Bellamy Bill started off the show with a textbook example of how to do 7- to 12-year-old topical material– just start it off by saying, “I shook hands with Barack Obama the other day… (transition)… How about that Bill Clinton?” We have no problem with comics doing 12-year-old jokes. But 12-year-old political material? It’s noticeable.

Four minutes for each comic, then they cut off the mike. Thems the rules. No one went over. They performed in the following order:

Lavell Crawford
Jon Reep
Ralph Harris
Amy Schumer
Gerry Dee

Crawford seemed nervous… seemed not in command. He goofed up word order here and there, added in extraneous words, quite possibly left out others. A large part of the appeal of this large man is his confidence. Tonight he had little. Perhaps it was only noticeable to our highly-trained eyes.

Reep, on the other hand, was very confident. And he has a dangerous likeability factor. The energy plus the confidence and likeability will take him far.

Harris appears to be showcasing his acting talents. He is doing characters. (Second in that category is Reep, who is doing a character, one character– It’s Jon Reep.) But Harris is doing several and he does more than one in a short set. Does anyone look at comedians and assess whether or not they can “build a sitcom around them?” We’re told the sitcom is dead. If it’s not, then Reep and Harris are two worthy candidates and, regardless of how the voting goes over the next few weeks, they’ll be sitting around a lot of bowls of fruit in executive offices. Both have been on sitcoms– Harris starred in his own and Reep was a recurring character on Rodney Carrington’s show, so none of this is a stretch.

Schumer is unashamedly flogging this female sympathy vote thing– “Women have to be twice as funny to get half the credit.” Either she believes it… or she’s cynically pandering to get the female/eunuch vote. Either way, it’s revolting. (What would Schumer have done this year if Kathleen Madigan had been in the final five? None of this would have worked.) It will probably garner her enough votage to keep her in until the next to last week.

Dee closed the show. He’ll make it through this round for three reasons: He went last. He’s the only Canadian, so he’ll garner all the Canadian vote. During his set, the camera panned to Season Three winner John Heffron, thereby sending out a subliminal message to all the voters that Dee is The Next John Heffron.

Prediction: Lavell Crawford– GONE!

Lavell Crawford 866 978-2701
Jon Reep 866 978-2702
Ralph Harris 866 978-2703
Amy Schumer 866 978-2704
Gerry Dee 866 978-2705

These numbers are for US and Canada only! All others can vote online.

Next week, we’ll find out who is gone. The remaining four will perform again and there’ll be two special guests!

Prediction: The two special guests will be Howie Mandel and Caroline Rhea each of whom host NBC shows. And, in a long shot, Dane Cook. (He’s got a movie coming out, so it could happen.) Or Sinbad, because his management want to put to rest the rumors that he died. Jimmy Fallon is also a good guess. Although not a standup comic, he did just sign a big deal with NBC.

Or Kathy Griffin, who has a show on NBC-sister station Bravo and who was just nominated for an emmy.