‘Last Comic Standing’ rankings: The Rod Man, Joe Machi, and Nikki Carr race heats up

Sometimes with “Last Comic Standing,” it’s fairly easy to figure out who the winner is going to be. We felt that way, for example, the year that Josh Blue or Iliza Shlesinger won the competition.

This season, however, it feels like there is genuine competition. Anyone left could theoretically win, though three out of the top four especially seem to be in good spots. Everyone is close enough when it comes to laughs per minute that there is even some flexibility in the rankings; that’s why we have a new #1 for the first time in a while.

In case you’re new to how we put together this article, our criteria is performance quality, history on the show (especially important this late in the game), and also whether or not NBCUniversal will want to develop a show with them.

4. Lachlan Patterson – As of last week, Lachlan is suddenly the guy with the least momentum. His set took a little while to get going, and there were also moments where he felt detached from his comedy, like almost anyone could be telling his jokes. We’ve seen him be able to turn things around before, but his challenge at this point is going to be convincing the judges that his own point of view is worthy of a development deal more than three huge personalities higher than him on this list.

3. Nikki Carr – Nikki had a really good set last week, anchored by some strong stories that actually gave us more of a sense of who she is as a person. She’s easily going to have a future regardless of whether or not she wins this, but our real feeling right now is just that she’s behind two people who have been uproariously funny since the beginning.

2. Joe Machi – We observed something really interesting when it comes to Joe’s set last week. His delivery is fantastic, but thanks to the uniqueness of it, he has to be almost prepared perfectly for the jokes to kill. There were almost a few too many one-liners in his set that it felt a little disjointed, especially since he started taking calling the audience “gang” to a new level. Has he still been our favorite comedian for basically the entire season? Definitely.

1. Rod Man – Meanwhile, what we’ve observed from Rod Man is that he has a Seinfeld-like gift of being able to just ramble on something inconsequential, and somehow still make it really funny. The reality is that there is a ton of work that goes into a story about a baby “going through changes,” but he makes it appear effortless. This is a quality that works so well on TV, which is why “Seinfeld” probably became the hit that it was. We’re not saying that Rod Man is destined to have one of the greatest TV careers of all time, but if we were picking one person to front a TV show right now, it would be him with his point of view on life.

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Photo: NBC