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Atlanta finally gets love on NBC's "Last Comic Standing" in its sixth season thanks to Louis Ramey and Ron G.

Both made it to the final 12, who after a series of audition episodes, compete in a series of eliminations starting Thursday at 9 p.m.

(ENLARGE)
Comedian Louis Ramey credits audience feedback he gleened in Atlanta with fortifying his act and helping him reach the finals of NBC's 'Last Comic Standing'.
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Until this season, no comic with strong Atlanta ties had ever made it to the finals before. Though neither Ramey nor Ron G live locally anymore, they both credit Atlanta for helping build their skills.

Ramey, who moved to New York in 1999, has had a Comedy Central special and a long gig doing bits for Nick at Nite, but hasn't quite broken it big. He said he learned his craft in the 1980s hosting at the Punchline and picking up advice from folks such as local standup comic Jerry Farber.

"I'm still a Georgia boy at heart," Ramey said. "I still say please and thank you and order grits for breakfast."

Ramey actually made the semifinals in season two but missed the cut and didn't even make it that far last season after he failed to impress judge and fellow comic Kathleen Madigan.

"She told me, 'Now bring your A material!' " he said.

He said he's gone to more edgy political and sexual humor in his standup act so to accommodate broadcast TV, he reached back for more tame jokes from his past this year. His best line during the semifinals in Vegas: "Once you go black, you can't get credit."

Ron G — who lived in Marietta from 1999 to 2005 until going to Los Angeles — started standup just a few years ago at Uptown Comedy Corner. "I got booed severely," he recalls.

He also worked the Punchline and the side room at the Landmark Diner and like Ramey, got tips from Farber, who has been doing standup for more than three decades.

Ron G's style of comedy is "clean," and he almost won the TV One show last year focused on "clean" comics called "Who's Got Jokes."

Jamie Bendall, co-owner of the Punchline, likes both men: "Ron G is very engaging on stage. He's well suited to leap off the camera. Ramey is very relatable across a broad spectrum of people."

Ramey, Bendall said, may have an advantage thanks to his experience: "He has hours and hours of material he could pull out in a pinch."

TV THURSDAY

"Last Comic Standing," NBC, 9 p.m.