ICE CREAM HEADACHE

CONCERT REVIEW:

Last Comic Standing : The Tour

October 17th, 2008 * Horseshoe Southern Indiana

I didn't want to watch "Last Comic Standing" this past summer, let alone like it. But with a lack of options filling up muggy Thursday nights, I gave it a shot. And once I saw Iliza Schlesinger perform I was hooked - and busy cheering her on to victory.
Ms. Schlesinger and her 4 runner ups - Louis Ramey, Jim Tavare, Jeff Dye, and the first-named only Marcus - took to Horseshoe's Ballroom Friday night for a two-and-a-half hour romp through the different styles and punchlines that characterized them each on the NBC program.

Ramey went first, serving as emcee for the night and providing the unofficial R-rating with raunchy sex jokes and profanity.


Jim Tavare, who always seemed more unique than funny on the television, proved his comedic flair with an awkward prop comedy about music that relied on sight as much as verbiage. During his time on stage he played an upright bass like a guitar in a clever Jimi Hendrix joke, presented the children's recorder to be a jazz instrument, and even used a vacuum cleaner to perform a harmonica solo. His brand of humor was so far removed from his cohorts, it would have been refreshing to have seen his set in the middle of the program as to break up the more traditional comedian-and-a-mic sets that were performed by everyone else.


Jeff Dye, a victim of either severe ADD or too much marijuana, got off to a slow start instead of directly building on the momentum Tavare had built. Dye revealed he had a joke list with him and at moments had trouble separating his eyes from it to look at the audience. As much as he seemed to be worried about getting distracted, it was during such distraction - a roundabout with a heckler in the audience - that Dye became his funniest and most confident. When someone shouted a remark questioning his sexuality, Dye, in jeans and a Ninja Turtle t-shirt, retorted with, "I don't care, man. I know where it goes at the end of the night. You really think I am worried what you think? Look at how I'm dressed, dude!"

Marcus suffers the misfortune of looking slightly like - and acting A LOT like - Dane Cook. His set was even full of Cook-like rip-offs, such as when a vocal impersonation of his girlfriend turned into a side joke about a flamboyantly gay man. He did possess a lot of energy and spent time interacting with the crowd - even pulling an audience member's cell phone on stage and hitting redial. Marcus ended on what got him through most of the TV show - impressions. The imaginings of Christopher Walken as president and Adam Sandler as the star of "Passion of the Christ" were at least dead-on, even if they seemed a little forced.


Iliza Schlesinger has made a bit out of being a skinny, awkward girl in the same way Jim Gaffigan has turned his general unattractiveness into his best joke. Schlesinger spent most of her set - as she did with the TV competition she won - positioning herself as an icon for twenty-something tom girls who feel weird in heels and aren't confident in their sexuality. Whether she is doing impressions of herself falling or climbing out a water slide or recreating awkward sexual encounters with her boyfriend, there is a refreshing genuineness and honesty that make her interesting and endearing. The problem with Schlesinger's set, though, came with it's familiarity. Almost every joke was culled from something she did during her performance time on TV. While Schlesinger did have the disadvantage during the show of having to perform the most out of all contestants (meaning, of course, that more of her material was used), one would think that the unofficial headliner of such a tour would at least create a few new routines for those shelling out the cash to see her in person.