Ralphie May, the runner-up of NBC's summer Last Comic Standing reality series who is currently performing in Las Vegas with fellow contestant Rob Cantrell, has upcoming big events happening in both his professional and personal lives. The big career news: his own upcoming Dreamworks double-disc DVD of his stand-up comedy, the industry's first stand-up two-disk DVD. The personal news: the 500-pound comedian's decision to undergo a gastric bypass procedure later this month. But apparently neither one seems enough to end his public complaining over Phan's win.
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May, who's "Last Comic Standing Live" show with Cantrell runs at Vegas' Sahara casino through November 16, says that despite losing on the show, his career as never been looking better and that he's enjoying the same opportunities as Dat Phan, the 28-year-old winner of the program. "He pulled heartstrings," May told the Las Vegas Review Journal regarding Phan. "But after the show, I became that family at Christmas that gets robbed, and the whole community comes together and builds them a house."
Via his runner-up status, May landed the previously mentioned Vegas gig and Dreamworks DVD deal, as well as a sitcom development deal and the opportunity to appear on a USO tour of Iraq. But one thing May feels the show didn't give him was a good public image. "The show did me a great service by putting my name out there and putting my comedy out there. But it also made me look like a real jerk," he says. "I've got ground to make up and I'm conscious of it."
The latest reality show contestant to complain about his program's editing, May told the Review Journal that his editing on the program was "always designed to make me look like a cocky bastard." "When they asked me if (I) thought I would win, they cut it right after I said, `Yeah, I think I'm gonna win.'" "They cut the rest that said: `because it's a competition and that's the only way you can think. If you don't come in with a winning attitude, you've already lost it. Comedy is 90 percent confidence.' "
And despite his success, it still seems clear that May still appears to hold a grudge against Phan, who May says was clearly edited to attract sympathy votes from the viewers. "Dat got the majority of the air time, and the majority of the sympathy," said May. "Comedians mess with each other. That's what comedians do." According to May, Phan will "see the immediate rewards, but there's no shortcut to the top of the mountain." "He'll still have to put in time. He'll never get the respect that he'll eventually earn, because he bypassed the whole route."
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Speaking of bypasses, May says he'll undergo his gastric bypass procedure on November 18, two days after his Vegas gig ends. After it's over, we suggest May concentrate more on looking ahead to his future and being grateful for what the show has given him and less on looking back and taking digs at Phan and Last Comic's viewer voting, but hey, what do we know, we probably would have voted for Rich Vos to win.