After leaving the throes of 9 to 5 and the college world behind to pursue his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian, Bill Bellamy soon found himself on Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam and never looked back. After climbing the comedy ranks in film and TV, including a role in Any Given Sunday, Bellamy has found a seasonal home with NBC as the host of Last Comic Standing in between his many stand-up gigs across the country. With Last Comic Standing gearing up for its Summer premiere on Thursday, May 22 at 9:3pm before moving to its regular timeslot of Thursdays at 8:30pm, Bill Bellamy joined executive producer David Friedman for a conference call where the two uniquely creative guys talked about the impact of Last Comic Standing, the selection process, opening up the show to international talent, and what Bill Bellamy wanted to bring to the stage as a host.

Bill Bellamy on whether a show like Last Comic Standing would have helped him starting out in stand-up:

"I would have loved an opportunity like this because I mean, the viewership is so huge. It’s mainstream America. You get an opportunity to perform on such a huge platform. And then you get to win some money and a comedy special, and a car. Man, you should’ve seen my little club car back in the day."

Bellamy on whether it's hard to make him laugh since he's been doing stand-up for so long:

"I would say yes and no. I mean, it just depends. I mean, as a comedian - I’m a comedian’s comedian. I look for originality, good writing, personality coming through your material and I get a sense of who you are. And when I see that shine on stage, I get excited because I know that there’s a lot of potential for that person. And even though we only give you maybe four minutes or three minutes in certain sets, you can really tell in the short period of time if the person has the magic, you know."

Bellamy on his guilty pleasures away from the stage:

"It’s video games. Obviously, I love video games but I’m saying my guilty pleasure is my PSP. I travel so much. I take it on the road with me. I’m on the plane. People will want to trade my games with Tiger Woods. I’ve got NFL '08. I’ve got the NBA '08, you know, that kind of thing. Another guilty pleasure, maybe watching Nip/Tuck when I can."

David Friedman on how they selected comedians from certain cities:

"Basically more what the scouts feel were the best three. There were no hard numbers. It’s not like we said that in every city we’re going to pick three or in every city we’re going to pick five. It really just depended on the numbers game and how many we really said that we just have to have these three or you know what, only two really sort of blew us away so we’re only going to take two from Tempe or wherever."

Friedman on how the numbers game plays a part in bigger cities in relation to talent:

"The numbers game does play a hand in it, for sure. But it is also hard to anticipate. It’s hard to say just because the numbers are big doesn’t mean the talent will be great. You know, we go to Minneapolis where it’s 15 degrees below zero, but we’ve got great talent there. So it’s really hard to kind of guess where you’re going to shine, over what city."

Friedman on opening up the show to a wider audience with international talent:

"I think last season they added the international aspect to it. I think what’s important to us is to make it as big a search as possible because we’re introducing - we have got great comics from all over the world and it’s our chance to introduce those comics to America and to American television. And the excitement you get when someone from the UK or someone from Australia, or someone from India or whatever, that hits our stages in the States, you get this really genuine, like, 'Oh my god, this is the American dream.' And it just makes it larger for us."

Bill Bellamy on whether he empathizes with comedians who have a bad show:

"Yeah. We’ve seen that happen and it’s unfortunate. You know, it’s just the luck of the cards. Sometimes you’ll see somebody who is - you know, they’ve seen them kill. You’re like you know they’re good. And for whatever reason, is it the choice of material, the timing is off just a little bit and the jokes don’t hit as hard? I mean, that’s happened. Then we’ve seen people like Amy Schumer who last season was doing comedy under four years and just happened to pick and do all the right stuff, and kept advancing. It was crazy."

Bill Bellamy on what he wanted to do differently as a host as compared to earlier seasons:

"I wanted to bring the excitement of energy to the show and make it fun, and get people at home to be really involved with the show. And that’s what I thought this show lacked. I mean, it was sort of like - it didn’t have any swagger to it or sort of urgency of like, 'Well, this is the best in the world.' We went here and we have affirmed on the street with real people, getting really real responses. I didn’t get that enthusiasm from the other hosts. So I was like, 'What?' That’s what I want to bring to it. I want to bring that kind of feeling, my personality, make it funny so the jokes aren’t just the comedians doing their standup; but it’s the host being funny. It’s those intermittent fun moments with the crowd, on the street, going to these different cities, walking into an ice cream parlor and kicking it with real people. To me, I think that makes a whole hour or two hours of entertaining television."