USA TODAY International Edition
Funny panel gets down to serious ‘ Comic’ business
If you want to be the last comic standing, first you have to get past some top comics sitting.
That’s the hurdle faced by those who have survived what judge Norm Macdonald describes as an exhaustive winnowing process to make it to the ninth edition of NBC’s Last Comic Standing.
“They started with 300 million ( comics) and got it down to 100,” says Macdonald, speaking in a familiar dry cadence that delivers nonsense persuasively. New guy Macdonald ( Saturday
Night Live) and his fellow judges, groundbreaking comedians Roseanne Barr and Keenen Ivory Wayans, talked Comic and comedy, joined by new host Anthony Jeselnik and executive producers and veteran stand- ups Wanda Sykes and Page Hurwitz.
Of the panel, Sykes says, “Keenen is the scholar; Roseanne is just shoot- from- the- hip, so she pretty much is like what the person at home is thinking; and Norm is the wild card. We’re sitting here going, ‘ Is Norm going to like this comic or not?’ ”
In all seriousness, Sykes, Hurwitz and other producers scouted 2,500 comics, held invitationonly auditions and narrowed the field to the 100 who will make it onto this eight- episode season of the series, which premiered in 2003 and has showcased on- the-verge talents such as Amy Schumer ( Trainwreck) and Cristela Alonzo ( Cristela).
“We start with funny, the best. We don’t want to be snobs, because we know there are some alternative comics out there. We tried to mix in a little bit of that. This year, we had a prop guy,” Sykes says.
For Wayans, the standard for success in stand- up is the same, even as the styles and faces of performers change. “My feeling is comedy is one of the last art forms where the same traditions apply. You can’t become a comedian online. You still have to go to clubs, write your own material, work your way up the ranks and pay your dues.”
When asked whether times are better now for women in comedy, Barr says she “has seen it change. It’s broader and more inclusive.”
One change they don’t like: fans filming and posting stand- up routines, especially when comics are experimenting in clubs.
“The cellphone scares me,” Sykes says. “If you’re onstage and working on something and you might want to play around with the bit and you look out and see the light emanating ….”
“And then you think what you’re saying ( will be seen) out of context,” Macdonald says.
Nor are the comics thrilled with what they see as a greater tendency toward political correctness, which can be amplified by social media.
“There is an element of censorship in our culture now,” Barr says. “It’s that P. C. thing that’s really to slam somebody and say, ‘ We don’t talk about that.’ ”
Jeselnik adds: “If you say ‘ You can make fun of anything, but not this,’ that is all any comic ( will) think about: making fun of that.”
Venturing into a sensitive area isn’t easy, Wayans says. “You can tell a joke about anything, but it had better be funny. You can’t take people’s suffering and then do a bad joke. But when you can go into that territory and make people laugh, you’ve done your job.”
The comics say Comic isn’t limited by being on a broadcast network: “They are for the most part doing what they would normally do at a club or on a late- night show,” Hurwitz says.
Macdonald invokes the versatility of a comic revered by all three judges: Richard Pryor. “You’ve got to remember that Pryor, who we all keep saying is the best ever, is known as real dirty. But he was on The Ed Sulli
van Show. And he would kill.”