Christopher Rocchio interviews LCS host Bill Bellamy and new producer David Friedman for an article for RealityTVWorld.com.

David Friedman was tapped to executive produce the show’s sixth installment, and he told reporters he tried to keep the changes minimal but worthwhile.

“To me like the most important thing was not to mess with the format because it’s a great show. It’s been successful for five seasons,” Friedman told reporters. “So I was very sort of aware of like, ‘I don’t want to be the guy that screws the show up.’ But what I wanted to do was I felt the show needed to look a little bit larger and feel a little bit larger, and add some elements that made it a little bit more sort of well-rounded.”

So Friedman said he gave Last Comic Standing a “facelift.”

“It’s little bells and whistles that I tried to bring in and add in production value, and I had some ideas like the talent scouts,” he explained. “And little things here and there, and all along keeping in mind that the – not to screw up the format because the show is a good show.”

The “facelift” Friedman has given the show is more like bad plastic surgery. Prior to being tapped to rescue LCS, he was (perhaps still is?) exec producer of Last Call with Carson Daly.

The previous producers have bigger reality fish to fry.

Were Friedman’s words twisted by Rocchio, or do we have genuine controversy going on here:

Friedman said the talent on the show this year shouldn’t disappoint and hinted that the sixth season might produce Last Comic Standing’s first-ever female winner.

“I think this year we did see a lot of strong women,” he said. “I mean, we really did and I think that’s a great sign for everyone in the comedy business because it has been a difficult sort of thing for women to break through. But I think this year we have a great talent pool.”

We don’t see anything in Friedman’s quote to indicate that this season might produce a female winner. And, since (so far as we know) there are only two females among the top twelve finalists, Friedman’s statement (and Rocchio’s conclusion) makes little sense.

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Bellamy is telling any media outlet who’ll listen that things are better than ever:

What I’ve noticed as the host of the show is that the buzz amongst comedians is that the show is a legitimate show, that it’s fun. That’s you’ll get an opportunity– it’ll increase your value as a comedian. Thus, we get better quality comedians coming out,” Bellamy told reporters during a recent conference call. “I think this season is going to be incredibly good. We just have some really funny people with, you know, just creative, original, veiny– like so unique, you’re like, ‘What is that?'”

Did he say, “veiny?” We’re pretty sure that’s a typo.

Bellamy, when asked about the talent level for Season VI, told TVGuide:

We’ve gotten better because more comics are seeing it. When other comedians see comedians they know are good, it encourages the next season.

Odd. We were thinking the exact opposite. Sure, we see some good, professional comedians on the show (perhaps the same number and level as in past seasons), but often we see them only for a fleeting second, after which the camera cuts to someone on Melrose crossing his eyes or we’re treated to Fearne Cotton doing “the Robot.”

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Perhaps the biggest mistake the show makes (from an aesthetic standpoint– the ratings, though anemic this year, have been enough to make the show a “hit”) is in “casting” the contestants and making them audition in an empty room.

We recall Star Search, the mid-80s version (which was a hit in syndication), that auditioned comics in front of comedy club audiences in venues like The Comic Strip and Dangerfield’s. Many of the comedians who competed on that show– Rosie O’Donnell, Sinbad, Ray Romano, Steve Odekirk, Bill Engvall, Drew Carey, Dave Chappelle, Kevin James, Dana Gould, Brad Garrett, Dennis Miller— went on to have lengthy careers performing or writing or producing or a combination of the three. And, it could be argued, there was a smaller pool from which to draw comedy talent.

We suppose that it’s the tyranny of the reality format that demands the empty-room audition, the “Next!” mentality, wacky camera angles and the reliance upon zany costumes and desperate searches for “pizza tossers” and “hotties.”

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We’re wondering– Where’s all the footage from Bellamy’s series of “Secret Auditions,” conducted in cities throughout the U.S.? There has been no mention of the clandestine auditions so far. This is doubly disappointing since it is our opinion that clips from some of these performances might yield some of the more entertaining minutes of genuine standup-to-audience interaction than anything we’ve seen from NYC, L.A. or Houston. (Triply disappointing since, as was mentioned here in February, The Male Half participated in a secret audition in Atlanta.)

The method used to produce these tryouts more closely matches those of traditional, non-reality shows and the performances took place in an environment that more closely mimics show conditions. (And the venues aren’t stocked with telegenic “hotties” in the front row!) A stage, a set of comics chosen by the venue’s manager(s), an audience and a lone camera in the rear of the room. Not perfect, to be sure, but far less contrived than anything else we’ve seen up until now.