NBC's Last Comic Standing 4 revealed its Top 5 finalists last night, sending Rebecca Corry and Kristin Key home at the end of the three-way head-to-head competition that followed the elimination of Gabriel Iglesias, who was disqualified for violating the show's rules.
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The next day, the eight remaining finalists voted to decide which one of them would be the focus of their next challenge -- roasting one of themselves at the Friar's Club in Beverly Hills. After the secret cigar ballots were counted, Gabriel found out that out that he'd be the target of his fellow comedians jokes.
After getting some time to prepare their material, the comedians embarked on another long ride on the short bus. Once at the Friar's Club, roastmaster Jim Norton introduced the challenge's judges -- Phyllis Diller, Gilbert Gottfried, and Last Comic Standing 3 winner Alonzo Bodden -- and, one by one, the rest of the finalists took turns making jokes about both Gabriel and the rest of their fellow finalists. Afterward, the roastee became the roaster, with Gabriel getting his own shot at making fun of each of his fellow finalists.
In the end, the judges decided the Chris had done the best job, winning him a membership to the Friar's Club and an opportunity to perform with Louie Anderson in Las Vegas.
Later, controversy broke out when one of the show's producers caught Gabriel secretly using a Blackberry to stay in touch with a loved one. Since Gabriel's action represented a breach of his Last Comic Standing contract (which required him and the rest of the finalists to not have any outside contact other than that supervised by the show), the producers informed him that he was being disqualified and eliminated from the competition.
After Last Comic Standing host Anthony Clark informed the seven remaining finalists of Gabriel's departure, they voted to determine who would be competing in the head-to-head challenge. When the votes were tabulated, a majority alliance had once again apparently failed to form, with Rebecca, Kristin, and Ty Barnett each receiving two votes. Since the comedians' vote had -- for the second challenge in a row -- ended with at least three comics tied for the most votes, Rebecca, Kristin, and Ty weren't allowed to select one of the other comics who voted for one of them to join them in the challenge.
After heading over to the Last Comic Theatre, Anthony introduced Rebecca, Kristin, and Ty to the theater audience and they each performed their sets. After the audience voted, Anthony announced that Rebecca had received the fewest votes and would be eliminated. Then -- following a few additional moments of suspense -- he revealed that Ty had received 69% of the total audience vote, meaning that Kristin would also be going home and Ty would be joining Michele Balan, Josh Blue, Chris Porter, and Roslane "Roz" Gholston as Last Comic Standing 4's Top 5 finalists.
Beginning next week, America will get its turn to decide which comic is the funniest. All five remaining finalists will perform their funniest routines, after which home viewers -- via both online and telephone voting -- will determine which finalist will be eliminated prior to the following week's performances.
