Last Comic Standing: Another first person account

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on February 16th, 2008

Another report from the Toronto LCS audition:

I, along with about 120 others, stood in line in sub-freezing temperatures for up to nine hours Thursday in Toronto to audition for LCS. I arrive around 7 AM and there were about fifty ahead of me in line.

As expected, the more experienced and/or better represented breezed by for scheduled audition times. No problem. We knew that would happen when we decided to audition.

Doors were to open at 9 AM, but it seemed none of us moved forward for hours. We did get into the requisite shots of the line with people waving and hooting for the cameras and briefly being a background for Bill Bellamy on a horse in a mountie costume (yes, the usual cliches for Canada were marched out). We learned anew why the show is called Last Comic STANDING since that’s mostly what we did.

The press showed up from local and national Canadian TV interviewing people in the line and both Gerry Dee and Deb DiGiovanni from LCS season 5 were there interviewing comics for entertainment news shows.

Finally in the afternoon, we got a chance to be funny six-at-a-time for a production assistant, who would point to each of us and say “give me your best minute” or “tell me a one-liner.” Then we got to answer some questions in what they called the Funny Booth, you know– the booth they use for “I’m funnier than…” on the show. In the booth we were encouraged to be as funny and silly as possible and to quote the director, “whether that’s your style or not.” I’m told one comic was encouraged to wear a cowboy hat for no apparent reason. From the above screenings, if you were chosen you would receive the phone call to come back to audition for two minutes for the celebrity talent scouts (Dave Foley and Richard Kind). That audition would either get you, or not get you, a spot in the evening showcase.

The best part of the day was seeing the comics in line, hearing and enjoying the camaraderie. Very encouraging group and, despite some impatience and irritation, generally everyone took it all in stride.

Feel free to use any of the above you like, use my name too. It was an interesting day, bloody cold and I’m glad I did it but I wouldn’t do it again.

FOS,
Jim Tice
Aberfoyle, ON, Canada

Thanks, Jim! We felt like we were there!

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