Boggie may have The Mole and Cooch seems to enjoy the idea that he can get recaps of The Anna Nicole Show from TV Without Pity (a site I recommend, although the recaps can go on forever). I, however, have gotten interested in a show that almost defies recapping.

30 Seconds to Fame.

The premise is simple. Performers are rolled out at a breakneck clip and get 30 seconds to do their thing. The audience can vote them off by using some sort of device located at each seat. Performers surviving the 30 seconds are put into a pool, and the audience votes for the top three. Those three get another 30 seconds, audience votes again, winner gets $25k.

The show is hosted by Craig J. Jackson, who some of you may remember from his reporting and anchor duties on Channel One. That some of you being anyone under the age of, say, 25. The rest of us could remember him from his stint as host of The X Show on fX, but I'm willing to bet my core demographic (such as it is) doesn't quite match up with theirs. He's kind of a cross between Stuart Scott and Chuck Barris, and isn't too bad. He keeps things moving and light, at least. None of the faux-dramatic intonations the anonymous voice over guy from American Idol over-uses.

The acts are a real mixed bag. Mostly musical, either singing or instrumental. The singers tend to be OK, while the instrumentalists can really run the gamut. One of last night's winners (there being 2 episodes shown, as Meet the Marks, an improv/candid camera show, proved atrocious even by Fox network summer standards, which says something) was an electric violin player, who played on the same show as the guy who tried to play the clarinet and sax at the same time (and the woman who played the xylophone by spitting ping pong balls out of her mouth. I know where some of you are going with that- don't go there).

The other main type of act are movers, mostly dancing, but also martial artists, tumblers, Cirque du Soleil rejects, and so on. The other winners from last night were a dance pair who tangoed their way to the money after just 8 months of dancing together. There've also been hula dancers, more than one guy dancing with a doll/mannequin, and a male belly dancer (voted off).

Comedians fare poorly. There was one guy who was pretty funny last night, doing an impression of Al Pacino starring in Annie. Most get voted off, especially the prop comics. The wellspring of hate for Carrot Top is apparently deep enough for all of his comrades to take a dip, too.

I suppose the think that makes this a good show rather than a great show is that the contestants are, as a whole, perhaps too good. For every guy who yodels and strums a guitar upside-down, there are 4 or 5 relatively talented mainstream acts. Odd that I would criticize Fox for being too tasteful, but the show needs more fire eaters, plate spinners, and ventriloquists.

Or more of those large, pink-haired women who were so prominent in the early ads for the show (and still grace the website).

If 30 Seconds to Fame has done nothing else, it's showed the American viewing public that the human beatbox is alive an well. There were two on last night, and one the week before. The Fat Boys would be proud.