Yep, there's going to be a new season of "Last Comic Standing." NBC is doing a bit of retooling for the fifth season, including replacing the incredibly life-like Anthony Clark with actor/comedian Bill Bellamy (from one of my husband's favorite flicks, "Buying the Cow") and auditioning comics from outside the US and A (auditions were held in Syndey, London and Montreal.) I'm hoping the fresh blood will make for a fun summer series.

Last season, I brought you the story of Canada Anne, who auditioned for, but didn't make the cut. She has again auditioned, and her story (including her experience with gratingly annoying "comic" (and LCS alum) Ant) is after the jump. (Spoiler alert!)

Time for a TiVo...

I was on vacation last week in the wilderness of Alaska (sorry I didn't send a postcard) and had no Internet access in the lodge we stayed at. I arranged to tape all of my shows at my house, but Florida in the summertime means lots of electrical storms and power outages - one of which shut off my VCR. So, bad news, I don't have much to go on for this finale. Good news, I don't have much to go on - so this will be mercifully brief! (I heard that the 2-day, 2 and a half hours of LCS were quite painful). So, let's get going.

The summer of Last Comic Standing is nearing the end - sigh...Another 15 minutes of comedy and 45 of filler and commercials. So, let's get on with it.

Before we get to the results of last week's audience vote, we are treated to a visit from another season 2 alum - this time it's the punny, self-deprecating and still odd Jay London. He's still the same old Jay ("I don't have to worry about identity theft - no one would want to be me.") But his short set did bring a smile to my face.

Tonight's recap is a bit abbreviated because I was out late, seeing Clerks II - which kicked ass! Jeff "Randal" Anderson was even funnier than he was in the original. But I digress. Since I've already had my fill of humor today, I can safely move on to this week's Last Comic Standing...

Before we get to the competition, we need filler (this is an hour show) so we get a guest set from previous LCS finalist (and quite handsome) Gary Gulman. I voted for Gary on the previous season, but if he were competing tonight, he'd probably get eliminated. He had a lenghty discussion about role playing with his girlfriend (he's a New England college professor, she's a co-ed in danger of flunking....it doesn't end how you'd think, but it wasn't that funny either. Sorry, Gary.

Don't like how Last Comic Standing has been going so far? Think you're a better judge of comedy than Tim Meadows and Kathy Griffin? Well, now it's up to you. Tonight the 5 finalists take to the stage for your vote.

Anthony Clark comes to the stage with energy and enthusiasm – I thought maybe he'd actually tell a (gasp) joke or something. Nope. He simply re-assumed his emcee duties and introduced a god-awful (although mercifully brief) pre-taped segment depicting the comics coming to the venue (tonight it's not the Alex – it's the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.) I guess this is the equivalent of those dumb Ford "videos" they had on American Idol. The scene involves the comics in a helicopter that is seemingly out of control. Of course, it's revealed the reason for this is that Josh (the CP comic) is flying the copter (but don't worry – he's really not – the scene pans out to show that it was all a gag – whew!)

The comics tonight have 5 minutes to impress – the one comic with the last amount of votes is eliminated (WHAT? I thought this was it...I thought they'd give Chris his contract and my Tuesday nights would be mine again. Drat!) Oh well, let's get this over with...

After a 4th of July break, LCS is back – yay? When we last left our comics, Joey Gay and Bil Dwyer were sent packing. This week's episode opens with the return of Chris Porter and Michele Balan to the Queen Mary. Michele, despite her second consecutive head to head victory says she's gong to remain packed – but she did get a boost of confidence from the fact that she knocked out 2 of the boys. She was encouraged and even stated that she felt a woman comic had a chance of winning – on this show? If Rebecca Corry wins, I will gouge my eyes out and put hot coals in the sockets. For reals, y'all.

We get a teeny glimpse of life on the boat (serving more as foreshadowing than exposition), as we learn that the comics only get one phone call every other day, so now it's back story time, Gabriel Iglesias is in loooove and Ty Barnett (don't see much of him, wonder if he's been under the radar for a reason?) missed his daughter's birthday to be on the show. But enough of this, there's a challenge to be had.

Ahhh, another week of "Last Comic Standing"....As I tune in to yet another episode, I can at least be comforted by the fact that there are now 2 less annoying female comics left in the house. Of course, in the mandatory extended recap, April reminded us why she got kicked off, with her Jenny Mc Carthy wide-eyed, open-mouthed "goofy face". I really only need Rebecca Corry to go, Kristin, Michele an Roz are ok. So anyway, enough editorializing...on with the show!

The episode started with the return of Michele. The house was happy to see her come back and the comics were surprised to hear that she won by 83% of the audience vote. Michele (and some of the other comics in the house) thought she was pretty much guaranteed to avoid any head-to-heads anytime soon. The comics were then treated to a Moroccan dinner – which really served no reason except to show some very attractive twin belly dancer/snake charmers (and indulge in the usual audience participation from the comics.) The comics had little time to sleep off the celebration, as they were awoken at 2:30 to head over to their latest challenge.

Another week, another hour of my life I'm owed...

Here comes the "good part" - the 12 finalists selected last week move into the Last Comic House, which this time around is the historic Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. (Kind of ironic, as this season feels like that ill-fated voyage of the Titanic...) The comics ride a short bus (how appropriate) to the ship, where they are greeted by Anthony Clark, who lays down the law. Since it would be really embarassing for NBC to send all of the comics home, they are now involving 3 comics in the head-to-head eliminations - as opposed to 2 on past seasons. When it gets down to the final 6 comics, America (and I'm sure, carefully selected NBC producers) will pick the winner. So, here we go...

This should be otherwise known as "I watch so you don't have to!"

What a frustrating hour! I am usually a bit more "on the money" about these things - but, out of the finalists moving on to the house next week, only 2 are ones I picked. I think they need to recruit different "Celebrity Talent Scouts", because these guys wouldn't know good comedy...well, it is Kathy Griffin, Tim Meadows and Garry "Princess Diaries" Marshall, so I guess they really don't know comedy! So, onto the recap...

First up is the ample Gabriel Iglesias, whose bit of his bit (again - it's really hard to judge based on a mere portion of a three minute bit!) involved cops and doughnuts (never heard jokes about that before!) He did mock violating some Krispy Kremes that was kind of disturbing though...

Next up was tall, lanky and blond Kristin Key who lamented that she lacked "Ghetto Booty" and always was confused if she was to "shake it like a salt shaker or like a baby that won't...stop...crying" (actually kind of funny - have to give her points for that one!)

Another week, another unfulfilling episode of Last Comic Standing. It's getting really frustrating to try to judge performers based on about 45 seconds of their act, but at least it's almost time for the comics to move into the house and completely get on each others' nerves! Which, and I know I'm not alone here, is the whole reason anyone watches the show in the first place.