Comedy twins Keith and Kenny Lucas give props to Hannibal Buress for opening doors

theGRIO REPORT - Comedy twins the Lucas Bros. are back with a new season of TruTV show, 'Friends of the People'...

Identical twin comedians Keith and Kenny Lucas weren’t always that funny.

But that didn’t stop fellow comedian Hannibal Buress from giving them a shot while they were trying to break into the Brooklyn comedy scene in 2009.

“Our comedy sucked, and I’m sure he knew,” Keith Lucas said of Buress during a recent interview with theGrio.com. “It was kind of hard to get stage time in Brooklyn because people didn’t know who we were.”

At the time, Buress was hosting a popular weekly comedy show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn and they asked him for a chance to perform.

“He put us on immediately and ever since then I’ve had mad love for him,” Keith Lucas added. “He didn’t have to do that. The fact that he’s been so helpful in our careers, it’s been awesome.”

It’s a different side of Buress than most are familiar with.

Buress garnered headlines last year following a stand-up routine where he called Bill Cosby a “rapist.”

It prompted a media firestorm and may have sparked numerous women to come forward publicly and accuse Cosby of sexual assault. (all of which Cosby vehemently denied) A 2005 deposition, released earlier this month, revealed Cosby admitted that he gave drugs to women he wanted to have sex with.

Keith Lucas said they were never Cosby fans.

“Never liked the show. Never really a fan,” he said, adding they couldn’t relate to the show as poor kids growing up in Newark, N.J. and High Point, N.C.

In the meantime, the comedy twins kick off their second season of truTV’s Friends of the People tonight. Friends of the People, a sketch comedy show reminiscent of Mad TV, promises to touch on a number topics this season, including police brutality, politics and late 80s-90s nostalgia, the 29-year-old Buress protégés said.

“For people who’ve never seen it, they can expect to see a very diverse group of comedians,” Kenny Lucas said. “They’re going to see a bunch of different styles of comedy. When we write, we like for it to reflect our upbringing.”

It will also feature a number of special guests, including funnyman David Alan Grier, singer Brian McKnight and a host of professional wrestlers.

Kenny Lucas said the “Back at One” singer fit right in.

“He was actually incredibly funny,” he said. “He had comedic timing that I wouldn’t expect from an R&B singer. He was quite good.”

Tune in to Friends of the People on Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT on truTV.

Michael J. Feeney is an award-winning journalist and public speaker. Follow him on Twitter @mfeeney.

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