The initial auditions are over and they're down to 32. Next week starts the next phase, although I've forgotten how they whittle them down.

Last night was in Arizona, and it seemed like a better crop than any other city. Then again, the show can be edited any which way they like. I don't see any real standouts yet.

I guess I'm the only one still watching.

ANYWAY, they're down the final 10. A decent crop this year. None of them have annoyed me yet. We'll see how long that lasts once we start getting up close and personal with them rather than 30 seconds of standup and brief interviews.

Surprised that Thea Vidale didn't make it.

Although I'm happy that Mel Silverback (gorilla mask) didn't advance, he had a few okay jokes last night, like his impression of Curious George.

Haven't watched last night... But re: Mel - NooooOOOOOOoooo. Lol. I liked him but my wife thought he was pretty silly (and one-note).

On a more general note - I am a regular "Bob and Tom" listener and it was interesting to see some of their comics (Greg Warren, etc.) live. Some were good others not so good.

Hey Charlie, can you tell me if the Canadian girl (Debra DiGiovanni) made it through?

Is she the heavy girl who told jokes about her cats? If so, then she did make it.

Yeah, that's the one. I watched one episode of this season and was the tryouts in Montreal. I'm glad to see she made it.

I haven't seen her stand ups but I watched her in "Video On Trial" here in Canada (Muchmusic) and I think she's pretty good.

She shouldn't have made it, by a long shot.

That's the problem with this show. The comedians who should make it don't. I'm not sure if it's bad editing (like one guy bombs but has one really funny joke, and that's all they show of him), if they're just playing to the already famous / friends of the production staff comedians (there are rumors that the producers managed some of the finalists from the first few rounds), or if they're picking people they've seen in the past who were really funny but just aren't hitting on all cylinders at that point in the show.

I'm leaning towards bad editing. Some time ago, I caught one of the viewer favorites a few years back, and I guy like (Jay London) live and he was terrible. I mean really, really bad. No one laughted during his entire set. His only good jokes were a few from the show that everyone had already heard several times (in his defense, though, the whole "I'm sorry, let me back up a few steps" routine gets old quickly).


Another problem is that there are several people (this year and last) who were already famous (like had standup shows on Comedy Central / HBO). They never said it was an amateur competition, so I guess that's allowed, but it makes it hard to root for someone when you know there are ringers. It's less like a competition and more like a show (especially following the Drew Carrey incident in Season 2 where we found out that the "judges" votes didn't count and could, at best, tie the producer's vote if all judges voted unanimously).

Isn't this supposed to be a show for amateurs? Thea is a longtime professional. she had her own sitcom in the 90's for chrissake....

Secondly, have they fixed the corruption on the show? The Buck Star incident, Drew Carey announcing that the celebrity judges really had no say in who got on the show, and stacking the show with friends of the host & production staff?

They've dropped that pretense, and they now tell us how much experience each comic has in the industry.

Not to mention Momma Benjamin.

I've seen a few familiar faces on the show in the past. Like Bob Zany. Not only has he been a professional comedian for many years, he even has somewhat of a movie career.

I think we're all willing to forget Momma Benjamin... :-)

Yeah, unfortunately standup requires more than just "talent". With something like singing, you can have a complete amateur who sounds pretty good, but with comedy, you really need someone with experience who can write, not just someone who's funny. They have the same problem on "So You Think You Can Dance" -- many of those people are also pros.

The problem is that when they say "5 years of Standup Experience," you don't know if that means "5 years of experience working open mic nights at local pubs" or "5 years, 2 standup specials, a TV show, and the voice of Krusty the Klown"