The Showbiz Show with David Spade

David Spade has mastered the art of conveying that he actually is "too cool for the room," even as he seems not to care about how cool the room is. It's a tricky thing to do because you have to bring the audience along in a way that allows them to feel cool by association. Spade does this well by slashing merrily to the right and left and by making an obvious effort to let no-one off the hook. The hard part is overcoming the audience's cautious laughter as they realize that Spade's double-edged sword could easily slash in their direction next. This is where Spade falters.

His perpetual smirk and sardonic arrogance do little to compensate for the stale jokes and easy shots. (David: Two signs that you're in trouble are: You comment on air about how good the jokes really are when the audience doesn't laugh, and no-one on your production staff has the balls to tell you that the joke sucks or that the segment should be cut.)

The show needs better and brighter writers who are not mired in old news stories. It also needs to take more risks; just bleeping two or three expletives doesn't drag the show into the "Cutting Edge" category, but that's where the Showbiz Show desperately, and obviously, wants to be.

Can it be saved? Depends. Spade needs to stretch and get outside of his comfort zone. As it is, this show won't last.

This show is poor. Really poor. The 'comedy' is awful, the presenter - yes Mr Spade, you - is uninteresting and pathetically dull, and quite frankly anyone who likes this show simply doesn't have any idea of what decent comedy is.

Spade is unanimated - he reads off the autocue like he's reading a book with the intention of putting you to sleep. If there was a bit more life in his presenting then maybe their would be more to enjoy - once they've brought in a new writer also.

Bottom line is this. The sooner this pile of useless rubbish is taken off the air, the better.

I like David Spade, he was great on the Hollywood Minute segments of "Saturday Night Live". I also enjoyed "PCU", "Tommy Boy" and even "Joe Dirt" to varying degrees. But this new show of his is pretty awful thus far. Think of "the Daily Show" when Jon Stewart just had taken over as host from Craig Kilborn, That year or so was simply death warmed over. Such is also the case her, the jokes stale, the comic timing non-existent, and the writing leaving so very much to be desired. Seems that Comedy Central only puts shows that are either great ("South Park", "Chapelle's Show", "Reno 911" etcetera) or shows that are complete ass. Sadly this is in the latter, which is a shame, as I do still like Spade.

My Grade: D-

Comedy Central continues to surprise me. A few years back, most of their original television shows - for lack of a better word - stunk. A lot of the crap they had on just wasn't funny.

A few years have passed and now they're airing hilarious original programs such as "Reno 911," "South Park," "The Daily Show," "Too Late with Adam Carolla" (not hilarious but entertaining) and now "The Showbiz Show with David Spade." Spade was really famous for a while and had his face on a few TV shows and movie covers, but Hollyweird roared its ugly head and he basically ended up being the next cruel joke of Hollywood - "that skinny blonde guy who was in the movies with the fat guy." When I first saw ads for his new Comedy Central show, I thought to myself, "Oh no, he's not only lost his career, he's selling out to Comedy Central." And the ads seemed to imply David was now on the outskirts of Hollywood (which was somewhat true) and giving us "the scoop" on the insanity of Hollywood... the beast he was once very much a part of. It seemed kind of contradictory or hypocritical.

Nevertheless I was surprised by the first episode. Sure, it's got a few loose ends that could be tightened and some segments are a bit lame, but for the most part it's quite funny.

The show opens up a la "SNL's" Weekend Update (which Spade used to host, so he's at home here) - he satirizes media headlines. Next he interviews a "geek" about MTV, which I thought was really funny. There were some good points. And considering David is the writer of the television show, as well as presenter, it's nice that he took a stab at himself - the geek tells him something to the effect of, "You have to walk around with a ten-year-old copy of 'Tommy Boy' to remind everyone of who you are." Very nice.

Overall this show isn't the best on TV and does have some loose bits (like the coverage of the Rolling Stones concert - good potential, but it goes on too long and seems like a Daily Show rip-off). Not exactly the most original television show to be airing right now, but quite funny if you're in the mood.

Yeah, at first, I was a little disappointed, but the last four or five episodes have been awesome. Spade's been himself and seems to be having fun doing it. The jokes have been dead-on funny. And best of all, he's brought back his Hollywood Minute (though it's now called Hollywood Ending, but still just as funny). There are still some bits that still bomb, but overall, 8/10, could be 10/10 if it just was a little more biting.

Behind South Park and the Daily Show, it's probably the best show on Comedy Central. I like Colbert, but nobody can beat Spade at the top of his game.