Known for acoustic songs about the tribulations of paying rent, bikini waxes and camel toe, comedic duo Carlie and Doni will perform March 22, hosted by the Student Life Programming Board (SLPB).
Carlie Mantilla and Doni Carley are best friends who began writing comedy together over 6 years ago, said the duo.
As part of a year-long tour, they will perform in Augustana’s Gävle Multipurpose room at 8 p.m.
“We write about real life situations,” Mantilla said. “We also try and have a positive message. A lot of comedy can be very negative and self-deprecating…the main message we want to convey is love yourself and be proud of who you are, and don’t compare yourself to others.”
Mantilla and Carley said they both dreamed of performing comedy, but did not start writing until they met at Los Angeles Community College and started doing improv together.
“We used to just smoke weed and write silly songs,” said Carley. “One day Carl’s mom signed us up for an open mic at the Comedy Store in Hollywood. We only had three songs and thought no one was going to get it, but it ended up going really well and they kept asking us back.”
Now, Mantilla and Carley have performed across the nation, created music videos and released the beginning of an animated series on YouTube.
“Being on tour for the past year and a half has been big for us,” Mantilla said. “It’s just been great in the sense of really fine tuning our act. Also, we just filmed a huge music video for our song ‘Gangsta Waitress’ that has cameos by Lily Tomlin, Richard Lewis and Brant Daugherty.”
SLPB co-chair Destany Metcalf said Mantilla and Carley’s comedic style attracted her to their act. She said the musical aspect and unique quality of the act will be appreciated among Augustana students.
“Other comedians are raunchy or blunt about subjects,” Metcalf said. “But the musical aspect and them jamming out on a guitar and singing about the subjects will bring a new light to it.”
“I think the fact that we are a lesbian/straight girl duo makes us very unique,” Carley said. “Also, we have a lot of different aspects in our show: music, banter, pictures. We used to have a magic trick but we took it out. It might be coming back sometime soon, you never know.”
Mantilla and Carley agreed that they are grateful to have the opportunity to perform work they have written.
“This show is something we’ve worked so hard on,” Mantilla said. “And to get to go up and preform this thing that we created in our living room, and have people enjoy themselves and be able to make them laugh, it’s an amazing feeling.”