Well, handicapping the finals, this is how I see it going down.

5th: Gerry Dee. This is really the first time where his comedic element (the 5+ minute performance) comes into play, and obviously his competitors knew that he was a much stronger long performer than short performer. With that said, he was the only one to not have a strong performance on the show once it reached the Final 10. Ralph had his second head to head. Amy had a couple good immunity challenges. Lavell had his immunities. Jon Reep had his jester challenge. Gerry's going in with a big disadvantage in that he didn't do anything. I still think he has a shot to make it farther, but still...

4th: Ralph Harris. Ralph has the opposite problem from Gerry. He had to pull out the big stops when facing Mat and Doug, and he couldn't take Gina/Dante lightly either. The audience has seen him and usually comedy isn't funny every time from the same person. If he pulls out his old man impersonation, he could be trouble.

3rd: Amy Schumer. Who knows. She has the same general routine most of the time (I was ugly, now I'm pretty, look how pretty I am, I'm a girl in comedy), but she really does appeal to a good market for voting and she can be legitimately funny, especially for a comic without a LOT of experience. I have no idea where she ends up, but I'll place her higher than Roz last year.

2nd: Jon Reep. I don't find him that funny (I only really like Gerry and Lavell among the remaining), but he hits a lot of that "Redneck" type of comedy and his physical ability may get him a long way. He seems to appeal to a wide range and has been strong in the show.

1st: Lavell Crawford. It's his show to blow now. The fat jokes are still funny, his delivery is great, and he has all the tools to do it. He'll need a really bad set to throw him off and he's a lot like Josh Blue from last year: he has one really defining characteristic and he'll make humor out of it. And that is enough to win.

As for the Final 5 show, I can't be that upset. Too hard to judge the immunity since we saw almost none of what happened. It was skewed for Amy to win (only girl in group + girl audience = easier relatability). Gerry would have had a shot if all the DOND Models stayed in, but that doesn't reflect well on him.

For the Head To Head, Ralph actually did a performance that I liked. I didn't like him more than Doug or Mat, but enough to not be upset when he won. Still, if I could have Doug or Mat in his place, I would.

I had to switch tonight's final 5 off for some Indian Temple building show on Discovery Times.

The comics aren't all that funny.

This is how boring it's been tonight:

1. The 'we're only going from five to four this week' idea seems like the worst thing since getting rid of the house.

2. I've spent most of the episode wondering if that was Jeff Probst in the audience during John Reep's set.

I rather liked the idea of going down one at a time with the final five. This way, we get to hear more each week from the remaining contestants and can see how much material and how much range they have. It also gives the viewing audience a chance to judge contestants on a long-term basis, much like American Idol.

As far as Thursday night's performances go, I think only Amy and Gerry deserve to be locks to move on. The other three are two close to call. None were terribly funny to me. Lavell's set seemed staggered and broken; he spent too much time on joke set-up and didn't do a very good job with that. Ralph's bit about family members seemed, I don't know, worn. Like I've seen it before many times over, probably because I have. John Reep's set wasn't great, but it did seem to flow better than the other two.

Summary: Lavell hasn't done much since the semi's, but he created a following in that that could help him here. Ralph seemed to lose some steam from his two head-to-heads, but has some credit with the voters for surviving the two h2h's, which is 2 more than anyone else in the competition. In a season where John Reep hasn't done much, he needed to showcase his talents here, but he didn't.

Prediction: John Reep is going home.

Courtesy of Agman's Beachhouse and Sigshop, 2007