In less than an hour most of the country will be privy to NBC’s finale of Last Comic Standing. Mike DeStefano is one of the final five comedians competing for the crown of last comic. If you’ve been watching the show, or if you’re just such an avid comedy fan you’ve been familiar with Mike’s work, you’ll know that what you’ve seen of him on the show, is a slightly restrained version of the man.

In a few days, we’ll be rolling out a great video interview with DeStefano. For now, before you watch — or maybe during — the season finale of Last Comic Standing, we wanted to offer you this teaser– filled with anger, frustration and lots of bad words. Enjoy!

Here’s a little Late Night television history lesson. There once was a man named Johnny Carson; he was the host of The Tonight Show. Joan Rivers was good buddies with him, and was his official fill-in.

Rumor has it, that around that time, NBC was drawing up a list of names with possible replacements for Johnny after his retirement; and Rivers wasn’t on it.

With this knowledge she jumped at the chance of having her own late night show after Fox asked her to host one. Joan told Carson what she was planning to do, and apparently he didn’t like it. They never spoke again, and because Carson was so highly respected and considered the king of late night, Rivers felt all the hosts of these programms had unofficially banned her.

And what does this whole fiasco lead to? Great late night television almost two decades later! Joan Rivers was on The Late Show with David Letterman last night explaining how she felt exiled by all the hosts, even let out a nice little jab at Leno. Check it out.

Hey, remember when The Jay Leno Show first premiered– before the late night wars began? Leno employed a solid group of comedians for recurring segments– peeps like Nick Thune and Jim Norton, guys that wouldn’t normally be thought of as network friendly, even at 10 pm.

Luckily, Leno invited Norton back to file a report last night from INPEX, the Invention and New Product Exposition. And once again Norton was able to bring his brand of twisted, dark humor to a show that, well, doesn’t ever do that kind of stuff. Check the veteran comedian out below as he deals with products like the Handwash Reminder, the Nurse N’ Go bra, and yes — we are not joking — the Douche To Go. Just watch.

Louis C.K. sat down last night with Jay Leno to, as it would seem, not to talk about his new sitcom, Louie, which premiers – with two episodes – this coming Tuesday on FX at 11 pm EST. C.K., instead, simply talked about his own life: his kids, volunteering at a public school his sex life, the pitfalls of milk cartons, nut allergies, and why he doesn’t care if someone else’s kid swears.

And for a review of Louie and more info, go here. Enjoy!

After the show’s year hiatus, the premiere of Last Comic Standing on NBC is fast approaching. To be exact, it’ll officially stop approaching on June 7. If you followed the show’s six seasons, you’ll know that its created quite a divide among comedy fans and comedians alike. Some fans love that they were introduced to comedians on network television; other fans claim the show is fixed, that it waters down the art of stand-up, among other things.

There’s a handful of comedians who owe a lot of their success to the show; still other comedians find it a completely inaccurate gauge as to whether a comedian is talented.

But this much seems true: From what we’ve been hearing, producers have made an effort to address all concerns. Their choice of judges (Greg Giraldo, Andy Kindler and Natasha Leggero) speaks to that well—not to mention the new host, comedian Craig Robinson, of The Office fame.

Punchline Magazine writer Emma Kat Richardson recently chatted with comedian Kindler – who spends a lot of time onstage critiquing the comedy industry – and asked him what he thought of Last Comic Standing before and after his involvement.

“I do this speech every year in Montreal, the State of the Industry Address [at Just For Laughs]. I slam everything there, so I had many jokes about the previous years of Last Comic Standing. I was never a huge fan of anything to do with competitions, anyway. So yeah, I had a lot of things to say about it over the years. But they did say they were going to reboot it, and then we talked about it, and the other judges are so great. The host is great, so it just became a completely different thing.”

We’re looking forward to the revamped Last Comic Standing. Check out a pair of videos after the jump featuring Kindler and the other judges as well as host Craig Robinson. And be sure to look out for our full-length feature interview with Kindler next week!

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NBC announced today that 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin will indeed play host to Saturday Night Live’s season finale. An obvious show favorite, this will be Baldwin’s 15th time hosting; he will have tied Steve Martin for the record. The finale is set to air May 15. Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker will be the musical guest.

Let’s celebrate. After the jump, check out a few of our — and your — favorite Baldwin SNL sketches.

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Tomorrow at 7 pm on CBS’ 60 Minutes, Conan O’Brien sits down with correspondent Steve Kroft. It’s the first interview he’s been permitted to give since he left NBC with a huge payout that came with a few restrictions– talking to the press being one of them. Below, check out the first released clip from the interview.

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CBS’ 60 Minutes just posted some more excerpts of their Conan O’Brien interview, which airs Sunday at 7 pm EST. As you’ve probably surmised, this is Conan’s first interview since he left NBC; he chose to speak to the show’s Steve Kroft. Upon his exit, he signed a contract with the network that gave him a hefty payout but came with restrictions– one of which prevented him from speaking to the press until May 1.

Below are the newest portions of the interview as they appear on the CBS site. Enjoy!

Regrets?

“I don’t regret anything. I don’t regret one decision I made in that week and a half period,” says the late night television comedian. “I wish it had ended differently. But, I’m fine. I do believe, and this might be my Catholic upbringing or Irish magical thinking, but I think things happen for a reason. I really do. And I think that this all happened for a reason,” he tells Kroft.

Was He Screwed?

“The biggest thing people come up and say to me in gas stations and restaurants, I have so many people say this to me. ‘Hey partner, you got screwed.’ I don’t, and I always tell them, ‘No, I didn’t. I didn’t get screwed. I’m fine. It just didn’t work out.’ But I don’t want people thinking, you know, that I got screwed. Because it just didn’t work out.”

Resolved His Issues?

“No, I have not resolved all my issues. I am mostly very happy. I love this tour it’s the most thrilling thing I’ve done in my career. And so I’m in a really great place in a lot of ways. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t have my moments of everything, you know, anger, disappointment, frustration and just confusion.”

Speaking to Kroft about Jay Leno and his exit from the network, O’Brien says he would have left NBC rather than do what Leno did to him.

“He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know…I know me, I wouldn’t have done that,” O’Brien says. “If I had surrendered The Tonight Show and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well and then…six months later. But that’s me, you know. Everyone’s got their own, you know, way of doing things,” he tells Kroft.

Asked by Kroft what he would have done, O’Brien says, “Done something else, go someplace else. I mean, that’s just me.”

O’Brien eventually left NBC, deciding not to play second-fiddle to Leno. He says he didn’t see the point in giving his all in a relationship that seemed to have no future. “I think this relationship is going be toxic and maybe we just need to go our separate ways,” he says. “That’s really how it felt to me…and I started to feel that I’m not sure these- people even really want me here….I can’t do it [anymore].”

Chris Rock is a major MVP in the late guest department, and his recent appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon was up to his usual standard of excellence. When the subject of Rock producing a Richard Pryor biopic came up, Rock recalled a crude piece of advice he got from Pryor on the set of Eddie Murphy’s Harlem Nights… Enjoy!

The other day, we introduced you to the two comedian contestants on this season of Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice. Well, in one episode’s time, the comic representation as been cut in half, as the Donald axed comedian Carol Leifer on Sunday. Sinbad is now the lone comedian on a show full of the likes of Sharon Osbourne, Darryl Strawberry and Cyndi Lauper.

Check out Leifer getting fired below. Guess she’ll have to go back to being a successful show writer and touring comedian.