Large crowds gathered on Oct. 7 at the Egyptian Theatre for a spectacular musical comedy show, “An Evening With: Lewberger.”

This comedy trio consists of Keith Habersberger, from the Try Guys web show, Alex Lewis and Hughie Stone Fish. They were first seen on “America’s Got Talent” and are currently popular on TikTok, where they have over 200,000 followers and 7.6 million likes.  

THE SHOW

The show opened up with rapturous applause. The audience was very engaged and many got out of their seats to welcome Lewberger. 

“They are clever and funny, and it’s fun to see them do that in music,” said Emily Clemens, a Dixon resident. 

“I’m a big Keith fan, I just want to watch everything he does,” said Madison Frugoli, a Gilberts resident. “I’m looking forward to laughing my butt off.” 

While many people were very interested in the show, others were excited to see the group after seeing them on “America’s Got Talent.” 

“I really just love their content,” said Meli Frugoli, a Gilberts resident and Madison’s sister. “I love their songs, I have heard their songs before, and watched them on ‘America’s Got Talent,’ and really just wanted to see them in person.” 

In the beginning, the band jokingly mentioned how Habersberger is the most popular of the group because of his Try Guys fame. He really played this off and said that the other two members were just as important. They also briefly mentioned Habersberger trending on social media, but he was quick to brush it off as being for the wrong reasons, not wanting to elaborate further. 

Habersberger and Lewis also briefly shared a friendly kiss as part of a bit, which made the crowd go wild. Then a couple of times during the show, the group called a few audience members onto the stage. The audience members then helped the group by partaking in a musical skit. The audience loudly clapped along. Many of the skits and songs come from the group’s popular TikTok channel. 

The trio left the stage several times and ran around interacting with the crowd. At one point everyone got up and danced awkwardly while pretending to be a bird that was pretending to be a human. 

Then they threw tortillas into the audience. I witnessed a couple of people eating the tortillas that they caught. This heinous act of eating said tortilla was not endorsed by the group. 

A couple of the songs dealt with Judaism as both Stone Fish and Lewis are Jewish. A couple of members from the crowd also proudly proclaimed their faith; at one point a girl jumped up and waved at the group. 

Up until the very end, the crowd continued to interact with the band. They were very vocal and jumped up and down to the music. 

AFTER THE SHOW

“Oh my God, it was so good. I have been following the Try Guys since middle school and when I saw Keith was coming here and I saw Lewberger was coming here, I lost my mind,” said Becca Katz, a first-year history education major. “It was so cool, I had such a good time. It was just so exhilarating.”

Many audience members felt strongly about the performance and stayed after the show for a chance to talk with the group and buy merchandise. 

After the merchandise sale, there was a meet and greet opportunity for people who bought tickets. The crowd of around 25 people got to meet and interact with the members of Lewberger in funny and engaging photos. 

“I feel like I’m in a dream. And I might pass out soon. It was great and I absolutely loved it and my face hurts from smiling,” said Angie Olsen, a Sycamore resident. 

Olsen went on to share how much she had been waiting for this and she had a specific photo idea that she wanted to do. During her photo session, she got Habersberger to fake propose to her and she expressed how happy getting this made her. She also convinced the group to pick her next tattoo and she said she would get a tattoo of an ugly slug. 

Overall this night seemed to be a success for the Egyptian Theatre. According to Jeanine Holcomb, the marketing and communications director at the theater, they use events like this to draw in the local crowd and college students. She worked with NIU on some promotional material to coincide with homecoming but NIU did not actively partake in running the event. 

Holcomb went on to share that they had been planning on having Lewberger come for six months. She wanted to bring someone out who would be of interest to the area and the college demographic and she felt that the group fit perfectly.