UPDATED: Oct. 9 at 1:13 a.m.

The Lucas Brothers kicked off the comedy show by telling the audience that nothing they would go on to say before T.J. Miller took the stage mattered.

The stand-up duo began University Union and Traditions Commission’s comedy night in a packed Goldstein Auditorium on Saturday.

While the opening remarks by the Lucas Brothers were backed up by a book on Western philosophy with a backdrop of a picture of “The People’s Champion” — pro-wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — the evening, in some part, did matter.

To begin, senior Kristen Unangst announced the homecoming king and queen to the crowd. Brandyn Munford and LaNia Roberts took home the honor to a grand applause. The two royalty members sported a cape and crown as they were led off the stage before the comedy show started.

I think the Lucas Brothers had a fantastic set. Timing is not easy for any comedian, the two work together like they’re not twins but just one person. Personally, I kind of believe there’s only one and he’s just moving back and forth really quickly.

The Lucas Brothers, coming off their April Netflix special, “Lucas Brothers: On Drugs,” covered topics the college crowd cares about, and it was not just drugs. One of their first bits had to do with the alt-right marches that took place this year. They noted how white supremacists are marching too confidently, like they haven’t lost the two wars they’ve started, but still they’re marching like the 1990s Chicago Bulls.

They played off other topics in the national discussion, like North Korea, President Donald Trump and Puerto Rico, and even covered their support of Bernie Sanders — who they believe should tour the country as Bernie Mac Sanders.

Their set was solid, thought-out and not just a recitation of lines. They played off the audience, even getting an audience member to sing a Drake song so they could remember a lyric.

Miller’s performance didn’t include Dwayne Johnson, but still brought the house down. A lot of his opening 15 minutes was improvised. From giving the sign language interpreter a mic to fighting and accidentally unplugging the mic from its outlet and running jokes with the spotlight person, Miller put on a show — and he performed some material.

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“I think there’s nothing better than an audience walking away knowing that that performance was just for them,” Miller said after the show.

And it was just for us. Miller came out screaming into the microphone and, to be quite honest, did not really stop the entire time.

Known for his absurdist nature, Miller had a few flashes of absurdism. My favorite was when he started talking about how important writing is to him and immediately doused that idea by shooting half a bottle of water onto himself.

His one-liners were halfway there, but his new type of “rimshot,” playing the first five seconds of “All Star” by Smash Mouth, made sense. There was also a moment where he treated an audience member like a cat, messed up their hair and kissed their head.

But Miller seemed tame compared to his normal self. Maybe because he was on a college campus. Maybe it’s just the topics in his new stand-up material. He covered how depressing the news is, sexual assault on college campuses, how drinking and weed affects the brain, how much he hates Texas and even the taboo topic of “The Emoji Movie” and “Silicon Valley.”

 

During his act, he addressed leaving his hit role on “Silicon Valley,” saying that TV shows are not like wine and don’t get better with age. He also believes that people took out their frustrations with his departure on “The Emoji Movie.”

But when asked why stand-up is still so important to him even though he previously said his goal is to have as much happening on his IMDB page as possible, Miller quoted fellow comedian Patton Oswalt: “I didn’t get into stand-up to do film and television. I do film and television to get people into my stand-up.”

His plan has worked, because I, along with the Syracuse University community that showed up, was into his stand-up.

Published on October 8, 2017 at 10:10 pm