22 Jump Street, the follow up to the 2012 hit 21 Jump Street starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, hits theaters this week and Nerdist had the chance to interview two of the films biggest scene stealers, comedy duo The Lucas Brothers. Keith and Kenny Lucas are the twin brothers who appear to have taken over your TV and computer by starring in, writing and producing the FOX animated series Lucas Bros Moving Co, ComedyCentral.com’s The Super Late Morning Show and the upcoming truTV sketch comedy show Friends of the People. We spoke with them about working on 22 Jump Street, quitting law school to pursue comedy and who their biggest comedy dream collaborators would be.
When 21 Jump Street surprised everyone by being awesome in 2012, it seemed to be inevitable that a sequel would be on the way and Kenny and Keith Lucas were thrilled to be involved. Said Kenny, “I love what they did with the first one and when we had the opportunity to audition, we jumped on it.” He continued by singing the praises of 22 directing team Phil Lord and Chris Miller. “They’re the best. It felt like we weren’t working with two incredibly established directors, it felt like they were really down to earth, they guided us very well.” Keith echoed that sentiment saying, “They kept the set very loose, they were very encouraging, they were willing to try different ideas which was awesome and clearly very experimental,” to which Kenny added, “They gave us a lot of room to operate and improvise.”
The Lucas Brothers are hard at work on other projects including Lucas Bros Moving Co which came about from a late night appearance years ago. Keith explained, “We did a set on Fallon a few years ago and Nick Weidenfeld, the creator of the Animation Domination, asked if we had any ideas for cartoons and we pitched him some ideas and he loved it so we went forward and started writing and it was just wham-bam after that.” In addition to stand up appearances all over the country, next up is Friends of the People which Keith described as, “a sketch show on TruTV that we created with a couple of other guys… I hate calling it a sketch show because it’s kinda different but it comes out in October.”
After quitting law school for a career in comedy The Lucas Brothers seem to be enjoying the beginnings of their success. Said Kenny, “It’s starting to pay off! When we first started my mom thought we were crazy…” adding, “We’re along for the ride trying to stay busy and just having fun with it. It’s fun doing multiple forms of comedy because it keeps you honest and also allows for growth so we like to do that.” Keith continued, “We feel like we’re in the early stage in our career so we’re just trying everything and have fun with it.” If they could collaborate with any other comedians, who would they like to work with? Said Keith, “I would love to have Dave Chappelle Friends of the People, that would be awesome” and Kenny added, “And Larry David! If we could get Larry David to write an episode of Lucas Bros Moving Co that’d be awesome!” to which Keith replied, “Highly unlikely, but…”
The very funny 22 Jump Street is in theaters today.
