A kinder, gentler reality series? What's that aboot?

I don't know how many of you can see this, except JepGirl if she's got her TV working. I can only see it because one of the few benefits of living in Seattle is that we can get CBC Television. But I wanted to say that The Second City's Next Comedy Legend is actually kinda good.

As you might guess from the name, it's a "reality" series where the prize is a spot in a Second City company, a great opportunity for any comedian. The "legend" part is probably unfair, though-not every Second City student becomes John Candy, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Thomas or Eugene Levy.

But what would TV be without a little overblown hype? Even Canadian TV. And I think one of the reasons this show is so much more fun for me to watch than our American singing/dancing/cooking and more broadly-defined "talent" extravaganzas is precisely that.

Because it is Canadian, and one quality that Canadians seem to have is, they're apologetic. You can't imagine a bitchy, queeny guy like Simon from American Idol, who seems to get joy out of poisoning the hearts of young hopefuls, here.

The judges are three Second City alumni, the most "legendary" of whom is Joe Flaherty. They seem-so far anyway-to be at least as interested in giving critiques that will actually help these young actors, even the ones they eliminate, rather than merely wounding them with some stinging if cackle-worthy comment.

(The show does have its own bitchy queen, but it's one of the contestants, who actually manages to make bitchy queenery an unattractive trait.)

(And the judges may not exactly hate consigning one of the eliminated actors' 8X10 glossies to a shredder, a convention the show doesn't need)

The finalists are a group of eight (now seven) looking for their big break, and the series throws them right into the deep end, with surprise performances at the Second City Main Stage, and theatre games played before an audience including Dave Thomas.

Sure enough I'm already picking who I like but so far hasn't made me laugh, who I like and has make me laugh, and who I don't like at all. So far I like the women--Kayla Lorette, Megan McDowell and Jeannie Cole, in roughly that order--more than the men.

Big surprise, right? Yeah, I like women in comedy. And no doubt it's some male competitive gene thing, but at times there are few things more aggravating to me than guys who think they're funny. It's like nails on a blackboard.

In particular, if the aforementioned bitchy queenie guy isn't eliminated soon, I may lose all hope in the Canadian industry of being funny.