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January 20th,
2004
Last Comic Standing Auditions at The
Punchline in San Francisco, CA 1-17-04
The Last Comic Standing 2 auditions were
held at the Punchline in San Francisco last weekend. The atmosphere was
uplifting. The small interior of the Punchline was filled with cameras, bright
lights and an array of eager young comics waiting for their chance to shine.
The auditions started off with executives from NBC talking to the crowd about
the first LCS. They asked the audience who they thought should have won, and
the majority shouted for Ralphie May, while Munir was in the background
shouting for Rich Vos...throughout the night. After that, they welcomed the MC
to the stage. It turned out to be Tess from the first LCS. And on with the
show.
Now I don't remember Tess from the show, but as everyone knows, she did not
advance. I understood why after I saw her perform. It amazes me how she was
selected to be on the show in the first place. When are these hack comics
going to realize that they can do more than the usual "men vs.
woman", "black people vs. white people", "men are so
stupid" routine. She was not prepared with enough material to waste 30
minutes. Her stance and mannerisms can be compared to that of a young child. I
wanted to chew my finger off just so I can forget the agony she was putting me
through. After the little warm up from Tess, the first of 13 comics made it to
the stage.
(I want to apologize beforehand if I misspelled anyone's name, which I am sure
I have)
Gretchen Rootes - A regular at the Punchline and she is one of the few
female comics I enjoy.
Tom Segura - Very funny guy with great stage presence and delivery. My
pick to advance.
Will Durst - A political comic with a hint of cringe.
Betsy Salkind - Wow. This woman was completely, amazingly and
astonishingly terrible. She is even worse than Dat Phan and Lee Levine put
together. I never thought anyone could be worse than those guys, but she takes
the cake. As soon as she went up and wasted one of her three minutes staring
at the audience with her dumb facial expressions, I knew I wanted her to
contract a disease right there and then. I cannot recall her stupid set, but
she finished off with a fabulously awful impression of a squirrel. Oh my
goodness that was so bad no words can describe it. The audience was trying to
be nice, so they laughed out of pity, but even the audience, who seemed to
enjoy hack comedy, knew she was garbage.
Scott Capuro - Very enjoyable. He did the "I'm gay" bit, but
it wasn't overdone. Munir's pick to advance.
Jerry Dee - Pretty funny guy who did a shtick about teaching stoned
12th graders. Charlene's pick to advance.
Yayne Abeba - Not good at all. Awful. Horrid. Female.
Howie Dave - A somewhat funny guy who happened to look like a lot like
Chris Farley, body wise.
Vladimir Khylnin - One of my favorites that night. He is fresh on the
comic scene with just a little under six months experience. He was great.
Amy Shuklian - She was semi-awful with an uncanny resemblance to a
brunette Marion mixed in with Sam Kinison & Mick Foley. She finished her
set while leaning into the front section of the crowd as we anticipated
hearing her scream like Kinison used to.
Ronn Vigh - Energetic to say the least. He did the "gay"
routine, but unlike Capurro, this was quite hacky. I did admire his fitted
sweater though.
Richard Win II - Very funny black guy who didn't rely on the black
& white comparisons.
Chris Voth - Very funny man. Reminded us of a younger, hipper Kevin
Nealon.
This ended the audition phase of the show. The judges then told us they needed
some time to decide the semi-finalists, so while they went and did that, we
had to sit through another atrocious set by Tess.
So after bringing Munir to the point where he was going to kill everyone in
the club, the judges came out and shared the results with us. The comics
chosen to go to New York City for the semi-finals were:
- Will Durst
- Chris Voth
- Vladimir Khylnin
After the show we had the privilege of meeting CH's own question and answer
man, Jason Downs, as well as local comic favorite, Kevin Shea. Just wanted to
throw that in there because they were both extremely cool and friendly guys.
Also, incredibly funny.
It was an entertaining show as well as a new experience for us. I just hope
the winner of Last Comic Standing 2 represents this industry well.
-Natalie
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