Keeping it on the right side of blue
The Age
Wednesday March 31, 2010
Meet actresses turned comedians turned the next big thing, writes Dylan Rainforth. YOU might recognise Riki Lindhome as the psychopath's girlfriend from the remake of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left. Or maybe you saw her in Gilmore Girls. How about Kate Micucci? You know, the ukulele-playing Stephanie Gooch from Scrubs? That role offered a chance to play a tune called Screw You: the song, which ordinarily goes by a more upfront title, is one of many the jobbing actresses have written together as Garfunkel & Oates.The Los Angeles-based comedy duo - who take the "Flight of the Conchords with uteruses" comparisons with good grace - have only been gigging for a year but have already scored television appearances on Jay Leno and Carson Daly's late-night shows, as well as the No. 1 slot on comedy.com's poll of funny women, ahead of Sarah Silverman. They are named after "two famous rock-and-roll second bananas", and their sharp-toothed tales of contemporary social mores and their nice-girls, naughty-lyrics approach have won them a dedicated internet following. They recently performed their hit Pregnant Women Are Smug - "everyone knows it, nobody says it" €” for their second appearance on Leno's show.According to Micucci, her partner is responsible for "90 to 100 per cent" of the songs' topics. "It's usually just stuff that's happened to me," Lindhome says, "although last night we came up with something based on something that happened to Kate. It's top secret for now, but we were walking down the street and we were like, whoa!" The pair say the song might be ready for unveiling by the time they get to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, in their first Australian visit.They've also written a logical prequel to their ode to pregnancy - Married People Are Boring. Again, they refused to reveal any details - mainly because Lindhome is worried about the reaction from a good friend."It's not about him but a lot of the examples are from him and I'm not sure he'll be super pleased."If Lindhome is responsible for the lion's share of song concepts, the pair claim it doesn't show in the final product. "We never know at the end of the day who wrote which line, because it's such a collaborative process. We just keep topping each other, and topping, topping, topping," says Lindhome.Surprisingly, despite some of the most sexually explicit lines you'll hear in the festival - much of their best work comes from dating anecdotes - Micucci, at least, has only been able to get comfortable with the material recently."I was the most shy person, I would never talk about that stuff, ever. Riki's really brought it up (and) I'm able to do it now. For the most part. Except for last night, the second show, when we started talking about balls . . . I was like 'please let this be over'."Their real skill lies in always keeping the blue stuff on the right side of nice. Lindhome attributes this to her more demure partner. "It's probably her - it's probably because of her shyness."Micucci concurs, explaining she couldn't even swear until she was an adult: she was tricked, at age seven, into saying the word "f***" by her babysitter, who then yelled at her - traumatised, she never said it again until she was 24 and required to "get over it" in her first drama school scene. "By the end of that scene - I was playing this real tough character - I had to say it about 20 times. Then all of a sudden I could say it - so I'm learning."She recognises that a good partnership needs balance. "If we were both being really shy about it, it wouldn't work obviously, or if we were both being really, like, hey," here she makes a gesture indicating a more in-your-face approach, "I think it would have a different way - there's a balance that happens."Garfunkel & Oates play the Lower Town Hall, April 6-17
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