Last Comic Standing, Season 4 Episode 8

July-18-06

Written By BuddyTV Staff Columnist

It's our turn! The group of comics has been whittled down to five and now the television audience will to decide their fates.

Last week, two comics, Rebecca Curry and Kristen Key, were sent home by the vote of the audience, and Gabriel Iglesias was sent home for his own infringement of the house rules. That leaves us with five comics still in the running to be named "Last Comic Standing": Chris, Roz, Josh Blue, Michelle Balan and Ty Barnett.

We quickly move into our first comic's performance. Roz will be the first comic to the stage. Other than Chris Rock, I've never been that much of a fan of the Shouting Comic, you know, the kind whose observations might only be mildly humorous at best, but they're delivered at a volume that seems to somehow make the audience collapse into laughter.

Next up is Ty Barnett. His act is, once again, a rather mellow and understated one. His punch lines sometimes come out of nowhere, a pleasant unexpected zing you didn't necessarily catch him building up for you.

Chris has been one of my favorites since the auditions, but he felt a little off this evening. That said, the live crowd seemed to love him anyway, so maybe it was this recapper that was off.

I don't know if the other acts had their awkward moments edited out, if Josh was merely nervous, or if the long pauses are actually part of his stage persona, but I haven't noticed them in his past performances. They felt a little painful tonight, but he still seems to be an audience favorite.

Last up is Michelle Balan, the oldest of the group, and, she seems to feel, the one with the most at stake: This could be her last shot. It seems like her act could be much funnier if she relaxed and took a little more time. Her material is probably as funny as - say - a Roz, but Roz has more confidence with her delivery and so can seem to sell it all better. But again, Michelle has made it through two head-to-heads, so there's absolutely no reason to count her out just because she's not my choice!

But will she be yours, America? We will have to tune in next week to find out!