| Episode 3 - Las Vega Finals: June 17, 2003 |
| The twenty finalists, chosen from nationwide auditions and narrowed down during last week's semi-finals, gathered at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas for the most important night of their lives. Only the ten comics who impressed celebrity talent scouts Phyllis Diller, John Witherspoon, Victoria Jackson and Aisha Tyler would get to move into the Comic House in Hollywood. Once in the house, the ten comics would compete in weekly "laugh-offs" with comedy club audiences deciding who stays and who goes. The stakes were high and in true Vegas fashion, the comics were willing to bet everything for a shot at success! Tess was first to take the stage before the massive live audience and had 'em with her Vegas-specific set. Russ was next and seemed to be more popular with the crowd than the celebrity scouts. ANT exuded his trademark energy while performing mostly gay jokes. Afterwards, John Witherspoon advised ANT to broaden his routine to not just focus on the gay stuff. Before the on-stage antics continued, footage of the comics touring around Las Vegas gave viewers and idea of just how thrilled these finalists were to be in the competition. When they say their names and photos on the big screen outside the Paris Hotel, they all squealed like kids! Back inside, ex-Marine Geoff took the stage with a patriotic set. The only feedback from the panel and host Jay Mohr had to do with Geoff's loud shirt. Not sure if that's a good sign or not. Comic Jen's take on Las Vegas was that it's a Mecca for older men. Rob, meanwhile, took a different approach and just told jokes. Some of which were actually funny. Discussing his "demons" and "human struggle," Eddie killed with his porn talk. Up next, Lang. She repurposed some of her audition jokes (like the "No, I'm not a lesbian, I'm from Wisconsin" bit) to relate to a Vegas audience. Craig dished out dating advice, while Rich lamented how he's dodging his ten-year-old because he owes her money for Girl Scout cookies. Victoria Jackson thought Rich would be good on a sitcom, while Phyllis Diller really liked his suit. Carmen had never been to Vegas before, but she held up fine. Dave's riff on power outages had Phyllis howling. With less than 10 performers to go, Tere (with her porcupine hair) took the stage. Her signature "Right on, cha-cha-cha" line drew some giggles. John dissed Halloween, while later, spazzy Randi shared dating woes. Ralphie was huge hit in more ways than the obvious. After giving Sean a hard time about his cowboy hat (not realizing he started wearing hats after having cancer - nice one, Cory) Cory took command of the stage. Cowboy hat man was right behind her, followed by Jessie. Closing out the competition, Dat shook off his nerves and kept everyone laughing. This time, instead of plane tickets, Jay had house keys to award the ten winners who would be moving to Hollywood for their chance at fame, fortune and hopefully, new material. Rewarding the poor guy who had to go last twice in a row, Jay handed Dat Phan his key first. His nine housemates were: Dave Mordal, Cory Kahaney, Sean Kent, Geoff Brown, Tere Joyce, Rob Cantrell, Rich Vos, Tess Drake and last but not least, Ralphie May. |
| THE SEARCH FOR THE FUNNIEST PERSON IN AMERICA |
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