How Reality Television served as one Comedian’s Introduction to America

By Chip Hammell

The house lights dim and the spotlights rise as the comedy club owner takes the stage at the Vinnie Brand’s Stress Factory in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  Brand warms up the crowd by joking about the recent harsh snowfall as the headliner snakes his way to the front.  The crowd roars as Alonzo Bodden jumps up on stage, he’s the reason they’re here tonight.

Alonzo Bodden’s comedy, which he describes as, “cynically good natured in an angry suburban Negro kind of way,” is a craft that took a lot of work and years to refine.  He started out making jokes while working as a mechanic. Now, after his appearance on Last Comic Standing, he would earn his living exclusively in show business.  “I was no longer just some guy in a comedy club,” Bodden said.  “I actually had a name.”

Alonzo Bodden was a two-time competitor on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing (LCS),” which is like American Idol, except for aspiring standup comedians instead of singers.  In 2004, the second season, Bodden first appeared on LCS and came in second.   Audiences liked Bodden so much that NBC invited him to return for the third season.  The network dubbed the season, “Battle of the Best,” and Bodden won the grand prize.

Bodden represents a rarified group who reap huge rewards from the marketing value from their appearances on reality television.  “If you have a marketable skill or talent, you just build from there“ Bodden said.  “Last Comic Standing was my introduction to America.”

Bodden started out building airplanes.  Eventually, he was promoted to teach others how to perform this trade.  “If you have to talk about ten different types of bolts in a day you have to make it interesting or else they’ll fall asleep,” Bodden said following his New Brunswick performance.  “Once I got a taste for making people laugh I never looked back.”

Bodden struggled as a comedian for ten years prior to LCS.  He had trouble booking gigs because he wasn’t famous, not because he wasn’t funny.  When Bodden first auditioned for LCS, he did not feel nervous.  The audition lasted two minutes, and was between him and two talent scouts who regularly worked at “The Tonight Show.” “It was actually pretty low key,” Bodden said.  “I knew I just had to be funny enough to make it back, and I would be fine.”

After his second place finish, and his appearance on season 3 announced, most people predicted that he would be the winner.  “It’s like the Yankees,” Bodden said.  “Everyone expects them to win the World Series, and when they do they don’t celebrate.  They just get to breathe a sigh of relief.”

After the show, Bodden’s career exploded.  The LCS finalists went on a five-month nation wide tour together. Bodden said, “Once you got [fame], you have to fight to keep it.”  Bodden was enjoying the perks of success.  “I made a lot of friends and have gone all over the world,” he said.  “We weren’t really cutthroat on the show, it was always nice being there.”

Although finding work became easy, Bodden can’t relax on any level if he wants to maintain his level of success.  He was employed by the OSA, and traveled around the country and as far as Iraq.  “I usually went to places like Greenland though.”  Bodden said flashing his bright teeth.  “The first thing I did in Greenland was tap the other black guy on the shoulder and tell him he could leave.”  Bodden’s fame continued to rise as he recorded standup specials for Comedy Central, released his first CD, and performed on all the late night shows.

While performing in Tampa, Bodden was approached by two men who were interested in his talent as both a comedian and an expert on complex machines.  He was asked to film a pilot, which became, “101 Cars You Must Drive.” for the Speed Network.  This would be the first T.V. show Alonzo would host.  Bodden appealed to the comedic masculinity that his tall, broad frame seems to imply.  A lot of the praise came from both the humor of the show and Bodden’s ability to drum up nostalgia in the viewers.  His time on the Speed Network ended after the show, and he is currently working on a new show called “America’s Worst Drivers.”

Bodden classifies himself differently from other reality T.V. stars.  “Real talent, that you can show the audience, not a character being played, is what people remember,” he said.  Other reality stars need to behave a certain way to extend their time in the spotlight.  “They have to act sexy or outlandish all the time,” Bodden said.  “But there’s always going to be someone who comes along that is more sexy or more outlandish than you are.”  Then they are forgotten.

“This extends further than reality T.V. though,” Bodden said.  A lot of people in America are famous for their looks or ridiculous behavior.  Newspaper anchors, in Bodden’s eyes, are “models who read the news,” and politicians do what they have to get noticed- which he believes sends the wrong message.  “Look at Sarah Palin, can you believe that we consider her a leader in this country?”  Bodden said.  “People seem to just go from crazy, to crazier, to train wreck.”

To prevent this, Bodden made a conscious effort to change his standup style following LCS..  He went from talking about his life the same way Bill Cosby did, to talking about current events similarly to George Carlin.

“There are two guys whose jobs I want,” Bodden said.  “Chris Rock and Lewis Black.”  These two comedians, both top observational humorists, feel closer to the style of Bodden’s later work.  At Vinnie Brand’s Stress Factory, he mentioned the Christmas Day Bomber.  “The big reward to being a suicide bomber is you get 72 virgins after you die,” Bodden said.  “This guy set a bomb in his underpants off, though.  It seems like a waste to do it that way.”  He also switched to topical material because “It also guarantees that I always have something to talk about.”