Laurie Kilmartin went with some easy material for her Final 10 opening. Sometimes I wonder if You're a great jokewriter means You're not much of a performer. Nothing outstanding about her act here. "Fack off you miserable batch"? And then a callback with The Little Engine That Could derailing and killing a batch?
Felipe Esparza had some decent jokes and he always sells it with his delivery. He abandons overt transitions between his bits, and somehow it's barely noticeable. Starting with the loser bit, to being nice in the cop car to getting his GED. The themes are strong enough to connect. He just drops the Mexico bits and jumps over to the stretchmark bit, but the crowd seemed to respond without confusion.
Roy Wood Jr. took a long time setting up the Izod line. Then, yes, swimming isn't huge in the U.S. Not a memorable concept there. His career day material provided some good lines. "We need failures in America; they provide chicken nuggets and lap-dances. I like both of them." That was better than the punchline about having been talking to 1st graders.
Maronzio Vance also takes time with his setups. That doesn't work so well in short sets. His closing joke about calling the airline is like a marathon. But he's always calm, and looks OK with however it's going. It went well enough.
Rachel Feinstein told us backstage that she came on LCS because she'd had enough of rejection. What? How strange that both her mom and grandma are into hip(-hop?) culture. Lucky for her. It gave her two amazing voices. No make that three: at one point, her mom dismisses a rap battler in the same voice as the thug that stands up to her later, when she's being Michelle/Sandra Bullock/Pfeiffer.
To Tommy Johnagin, this is just Deal Or No Deal with less money. And about as much luck maybe? In the pre-interview that's funny. But I don't think it's actually a joke. Mothers and grandmothers again, but notice no voices. Not that voices are bad, but it does make it clear that his writing is better than some others. Tho this wasn't his best performance or material. He typically uses a confident (read:paced) delivery. Here he seemed rushed.
Johnathan Thymius is of course slow to deliver no matter what. I mean that in a good way. The strange, what's-going-on-up-there comics like Thymius and Jay London are always a favorite type. It's not so much of a surprise actually. The payoff when clear, is so welcome. Thymius' act is more complete than London's. He's not just one-liners, and he's a "whole" character with his material. When he stepped outside his set and ended with a confused "errrhh" because no one had a plan B, the payoff only came when the music stab closed him out. The effect is the tension from "Do we trust him?" resolved by "O thank god, we do!" Applause is typical.
James Adomian put a lot of faith in his Paul Giamatti impression. Too much maybe. It was hard holding out for the big finish. But audiences love impressions. And he's just good enough that a lot of people might want to know who else he can do.
Mike DeStefano blasted dumb confidence. The line about women beating the door down "from the inside" probably got him votes on its own. But a bit about how black guys have rhythm and white guys sell insurance...? His confidence is not misplaced. Except on that joke.
Backstage, Myq Kaplan delivered one of my favorite types of joke: the obvious understatement. "NBC goes all over New York at least. I can watch it at any of my friends' houses." His bit about "fun" as a noun, not an adverb, avoids being precious. He has a Masters in linguistics, and it's good to see that while language play is still a part of his act, he's no longer doing a Gallagher-like pun barrage. He's moved away from that. Even tho it's a crowd pleaser, he's wise to do richer stuff now. But, "hey you guys have been many funs" was a cute little call back.
I'm staying away from predictions or suggestions about eliminations and winners.
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