While both grew up in Cincinnati, Leah went to college in New York for theater, and she began doing sketch comedy with partner Katie Hartman. After 10 years in New York, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, while her comedy partner stayed in New York. That’s when she started doing stand-up comedy.
“Sketch comedy was a way to make my own stuff while I was waiting to get that job. And then that kind of just became the main thing,” she said.
Andrew still lives in Cincinnati and began his comedy career 12 years ago. He used to want to be an English professor, and he did adjunct teach at Cincinnati State for a short time, but didn’t want to continue with school. He saw what Leah was doing with sketch comedy and decided to try stand-up comedy.
“I started stand-up first, but Leah was well into comedy,” he said. “She inspired me to get into comedy, but I started stand-up first while she transitioned into the other one. She’s multi-faceted. I’m a one-trick pony.”
Once Leah started stand-up, she traveled to Cincinnati to visit and she and Andrew began doing shows and festivals together. Eventually, they decided to team up, which evolved naturally since they both did theater in high school and liked performing sketches for their family. They have an older brother who is an engineer, which also contributed to their humor.
“I think our brother helped us develop a real comedic sensibility, a sort of toughness psychologically,” Andrew said. “He’s the older brother picking on us a lot, so we learned to laugh stuff off. We used humor to deflect and survive.”
The Rudick siblings co-headline their shows. Each comic does about 35 minutes of comedy, which is followed by a Q&A session with both comics. They talk with the audience particularly about their Midwestern upbringing. They said that’s usually the best part of the show.
“We’ve spent a collective 70 minutes talking about our mother,” Andrew said.
The pair have a couple sibling shows booked and would like to continue the shows. Many people might not think that working with a sibling would be ideal, but the Rudicks said that spending this time together hasn’t led to any bickering.
“Spending time with anyone for extended periods of time comes with its pros and cons,” Leah said. “But I think that because we’re so close and we know each other so well, it’s not a big deal. If we’re annoyed with each other, we say ‘shut up.’”
Andrew and Leah performed at the Dayton Funny Bone last December and had to travel during a snowstorm. They thought the show would be canceled, but it wasn’t. The siblings said this is why they like performing in Dayton.
“We don’t cancel for anything,” Leah said. “So it was a really intense drive and we were scared for our lives. We really thought the show would be canceled, but people still came out, which was crazy. That’s just a testament to Dayton’s people.”
Both comedians have performed in comedy specials. Leah’s special “Spiraling” is available on Apple TV, Amazon, iTunes and Spotify. Andrew has been featured on “The Bob and Tom” radio show and his comedy can be heard regularly on SiriusXM.
HOW TO GO
Who: Leah and Andrew Rudick
Where: Dayton Funny Bone, The Greene, 88 Plum St, #200, Dayton
When: Nov. 24-25; 7:30 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Saturday. Doors open both days at 6:30 p.m.
Cost: $22
More info: dayton.funnybone.com
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