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- [00:00]
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- [01:08]
Alison Stewart
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. The comedy duo Leva Pierce and Janewick Lyne have a keyboard at the ready for their new show at the Soho Playhouse. It's called Dukes the show. Jordan, the show is a celebration of friendship. Sure, there are stories about moving out luddite impulses like throwing away your phone, and even this tale of becoming a firefighter.
- [01:35]
Leva Pierce
Many things burn, but the worst thing that can burn is a girl. I saw my girl burn. Now I'm gonna try to fight every single last fight fire in the world. There'll never be a fire again. When I'm a fireman, I will address the root causes of the fires like power lines and I feel like corporate greed. Beautiful girls, I'm gonna rescue you Beautiful girls, I'm gonna rescue you. Everyone else, I might rescue you
- [02:20]
Alison Stewart
if
- [02:20]
Leva Pierce
I have time to. But the main thing is all the girls that I'm saving. First the tens, then the nines, then the eights. If you look mid girl, you're gonna have to wait.
- [02:36]
Alison Stewart
Dukes is playing at the Soho Playhouse on Van dam street until August 2nd. Leva Pierce and Jane Wickline join me now in studio. It is so nice to see both of you.
- [02:44]
Jane Wickline
Yeah, you too.
- [02:45]
Leva Pierce
Thank you so much for having us.
- [02:46]
Thank you so much. We're excited to be here.
- [02:48]
Alison Stewart
So, Jane, how did you meet Leva?
- [02:51]
Jane Wickline
We met at an open mic. I feel like we. We moved to the city around the same time, so we Were. We were sort of on the same. Same loop of things, so it's kind of hard to. I don't. I don't know if I remember the exact time we met, but, yeah, we.
- [03:08]
Leva Pierce
We were crossing paths a couple times.
- [03:10]
Jane Wickline
Yes.
- [03:11]
Leva Pierce
Before it took.
- [03:12]
Jane Wickline
Before it took. But yeah, we. We. After one mic we had. We were going in the same direction and we went on a very long bus ride, and it was awkward at first, and then. And then we became best friends through that.
- [03:27]
Leva Pierce
Yeah.
- [03:27]
Alison Stewart
Leva, when did it become clear that you were like, I'm going to work with this person. I'm going to work with Jane?
- [03:33]
Leva Pierce
I think, well, the first couple times we really were hanging out, but because we met at open mics and were seeing each other try stand up and try mostly written things, we were talking about what we were writing. And so it was kind of naturally evolved into. I think both of us had been trying to do standup, because I think that's the advice a lot of young comedians get is you should do standup. You should establish your voice. Like, this is the way you get representation. This is the way you. Yeah. Just start your career. But both of us, I think doing standup were missing sketch, which we had both done in college, and so we decided to make a sketch video, and we made a. We made a sketch video just kind of for Instagram, and it was pretty bad.
- [04:20]
Jane Wickline
But I know I watched it the other day for the first time probably since we made it. I was like, huh, yeah, it's so funny. We made that and thought we should organize our lives around each other.
- [04:32]
Leva Pierce
Yeah.
- [04:33]
Basically, we made one video together and then said, okay, we're gonna write an
- [04:37]
hour long sketch show.
- [04:38]
Alison Stewart
Now, Jane, what did you find appealing about Leva's sense of humor?
- [04:46]
Jane Wickline
I mean, I was a fan of their stand up before. Before we met, and I just. I feel like your jokes are just so absurd and kind of very much like tight jokes, but they feel you just seem like you're spinning out on stage, but then everything you're saying is like this amazingly constructed joke. And I just was like, I was so, like, I don't understand how someone can do that, like, be so charming, but also so, like, thoughtful. Yeah.
- [05:21]
Alison Stewart
When you write your jokes the way that Jane just described, is that how you write them or does it. Is it stream of consciousness and you go back and you revise?
- [05:31]
Leva Pierce
I tend to like doing it looser and looser and looser. Like, I like to kind of test things out in the moment. And I. I like improv. Like, I like finding things live. So, yeah, I think. I think my process is kind of saying the same thing different ways, like, 20 times. And then eventually it kind of, I feel like, naturally starts to become something more refined.
- [05:58]
Alison Stewart
I'm talking to Leva Pierce and Jane Wickline. Their show is Dukes. It's at the Soho Playhouse until August 2nd. Jane, how does a collaboration work with the two of you? Do you come in with a bunch of ideas and you throw them on the table, and he's like, that's a skunk. That's good. Or do you come in with different thoughts and you trade them back and forth?
- [06:19]
Jane Wickline
It's definitely a mix of all those things. I think we come in with a lot of ideas. There's a lot of throwing stuff at a wall. I think we're very comfortable telling each other what things we think have potential and what things don't. And I feel like in the last year, we've done more and more of our writing in the room together, which has been really nice. I feel like it used to be exchanging passes and doing later drafts together, but I feel like a lot of our recent songs we've written completely together in real time, which has been fun.
- [06:51]
Alison Stewart
What do you like about working in real time, Leva?
- [06:55]
Leva Pierce
I think when you're by yourself, it's easy to lose track of what you just said or what you just did. And it's helpful to have someone else being like, oh, do that again. I like that. Or that. Try that. Or often Jane will be kind of like, riffing on the piano, and we'll kind of both be thinking, I'll be listening. And just being like, oh, do that again. That sounded really nice. Or if I'm singing a melody or something, Jane will do the same. So it's really helpful to have another person. We were just talking about this, like, Bill Hader line that we saw where he talks about when you write with another person, it's like you're wrong faster. And that's really helpful because you figure out what's wrong because you have someone else being like, that doesn't sound right. Whereas when you're alone, you might, like, kind of do the wrong thing for longer without realizing it. And so I think both of us really love that. Like, be wrong fast. I think that's very, very helpful.
- [07:51]
Alison Stewart
Let's talk about the show. Dukes. That's also the name of your comedy duo.
- [07:56]
Leva Pierce
Yes.
- [07:58]
Alison Stewart
You originally developed this at ucb, the comedy platform, and Joe's Pub. What was your original pitch when you went in and Started talking to them about it.
- [08:13]
Jane Wickline
Leva, do you want to take this one?
- [08:18]
Leva Pierce
The show has kind of evolved from a more traditional sketch show. It started off sketches that were pretty separate. There was no through line. And when we did the show at ucb, that's what it was. It was. It was just sketch blackout. Sketch blackout. So we pitched it as just basically a sketch show. But for Joe's Pub, we started thinking, how can we make this more theatrical? And we were interested in the idea of playing kind of a version of ourselves the entire time, as opposed to switching characters, because a lot of the songs we were writing felt honestly pretty close to what we think or feel. So, I mean, wait a minute.
- [09:00]
Well, well, well.
- [09:03]
Maybe what we think or feel kind of in a spiritual way, but not.
- [09:09]
Alison Stewart
That's good. That's good.
- [09:10]
Leva Pierce
Yeah.
- [09:10]
Jane Wickline
Actually, in the abstract, we would save everyone.
- [09:16]
Leva Pierce
Yeah.
- [09:16]
It's a song about saving only hot girls from fire. Is not true, per se, but. I don't know. But.
- [09:28]
But.
- [09:28]
But we felt like these were the same characters in every song, basically. That's a better way of putting it.
- [09:33]
Jane Wickline
Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Kind of hiding their sense of. And I think that the most fun part of the show was kind of our friendship and our. Like, I think when we were closer to ourselves, it was the feedback we got was that those were the parts of the show that worked the best. So now it's kind of. It's one overarching story. It's set in our home, and it's about our friendship.
- [09:54]
Alison Stewart
Yeah. Somebody asked me, what is it about? I'm like, it's just about being friends and what happens when you're friends. How do you describe the show, Leva?
- [10:03]
Leva Pierce
I would describe the show as. Yeah, two roommates who have some issues in their friendship, but are ultimately just trying to do what everyone is doing, where they're trying to make meaning and they're trying to make sense of how to have joy in a pretty dark, dismal time. I mean, I think it's like. It is a pretty. We kind of intentionally kept it pretty simple. The plot, which is really just about friends who are. Go to work, they come home, they tell each other stories. That's mostly it. I mean, it's pretty. It's pretty simple.
- [10:46]
Alison Stewart
All right, Jane, we've sat you down in front of public radio's finest keyboard.
- [10:50]
Leva Pierce
Yes.
- [10:50]
Alison Stewart
Yes. It's a little wonky now. And then you're gonna perform a song from Dukes. What are you gonna hear?
- [10:57]
Leva Pierce
This is our.
- [10:59]
Jane Wickline
I think, our newest song. One of our newest songs. And it's about. It's about work. And nine to fives.
- [11:07]
Alison Stewart
This is Dukes.
- [11:13]
Leva Pierce
Hello. Hi. Customer service. Sure, I can give you an overview. Modern Fossil Keep Tabs is an exciting nonprofit. We provide a resource to people who want to track whether someone else has taken a pill. Our work is recruiting law students to
- [11:31]
become ghost ambassadors for vintage energy, which is oil.
- [11:37]
How is that a non profit? No idea. Alright, bye.
- [11:41]
Jane Wickline
Bye.
- [11:41]
Leva Pierce
Working on my laptop, I send one email. Now it's time to take a break. Head to the gender neutral bathroom. I'll lock the door and then just sit on the ground. Now back to working on my laptop. I save one file. Time for another break. Gerard from sales asks if I mind running this memo to the ninth floor. I say, it would be my honor. I'd love to do that. I hate my job so bad. This is not my path. I applied for hundred places and this was the one place that got back. I hate Gerard so bad. He talks to me like a policeman. I have a different sense of stakes from every single person here. I'm talking to my co workers about their kids and I'm just making stuff up. That's a lot of hair for six months. Get back from the ninth floor. Time to take another break. My boss says, can I talk to you? Okay, okay. She says, you're taking lots of breaks.
- [12:55]
Jane Wickline
Uh oh.
- [12:55]
Leva Pierce
She cannot find out my job is easy. She says, I'm worried you're not passionate bout medical recruiting. I say, that's where you're dead wrong. She says, I feel like you've been off task. Oh my God. Oh no. I have to fix this. I say, I feel sick but I let you down, girl. You are my idol. Give me more work. She says, thank you for stepping up. See you later, girl. I hate my job so bad. And my boss says, well there's an anvil above my head and I'll do anything. She says, I need this job so bad. I lose this and life gets impossible. I picture my own death often. At least I'm safe inside this crime coffin. The clock strikes five and I close my laptop like it's a bomb. Another eight hours of my life gone.
- [14:04]
Alison Stewart
That was, that was great, by the way. That was Lea Pierce and Jane Wickline. Dukes is at the Soho Playhouse until August 2nd. You have an official set?
- [14:14]
Jane Wickline
Yes, our first time with a set.
- [14:15]
Alison Stewart
It's pretty great. First of all, who designed it?
- [14:18]
Leva Pierce
Colleen Murray. She's awesome.
- [14:20]
Jane Wickline
She's incredible. She's so creative.
- [14:22]
Alison Stewart
What did you tell her? That you wanted on your set for Your show, Jane?
- [14:27]
Leva Pierce
We.
- [14:28]
We were very. We were very vague.
- [14:31]
Jane Wickline
We kind of said, you know, it's. It takes place in our apartment. And she kind of came up with everything you see on set.
- [14:38]
Leva Pierce
She kind of went, yeah, she was. I think we said Pee Wee's Playhouse.
- [14:42]
Jane Wickline
Yes.
- [14:42]
Leva Pierce
And she brought in a picture. Yeah, Muppets. She brought in a picture of Bert and Ernie, which was helpful, but she was really smart because she was looking. We have a lot of props in the show and a lot of little surprises. And she kind of came up with this really great idea of a frame where in kind of the style of a puppet show, you have kind of a ledge where things appear from. And you can also sit on the ledge. You can kind of, like, lean on it. So it kind of was inspired by, like, puppet shows, which is really great for, like, a sketch show. For a sketch show that's become theater because, you know, we have a lot of props, same as a puppet show.
- [15:23]
Alison Stewart
Jane, how has the set changed your performance in Dukes?
- [15:27]
Leva Pierce
I think.
- [15:29]
Jane Wickline
I think every part of having it in a theatrical space, the set is definitely a big part of that, changes the way we perform it. I think we have been. We've been. I mean, thinking about it as scenes rather than sketches for the last, you know, since. Since we've been doing this version of the show. And it. I think it makes it a lot more. It makes the silliness of the lines, I feel, like, hit harder to. To. To be more grounded and kind of be playing to each other and kind of trying to perform them more straight. So, yeah, I definitely think the set makes. Makes it. The heads. Gives us the headspace of. We're. We're in a house, we're having a conversation.
- [16:10]
Alison Stewart
It's interesting. We just got a text that said song was epic. Somebody, one of our listeners. Yay.
- [16:15]
Jane Wickline
Oh, yay.
- [16:16]
Alison Stewart
So it's interesting, when you go see the show, you don't start on the stage. You start in the audience. You sort of sneak into the audience. Leave it. Do you listen to people as they're getting ready to be in your audience? A person about to receive your show? Do you overhear anything?
- [16:32]
Leva Pierce
Oh, my gosh. Do you know the times we've done it? Honestly, I am just hearing the blood rushing in my ears. I'm quite at that point. It takes a little while, I think, to settle in for me, at least when we're doing our show, which is about an hour, 20 minutes. And so I think in the beginning, I'm just, like, so focused on what I'm about to say that I honestly can't hear things, which is probably for the best.
- [17:00]
Jane Wickline
Yeah. It's nice to have a couple of minutes to sit and stare into space before the show. Except for often, like, I was sitting next to my aunt at the show on Sunday, so.
- [17:09]
Alison Stewart
Oh, really? Yeah.
- [17:10]
Leva Pierce
It's so tough.
- [17:11]
Jane Wickline
Cause we are kind of in character. We can't, you know, say we can't be chatting. But you're sweet to see everybody.
- [17:17]
Alison Stewart
You're sort of caught on your phone in the beginning watching porn.
- [17:21]
Leva Pierce
Yes.
- [17:22]
Jane Wickline
Yes.
- [17:23]
Alison Stewart
That's how the show starts, of course. Why did you want to start there?
- [17:31]
Leva Pierce
Well, I think the original thought was, like, we thought it would be funny for us to be waiting in the audience, and then the lights go down and we're in the audience being like, when is the show gonna start? Because we thought it was stupid and funny and kind of like muppety to have characters be in the audience. And then we have a song called Porn Song, which is about our characters feeling like porn basically isn't, like, metaphysically satisfying. It's kind of a profound philosophical song.
- [18:09]
Alison Stewart
It is.
- [18:10]
Leva Pierce
It really is more cerebral, which the song is about. It really is about. You know, we want. We're missing porn that's more cerebral. Yeah, we want porn that's more cerebral. We feel like we don't want the crude. And so it's basically us.
- [18:24]
Jane Wickline
Yeah. This show starts with us yelling in the audience about how the porn we're watching in the theater audience is doing nothing for us because it's lazy.
- [18:35]
Alison Stewart
Do you feel like you have another song that you could play for us, or do you want to just keep going with the interview? What do you think?
- [18:40]
Jane Wickline
What do you think we could do? We did Fireman. Fireman already played, right?
- [18:45]
Leva Pierce
Yes.
- [18:45]
Alison Stewart
Played a few minutes of it.
- [18:47]
Jane Wickline
I mean, we could try Blue Dimension. I could. We could do clean.
- [18:50]
Leva Pierce
Sure.
- [18:50]
Jane Wickline
Can we say we?
- [18:51]
Alison Stewart
You can say the B word, not the F word.
- [18:54]
Leva Pierce
Can we say the F in place of the word?
- [18:58]
Alison Stewart
You can say the F word. You can say the F word.
- [19:00]
Leva Pierce
Can we say just F?
- [19:02]
Jane Wickline
Yeah, I think we can do that. Should we put a new dimension?
- [19:05]
Leva Pierce
Yeah.
- [19:06]
Yeah.
- [19:06]
Okay, cool.
- [19:07]
Alison Stewart
This is important. This is important in the show because you decide to toss your. Get rid of your phones.
- [19:11]
Jane Wickline
It's about how we feel about our phones.
- [19:13]
Alison Stewart
Juliana. Juliana, she's talking to you.
- [19:17]
Jane Wickline
Oh, yes.
- [19:18]
Leva Pierce
It's.
- [19:19]
Jane Wickline
It's on its highest setting. Okay.
- [19:22]
Leva Pierce
Yes.
- [19:22]
Jane Wickline
Okay.
- [19:23]
Alison Stewart
Juliana is. She's gonna have your finger on the button, just in case.
- [19:26]
Jane Wickline
Okay, great.
- [19:27]
Alison Stewart
But this is from Duke's Amazing.
- [19:31]
Jane Wickline
And we can say. Okay, can we say B?
- [19:33]
Alison Stewart
You can say B.
- [19:34]
Leva Pierce
Great.
- [19:35]
Oh, you can?
- [19:35]
Jane Wickline
Yeah.
- [19:36]
Leva Pierce
Great. Oh, my God.
- [19:37]
Look at this.
- [19:38]
Jane Wickline
Because I'm like, we'll see. We won't swear this.
- [19:43]
Alison Stewart
Go for it.
- [19:45]
Leva Pierce
This is live, baby.
- [19:46]
Jane Wickline
Okay.
- [19:47]
Leva Pierce
Okay.
- [19:50]
I threw my phone off a bridge in the Hudson this week on a whim. I don't give an F. My screen time was 11 hours per day. I said F that time to throw
- [20:02]
Jane Wickline
my phone off this bridge.
- [20:06]
Leva Pierce
I cannot find my house. Looking for landmarks I recognize when my boss was always blowing me up. Bee, you can slide the fish.
- [20:23]
Jane Wickline
Cause the fish have my phone.
- [20:28]
Leva Pierce
Well, the subway wanted me to tap
- [20:30]
my phone to the thing.
- [20:31]
You've lost my business beef.
- [20:33]
I'll just take a pedicab.
- [20:35]
I asked the pedicab driver, what is this song?
- [20:39]
Jane Wickline
He says it's Bruno Mars.
- [20:40]
Leva Pierce
Well, it's fantastic. Sir, where are you taking us? Where is our house? He says we are just circling the zoo. Well, that won't work. Let me out here. Apple pay, can I pay with a smile? Fools are rotten online? While I'm living real life?
- [21:04]
Jane Wickline
Asking bus drivers how to mail a letter?
- [21:08]
Leva Pierce
Well, for dinner I'll probably shoot a squirrel in the park? But for now I found some berries
- [21:13]
that taste like metal?
- [21:16]
Everybody else is stuck in something. I have names. The Blue Dimension. Sitting with your hand locked in the shape of a claw? You haven't been sleeping? Everybody's staring at their tiny box of light Like a zombie moth? The box takes your soul to somewhere bad you know it is the blue Dimension. A woman lends us her phone so
- [21:51]
Jane Wickline
we can look on Google Maps. Looking back, I think she thought we were mugging her.
- [21:56]
Leva Pierce
We go home and order new phones on the computer and a lockbox for them that we'll never use. How many days have passed?
- [22:08]
2 hours and 40 minutes.
- [22:10]
Jane Wickline
Oh, good. We're not fired.
- [22:12]
Leva Pierce
World heed our warning. F. The Blue Dimension.
- [22:18]
Alison Stewart
That was. You did a good job. That was Dukes. They'll be playing at Soho Playhouse until August 2nd. My guests are Leva Pierce and Janewick Lyon. I went to see the show on Sunday night. Yes. And it was really interesting because this kid came up and he wanted his picture with you. And he was clearly a fan of snl. How has that changed for you? The way you interact with people now that people know who you are?
- [22:46]
Leva Pierce
It's so sweet.
- [22:47]
I think I. I think the great
- [22:50]
Jane Wickline
thing about SNL is that you know it. Like, just different age range. Like it just demographically. It's so much more. I feel like, people now are watching. Getting to see Dukes that get. Or just getting to see our show, who I think previously most of our audience was college students because we were, you know, like, social media is so, so targeted. So it's really special to see turn out. That's, you know, a lot of people who we wouldn't, we wouldn't think would, you know, come out and see the show. It's been, it's been really exciting to look out in the audience and be like, oh, it's, you know, it's people old and young.
- [23:34]
Alison Stewart
Everyone's all kinds of people. All kinds of people. Leva, the show is playing until August 2nd. Are you going to add to. Is this going to come back every quarter, every year? How. What is. How is Duke's going to expand Dukes it.
- [23:52]
Leva Pierce
We are always trying to do a better version than we did the last year. So we work a lot on Jane's breaks, so we do a lot in the summer. We do a lot on SNL breaks. There's a break in the winter. We sometimes do college shows, so we'll hopefully do some college shows. We have a college show coming up at the beginning of fall, and I hope, we hope that we may get to add a couple more shows in New York in August. Yeah, if that doesn't happen, we'll definitely be back. Hopefully bigger and better.
- [24:23]
Yeah.
- [24:24]
Jane Wickline
And we're performing in Montreal next week at jfl.
- [24:27]
Leva Pierce
So, yes, if you live in Montreal, come visit. Check us out July 23rd or just
- [24:32]
Alison Stewart
go to the Soho Playhouse until August 2nd. Leva Pierce and Jane Wickline, thank you so much for coming in.
- [24:37]
Jane Wickline
Thank you so much for having us.
- [24:39]
Alison Stewart
There's more, all of it on the way.