Tonight is the penultimate show, and then we get to see who will be the next Dat Phan!
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Apparently everyone wants to win this. And Ron White's already a legend.
Wow. Jonathan Thymius really looked like he was disappointed to hear that when they told him earlier that he was voted off, it was true.
Ryan Hamilton's in the crowd. It's a star-studded audience. His light applause wasn't exactly a rabid reaction to Roy Wood Jr.'s set. The judges loved the material. But they're probably not thinking 'that could be me.'
Tommy Johnagin doesn't really crush, (despite Greg Giraldo's claim) but he does a solid set. Well, I take that back. I have no idea what the crowd reaction really was. Maybe he did crush. Andy Kindler apparently agreed with my comment that Johnagin should slow down a bit. And tonight's set is paced more evenly. He's a versatile comic. And I hope he keeps taking my advice.
Will Myq Kaplan do a previous-set call back? Well not if the audience doesn't shut up on the entrance applause. So… no callback. But "Enjoy hell, Jew"? Wow. The audience might have felt accused by that one, but Kaplan did rush kinda nervously thru the unpacking of it. Good turnaround joke on the marriage material—"make them marry…us?" The judges love everyone. Are they there to give advice? 'Keep it up champ!' 'You've got a future, kid!'
So previously we saw that families are funny. This week we see that they're the wind beneath everyone's wings. Hilarious.
Felipe Esparza does one of his better sets. I'm not sure if seeing the Heimlich maneuver joke coming was better or worse for the punchline. Did they bleep "cabrón"? I'm not sure how original his worldview is, but he sells that with his strange delivery. Half confused, half aloof. That and rubbing his nipple constantly.
Mike DeStefano is a tough cookie with a soft chewy center. This set rolls from religion to the homeless to advice on murder to hit jobs on cell-phone reps. A little hectic, but it's just what the judges wanted.
Now for Ron White. He is a good example of poise on stage. No nerves. He stays calm and just waits for the audience to agree with him that what he just said was damn funny. But couldn't they have just given each of the competing comics another minute to perform?
So it's the final vote. Whose set might have won this whole thing?
MIKE DESTEFANO WAS THE BEST, BY FAR!!! THEY WERE ALL OK, BUT MIKEY D. SHOULD WIN IT ALL. GOOD LUCK!!!
ReplyDeletei like destefano. he's done a solid job with good material. of the five finalists i was least familiar with his act, but i'm glad to know of him now. good luck to all of them.
ReplyDeleteI felt that Kaplan and DeStefano kinda rushed their endings.
ReplyDeleteI thought DeStefano has done better, and I'd heard his thing about finding the money on the street. But with a half hour Comedy Central special it might be hard to have the 7 or 8 new sets necessary to have all fresh material for this competition.
Johnagin had a very solid set beginning to end. I'd heard his joke about hitting the deer before, but I hadn't heard the Jr. High sports physical story and really enjoyed the jokes. And like Kindler said, he does a good job of putting small jokes in the story before the payoff.
Wood Jr. had good nuggets of racist jokes, but they seemed awkwardly tied to his covering for his cheating friends material.
I thought Esparza was consistent with what he'd done previously.
My vote is for Johnagin (though I do have a Southern Illinois bias), with Kaplan second for his overall work in the competition, DeStefano for his ability to reach his audience, and a tie in last for the more cultural material of Esparza and Wood Jr.