“Last Comic Standing” ended… and we have a winner
August 10, 2010 Matt Last Comic Standing, Reviews, Television
Last night’s 2 hour season finale of Last Comic Standing attempted to avoid the hurdles of most competition finales when producers double the length of time and fill nearly all of that extra time with filagree and pageantry that isn’t needed. For the most part, the season 7 finale of LCS avoided a lot of these pitfalls (but still got hung up on a Gloria Gaynor trap) by being chock full of some outstanding stand-up performances.
We were, for the most part, treated to 2 hours of consistently good stand-up. In addition to special guests Kathy Griffin, Tom Papa, and last year’s winner Iliza Shlesinger took to the stage for a tight 5. All perfectly capable of handling the room with probably the strongest of the 3 performances going to Papa who delivered the most TV-friendly set (The Marriage Ref made marriage jokes) over Shlesinger and Griffin who is known for an edgier set (which appeared to have a few laughs added in post production, just sayin’).
Also showing off their talents were the judges. It seems only fitting that after an entire season of critiquing comedians that they themselves had to get up on stage and show off their talent. All three judges delivered solid performances. Andy Kindler was first and seemed a bit shakey (which he referenced later), but he finished strong. Natasha Leggero too put on a solid performance as she put on her classiest dame impression. Of the three judges I have to give it to Greg Geraldo who had to clean up his act for television but still was on his pacing.
As for those actually competing? Well that happened too. We started the evening with 5 finalists and over the course of the night, 3 were knocked off leaving two finalists to compete head to head. All in all, the final 5 played out about what was expected with Myq Kaplan, Mike Destefano, and Roy Wood Jr getting knocked off (in that order) before we’re told the finalists are Felipe Esparza and Tommy Johnagin.
Esparza and Johnagin each delivered a final set. With Esparza playing a lot off his genuine goofy appearance and ability to get a laugh by just walking into a room, while Johnagin relied more on his ability to tell a great story.
Who won? Didn’t they all? Nah not really this is a
Felipe Esparza wins! Cue the hugs and confetti, handshakes, happiness, puppies and rainbows. He appeared genuinely surprised and thanked America well, that was nice of him.
Hey guys! Let’s all do this again next year okay? OK!
