A comedian who was among those favored to win it all was disqualified from “Last Comic Standing” for violating rules prohibiting communications with the outside world.

Cameras on the NBC comedycompetition series caught beefy Gabriel Iglesias, 29 (he’ll be 30 on Saturday), using a BlackBerry to send e-mails to his girlfriend.

And later in the same episode, which aired Tuesday night, a vigilant camera crew videotaped the corpulent comic returning from an unauthorized sojourn away from the site where contestants were lodged during filming of the show, the former cruise ship Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach, Calif.

Iglesias admitted he left the ship at around 3 a.m. to call his girlfriend on a pay phone.

On the show, producers confronted the fleshy funnyman about the rule violations and informed him he was disqualified.

Contestants on “Last Comic Standing” all signed contracts agreeing to rules banning cellphones and other personal-communication devices such as BlackBerrys.

“Gabriel Iglesias broke the house rules several times – house rules that all of the comics were aware of and had agreed to abide by,” said a statement released yesterday by NBC. “Unfortunately, the producers and NBC agreed they had no choice but to send him home in order to maintain the integrity and fairness of the competition.” Iglesias was considered a favorite to win the competition since his career as a standup comic is already established, including appearances on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and other TV comedy showcases.

Attempts to reach him for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

Now in its fourth season and with a new host – “Yes, Dear” star Anthony Clark, who replaced Jay Mohr – “Last Comic Standing” is enjoying something of a revival after performing so poorly on NBC two years ago that its final episodes were aired on Comedy Central.

This season, it’s averaging around 8 million viewers per week, respectable numbers for a summer series. The “Last Comic Standing” finale is scheduled for Aug. 9.