Let’s recap: The folks who got red envelopes (according to our sources) were Shazia Mirza, Stephen K. Amos. Kojo and Paul Foot. (And so, apparently, did Jim Tavaré, as evidenced by his presence in the final twelve.)

So… They shipped over psychos and amateurs as well as serious acts? They’ve gone too far. Is it cost-effective for the show to purchase plane fare from Tokyo, London, Dublin, Accra, Bombay and Sydney for a few dozen comics– in order to have a charade of an “international” showcase in Miami– when they could have easily had showcases in all the respective capitals and sent the winners over for a real international showdown in, say, Los Angeles (one of the truly international cities on the planet)? Or… did they merely video a bunch of comics coming down the escalator at the Miami Aiport– who actually live in Miami? (Or Raleigh, or Atlanta, or Jersey Ciy?) Or are they all living in London? (A chartered flight from London, with all the contestants onboard, would be pretty cheap.)

They hadn’t been showing quick-cut montages of the acts for 10 seconds at the top of the show before they showed two shirtless males. Two.

The bald fellow with the bass, Jim Tavaré, we remind all, makes it into the final twelve.

Last Comic Driving: Alycia Cooper. Did we not see her in one of the other audition cities? Is this what LCD is for? The folks who got a Red Envelope but were hosed eventually? They couldn’t accomodate all of them. There are only ten LCD contestants.

Didn’t we see “Sam” the comic who “just flew in from Armenia,” during the New York auditions?

Maybe the appeal of Paul Foot, according to the scout that wore the 30 Rock shirt, is that “he puts a smile on your face, but you’re not really sure why.” Ah! We see. This is the future of standup comedy. The artist creates an uneasy grimace on the face of half (or more!) of the audience and this is the appeal! The practitioner of Future Standup sneaks up to a joke, never really delivers an obvious punchline and presents something more akin to a lecture or a mildly neurotic screed, the better to create a pall over the crowd. NBC, after all, is hot and bothered about “awkward moments.” Perhaps they are gently nudging the culture to appreciate awkwardness as a legitimate and satisfying feeling.

The guy from India, Papa CJ, says “Standup comedy doesn’t really exist in India.” As any reader of this magazine knows, this is flat-out false. We went to the top of the front page of SHECKYmagazine and Googled “India” and clicked the radio button that says “SHECKYmagazine.com” and it returned this— three pages of postings about standup comedy in India that have appeared in our pages over the past two or three years.

A “Baby onboard” joke? On network television in 2008? Yes! And it gets you to the final twelve in Las Vegas.

Shown getting the ol’ red envelope: Shazia Mirza, Jim Tavaré, Lioz Shem Tov, Paul Foot, Papa CJ.

We didn’t initially identify Jim Tavaré as being among that gang. Nor did we name Lioz Shem Tov. But, our info had Kojo and Stephen K. Amos– Neither of them were shown accepting an envelope tonight. (They may be two of the Unlucky Sixteen!)

The Vegas segment is maybe just a hair more annoying and painful to witness than we thought it would be. Competing for laughs at the front desk? Roommate banter? We got it all!

“Our finalists have never been on a stage as large as the one here at the Paris!” says Bellamy in the voiceover. Uh… Sean Cullen was on the stage, repeatedly, during Ellen Degeneres’ huge Vegas special, shot at Caesar’s. And Heath Hyche was a member of the cast of the Blue Collar Comedy Show on TBS, so we figure he was on a few large stages. And Louis Ramey no doubt has mounted a few large casino stages in his career. Nothing wrong with any of that… just sayin’ is all.

Next week, the show is two hours long and it starts at 8PM. So, set your VCR. Or make sure you’re at your computer at about 10:15 or so EDT. We’ll be watching.

From here on in, the show gets far more interesting, as we’ll see many comics doing more than 30 seconds of standup. And in front of a large, live audience, instead of just doing if for two celebrities in an empty room.

Editors note: In the above analysis, we snorted that it seemed rather odd that a comedian (in this case a British comedian) would do a “Baby On Board”-sign joke in 2008, seeing as how that trend ran here in the United States for about 18 months (in 19854-85), thereby making the reference about a quarter-century old. But, according to Wikipedia (FWIW), the B.O.B signs are still quite popular in England and Japan. It’s always a tricky business to re-word a bit (or re-arrange an entire set) to make it travel from your home country to another. We know this from playing Canada. Similar though they may be, there are subtle differences between the two nations that can wreak havoc with jokes and references.