Topeka hip hop group Dream Killer University performs Saturday night in the Red Room at Beer:30. Erica Cassella/ The Bulletin

When Topeka’s DreamKillerUniversity take the stage, they aren’t a typical hip-hop/rap group.

“You could call it rap if it was 1997, because that was rap, everybody came out differently, nowadays it’s reminiscent of another time when everybody could consume the music,” said Anthemous, MC and music producer for the group.

DKU feels that it brings a different sound to the audience than the other groups that frequent the radio currently. The five member band based out of Topeka describes themselves as the “crown jewels” of Kansas, according to their MySpace page.

The group played at Beer:30 on Saturday night for the second time since October, and owner Josh Olsen was glad to have them back.

“We don’t get a lot of chances to have live hip-hop and bringing the comedian brings a different feel to the show,” Olsen said.

The show also featured Austin Wright, a comedian from Topeka and a competitor on Last Comic Standing in 2008, who met with DKU’s manager, Mike Cushinberry, and gladly opened the show as well as Strider, an MC from Lawrence. Getting everyone laughing and feeling good up front was an important thing to Anthemous, and he said he was glad that Wright set the tone for the show.

While there was not a large crowd, the group played energetically and the audience enjoyed the show. As the night progressed the crowd got into the music and rhythm of DKU.

“I love doing stand-up, so I’ll make five people laugh,” Wright said.

The addition of a guitarist and live drummer give the group a more complete sound and separate them from the other groups to come out of Topeka. Anthemous said that the music is a hip-hop rock elitist sound that hasn’t been around in recent years.

DKU’s name is based on the current hip-hop landscape in Kansas and the struggle to be heard. They want people to understand the difficulties of producing music in Kansas and making it into something worthwhile and not just something that doesn’t stand apart. They believe that they can help people understand how difficult it is to make hip-hop in this part of the country.

“Everything that can go wrong will go wrong if you try to do hip-hop in Kansas,” Anthemous said.

The group is working on an album that was initially completed but was put on hold so the instrumental members of the band could be added to the songs. The group felt that without adding the other sounds, the music was less complete and they wanted to give their best effort to the album before releasing it.

“We want to make sure we got it right for the fans, and I really want this album to say something about our diversity, how we can switch it up and still make it hot,” said Spoken Thought, another music producer and MC for the group.

Charlie Heptas/The Bulletin

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Senior sociology major Harrison George performs at UAC’s Last Comic Standing last Thursday in the Memorial Union Colonial Ballroom. George was judged the winner by Pete Lee who was on NBC’s 6th season of Last Comic Standing. Sisi Huang/The Bulleyin.

Union Activities Council presented a Last Comic Standing competition in which several Emporia State student took the stage. Pete Lee, competitor on season six of NBC’s Last Comic Standing, hosted show.

“We met Pete Lee at the (National Association for Campus Activities) convention in the fall and we thought he would be a really fun act to bring to ESU,” said Lainie Harber, junior communications major and UAC president.

Competition organizers said that Last Comic Standing is a good way to bring a fun and enthusiastic influence to campus and to give students an opportunity to have fun and participate in an interesting event.

“We know we have many funny students at ESU and we thought it would be fun to have a comedy competition as a UAC event,” Harber said.

Each contestant had a 20 minutes to perform. First place went to Harrison George, senior sociology major.

“I have always been a huge fan of stand-up comedy and I’ve tried it a few times in the past, so I really wanted to see what it’d be like to compete,” George said.

George said that laughter is a great stress-reliever and he always tries to find humor in everything he does.

“I have been doing improvisational comedy for seven years and I’m a member of the improv team here at ESU. I’ve done stand up for about a year, in Emporia and the K.C. area,” George said. “Life can be really tough sometimes and if you can’t make yourself laugh then it’s only that much tougher.”

The competition was started by Pete Lee’s performance.

The show was split into four sections for each of the contestants, Chance Henson, Ryan Lickteig, Kevin Dudzinski and Harrison George.

Lickteig, freshman English major, said the competition was amazing and all the contestants should be content.

“I’d have to say my grandfather and my dad were very influential, they are hilarious and very rare people; they take life as it comes and enjoy every minute of it,” Lickteig said. “They always told me I have strong opinionated views and that I use good humor in expressing my views. Hearing them saying that was definitely influential. Also I just enjoying performing and making people laugh.”

Lickteig has a strong desire to write and enjoys entertaining people. He thought the preparation for the competition helped him get reactions to his writing and ideas.

“I write all my material. I like seeing how people react to my jokes/humor; it is interesting and good building blocks for an aspiring comedian,” Lickteig said. “In most of my material I like to address social problems, yet make it comical to show life shouldn’t be taken so seriously. Also I like making characters and becoming them during my performance.”

Lee, who has devoted 14 years on comedy, showed audience members just how excellent they were.

“It was amazing. Everyone who performed was incredibly talented. I was crying I was laughing so hard. And the audience was the most fun-loving, supportive crowd I have ever seen. They were obviously there to have a good time,” George said. “I had a lot of fun, that’s for sure. What I love about stand up is you get a little better every time you do it; you learn what works and what doesn’t and you take that with you the next time around. It keeps me excited to keep performing because I feel I always have room to progress and get better.”

George said he hoped to move out to Chicago or LA and started a career in comedy. Holding his own late night talk show has been his lifelong dream since he was nine.

After the competition, Lee offered advice for each contestant’s own standup.

“I love the students here,” Lee said. “Their comedy is really funny. I think the four of them have potential. It was a tough choice for me to judge them tonight, cause how can you judge variety of people who are really funny. My only advice to them is keep doing this. Stick to your dream, enjoy this and write a lot, and try to be ridiculous successful.”

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