Last Comic Standing Studio Tour Improv Challenge: Straight Up Recap
Thursday night’s Last Comic Standing was the most tense episode all season long.
In this next to the last challenge round show, the comedians took over as tour bus guides at Universal Studios Hollywood. Their improv skills were put to the test as they entertained park visitors on a tour of Universal. Lachlan Patterson was declared the winner by the happy tourists and he received immunity. The amount time on this episode dedicated to the challenge was pretty short. It was all done in 20 minutes including commercial breaks. That’s because the rest of the show was going to be dedicated to the head-to-head challenge which went into a thrilling overtime.
As the comedians voted on who they think they’re funnier than, Joe Machi became an obvious target. He had his choice of competitors to go up against in the head-to-head and Machi chose Monroe Martin.
The two faced off with set versus set with Joe Machi going on stage first. The judges, Roseanne, Russell Peters and Keenan Ivory Wayans could not decide on a winner. They all felt Monroe was just getting stronger in competition and Roseanne and Russell especially appreciated how well Joe did working to a completely cold audience, speculating that he warmed them up for Monroe.
With no decision on a winner, Joe Machi and Monroe Martin were brought back out and given an opportunity to do just a 2 minute set each to declare the winner. That would have been great, except afterwards, the judges were still deadlocked. The producers had to come in and intervene. And for the first time in Last Comic Standing history, the head-to-head challenge went to “Sudden Death”. In this final tie-breaker, Machi and Martin each got one joke to tell. The winner would be declared from a single joke.
Machi talked about gun control and how the founding fathers would be shocked to see who’s currently in the White House while Martin joked about diabetes and losing a leg to Pop Tarts. The judges found Joe Machi’s joke edgy and hysterical and he was finally declared the winner in overtime.
This brings LCS down to 6 contestants. Next week, someone else goes home and the Final 5 will be decided.
Watch Joe Machi’s head-to-head competition set.
