Pickle Barrel
THEY CAME FROM near and far, lining up on a sub-zero February night. Some wore costumes, some carried props, some just stood there with an expectant smirk. Some were amateurs, some professionals. Others had agents or knew nobody important at all. They were all there to try to get a coveted spot on Last Comic Standing, NBC’s hit show that actually can make a difference in a comic’s career.
Last year Canadians placed very well in the competition, with Debra DiGiovanni entering the top ten and Gerry Dee winning third place, the best a Canadian has ever done. Dee and DiGiovanni have since watched their club price skyrocket, they have work papers for the United States, and Dee signed with Gersh Agency, L.A.’s top managers.
So the intense response to a general casting call for the show should surprise no one.
Here’s how the showcase works: Anyone can line up and be seen by producers, but top agents were given a number of spots to give out to clients who got a specific call time. The hopefuls in the lineup were brought in six at a time and, although given two minutes by the producers, were usually cut off after one joke with a curt, “Next!”
The comics with call times got better treatment. There were about 40 of them, and they knew about 15 would make it to that evening’s show at Yuk Yuk’s. The first round of auditions was held in front of a surly producer at an ungodly hour.
Then, late in the afternoon, the callbacks did their three minutes again, this time in front of the celebrity judges, Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall) and Richard Kind (Spin City). After each comic, Kind and Foley would discuss whether the act deserved to make it onto that night’s show. Sometimes, when a comic was rejected, he or she would try to argue their way back. One time, the comic even convinced them to give him the shot.
That night, a packed house roared as New York comic Bill Bellamy worked up the crowd. The rules were simple. Four comics would go on to the semifinals in L.A. Each comic got three minutes, and if he went over, his microphone would go dead (two did). The 15 comics were mostly vets of the club circuit, and it was surprising to see top headliners, like Seán Cullen and Winston Spear, in a competition.
But everybody did well. Unlike some contests, the winner was really anybody’s guess. While the judges deliberated, that week’s Yuk Yuk’s feature, Steve Patterson from Montreal, entertained the crowd. He slayed ’em, too. Many there felt Patterson had the strongest set of the night. But he refused to enter the competition. And many others noted Toronto comics, like Mike Wilmot, Darren Frost and Aaron Berg, also declined.
Then the judges made their decision, and as Bellamy milked the tension in the room, you could hear a pin drop. The four winners were Seán Cullen, Winston Spear, Brian Lazanik and the Williamson Playboys, a sketch duo and the only “outside” choice. The show was over, and the L.A. crew immediately started ripping out all the wires, lights and sound equipment that make up a TV shoot of this size.
The next day, Internet message boards lit up with everyone’s opinions. Some felt the contest was demeaning to the hopefuls without a call time, and they may be right. And some felt that the contest was fixed. Why, they reasoned, would an established comic like Cullen or Spear risk an embarrassing humiliation if they weren’t sure they would win? It makes little sense, they argued. Although the bloggers were forced to admit that the choices were the right ones anyway.
No matter how “real” this reality
show may be, it will be interesting to
see how our Canadian entries fare
against their competition. Let the
games continue. 
Post City Magazines’ humour columnist, Mark Breslin, is the founder and owner of the Canada-wide Yuk Yuk’s chain of comedy clubs. The former comedian and TV producer is also the author of several books, including Control Freaked.
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