Congratulations to Felipe Esparza, the winner of Last Comic Standing 2010. While his victory in the competition didn't really surprise me -- I've said week in and week out that he's exactly the kind of comedian that tends to do well on this show -- it's worth something that he managed to win what has arguably been the best and most respectable season of Last Comic Standing to date. He hasn't been my favorite comic on the show, but I know what his fans see in him and his win makes sense to me.

Besides, now he gets to join the esteemed company the includes Dat Phan, John Heffron, Josh Blue and Jon Reep. On to the big time.

Though the Last Comic Standing finale ran a bloated two hours, the producers continued to do things (mostly) right by making the show pretty much wall-to-wall stand-up. Things started badly, with Myq Kaplan being eliminated right off the bat, meaning the best comic (in my opinion) wasn't going to win the show. Throughout the night, the rest of the comics were picked off -- next was Mike DeStefano, followed by Roy Wood Jr. -- until only Tommy Johnagin and Esparza remained. I still had hopes that one my favorites could pull it out and take the whole thing, but I suspected voters would lean more towards Esparza. He's more of a character, and traditionally that's what people have responded to on Last Comic Standing.

So let's talk about the stand-up on the finale. Last season's winner (from 2008) Iliza Shlesinger returned to do a set, and it was a bit of a mixed bag.

For starters, she looked terrific, but it was a little odd to see a comic in high heels and a short skirt doing a set that physical and which wasn't using that particular look to create a character. Her outfit seemed to be at odds with her style of comedy -- that's not a criticism, just something I needed to reconcile as I made it through Shlesinger's set. She had a lot of energy and confidence (confidence has never been a problem for Shlesinger), some good jokes and a number of good ideas that may or may not have come together all the way (I liked the bit about how short girls don't know any spices beyond salt and pepper because they can't reach them). Shlesinger clearly deserved to win the season she competed on, but watching her in the context of this season's class of comic made her seem just a bit younger and less experienced. I liked her set overall, but it lacked the polish and tightness of what NBC would like us to expect from a Last Comic Standing winner.

Tom Papa, host of NBC's Marriage Ref, came on to do a set, because synergy. Like a lot of the night's comics, he did kind of a "best of" set consisting of jokes he's been performing for a while now -- mostly about marriage and the differences between men and women. Still, it worked because he's a pro and knows how to write and deliver a joke. Workmanlike, but effective.

In a very smart move, NBC had all three of the "judges" -- Andy Kindler, Natasha Leggero and Greg Giraldo -- perform short sets during the finale. Anyone unsure of who the three comics are or why they're qualified to judge a comedy competition should hopefully better understand based on these performances. Or, at least, I think that was the idea, because although all three of the sets helped give a sense of who the judges are as comedians, I'd be lying if I said all three had killer acts. I chalk that up more to the constraints of a network TV broadcast (Greg Giraldo, in particular, has always struggled a bit when working with his hands tied) or time limitations or even the desire to get over in the shortest amount of time -- all three did slightly scattershot "best of" sets that hopped around too much to develop the right momentum. Still, there were better jokes here than anywhere else on Last Comic Standing, and it was good to see these three comics finally get to do what they do and not just heaping generic praise from the judges' table.

Kathy Griffin was the last -- and probably biggest -- name to perform on the finale (not counting final sets from Esparza and Johnagin, who once again killed) was Kathy Griffin, who got a huge response from the crowd. While I appreciated that Griffin did all current material (instead of dragging out "best of" material the way some of the other comics did), it was the same kind of set that she's been coasting on for years now. That is, there were no jokes. She just stands up in front of the crowd and gossips about celebrities, occasionally (but not often enough) inserting some amusing commentary on the subject. For the most part, though, it amounts to stuff like "How about Jersey Shore, huh? Can you believe those dirtbags?" and the audience responds more out of recognition than anything else.

Host Craig Robinson performed a couple of songs, including a duet of "I Will Survive" with Gloria Gaynor, that felt more like filler than anything else. Still, compared to a montage of the show's past hosts, Robinson might as well be Bill Hicks (even wordless, Jay Mohr wasn't funny and seeing Bill Bellamy dressed as a knight was a chilling reminder of just how terrible this show has been in the past). He didn't add much to the show this season, but his presence still speaks to an overall attempt that NBC is trying to make Last Comic Standing better.

And it has been better. Better comedians, more focus on stand-up. Still not a perfect show, but no comedy competition will ever be. It's just too subjective. Still, I'm glad that bigger audiences were exposed to comics like Johnagin and Mike Kaplan and, yes, Felipe Esparza. These guys have all been working hard for years, and I'm at least glad that a show like Last Comic Standing can give them some kind of break. If nothing else, it's good for that.

Thanks for reading this season. Assuming Last Comic Standing comes back (and, given the show's history, there's no guarantee that it will), I'll be back, too. You've been warned.

• Original Air Date: 8/9/10