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The Final Five (John Heffron, Tammy Pescatelli, Alonzo Bodden, Kathleen Madigan and Gary Gulman) weighed in with their thoughts on Tuesday's competition. John thought that it was "awesome," and Tammy said that everyone brought their "A" game. In terms of specific performances, Alonzo liked Corey's set, although he wasn't sure if the audience got it. Gary thought that it was "outstanding." Tammy thought Bonnie had an amazing set, and that she looked beautiful. Alonzo thought that was the funniest he'd ever seen her. Kathleen liked the joke about when people say "it's a pleasure to meet you" ("I want to go 'give it a minute'"). With respect to Jay, Tammy remarked that he was so loved by the audience. Kathleen liked that he brings his coat on stage, "like he could leave at any moment" (which hadn't really occurred to me as an interpretation). John thought that ANT had the set of the night. Alonzo agreed it was a strong set, and thought ANT had a chance of winning the wild card slot. For Kathleen, everything in Todd's act had her laughing. Gary also thought that Todd was terrific, and Todd was his pick to win. Alonzo thought maybe Todd, maybe ANT, maybe Jay would go on; Jay thought maybe ANT; Gary thought Todd should be voted on; and Tammy thought they all should be really proud.

All of their comments were perky and positive, and host Jay Mohr channeled my thoughts when he remarked, "I see a video like that, and I think, 'What a bunch of kiss-a**es!'"

Enough of looking back -- it was time to look forward at this point. Each of the five comics performed again, and then we would finally get the results of the voting.

Corey Holcomb

Corey Holcomb again -- surprise, surprise! -- started off his act talking about relationships. He reported that in this day and age, you need to invest in a cameraphone to prove activities were consensual. He, in fact, used a teddybear with a video. He imitated the wink the bear would make when it was recording, remarking on behalf of the bear, "I got it Corey. Don't worry about it." An advantage of the video was that it could be brought into court. "I'll put it in proudly for everyone in the courtroom to see." He imitated explaining to the jury how the tape proved his innocence, and then asked the judge if he could file a countersuit -- "Can she be forced to do this again?"

Corey's set tonight was much stronger than his set on Tuesday. The material was more about laughing at himself than it was about degrading all women, and his delivery was much better. He didn't nervously laugh at his own jokes, and as he acted out the situation in his jokes he once again showed why he would be a good choice for a sit-com.

Bonnie McFarlane

While Corey's routine was all new, Bonnie's was very familiar. She had some new material, such as being raised in a mixed-religion household -- atheist and agnostic -- or being asked if she loved Jesus ("Yeah, I love Jesus ... as a friend."). But she also did the joke about the hypnotist boyfriend from the head-to-head competition (while I enjoyed it the first time, not so much a second time), and the one about how hard it is to break up with guys. She even repeated the complaint about how, when she worried to her therapist that people didn't like her, her therapist responded by telling her no one is even thinking about her -- the same joke she did on Tuesday's competition.

Jay London

It's amazing. Every week, Jay comes up with 90% new material for his jokes. But every week, it's the same act. "Thank you." "I'm sorry, sir." "Oh for one." "This will be over soon." "Thank you."

He has a clever, inventive mind, and I can't say there's been a set that he hasn't made me laugh out loud at least once. Tonight's laugh-grabbers: "I was very lonely driving here tonight, so I hugged the road." "So what do you think of sex in the nineties? It's too hot."

But there hasn't been a set where I've been able to relax and enjoy his humor from beginning to end. He's just too uptight, too uncomfortable, too quick to project a negative reaction on the crowd (even if he's doing it as a joke).

ANT

While ANT surprised me last week, this week he was back to his usual form. Not the worst I've seen him, but well on the wrong side of mediocre. He went on an extended riff about how if there were 1 billion people in China, that meant there were 100 million gays there. "That would be some parade, huh? Well, it really wouldn't be a parade. Just a hundred million of us running away from a tank." That gave me the icks. As did the one about wanting the cop to take him to prison because yes, he did know what they did to boys like him in there. He finished up by a repeat of his talk-butch-to-the-basher-then-scream-like-a-girl story.

Todd Glass

Todd's act once again didn't do much for me. He seems like he should be a funny guy, and of course he has made me laugh sometimes, but I haven't enjoyed a full set of his (or as full as we're allowed to see). Does he prepare at all? Or is he simply winging it? Tonight he set up a joke about Wal-Mart, then remarked parenthetically about how it's okay to buy some things at Wal-Mart, like he had to get a tuxedo ... and then that was it. Maybe the whole point was tuxedos at Wal-Mart, but it would have worked better if he had actually followed through on Wal-Mart.

For me, the funniest part was a shot of Todd's friends in the audience -- cartoon figures propped on the seats.

But maybe I'm just grouchy 'cause Todd was mocking the internet people commenting on his act. Make more with the funny, and you have less to fear from us, fella!

The Sixth Finalist

Finally, we were allowed to hear the results of the voting.

Fourth runner-up was ... Bonnie McFarlane. In a video message, she remarked that she thought her comedy "is challenging" and "smart" and "shocking." Todd thought she was easier to understand if you think of her as a guy. For her part, she still thought she was one of the funniest people in that house. Bonnie, all I can say is, you're in the top ten of this year's comic house. Wait, I forgot ANT -- top nine.

Third runner-up was ... Corey Holcomb. Some in the crowd booed at Corey's elimination, and Jay Mohr whipped up the crowd to a booing frenzy. On stage, Corey looked hang-dog, but his video message was upbeat, talking about what a great experience Last Comic Standing has been for him.

Second runner-up was ... ANT. I had a moment of fear, because Jay made the announcement by saying, "ANT, my friend ..." and I was terrified that Jay was doing a fake-out. But indeed, ANT was gone. In his video, he said, "Let's face it, a year from now, no one will remember who won this competition. But you will all remember me." I hope so, ANT. Otherwise I might end up at your act by mistake.

First runner-up was ... Todd Glass. His video retrospective featured his "attention" song, and it was very clear from the video how much he enjoyed having the attention focused on him -- to the point of showing him jumping on the bed chanting, "Look at me, I'm Todd Glass. I'm always on. I'm always on."

And of course, that means that the winner of the Wild Card competition was Jay London. Jay London was touched that America would vote for a "little guy" like him. Jay Mohr blustered about how Jay London wasn't little, because he was so muscular, and pretty much continued talking over Jay London's soft explanation that "inside, I'm little."

Final Comments: Well, last week I said that Jay had a chance of making it back in, based on audience good will for his personality, and indeed he did make it back in. (I also thought Todd and ANT also were possibilities, and they round out the top 3, so I feel in touch with the American comedic zeitgeist.) I don't think that this will carry him to ultimate victory.

I have mixed feelings about Jay's victory. His statement about being little inside touched me, and I hope that this eases some of his anxiety. On the other hand, I worry about his basing his feelings of personal worth on this professional competition. He's still going to be the same nice person next week, when the comedic styles of Alonzo, Gary and Kathleen will blow him away. And I think he would be a really stellar comic if he could trust his audience enough to combine his inventive mind with some more revealing, thoughtful, personal narrative stories.

And speaking of Kathleen ... there is something seriously wrong with a system where we can see people eliminated from the competition at least three times (head-to-head, wild card competition, and wild card results show) and not see a finalist like Kathleen do one set since the auditions.

Next week, the Final Six compete to become the Final Three, and then the week after that the Final Three compete to be the Last Comic Standing, all based on America's votes.

More Resources on the Internet: NBC.com's Official Site | SirLinksalot.net

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