Month: June 2008

Eulogize with us in the Forum

Since last week’s “Last Comic Standing” episode featuring the Nashville auditions, comedy nerds around the nation have been talking about our friend Mary Mack. Last Comic Standing, be damned! We’ve been talking about Mary Mack for years.
Most have had very complimentary things to say.. but some of the dumber citizens of the interwebs have criticized Mary for (as far as we can gather) being from the same region as Maria Bamford? Some criticized her voice as being a rip-off.. which is like saying anyone with a Russian accent is ripping off Yakov Smirnoff. Ms. Mack’s voice isn’t a contrived act.. that’s HER. Mary’s and Maria’s acts are 180 degrees different. The Bamster has even addressed the topic in her latest MySpace blog:

I just wanted to write a note – because I got a few messages- but Mary Mack and I are NOT THE SAME! I am not copying her, nor is she copying me! She’s a GREAT COMIC and a LOVELY LADY and a GOOD FRIEND and beyond sharing high voices, Midwestern heritage, whiteladiness- her style and joke writing is very different and very excellent! So, please support her in her Last Comic Standing bid and know that I have been mistaken(as have my highvoicedwhitelady brethren) for many other white lady highvoiced comics in the past and you must look past the color of our skin and the tone of our voices and know that we are as different as thumbprints on snowflakes.
That said, I’m going to fall over and nestle with my pugs.

Over at Hulu.com, NBC has posted some of the LCS auditions completely unedited. Enjoy Mary’s set in the Nashville showcase:

(Thanks to The Comics Comic for pointing us to that video clip.)
Mary will appear in future episodes chronicling the shows in Vegas and as you know, what happens in Vegas.. tends to remain in that general vicinity. Instead of posting a spoiler here, we’ll just quote Mary: “If you care about good comedy, or even just bettering society in any way whatsoever, I’m really sorry if you’ve kindly watched the Last Comic Standing on my behalf.” So stay tuned (or don’t)!
Every season of this show has caught flack from professional comedians who are upset with the way the art form / profession has been represented: goofs in costumes, veteran comics being ignored while cute / novelty acts are glorified, the notion that you have “one shot” at a career and “the dream dies” if LCS doesn’t validate you somehow, the purported search for “the funniest” when in reality they’re simply casting a television show with characters they think will pique interest, etc. The most passionate criticism we’ve heard, however, came from someone who pointed out that hundreds of people lined up as early as a day in advance on the street of however many cities.. and no accommodations were ever provided – not a port-a-potty to be found. Who organizes events where there are hundreds of people crammed into a small area without a sanitary, private place to use the restroom? NBC does. Next time you drive down 8th Avenue South and you don’t see 400 people defecating in public, thank your lucky stars that NBC / Universal isn’t in town filming a show.
Another criticism we’ve heard is that MANY comics who received red envelopes that represented a “ticket” to the next level received phone calls just before the trip to Las Vegas and were told that they were not needed. After blocking off time from their touring schedule – in most cases canceling whole weeks of paid work – they’re completely cut without compensation for their wasted time. When the audition showcases aired, they may have appeared in the background of some shots.. but otherwise, any mention of them moving on to the next level has been edited out of the program. Not only do they lose several weeks worth of work, but that tasty tv credit essentially disappears as well. Nice.
NashvilleStandUp.com has in our possession one of the famous red envelopes from this season of Last Comic Standing (which, fittingly, is empty). For legal reasons, we can’t say who we got it from.. but we can say that the condition we were given from this comic was that if we were to ever publicly display this piece of memorabilia, we had to incorporate its image into a composition that also included: “the devil, fire, lightning.. and horsemen.” So.. enjoy: