Cleaning up their acts

Heard a good clean joke lately?

If you haven't, you shouldn't have to wait long. According to "Last Comic Standing" host Bill Bellamy, raw humor isn't working for audiences these days.

"Clean," he says, "is the new raw."

He says a "clean" route to comedy will certainly be the standard for this season's "Comic" (8:30 p.m. EDT Thursdays, NBC).

In recent years, stand-up comedians worked "blue" or "raw" for quick laughs -- rough language, crude stories and a no-holds-barred approach. The style was shocking but effective. It got customers to comedy clubs -- until many comics started doing it.

Then "raw" lost its zing.

"If everybody's raw, then it means nothing," says Bellamy, who has worked in comedy clubs for more than half his career.

Bellamy, who does dozens of club dates a year, says he sees the "clean" trend giving way to more honest material.

Working cleaner material opens stand-up shows to larger audiences, even families, he says. Many comics felt the social -- and sometimes FCC -- pressure of going with cleaner jokes after the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl halftime debacle in 2004.

"It was like a throwback to conservatism," Bellamy says.

He doesn't see that as a bad thing. "Clean is way better," Bellamy says. "It draws in more people. More people can watch you."

And for a comic, that's the whole point, he says. "If you can be the funniest dude in the room in just Sacramento, you're just the funniest guy there," he says. "But if no one sees you on a global level, then you're just in Sacramento."

Most comedians want the world to be their stage.

On "Comic," now in its sixth season, Bellamy is host to a global talent search for the next big stand-up sensation. America will vote on who will be the "Last Comic Standing." The winner gets $250,000, an exclusive talent deal with NBC, a new Honda and a starring appearance in Jubilee! at Bally's Las Vegas.

"Comic" is even working the nicer angle. In earlier seasons, the show relished showing comedians working against each other, with some "roasts" of contestants turning ugly and personal.

"The whole core of this show is to give people opportunities," Bellamy says. "That's the 'feel good' of it."

Adding to the cuddly demeanor of the show: Backstories of the comics will also be featured, allowing the home audience to get to know them better.

"What's cool about this season is that we are introducing people to you," he says. "You learn why they are doing comedy."

What makes Bellamy laugh?

"I like somebody who has a little bit of originality," he says. "Have a bit of swagger about yourself. Have an attitude.

"If you're angry, be angry. If you're disappointed, be that way. Make a choice with your comedy and stick with it."

(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)