Fans of reality television and standup comedy may know Alonzo Bodden as the runner-up in Season 2 of NBC's Last Comic Standing. What they may not know is that he was also the champion in Season 3. The network decided to cancel the series after its penultimate episode that year, leaving regular viewers in suspense.

But Bodden didn't care. He laughed all the way to the bank after collecting the $250,000 grand prize.

That and his nearly two full seasons on prime-time television have given his career–and life–the boost any struggling comic would kill for.

"I'm working better clubs now, doing bigger shows," he said on the phone from San Antonio, Texas. "On a personal level, I bought a house. I'm not worried about paying the bills anymore, which is nice."

Bodden now finds himself on the other side of the audition desk. He and former contestants Kathleen Madigan and Ant have been travelling throughout the U.S., as well as to Montreal, London, and Sydney, as on-air scouts helping producers of the resurrected LCS sift through the thousands of amateur and pro comedians searching for fame and riches.

"It's definitely weird judging your peers and your friends," he admits, "but they've been cool about it. And we're as fair as possible."

Bodden, who plays Yuk Yuk's on Friday and Saturday (April 20 and 21), takes a universal approach to his standup work, much like his heroes Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, George Carlin, and Lewis Black. "I don't ever want to break my comedy up and shoot for one group," he says. "I make fun of racism but I think I do it on a kind of balanced basis. I don't hate white people nor do I send a message of hating white people. To me that's ridiculous."

The 44-year-old grew up in what he describes as a middle-class black area of Queens, New York. "Although on his second album, 50 Cent informed me that my neighbourhood was the 'hood. I didn't know because we had two cars and a lawn. Apparently to 50 it was kinda rough."

The school of hard knocks for Bodden was his experience on Last Comic Standing. If five minutes of national exposure eats up a comedian's material, imagine what gets burned up when you're on TV every week for two seasons.

Unlike music audiences, comedy fans don't turn out to see a greatest-hits performance. So Bodden says he writes a lot more now. And lately his subjects have become more topical.

"All the way back to the court jester, it's been the comic's job to challenge the king, so that's what we do," he says. "I think we're witnessing a decline of western civilization and no one's paying attention, so I'm doing my best to yell at them and tell them to wake up. Apparently, it's not working."