I think we at small.to have a stranglehold on Last Comic Standing. In the first edition I was pulling for Dat Phan who of course won. Now dbsmall's man John Heffron pulled out what can only be called another unlikely win. I have to say that since the top six opened there really haven't been any outstanding performances. After Alonzo and Gary did their thing in the final 3 I knew it was John's to win. He didn't do anything special, but apparently it was enough.

During the results show we got to see Dat Phan perform again and he put together a 99% new set that was pretty good. Last year's runner-up Ralphie May has lost a few pounds but apparently hasn't forgotten his material because it was 100% repeated. Then host Jay Mohr tells him that it wasn't a second place set. Sometimes Jay is just an idiot. Then there was the big revelation about the upcoming season ... In a page out of MTV's book we have a battle of the seasons. It will be season 1's ten comics living in a house competing against season 2's comics. I am guessing that LCS1 folks will say "I'm funnier than (blank) from LCS2" and vice versa. The comic with the most votes from each house is then thrust into the head to head. When they get down to 12, or possibly 10, they houses will merge and the format will revert to the usual when the challenged comic picks his/her poison. I'm counting on Gary Gulman to pull this out, but it should be interesting.

And now how we got here...

First 40 comics performed in New York and were whittled down to 20. Then that group performed at Las Vegas in two groups from which 5 a piece advanced to the house where they will square off. I didn't agree with a lot of the people sent home in either show.

From the first group in Vegas I rated only 2 among my top 5. Gary Gulman was at the top of my list and honestly was the only one who made me laugh. That's sad. Bonnie McFarlane was my #3 and she has a lot of potential. That left Kerri Louise (my #2) out of the mix and I thought she had a great set. Monty Hoffman (my #4) is a very likable guy and was pretty good too. Dan Ahdoot (my #5) was very funny but essentially repeated his set from New York so the people upstairs probably felt he had nothing left in the tank.

Kathleen Madigan (my #6) advanced and she was just average so I wasn't too disappointed to see her make it. Corey Holcomb (my #7) was not funny at all, but he is black and dammit that's enough to qualify him. Ant (my #8) didn't even make Vegas in last year's contest, but hell he's gay so let's advance him to the house this time! He sucked.

From the second group 3 of my top 5 made it through, starting with Alonzo Bodden (my #1) who was fantastic. Tammy Pescatelli (my #4) has a little obnoxious east coast humor that should serve her well. John Heffron (my #5) benefitted from the fact that this group was very, very weak and was the last of my trio to stay alive. Dan Naturman (my #2) I thought was the classic average Joe comic, but apparently didn't have enough personality for NBC. Jim Wiggins (my #3) was a wild card when another contestant had to drop out. He flew in from Topeka and delivered a pretty good set, but he's an old man and that hurt his chances.

Todd Glass (my #8) advanced I believe solely based on the fact that he is a notorious ass and is difficult to get along with. Jay London (my #10) didn't say anything remotely funny, but he looks like an idiot so let's put him in the house, right?

The voting "controversy" which stemmed from celeb judges Brett Butler and Drew Carey being pissed that their votes seemingly didn't count was resolved. The producer basically told them that others were voting and to be honest I don't think NBC cares who Drew or Brett wanted. They have demographics to fill and they want to put people on TV that will produce ratings. Either way, I don't see nearly as much talent this year as there was in the original. No less than 4, maybe 5 or 6 comics from last year were really funny. This year I think it may be 2 or 3.