Dish on LCS, from the Left Coast [from SHECKYmagazine.com]

A spy from Los Angeles sent us an email, from which we extracted he following:

1. Anthony Clark will host LCS IV. He has signed a 3-year contract, so I guess NBC is banking on LCS being a ratings hit again...

2. There will be NO HOUSE this time, just comedy -- NBC wants it to be more the comedy version of American Idol.

3. ...the Simon Cowell of LCS IV (a producer of the show) is tearing up established comics left and right... trying to make a scene... to be like American Idol.

4. Comics with numerous Tonight Show appearances to their credit (among other things) auditioned in LA at the Improv only to be "Simonized." (Our term, not his-- Editors)

5. Comics who have already made it on LCS IV: Gabriel Iglesias, Gene Pompa, Tig

The author warns that these are just some L.A.-based comics who've made it and that, if other comics from other cities are added, these folks may be cut. Hmmm... Stay tuned. We're not saying any of this is true... but it certainly sounds plausible. (And, in defense of Simon Cowell, he is not uniformly nasty or unnecessarily so. He is knowledgeable, he is sharp and he is honest. Might it be giving this LCS producer too much credit to compare him to Cowell?)

Sounds less like reality programming and more like a comedy contest... which, to be quite honest, is reality programming. The more things change...

posted by SHECKYmagazine.com @ 4:51 PM

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[Note (by Joe Palen): I just had to re-post this post that somebody else wrote... because some of it made my audition seem a little less awful, and a little more like "you're in good company" (e.g., item #4, and the paragraph after item #5). Hopefully, this post will also help any other comics who auditioned for Last Comic Standing (and got slammed) realize that a lot of the slamming was just slamming for slamming's sake. And if you already knew that, just add this article to the evidence.]