We’re blogging from the Cleveland Improv comedy condo… there’s a VCR/TV combo (how quaint!) and we found a VHS copy of “Any Given Sunday” that had a My Name is Earl already taped over the first third of it. So we set the VCR and it seems to have worked. (This also explains why we were late in our analysis this evening. Our show at the Improv wasn’t over until 9:50 or so.)

Marcus… He’s an impressonist… so we suppose it’s okay that he was doing an Attell impression… But he didn’t do any impressions of Attell doing impressions… What gives? (And during the packaged piece, his Adam Sandler sounded like Walter Brennan! But, to be fair, one of Adam Sandler’s default voices/personae is pretty much Walter Brennan. And, if a significant number of you must Google “Walter Brennan,” then Sandler’s appropriation of the Brennan voice is more like archaeology than )

So he does the Walken impression while being evalutated by the celebrity scouts. Hey, no fair!

Dan Cummins is cornering the market this season in the quirky, offbeat department. His set was surprisingly cohesive for being a series of short, discreet bits, like a Steven Wright or Mitch Hedberg set.

Iliza Shlesinger speaks in a normal voice, then occasionally does the little girl voice… We suppose she could never share the bill with Maria Bamford (who speaks in the little girl voice and occasionally slips into the normal voice). Imagine the confusion and consternation! Imagine the fistfights to determine who goes on first, who goes on last!

Eddie Pepitone did one of the more unconventional sets– on this episode, on this season. It was off-kilter, and we wondered how he would have fared in the Heckler Challenge!

Erik Griffin was the Last Comic Driving tonight. He got the best response from the passengers so far. (But not a standing ovation… Just what is Fearne Cotton’s obsession with standing ovations? It’s unseemly!) We don’t buy the whole Last Comic Driving premise– what comic would be allowed to speak that long in a car? Unless he’s telling a particularly juicy story about a booker, a comedian just isn’t going to be allowed to drone on and on,doing material, like that!

Let’s remind folks of who made it into the finals:

God’s Pottery
Adam Hunter
Jeff Dye
Ron G
Paul Foot
Iliza Shlesinger
Marcus
Jim Tavaré
Esther Ku
Louis Ramey
Sean Cullen
Papa C.J.

Those in bold are the comedians that our intelligence says make it into the finals. (And, furthermore, we heard that Papa C.J. and Esther Ku are gone in short order, in one of the next two episodes.)

Stone and Stone we want to see them forty years from now. Now that would be spectacular! Two 70-year-old identical twins that have been around for four decades! That would be/will be amazing! They are very old school. It’s bizarre: They don’t have a straight man! How do they write? It’s the only non-old school facet of the act. (Actually, they could alternate… each could take the other’s part… for all we know they are/they do!) We’re taken by the uberblank expressions on their faces. An animated version of Stone and Stone would be hysterical! Sort of a post-modern, Jewish Chip & Dale!

Papa C.J.‘s delivery and presentation is… raw? Amateurish? He’ll be a totally different comic three years from now. Is it really there yet? We aren’t surprised that he’ll be booted off early on. We’re kinda surprised (even by the LCS quirky, through the looking glass rules) that he got this far. The comedy calmness/confidence hasn’t yet settled over him.

Mary Mack (who “just might be the next great voice of comedy,” says Bill Bellamy) shifted into her hourlong set-rhythm for her three-minute set. Kind of a long approach on a short runway. Our talent scouts, agreed. She protested when it was pointed out that she took too long to get started, saying that she just wanted everyone to be comfortable. “We were so comfortable that we were almost sleeping,” said Schirippa (and we must agree with him).

Bob Biggerstaff‘s set of self-deprecating, fat jokes was well constructed and sprinkled with enough odd references (and sold with enough quirk) to separate it from other similar sets. Biggerstaff got a regular, steady response. We were reminded of Drew Carey. He made the best of his exposure on primetime television.

Out of all the contestants, Louis Ramey seems to be the most sincere and most in control of his emotions when it comes to how he feels about this competition. His set demonstrated many things– he’s ready for a big, Vegas room, his appeal is broad, his material is clever, his wildly professional. He’s still the favorite to win, as far as we’re concerned. He echoed our sentiments exactly when, upon exiting the stage, he said to the camera, “Now, that’s how it’s done.”

Sean Cullen‘s “You’ve Got A Friend In Porn” failed to get a big yuk on the initial punchline. Ouch! The rest of the song was rough sledding. We’re surprised he got through tonight based on that performance. Perhaps he needs the Juice Pigs to pull it off. A Juice Pig-less Corky was not flying in Vegas tonight.

John Evans got swallowed up by the giant stage and the huge theater. He came across as a comic better suited to a small, intimate venue.

Heath Hyche‘s Elvis bit is one of the funniest things we’ve ever seen. It would have been nice (and very appropriate) if he could have done it in Vegas, baby! But it’s not one of those things that could (or should) be done in a three-minute format like this one. They undermined his set by showing the scouts exchanging disgusted looks dead in the middle of the Kamikaze sketch. But the choice he made on this evening backfired. (The audience dug it, but the celebrity scouts were brutal!)

Did anyone understand Esther Ku‘s first joke? We didn’t. If Belzer is allergic to ethnic stereotypes in 2008, we suppose he’ll take a similarly dim view of Ku’s set tonight– “Can I see your ricense and registration, preese?” (We also wonder if he’s allergic to stereotypes about cops as well.)

“It’s legal for an ethnic group to make fun of itself,” says Belzer, when asked to evaluate Ku. (It’s legal? Perhaps Belzer could be technical advisor for the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal. We were saying equally ridiculous things last week– we were kidding. Sadly, Belzer is not.)

Jackie Kashian‘s set was a sitcom pitch, a hilarious combination of a cohesive standup set and a sitcom pitch.

They flashed to Louis Lee (in the audience) during Pete Lee‘s set. (Louis Lee is the proprietor of Minneapolis’ Acme Comedy Co.) No relation.

Jim Tavaré is old, old school. Henny Youngman longer jokes and longer arms and a bigger instrument, if you’ll pardon the expression. It will be interesting to see if anyone can figure out what to do with him. “Dead man walking,” he said when he exited and passed by the camera. Not a happy man, in spite of Belzer’s very complimentary assessment.

It’s Marcus, Jim Tavaré, Esther Ku, Papa CJ, Sean Cullen, Iliza Shlesinger and Louis Ramey.

Check out the look on eveyrone’s face when Bellamy announced that there are only two tickets left. What is that all about? There were five last week and seven this week. Perhaps they were all confused about the discrepancy.

Next week’s teaser depicts the comics doin’ the dozens! Now that is cutting edge, people. Forcing comics to do fify-year-old material while wearing boxing regalia. This is what it’s all about. Our hearts swell with pride.