Below The Fold

Congrats, Alonzo.

Apparently, you won the $250,000 prize in the Last Comic Standing 3 finale. I’d love to say I saw your final performance, but NBC canceled the show before the final episode aired. They aired it on Comedy Central, but I didn’t know about that until it was too late, so instead, it was the Father of the Pride “marathon” for the evening.

Which begs the question, how can a series that’s only been running for a month or so have a marathon? Would you call that more of a long-ish sprint? Maybe a “jaunt?”

Anyway, it figures. One of the few so-called “reality” shows worth watching, LCS had some flavor to it. Jay Mohr is a comedic dynamo, and the show had plenty of talent on it. Take away the contrived, “let’s-make-everyone-live-together-and-perform-ridiculous-challenges-to-fill-in-the-between-time-from-the-standup-routines,” and NBC could have had a long distance runner on its hands.

Even American Idol knows better than to bore us with too much fluff about the people who perform. Cut to the chase, show us what you’ve got and get the hell off the stage. That’s not too much to ask.

That’s where LCS failed, though. Putting the comics through the paces—narrating tour buses, pitching sitcoms, performing for young children—simply to create controversy and deepen the conflict only served to water down the standup, which was the only reason to watch in the first place.

Although, I suppose it’s a good lesson to learn, Alonzo. Just when you think you’re hitting your stride with a decent TV show, the rug’ll get pulled out from under you and you’re hanging out in cable-driven, syndicated obscurity and relegated to a question on the next Trivial Pursuit edition.

Ah well. I’m off. I’m gonna go start watching the first season of Alf on DVD. Later.