I never saw the Brothers Four in concert before I joined the group, so I can't speak to the format of their live shows during the hey-day of folk music. During my tenure with the group, we did include plenty of comedy material, but it was mostly in the form of music. "The Sloth" was one of our killer comedy bits, as was a version of "Blowin' In The Wind" that Dick used to do, transforming it into a commercial for Hormel Chili. ("How many beans in a can of Hormel? The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind...") We also did some Tom Lehrer tunes that generated laughter.
Obviously, our humor didn't work in Japan (except for "The Sloth", which was visual), so yes, that was a factor that probably affected our overall presentation. However, we always toured Japan with a local MC, usually a comedian. He would inject the humor into the show while we sang the songs.
As for Dr. Lou, he was as close to God as you can get and still be human.
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