As the comedy duo The Lucas Brothers do a microphone test in the Fieldhouse, there’s an obnoxious echo.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, alright. Let’s have fun,” Kenny Lucas says once into the mic, then again, then three times over.
“Echoing and comedy never work out well unless that’s the effect you’re going for,” says fellow comedian Tone Bell.
As part of NBC’s Stand-Up for Diversity college comedy tour, Bell and the Lucas Brothers performed at six colleges in the U.S. before bringing their act to Carleton on Sept. 3.
Bell is this year’s recipient of a year-long talent holding deal with NBC. He said he got the deal by competing in a comedy competition.
“It’s kind of like Last Comic Standing where you see people sleeping outside and stuff,” he said. “I’ve done it a four years in a row and this year I finally got through. There are different levels of auditioning.”
Tone Bell and the Lucas Brothers reached the top ten on Last Comic Standing. Bell said their careers took off from there.
Bell’s deal resulted in his landing a recurring role on NBC’s sitcom Whitney after the deal helped him try out with different casts and writers’ rooms throughout the network.
“They take care of you, and they put you on the college tour,” Bell said. “But they don’t spoon-feed you . . . You still have to work for everything and you still have to bring it home yourself.”
During the same round of auditions, identical twins Keith and Kenny Lucas under the name The Lucas Brothers brought their stand-up act.
“We murdered,” Kenny said. “But Tone did better. If he wasn’t around maybe we’d be on Whitney.”
The brothers’ unique delivery involves both Kenny and Keith making jokes while sharing the stage.
“Some people love it, some people are a little confused by it. It’s been cool because you don’t have all the burden,” Keith said. “If you’re bombing on stage I can like blame him for it.”
“It’s much easier to not get laughs when there’s two people on stage. When it’s just one you can only blame yourself,” Kenny added.
Both Bell and the Lucas Brothers are accustomed to doing comedy in front of audiences in bars in the U.S., where their audiences are 21 years old, or older. Bell said doing shows for college-aged people can be only slightly different than performing for bars.
“You go to a club in New York, it’s different than a club in L.A.,” he said. “Some colleges let you be as filthy as you want some want you to be as clean as possible . . . People in general just love curse words, though. A good ‘f-bomb’ punches up a joke way better sometimes.”
Keith said the biggest challenge is making sure college kids understand all the jokes being made.
“We’re used to playing for crowds in New York City where the crowds are older and really eccentric and they get a lot of references.”
The Lucas Brothers are currently developing an animated series, The Lucas Brothers, for FOX’s late-night line up.
“It’s just gonna be about us and our lives,” Kenny said.
While the interview wraps up, a sound guy in the Fieldhouse tests the mics again. The echo is still there. Kenny starts laughing again.
“Shit. They’re gonna be like ‘That wasn’t funny the first time, and it wasn’t funny the second time.’”
