So this is it. I basically ran to my room and practiced my act. Without mom knowing, or even dad, I looked upon old tapes of standup routines from George Carlin, Chris Rock and Milton Berle. I don't even know who they are, but I laughed at their friendlier jokes. I tried simpler ones, but it didn't work.
Luan is at her room, sitting on a tall stool and practicing her talent show stint with a hairbrush she uses as a prop microphone and in front of an audience of plush toys coming from her siblings. "So, Cheese insisted to Mac that he can make the taste even grater. Hahaha. Get it?"
After telling her joke, the then 5-year-old imagines the crowd unresponsive to her jokes, something she would not notice will actually scare her. Nevertheless, she tells another joke, "But I know that joke was too cheesy. I mean it couldn't be so un-brie-livable. Hahaha. Get it?" Luan then hollers loudly at her own joke that she drops to floor, laughing out loud. "Get it?!"
However, when she faces her audience of lifeless stuff toys, she can only see their lips pursed. She thinks that her joke is ineffective.
That was a bad joke. But there are no such things as bad jokes. My hen is lean and good. Hahaha…But anyway, it's not over yet for me.
One by one, Luan tries every joke to get a unique reaction from her and her audience.
"What did the salamander told to the boy who possesses magic? You're a lizard, Harry! Hahaha! Get it?" But Luan is unsatisfied, though not giving up.
"When my dad and I go to the mall, we would always stop by at the ice cream parlor for Neapolitan. I tried to pronounce the word, so I asked dad, 'Don't Neapolitans work in the White House?'" She laughs at her joke. But no matter how hard she tried, the young jokester is still discontented but unconvinced.
"I heard about two fancy seafood that fell in love. It was really sweet and spicy, my mom said. Must be a lob-story. Hahaha. Get it?" While she reacts with just a chuckle, young Luan eventually finds the real humor in her joke that she rolls to the floor, laughing, again. But this time, someone laughs with her.
There I knew somebody else liked my joke. And I guess you guys know who it is.
Hearing it, Luan stops and checks out where the laughs are coming from. She tracks it towards the pile of plush toys and walks on it. There, she uncovers baby Lincoln giggling over finding Bun-Bun from the cuddle load. Luan cannot get help but feel sweetened by her baby brother's innocent joy. "Awww…come here Linky." She then lifts him to her side near the stool. "Tell me, did you like my joke?"
But Lincoln just burst in giggles over Bun-Bun.
Even if that is obvious for her, Luan still appreciates Lincoln for giggling at her joke. "Aww, thank you. Glad you like it. But I think there is something missing in my routine. But what?" She then ponders gradually, not noticing Lincoln crawling away from her and naively heading to her wooden chest of knick-knacks. "Probably a bigger stool that is as high as the roof!"
Lincoln then pushes the chest, making its contents scatter to the floor.
Luan notices this commotion. "Lincoln! What are you doing?" But rather than chastise him, she convinces her baby brother, "These are some joke props that dad gave me. I am sure you might find this fun."
Lincoln then grabs a wand and puts on a hat, so he can pretend to be a magician, or a wizard with the way he waves the wand.
"Aww…Linky," Luan utters. Just seeing Lincoln on magician get-up gives her an idea. "Hey! How about we put up magic show with jokes along the way? What do you say?"
Lincoln replies with cherry-red chuckles on his face, along with a 'little shark' clapping.
"That's the spirit!" she replies. She then steps on one of her plush puppets – a rabbit with a pointy nose. She picks it up and uses it to cuddle Lincoln. "How's that, baby brother?" Luan keeps tickling baby Lincoln, making him giggle more evenly and cutely. "That's a keeper." Out of tickling her baby brother, the young jokester then thinks of an idea as part of her routine. "Hey! How about we do stand-up, and a magic show, and a puppet show?! What do you think?"
Lincoln somehow agrees; though from wanting to touch the plush bunny puppet, it seems he is agreeing to something else. But Luan is oblivious.
"That's a great idea, Lincoln. But we need to make it good, so mom and dad can be proud. And really dad." Luan then turns (literally) to Lincoln for support. "What do you say Linky? Are you in?"
Without context on what she's talking about, Baby Lincoln then claps gleefully.
However, seeing his enthusiasm, Luan is convinced. "Great! Now we just have to find the perfect way, the perfect presentation. That's how performers do!"
With the perfect combo, I knew for sure that we would win the Talent Show and made dad proud. We're like eagles about to soar high with our talents high. Hehehe. Get it? But even then, not everyone is happy…
But just as the two excitedly prepare for the Royal Woods Talent Show, Lori peeks from their room, still enviously dejected after their mother is more favorable on Luan joining the talent show than her.
Marching to her room, Lori tries to rub off her anger but cannot. As she arrives by slamming the door to her room, she spots Leni playing tea party by her own.
"Lori, don't be rude like that," Leni reminds.
"Beat it Leni!" Lori berates her. She then notices the way Leni plays. "What are you doing?"
"Having a tea party," Leni answers.
"With pillows with face drawing on them?" Lori wonders the silliness.
"Yeah. I gave my dog and my other toys to Luan," Leni answers.
"That Luan! She is literally getting on my nerves!"
"What made you so mad about her?"
"I think you're saying it the wrong way, literally."
"Oh sorry, then I pologize."
However, Lori becomes understanding to Leni's obliviousness and decides to take advantage of it. "No, it's okay Leni. I understand. There are just other people who need to apologize to me…or us."
"Who?"
With a snicker that borders on evil, Lori then relays, "It's Luan. You see she stole my chance to join the talent show. It's just literally hurting me."
"Oh, that's too bad."
"I know. That's why I don't want her to do the same to you with your toys."
"But she asked if she can have my toys. And I said 'yes'."
"So she can literally say it is hers and never giving it back to you. Would you want that?"
Hearing that news makes Leni shocked. "What? Oh no, she's a stoler?"
"Yes. So, here's what we do. You want your toys back?"
Leni nods frantically in response.
"Let's team up. We are going to sabotage Luan's performance."
"Oooh sabotage. Wait, what is sabotage?"
"I don't know. But I think it means taking down Luan. What do you say?"
Leni then nods in agreement. With that, Lori and Leni team up to take down Luan.
Back on Luan, she picks up her comedy kit and sets up another live audience. In her magician's outfit, Luan sets up the stool and her magician's hat on her make-believe stage. She utters to herself, "Okay. I don't anything about magic. But I know I can make people laugh. Isn't that right, my assistant?"
Lincoln, dressed along with a clip-on bow tie and a purple vest, claps joyfully in response.
"That's the spirit. We make a wonderful cast. Hehehe. Get it?"
Not knowing what the context of the joke is, Lincoln still chuckles over that.
With that, Luan practices her stint. "Ladies and gentleman, I, The Magical Luan, will give you magic that laugh. I'll have you spell that out. Hehehe. Get it?"
But as she goes on with her practice, Lori and Leni sneak to the room and hide behind the makeshift stage, which is just a huge curtain set up. While Luan is concentrated on doing her spiel, Lori swipes Luan's top hat and, with the help from Leni, fills it with dust.
Leni cannot help but feel enthusiastic at their plan that she spouts loudly, "Oh goody, Lori. This is so good what you're doing!"
"Shhh Leni!" Lori presages her. "The key to take back at Luan is to literally be quiet. So be quiet."
"Oh good. I'll be quiet," Leni replies. "I'll be quiet!"
"Shhhhh!" Lori then puts back the hat.
Somehow, Luan does not hear them. As expected, she takes the hat while she does her spiel: "But for now, let me show you my first trick." She then wears the hat, making the dust fall on her face and prompting for the irritating grime to make her sneeze.
"Aaaaa….aaaachhhooo!" Her sneeze sends her striking to the drawer, hitting the curtains in the process and breaking to their stuff.
Needless to say, Lori is pleased. "Hahaha! That will literally teach her a lesson."
But even with that hit that made her dizzy, Luan finds the time to joke, "Man, that some nosy dust. Hahaha. Get it? Well, it only means one thing: I have to dust off my old jokes. Hahaha!"
This instance makes Lori angry, since her reaction defeats the purpose of their scheme.
Next step for Luan is to practice her stand-up routine that proceeds after the magic show. But she plans to tell her jokes all throughout her performance. "You know how it is so slow for a mommy or a daddy to wait in line, just to buy their son's favorite superhero action figure. It must be a Thor-toys. Hehehe. Get it?"
Sneakily, Lori goes back to Luan's room with a baby speaker. She sets the volume high that it becomes audible to the whole room. "Ohhh, I literally get it. Hahaha!" The then 8-year-old goes back to her and Leni's room to set off their next plan.
"Now speaking of toys, I heard one of them got invited to the Fourth of July party at my yard. I think it was Simon. Hahaha!"
Just as Luan laughs at her own joke, Lori mimics her speech and laughs along with her. Luan notices the echoing voice and checks on it.
"It was really Simon," Luan utters.
"It was really Simon," Lori follows correspondingly.
"Yes, Simon."
"Yes, Simon."
"Simon."
"Simon."
"I know it's Simon."
"I know it's Simon."
"Simon says 'Who are you?'"
"Simon says 'Who are you?'"
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
"I'm Luan."
"I'm Luan."
"I'm Luan."
"I'm Luan." Lori snickers at her scheme, with Leni supporting her.
"Luan?"
"Luan?"
"I'm stupid."
"I'm…s…" However, Lori cannot seem to respond to those words, even though she convincingly needs to go to her plan of pretending to be Luan's echo. But it is not going well.
"I said I'm stupid!"
"I'm…" Just as she stutters, Lori realizes the plan is not going well, and she may have been compromised.
"I'm stupid the stupid. Lala la lalala! Stupid!"
Because of being outsmarted, Lori begins to get annoyed.
"Stupid echo! Stupid echo! Cannot even follow!" Luan laughs hysterically.
"Aaaarrrgggghhhh!" Luan growls out of defeat. She then aborts their plan.
But for Luan, she goes along with her routine.
Lastly, Luan does her ventriloquist act, using sock puppet for the first part.
"Hey, do you know why I hate sports?" the right-hand yellow sock puppet asks.
"Why? Sports are fun, right?" the left-hand white sock puppet replies.
"Is it fun to get athlete's foot?" the yellow sock responds.
"No, is it even fun for us socks to have feet. We don't have even legs," the white sock expounds. "But at least we have a sole. Hahaha! Get it?"
Behind the scenes, Lori and Leni are pouring super glue inside the bunny puppet. After that, Lori puts it back, just as Luan takes it for her upcoming routine.
Luan continues her spiel, "Now, for the next part, I wanna bring in my lovely assistant, my baby brother Lincoln and his favorite puppet, Mr. Bunny."
A usually joyful Lincoln cheers on.
"Hello baby Lincoln, what do you want to do today?" the bunny puppet asks.
Lincoln has nothing else to reply but gibberish and blueberries.
On the sidelines, Lori and Leni wait for the right moment when Luan finishes her stint. And as that moment comes, Luan does her goodbye spiel for Mr. Bunny. "Well Mr. Bunny has to go, because he is so excited for the juggling routine." She then tries to take off the puppet from her hand, to no avail. Thanks to the heavy-duty adhesion of the super glue, the puppet remains stuck on her hand. She tries multiple times, to no certain avail. Lincoln tries to help as well by grasping on the head. But as Luan shakes the puppet off, he suddenly drops to the floor. "Well, this is some sticky situation. Hehehe. Get it?"
Luan then notices her brother nearly hurt. "Linky, are you okay?"
The toddler is on the verge of crying. But he quickly grabs the puppet and hugs it.
"Awww…sorry Mr. Bunny cannot get out big sister's hand. He seemed glued our act. Hehehe!"
After that punchline, Luna somehow appears to her drum set, just to do a "ba-dum-tss" beat.
"Wow, good timing," Luan remarks.
"That's my style, dude," Luna replies.
"Great, you're here! I need your help. Mr. Bunny is stuck on my hand. I need him to get out."
"Let me help you with that." Luna then grabs the arms of the puppet to try to budge it out. However, in the process, she stomps on Luan pushily for leverage, also to prevent breaking the puppet. Sadly though, Luna collapses to the same drawer Luan got hit a while ago. "How about you convince Mr. Bunny to not be much of a stuck-up?"
"Hahaha! Ohh Luna, that's clever."
"See? I can do cornier puns than you."
"Man, that was too corny that you might flake. Hahaha!"
"Okay, watch it."
"Sorry. Well Mr. Bunny is stuck with me now."
"We'll get him out."
"Yeah." Out of the blue, Luan thinks of an idea. "Hey Luna, we're doing our act for the talent show. And I was thinking that maybe you can join us. Me, you and Lincoln."
"Really? So, what do you want me to do?"
"Maybe, you can be our music provider. You know, the guy who does sounds or songs or stuff while we do our act. Just like the drum beat you did."
"Hmmm, like a DJ? Or like Paul Shaffer?"
"Yeah…like that."
"Well, at least it's not Lori's screeching voice I have to deal with. And at least, I get to drum. I'm in!"
"Good. Welcome to the team!" With that agreement, Luan has established her act. Challenges given, she is willing to partake on showcasing her talents onstage.
But those opposed take it too seriously, specifically Lori, who grumbles this, "We're not done yet, bucktooth jokester. We'll see about that. I just need to ask one more sister. And she will find this fun. Hahaha!"