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Cruise lines spending top dollar on comedians

By Dean Johnson

 |  Globe correspondent  

  January 29, 2012

“At one point,’’ said Michele Balan, a 2006 finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing’’ series, “comics thought that when you agree to perform on cruises you put yourself in a career coffin.’’ “American Idol’’ guru Simon Cowell didn’t help that impression, according to Gary Walker of Celebrity Cruise Lines, “when he told an ‘American Idol’ contestant a few years back, ‘You’d be OK on a cruise ship.’ “So the lines really went a step further,’’ he said, “to book the kind of talent that would appeal to all demos, especially the people who go to comedy clubs.’’

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