The comedy duo Tubbi and Martin had students laughing as they took home first place at Thursday's Last Comic Standing. A crowd gathered in the Student Center Ballroom to hear competitors battle it out for the winning title.
Joshua "Tubbi" Mays and Martin Morrow have known each other since attending Hewitt-Trussville High School together. The pair graduated one year apart and then both headed to Auburn.
"All the material I wrote somehow involved multiple people," Morrow said.
Unsure of how to deal with the dilemma, Martin said he thought of using a sock puppet to fill the space in his material.
"I asked Tubbi to do it with me because I felt he was the funniest of our group of friends," Morrow said. "The rest is history."
This is the first year the two have participated in Last Comic Standing as a duo.
"Martin has performed at least twice in this contest, and it was my first year to ever be a part of it," Mays said. "I'm out of school, and it's Martin's last semester so he wanted to take one more shot at it and see what we could do."
Morrow said the group was influenced by a variety of styles.
"Other comedians have tried to describe our style as a mix of sketch and stand-up," Morrow said.
The pair agreed their individual comedic styles make them funnier together.
"It's different, even looking at it ourselves we know it's different, but to us that's a good thing," Mays said. "It's hard to be different nowadays."
Morrow said a big part of the group's style "comes from Tubbi's awkward and soft-spoken demeanor intertwined with my high energy."
They both have separate solo stand-up sets, and Morrow said those situations allow people to more accurately observe their quirks and style.
"It's not your typical sketch comedy; it's not your typical stand-up comedy; it's not even your typical 'white guy, black guy' comedy situation," Mays said.
Tubbi and Morrow get most of their inspiration from everyday life.
"In all honesty, if you've ever heard me and Martin having a regular conversation, it can be pretty ridiculous, and that's where a lot of our comedy originates from," Mays said.
Morrow said one of his favorite bits is called 'Yo-Yo Extreme.'
"It is probably the most ridiculous thing we do, and it all started from me playing with a yo-yo in Tubbi's room," Morrow said.
Tubbi and Morrow plan to continue collaborating in the future.
"We might be taking a small hiatus after this," Mays said. "Martin will be getting an internship and maybe a job after that, and I'm currently working part-time at a radio station."
Mays said Tubbi and Martin may perform a few more shows before the year ends, but will probably be doing things individually for a while.
"We won't be completely out of the picture though," Mays said. "Whenever we get an opportunity to entertain an audience as well as ourselves, we'll be more than up for it."
The duo has performed in Atlanta and Birmingham, and hopes to branch out if the opportunity arises.
"We've been involved in other things such as short films and TV show pilots," Morrow said. "We hope to maybe write a book on a lot of the events that occurred."
Morrow said some of those events include the experience of performing stand-up comedy and dealing with "crazy exes."
"Tubbi would like for us to one day get a radio show, like we previously held on WEGL for two years, and I want to continue to pursue a career in acting and production," Morrow said.
Mays said he hopes they perform again.
"We both know we have something special here, and to put it to the wayside for too long would be a waste in my opinion," Mays said.
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