Philly Legend Jimmy Shubert On Tonight’s Last Comic Standing

 

We’ve got one more name on the list of who is going to be competing in this year’s Last Comic Standing on NBC. In addition to Joe “the handsome vault” Machi, we now know that comedy great Jimmy Shubert is joining the competition, so watch out everyone else, you’re in for a tough fight. Shubert called in to the Ron and Fez Show today to promote his appearance this weekend on Dave Attell’s Comedy Underground and also confirmed that we will see him on Last Comic Standing tonight.  He’s excited about it and so are we.  To know that comedy powerhouses like Shubert are involved puts the entire competition in an entirely new light.  Bennington asked Shubert how he feels about writing clean sets for prime time.  “You call it Last Comic Standing, I’m calling it ‘how many clean sets can Jimmy Shubert do,'” Shubert told Bennington.  “I don’t write dirty or clean, I just like funny.   I had like six sets put together in my head before I even auditioned for it.”

We’ll see if he can pull that off on tonight’s season premier.  “Tonight they start the invitational,” he told Bennington, “which was 100 people out of probably down from about 5,000 submissions. And then they get that down to the top 20, and then they get it down to the top 10.  And then the competition literally starts. But it’s not going to be anything silly like it was in years past.   Wanda Sykes is a real comic, so I think the challenges will be to  the disciplines of comedy as much as they can do that without turning it into a reality show.”

With dozens of reality shows on tv, we agree with Shubert that seeing comedy on prime time is great for business.  “You’ve got 20 shows on, 15 singing shows. I think stand up comedy is the toughest art form to do.  I think to bring it forward like this, i think whats good for comedy is good for comedians. And they’re setting it up so stand up comedy is showcased properly.  So we’ll see what happens,” he said. He referred to some problems in prior seasons of LCS promising that we’re not going to be seeing a bunch of silliness.  He pointed out that producers Wanda Sykes and Page Hurwitz both really know comedy and want to get it right. ” Running through Bed Bath and Beyond grabbing a handful of props to do a set for Carrot Top isn’t a real world challenge.  I’m a talented guy but I don’t want to sleep on the side walk for twelve hours next to a clown and a guy in a cat suit.”   Although we kind of want to see that, we’re glad to hear that it won’t be a part of this year’s show.

For anyone who doesn’t know Shubert, its time to get up to speed on his talents, because he’s one of the greats.  And he’s excited about the opportunity which makes us even more interested in seeing tonight’s premier.

“I am excited about the opportunity. You know me, I open the refrigerator door, the light comes on, I do fifteen minutes.”

So you’ve got Shubert.  You’ve got Joe Machi. Plus there’s 98 more surprises to come.   Tune in tonight at 9pm et for the Two Hour Premier, and watch with us on Twitter.

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