by While Keenen Ivory Wayans passes judgment on comedians on NBC’s reboot of Last Comic Standing, his younger brother, Marlon, is ready to hold court on his own televised comedy competition.
And now we know the 10 comedians competing on the new TBS series, Funniest Wins, which premieres at 10 p.m. (Eastern/Pacific) Friday, June 20.
Funniest Wins, created by Marlon Wayans and produced by him with Eyeworks USA, will put these 10 comedians through their paces performing various styles and platforms (sketch comedy, digital shorts, musical parodies, hidden-camera pranks, stand-up and more), all for a grand prize of $100,000 and the chance to star in an online series for Wayans’ WhatTheFunny.com.
Your 10 contestants for the debut season of Funniest Wins, with bios provided by TBS:
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Age: 31
Genres: Stand-up, YouTube, pranks, impressionist, comedic actor
A stand-up comedian for over a decade, Billy embraced social media in its early stages to advance his career. His video Sh*t Black Girls Say started an online craze and spawned thousands of video memes. He started his career in comedy by pranking unsuspecting people. Billy views the show as a personal challenge to see if mainstream America finds him funny.
Location: Redondo Beach, Calif.
Age: 37
Genre: Stand-up
Christina has 11 years as a stand-up comedian under her belt, three as a professional headlining comedian. She started her career as a sketch performer with the Groundlings. Currently, Christina hosts a podcast with her stand-up husband, Tom Segura, called Your Mom’s House, and was a roundtable regular and writer for Chelsea Lately.
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Born: Boston, Mass.
Age: 40
Genres: Comedy writer, Vine, stand-up, comedic actor
Jason has been doing comedy for 17 years. He started as Norm MacDonald’s assistant at Saturday Night Live, before moving on to write for MTV. Jason started using Vine to promote his movie Jason Nash is Married and now posts Vine videos daily to his 713,000 followers. Jason specializes in dark comedy inspired by his life as a husband, father and struggling comedian.
Location: New York, N.Y.
Age: 27
Genre: Stand-Up
A six-year comedy veteran, Jenny jokes about sex, family and her weight. She’s also a self-described “weird girl” who used to work at a Renaissance Faire and was a Paul Revere tour guide in Boston. She likes dressing up in Medieval-era clothing.
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Age: 40
Genres: Stand-up, sketch, improv
Key is a high-energy, animated, improvisational, storytelling nutcase who, in his day job, works as an equipment superintendent supporting electricity for public transportation. Key derives the multiple characters featured in his act from his childhood?experiences. He likes to focus on drawing in his audience and teaching them as they laugh.
Location: Studio City, Calif.
Born: Calabasas, Calif.
Age: 25
Genres: Vine, improv, sketch, impressionist, stand-up, comedic actress
Manon discovered comedy at the young age of 10. She studied her craft at the University of California at Berkley, Second City and the Groundlings. She has nearly a million followers on Vine, which has become her platform for getting her comedy out to the world. She plans to continue being a jack-of-all-trades.
Location: West Hollywood, CA
Age: 33
Genres: YouTube, impressionist, pranks, improv, sketch
Matt has two years of comedy experience, positioning himself as “odd and specific.” He sticks to his morals and turns down work that promotes mean-spirited humor. Matt grew up playing in the streets of New York, which inspire his “man on the street” bits.
Location: Boston, Mass.
Age: 29
Genre: Vine
Rydoon has two million Vine followers, along with 49,000 followers on Twitter and 88,000 followers on Instagram. He works as a dog walker while trying to transition to comedy full time. As a kid, Rydoon used comedy as a way to entertain his terminally ill mother. He is a former amateur musician and singer, and would be in nursing school if he wasn’t trying to make it in comedy.
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Born: Fort Worth, Texas
Age: 32
Genres: Stand-up, pranks, writer, comedic actor, sketch
Sydney moved to Los Angeles to pursue modeling and quickly turned to comedy when his mantra, “Team Regular Body” wouldn’t cut it in the modeling world. Because he is 6’4″, his mom always wanted him to be an NBA basketball player. She hates the fact he does comedy.
Location: Culver City, Calif.
Born: South Central LA, Calif.
Age: 34
Genres: Stand-up, comedic actress, sketch, writer
Tiffany grew up in foster care and took up comedy when her social worker enrolled her in comedy camp instead of therapy. The class clown in school, she’s been performing stand-up for 13 years. Tiffany sees herself as a cross between Jim Carrey and Halle Berry, a physical performer with the looks.
Funniest Wins is produced for TBS by Workaholic and Eyeworks USA. Serving as executive producers are Marlon Wayans, Rick Alvarez and Lisa Blum for Workaholic/Marlon, and JD Roth, Todd A. Nelson, Brant Pinvidic and Adam Kaloustian for Eyeworks USA. Steve Harris serves as producer.
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