Last fall, Pixo teamed with the founders of The Improv Comedy Clubs, Budd Friedman and Mark Lonow to find the next big star via the internet. Up and coming comedians uploaded their acts onto the Improv site and promoted themselves around the clock to get votes. The prize? $25,000 worth of paid gigs at The Improv Harrah’s Las Vegas and The Improv Lake Tahoe AND a meeting with an APA agent (APA represents some of Hollywood’s finest talent!). The contest officially ended February 29, 2012 but that wasn’t the end. Six finalists were going to be making the trip to beautiful Las Vegas on April 1st (no joke!) to compete in the finals hosted at The Improv in Harrah’s. To determine the six finalists, the top three with the most amount of votes were automatically finalists. Two were selected by Mark and Budd themselves from the “Ringers Pool” which were contestants receiving the 4th-20th most votes during the duration of the contest. Lastly, the “Wildcard” which was also selected by Budd and Mark and could be any contestant, in any standing.
Our six finalists were…..<insert drumroll here>
~ Keith Lyle – receiving the most amount of votes (30,743 to be exact!)
~ Don Barnhart – receiving the second most amount of votes
~ Leslie Ann Thompson – third most votes
~ Comic TLC (aka Tari Briggs) – one of the two “Ringers Pool” choices
~ Rob Little – the second of the “Ringers Pool” choices
~ Karen Morgan – wildcard pick
The finalists finally had the chance to meet with one another backstage at The Improv in Harrah’s. Not only were they about to do a possible life changing performance, they were about to do that life changing performance in front of an audience of about 300. Just a few people decided to stop by The Improv that Sunday night! Celebrity host, John Henton wowed the crowd and guest judges, which included Doug Elfman (Columnist from the Las Vegas Review), Robin Leach (we dare you to read the rest of this blog in his voice) and Danny Robinson (agent at APA). After each contestant performed their set, the points were tallied and excitement kicked in. Who will win? Did the women dominate the men? Did the men outshine the women? It was a very close call in the end, but the judges chose Ms. Karen Morgan as the “Up Yours” Season 1 winner! Congrats to Karen!
Overall, this was a great Season 1 and there is so much more to come as we prepare to roll into Season 2. Do YOU think you have what it takes to be The Improv’s next big thing?? Stay tuned for our official announcement on how YOU can enter the ‘Up Yours’ contest!
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