There are plenty of comedy competitions that are just popularity contests--they're basically "bringer shows" where the winner ends up being the person who brought the most people to come see them and cheer the loudest for them...

This competition is different. The judge-based scoring system has, in general, worked out quite well over the past 32 years in determining over the many shows held in each competition who the truly best performer in a given year are...

Yes, there are anomalies like what happened on Vashon, where the judges (who, I should point out, were all hand picked for that show by the venue to be both representative of the audience and knowledgeable about comedy) and parts of the audience don't always agree--but, that doesn't mean that the judges were wrong or that the system needs to be changed.

A few of the judges found reasons to give Rick more points than Mike for his performance on this night--we asked them for their opinions and they gave them to us.

Comedy is extraordinarily subjective--at some level, it's foolish to think that ANY system can pick a "winner"--but, we have to have a system to have a competition...and I think the system this competition uses is as fair and "accurate" as any comedy competition I've ever seen.

(And I think Mike Baldwin would have agreed with me on that on just about every night except Wednesday night in Vashon.)

pg
--Director of Talent (and Official Scorekeeper) for the 32nd Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition

PS--Most shows, the judges and the audience do tend to agree...but, obviously, not always.