The professional relationship among Cory Kahaney, Rich Vos, and Dave Mordal started last year in a house in Las Vegas when the three were contestants on NBC's reality series "Last Comic Standing" (ultimately won by Dat Phan). Since that show, the three have sold out Caroline's Comedy Club in New York and traveled to nearly 30 cities playing clubs and theaters as a trio. They'll play two shows tonight at the Comedy Connection.

Kahaney, whose routine touches on her life as a mom in New York, says the three of them decided to tour together the last week of "Last Comic" and the exposure from that show enabled them to sell their show. Without that appearance, the tour is just three veteran comics working the road. "We made our living before this, so it wasn't a huge change for us, it was just a raise," she says. "We got more money."

Vos, an aggressive comic who sets a heckler-beware tone, had been a regular guest on the syndicated "Opie and Anthony" radio show and made history as the first white comic on HBO's "Def Comedy Jam." But he considered his career dead before "Last Comic." He recalls a conversation while driving with Patrice O'Neal, a friend and former Boston comic. "I look at him and I go, `I've absolutely nothing going on in my career. Nothing. I don't have a manager, an agent, nothing.' Then all of a sudden it turns around, and a ton of things are going on."

The show has opened up opportunities for all three comics. Mordal, who struggled for years in his native Minnesota without much exposure, made his first "Tonight Show" appearance last year, and there's an interest in a second booking. Kahaney, expecting her first "Tonight Show" appearance soon, has been on Comedy Central's "Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn." So, too, have Mordal and Vos. Vos also had a half-hour comedy special on Comedy Central and will play Lenny Bruce on NBC's Sunday episode of "American Dreams."

For Mordal, who has a low-key, curmudgeonly manner onstage, the key to success is not looking for it. "I've really never had any goals," he says. "That's the neat thing that I like about my life. I'm surprised by anything good that ever happens."

The two New Yorkers and one Minnesotan found they shared a certain cynicism that mixed well together. Before the "Last Comic" final episodes aired, they'd already done a first gig together at Caroline's. They began planning a tour at last summer's Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. There, they performed separately. Offstage, though, the three were often together, hanging out or being interviewed for local radio or television.

"We work really well together, because we know when to go away," Mordal says. "I just keep talking to them until they wander off. During the day, we hardly ever see each other unless we're doing radio or something. We're old enough to realize that we don't have to be pals all day."

"We're all crazy," says Kahaney, citing her moodiness, Mordal's constant state of disappointment, and Vos's "pathologically neurotic" manner.

At least they're practical about it. "We try not to ever be crazy at the same time, and that kind of works," Kahaney says. "We take turns. Whoever's neuroses kick up the most gets priority is how it works."

Around Town

Jerry Seinfeld, who'll make a cameo appearance in old friend Larry David's HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" this season, plays the Wang Center tonight and tomorrow. . . . The Rickey Smiley shows scheduled for the Comedy Connection tomorrow have been canceled. Mike McDonald and Jim McCue will fill in. . . . Comedian Joel Chasnoff opens the show for jazz singer/humorist Dave Frishberg tomorrow and Sunday at the Jewish Theatre of New England in Newton Center. . . . Sam Walters, Joe Dinkin, Jack Hurney, Erin Judge, Corey Manning, E.J. Murphy, Rob O'Reilly, Max Silvestri, and Chris Tabb play the Comedy Studio Sunday.