Drawn to comedy
The producers of the Fox network’s ‘The Lucas Bros. Moving Co.’—Keith ’07 and Kenny ’07 Lucas—on ‘twin-ness,’ timing and working for the cable company.
The producers of the Fox network’s The Lucas Bros. Moving Co.—Keith ’07 and Kenny ’07 Lucas—on ‘twin-ness,’ timing and working for the cable company.
How do you convince the other guy to withdraw from law school to give standup comedy a try?
Kenny: We have this belief that we perform better when we work together, so it’s pretty easy to convince [Keith] to do things. I’m just like, “Hey, this would be better for you in the long run.”
Keith: Normally, the thing that we’re doing will run its course and we’ll need to make a decision anyways, so we tend to just go with whoever makes the decision first.
Were you guys always funny?
Keith: Within our own circle we were pretty funny, but to a mass audience we were pretty weird. We didn’t really talk to a lot of people. We kind of really kept to ourselves. We had a smart group of friends. I think that’s how a lot of people are in high school.
Kenny: Do you remember Freaks and Geeks? It was akin to that — like the geeks.
Was there a twin thing going on too? Because you guys had each other, you didn’t need outside friends.
Kenny: Definitely. You get a comfort zone with your brother and it makes it harder to talk to other people, but you have to. But when you’re in grade school you don’t think about that stuff.
Did you ever try to fool anyone — parents, teachers — by replacing one of you with the other?
Keith: No. We didn’t really utilize our “twin-ness” to a malicious effect. I don’t know why.
Kenny: I think it’s because we’re lazy. [Laughs]. It takes a lot of work to play tricks. You’ve got to plan. That takes a lot of time.
Your act is very coordinated in terms of the timing of what each of you says. How tough was it getting to that point?
Kenny: It was a pace issue in the beginning. When we first started, we would always cut each other off. We realized that if we just slowed it down, the act would become more methodical and we wouldn’t have these interruptions.
How much of what you guys say in the animated series is improvised?
Keith: A good chunk is improvised in the booth. Maybe 70 percent of it’s scripted, and 30 percent is improvised.
You were cable guys in real life, but for your Fox show, you were made into movers instead…
Kenny: Yeah, moving is more of a New York thing. Moving companies are so pervasive in Brooklyn we figured moving would be a little bit more apt than a cable company.
What’s it like being a cable guy? Were you catching people at their worst because they’re upset with the cable company?
Keith: That’s normally what happened. People hate the cable company. They hate it. I think it’s terrorists and then cable companies.
Posted on May 22, 2014
