last comic standing winner

On the Last Comic Standing 5 season finale, the two finalists Lavell Crawford and Jon Reep were led to the stage by the USC Trojans marching band. Host Bill Bellamy warmed up the audience with an OJ Simpson joke and started a top ten countdown of the biggest laughs in Last Comic Standing history.

Special guest comedians Carrot Top and Robert Schimmel performed stand-up routines. The Last Comic Standing all-stars returned to roast Lavell Crawford and Jon Reep, and the eight previously eliminated Last Comic Standing finalists delivered their best one-liners.

In final farewell performances, Lavell Crawford joked that he wasn't afraid to die fat that was his pallbearers' worry, while Jon Reep did an impression of professional football referees. The biggest laugh in Last Comic Standing history was revealed to be Jay London joking that he was the fourth guy from the left on the evolutionary chart.

Dane Cook of the movie "Good Luck Chuck" stopped by and wished both of the finalists good luck. Host Bill Bellamy revealed that the most votes in Last Comic history had been cast and that Jon Reep was the winner. Jon Reep won the grand prize of $250,000, an exclusive talent contact with NBC, and his own half-hour comedy special on Bravo.

It's a show that was created simply to make people laugh. However, leading up to when the cameras start rolling, things can be a bit stressful.Advertisement



People frantically run in and out of production trucks and comedians sweat.

"Tonight I was more nervous than I've ever been because I really thought I was going home," explains Jon Reep, one of the two finalists.

He's not alone, even the comedians who help judge it and perform get a little nervous.

"I don't get nervous if it's cable. If it's a real channel I'm like, 'Oh oh, this could have more than 500,000 viewers I better pay attention,' plus I had to go first," explains comedian Kathleen Madigan.

But this isn't really a story about the show.

This is a story about a guy from St. Louis who graduated from Pattonville High School, who could be the winner of NBC's "Last Comic Standing."

"I won a contest at The Funny Bone at Westport," says funny man Lavell Crawford.

That was just the beginning.

"I saved up all my money and rented a car and me and a buddy -- he was a comic from St. Louis -- we drove all the way up here. My car (and) my escort on a trailer came up here. We didn't get no credit checks or nothing," Crawford said.

Actually, it was eight years ago, but Crawford as always been funny.

"I was clever, I thought I was more clever," Crawford explains.

It was something that seemed to get him into trouble now and then.

"I got in trouble a lot in elementary school. I used to get paddled everyday. I was always in to something. I got kicked off the church bus because I had a smart mouth. I was always that kid, you know, I was funny in my own way," he continues.

It looks like his cleverness is finally paying off whether he is the last comic standing or not.

"It's been incredible man, it's been a nice ride," Crawford says with a smile.

Debra DiGiovanni didn't need the buzz of NBC's Last Comic Standing to establish herself as an up-and-coming comedy star.

She's already had a Comedy Now special on CTV, and is a regular contributor to MuchMusic's Video on Trial show. Although even she can't bring herself to take a shot at the painful performance Britney Spears turned in at last week's MTV awards.

"It's been done," she said of the tabloid train wreck that has become Britney. "It's almost mean now -- she's like a dog with one of those little surgery cones on her head.

"Now we're just praying that Jessica Simpson puts something out."

So she knows something about what makes people laugh. And Canadians already get her quirky sense of humour that delves into some of her own idiosyncrasies.

"It's more about my life and the idiocy that is me," said DiGiovanni, one of the headliners of the Rogers Evening of Comedy this Saturday at Wilfrid Laurier's Athletic Complex.

The show is part of the homecoming festivities at WLU, and also features appearances by Trevor Borris of CTV's Comedy Now, and veteran comedian and talk-show host Mike Bullard handling the master of ceremonies duties.

DiGiovanni often talks about the things that people might say to themselves in front of a mirror, but in her case she does it standing in the line of fire of a live audience. And she has lots to talk about.

A grad of Humber College's inaugural comedy writing program in 2000, she has since gone on to Best Newcomer in Stand-up at the Canadian Comedy Awards and opened for viral video star Russell Peters.

But her own star is on the climb with her appearance on the NBC show that has put the spotlight back on stand-up comics. It has helped open some doors as she looks to break into the lucrative U.S. market.

"It's just taken things up a notch," said DiGiovanni. "More and more people are recognizing me which is great.

"And it's good for Canadian comedy."

Was she surprised with the instant recognition that comes with the show?

"It just happened so quickly it just didn't sink in until you were there," said DiGiovanni, who finished eight overall on the program after being selected at a Montreal audition. "You have that moment of dawning where you're like, I'm on a reality show on NBC.

"I never thought I would end up dressing up like a jester -- it wasn't part of my summer plans for this year. It was very surreal, that's the best way to describe it."

She was a good sport about dressing up like a royal buffoon too. And that helped her develop an obvious rapport with the audience.

"The jester is probably one of the last costumes I'd want to wear," laughed DiGiovanni. "I still have bad dreams about that one.

"I wake up going 'Oh God.'"

The producers of the show obviously recognized her likeability as well. You can tell by the air time she gets.

When they do the usual pan and scan shots of the audience they spotlight DiGiovanni. She's expecting more face time on tonight's season finale of the show that will finally select a winner.

"It's still feels like a win for me despite being the third person voted off (the final round)," she said. "Maybe it's a Canadian thing, but to get any kind of recognition in the U.S. is a win."

She said she was disappointed that the other Canadian on the show, Jerry Dee, didn't make it to the final two. But she joked she was also disappointed she didn't win the $250,000 prize that comes with the title. She was already figuring out ways to spend it.

"It's hard to judge comedy," said DiGiovanni. "It's so subjective to decide what is funny.

"But the show is getting closer to being what every comedian wants it to be as a competition."

So why does she think she connects with the audience?

"I'm just a regular girl," said DiGiovanni. "There's something in me that resonates with people.

"I get this all the time after a show ... 'You remind me of my favourite grade-school teacher or my babysitter when I was a kid. I know I'm not perfect, I'm kind of a weirdo but I'm still happy -- and that really works with people.

"They're like, 'I'm a weirdo too.'"

DiGiovanni will have more of that self-deprecating humour on display this weekend at WLU. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available at local Rogers stores or at the WLU bookstore.
In the early rounds of the competition, NBC talent scouts Ross Mark and Bob Read held open casting calls in various locations around the United States. At each casting call, Mark and Read identified comics to participate in callback auditions in front of live audiences. Mark and Read then selected a predetermined number of comics from each callback, who were invited to participate in a semifinal qualifying round.

The comics who advanced to the semifinal qualifying round were divided into two groups. In Season Four, 40 comics were divided into two groups of 20; these comics performed and competed against each other at the Alex Theater in Los Angeles. During the semifinal qualifying rounds, a panel of celebrity judges, and the show's producers, selected the comics who would move forward to the final qualifying round. This determined who among the comics would be "in the house." In season four, ten comics were chosen to live aboard the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.

Once "in the house," the comics participated in some type of comedic challenge each television week. Past challenges included performing stand-up at a local laundromat, working as a tour guide in Los Angeles, participating in a roast at the Friars Club of Beverly Hills and performing comedy on a specific subject with little preparation time on a radio show. The winner of each challenge is usually rewarded with immunity from being eliminated from the competition for that week, while the remaining comics are vulnerable to elimination through a "head-to-head" standup challenge.

As the conclusion of each television week drew near, each comic selected one other comic whom they believed they could defeat in a head-to-head challenge. The comics were sent off individually to a secluded booth, and named the person selected using the phrase "I know I'm funnier than _____." The comic who received the most nominations participated in that evening's head-to-head competition, and selected their opponent from any of the comics who had challenged them.

The head-to-head competition occurred in front of a live studio audience. Each comic performed for the same number of minutes, and the studio audience voted electronically for their preferred performer. The winning comic remained "in the house" for at least one more television week, and the losing comic was eliminated from the competition.

When only five comics remained, the format changed again. All remaining comics performed for a large theatre audience as before, but now the decision-making power shifted from the studio audience to the television audience. Viewers cast their votes for their favorite comic by phoning a specific number, by voting online at the network's website, or both. Unlike some other "audience-vote reality" programs, the producers imposed a maximum number of eligible votes per originating phone number and email address. The comic who received the lowest number of votes each week was eliminated from the competition, until there was but one "Last Comic Standing".


[edit] Seasons
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[edit] Season 1: Summer 2003
Season one aired in the summer of 2003 and was hosted by Jay Mohr. The winner of the audience-participation final vote in season one was Dat Phan, with 35% of the vote. Other finalists included Ralphie May (28%), Rich Vos (18%), Cory Kahaney (12%), and Tess Drake (7%). Contestants "in the house" who did not make the final five were Geoff Brown, Tere Joyce, Sean Kent, Dave Mordal, and Rob Cantrell.


[edit] Season 2: Summer 2004
Season two aired in the summer of 2004, hosted by Jay Mohr. The winner was John Heffron. Alonzo Bodden was the first runner-up, while third place went to Gary Gulman. The other finalists were Ant, Tammy Pescatelli, Bonnie McFarlane, Jay London, Kathleen Madigan, Todd Glass, and Corey Holcomb.

Buck Star, who became infamous for appearing at each and every LCS audition, first appeared in season two. After being repeatedly rejected by talent scouts Mark and Read, Mark finally acquiesced and allowed Buck to perform in the callback auditions in Tampa (the final audition site of the season). Buck failed to impress the live audience, however, and did not advance further in the competition.


[edit] Season 3: Fall 2004
While Last Comic Standing Season Two was airing, NBC agreed to produce a third season, which would air during the fall of 2004. Season three, dubbed the "Battle of the Best", consisted of a competition between the final ten comedians from seasons one and two. The grand prize awarded this season was a flat $250,000 (unlike previous seasons' prizes, which included a talent contract and a television special). Alonzo Bodden, the runner-up from Season 2, was the winner; Dave Mordal, a contestant from Season 1, was the runner-up.


[edit] Cancellation
Due to lackluster ratings in the third season (falling as low as 74th in the prime-time Nielsen Ratings), NBC cancelled the show before the last episode of the third season had aired. The final episode was later aired on Comedy Central rather than NBC. It has been speculated that the low ratings were due to overexposure, since season three began airing almost immediately after season two had concluded. Others have speculated that NBC freed the time slot occupied by Last Comic Standing in order to air a four-episode block of Father of the Pride, in an effort to boost the latter program's ratings.[citation needed] Father of the Pride was ultimately cancelled as well.


[edit] Season 4: Summer 2006
Main article: Last Comic Standing 4
On May 30, 2006, the show returned to NBC with a two-hour special and a new host, Anthony Clark.

Neilsen ratings from Season 4 averaged a 4.4 share (4,848,800 households), making Last Comic Standing the second or third most popular program in its time slot.

Josh Blue, a St. Paul, Minnesota native who has cerebral palsy, was the Last Comic Standing on the August 9, 2006, conclusion of the contest. Ty Barnett was the runner-up, while third place went to Chris Porter. Other finalists were (in order of placement) Michele Balan, Roz, Kristin Key, Rebecca Corry, Gabriel Iglesias, Joey Gay, Bill Dwyer, April Macie, and Stella Stolper. Additionally, Theo Von won the separate online contest to be the Last Comic Downloaded.


[edit] Season 5: Summer 2007
Main article: Last Comic Standing 5
Last Comic Standing returned for a fifth season in the summer of 2007. Comedian Bill Bellamy hosted the show. The winner got $250,000 along with an NBC Universal contract and a Bravo special. Unlike previous versions, this season featured comics from around the world competing alongside Americans. Auditions were held in London, Montreal, Sydney, Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, San Antonio and Tempe[1]. The fifth season began June 13.[2] This series premiered on British music channel TMF on July 4, 2007.

The final ten comics were Lavell Crawford, Jon Reep, Gerry Dee, Amy Schumer, Ralph Harris, Doug Benson, Matt Kirshen, Debra DiGiovanni, Dante, and Gina Yashere.

The season finale aired on September 19, 2007 in which Jon Reep was revealed as the winner. Lavell Crawford was the season 5 runner-up.


[edit] Season 6: Summer 2008
Last Comic Standing has been renewed by NBC for a sixth season. [3]


[edit] Controversy
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During season two, a panel of four celebrity judges was used to shrink the field of 40 semifinalists to ten finalists. The celebrity judges rated each of the semifinalists as they performed, and cast votes for the 10 top comedians. When the ten finalists were announced they did not seem to correspond with the judges' votes. In this way it was unintentionally revealed that their votes did not necessarily determine the final contestants. Two of the celebrity judges, comedians Drew Carey and Brett Butler, responded in outrage and stormed away from the judge's table after the finalists were announced.

The two were shown backstage arguing with producers. Carey and Butler did not understand how the finalists who were announced could be correct, since it did not match their votes. It was revealed that a panel of four producers were also casting votes in the process, assuring that unless all four celebrity judges cast the exact same ten votes, their voting power could be usurped by the four unanimously agreeing producer votes. If for some reason all four celebrity judges did cast the exact same votes, the worst the producers would be faced with is a tie.

Carey became further outraged upon learning this information. He was upset that he had been led to believe he had a vote in the outcome of the show. He reportedly responded, "All you wanted was our faces."[citation needed] It was also revealed that some of the finalists who advanced were clients of the producers or directors of the show.

Allegedly, some of the competitors in opening rounds were plants hired by the producers to liven up the auditions on television[3]. For example, Buck Star, a comedian who followed talent executives Bob Read and Ross Mark to auditions across the country, is rumored to be a production assistant for NBC.[4]