The Sean Schau is due back at the Drake on Aug 26. Last Comic Standing airs Thursdays on Global.
Unlike his more-or-less monthly appearances at the Drake Hotel — where he is in his element, goofing with an attentive crowd in between absurd power ballads — Sean Cullen looks a little out of place on Last Comic Standing.
Not because he’s older than the average contestant, the summer filler series has seen grayer heads than his, and not because the songs and so many of his defining, cutesy-poo quirks get left behind in favor of plain ol’ all-purpose stand-up, but because he’s Sean goddamn Cullen. An entertainer in full with a resume two decades long, multiple Tonight Show appearances, a Comedy Central special and a stint, though brief, as Max Bialystock in The Producers.
Not the sort of fellow you expect to see huddled outside of Yuk Yuk’s in February, gunning for a big break.
Cullen did three minutes about British gangster movies and made it to the semi finals, followed by another local vet, Winston Spear. Spear has since been eliminated, while Cullen’s next appearance has yet to air.
“I think everybody on there is an accomplished comedian. It’s not like Canadian Idol, everybody is a professional. There’re not really any amateurs,” he says, talking after the June edition of The Sean Schau at the Drake. The two-hour Schau saw him do a few numbers from his new album I Am a Human Man and chat about summer blockbusters with film critic and repeat guest Richard Crouse.
Cullen says he was reluctant to audition for LCS, partly because he tried and missed last year, but his agent twisted his arm.
“I don’t like to be exposed that way, and told ‘You’re not funny’” he says. “I hate that, but it gets you exposure.”
American exposure, at that. Important since work done up here counts for so little in L.A., as if everyone’s resumes were written on ice. Remove the Canadian films and TV shows from his c.v., re-do the fame arithmetic, and Cullen looks a little less out of place on Last Comic Standing. That said, he seems to have more fun doing the Schau.
“Here it’s all about meandering,” he nods to the emptying room. “It’s all about loosening up, so the act’s not constricted. I want it to be polished but relaxed.”