, blew the $500,000 question. I like his stuff, but what in the world is he doing on the show?

Other veteran comics with plenty of TV experience who have advanced to the semifinals include Tom Cotter, Frank Santorelli (looking much bigger than when I'd see him on the old Short Attention Span Theater on Comedy Central) and Jim Norton, the short, almost bald comic on
Tough Crowd. In fact, if you've appeared on that show, it means you have at least a little cachet in the business, right?

While it's not really the same thing (since AI has stipulations on being "real" amateurs), this setup is somewhat like bringing Edie Brickell, Meredith Brooks or Montell Jordan to compete on AI for a chance to revive their careers.

I won't argue that the added exposure helped out even the veterans -- a bunch of the comics did an AI-like tour of comedy clubs after the show, but in the end, most of them are still doing decent work in the clubs and Colin Quinn's show, which probably wouldn't have been much different with or without the show. Still, I guess it's not a bad idea of getting more season vets on the show, given how bad and unprepared some of the comics featured in the early cutdowns were. (And then there was Buck Star, who appeared at all eight tryouts -- LA, SF, Dallas, New York, Boston, Nashville, Chicago and Tampa, finally getting one callback on the last stop in Tampa, only to be denied a chance at the semifinals. He had potential but definitely wasn't there yet.)

I'll keep watching if I'm around for it, but I won't feel so empty if I miss it. Besides, Comedy Central is doing the quick reruns of it a few days later.