Premium Blend: David Alan Grier (S5E10)

David Alan Grier hosts this late-2001 installment of Premium Blend, Comedy Central’s long-running showcase for emerging club comics. Filmed shortly before the September 11 attacks but aired that December, the episode serves as an early-career timestamp for a slate of soon-to-be familiar faces.

The standard format gives four acts about five minutes each on the microphone. The lineup features impressionist Mike MacRae making his television debut. He is joined by Christian Finnegan a couple of years prior to his breakthrough as a staple on VH1’s Best Week Ever and Chappelle’s Show. New York regular Jodie Wasserman and touring comic Derrick Cameron round out the half-hour.