YouTube comedians raise hell, energy

YouTube comedians Luke Barats and Joe Bereta perform for one of their first attempts with a live audience at 8 p.m. Wednesday, in the Union Ballroom. 

The comedians said many of their live performances are not featured online, so all the material will be fresh.

The University of Wyoming Student Activities Council wanted to try something different in March and bring a YouTube sensation to the university.

The SAC held a stand-up competition, UW Stands-Up!, Wednesday. The two winners of the competition were asked to open the show for Barats and Bereta. Ethan Sizer and Hao Yu will each perform up to ten minutes of their own acts before the show.

Yu is an international student at UW. He said students could expect him to give his perspective of life in America.

“One thing I definitely noticed is that the sense of humor in the Chinese culture is comparatively very subtle, but the love for joy and jokes is shared among people around the world,” Yu said.

He said he is both excited and nervous for his performance Wednesday night. He said these feelings just mean he is ready.

Yu performed stand up earlier this year for the Chinese New Year. He said he enjoys representing the university at such events.

“It is such a honor. I am really flattered by the fact a lot of people accept and love my jokes,” Yu said.

Stephanie Long, graduate assistant of Student’s Activities Center, said the council discussed different options students would enjoy at the beginning of the year.

“We had the idea of tapping into the YouTube sensations online and bring [them] here,” Long said.

Barats and Bereta have over 400,000 followers on YouTube and have been featured on NBC. They have been making comedic skits since college. Their live show is a combination of sketch comedy and high energy.

Long said she expected about four to six hundred students to show up for the event.

“They are pretty popular, I think,” Long said.

She said the process to get Barats and Bereta here was quite easy. All the SAC had to do was contact their management and ask them to do a show for the university.