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Comedy Duo Garfunkel and Oates Live at Amoeba Charity Auction

Posted by Amoebite, February 17, 2011 03:02pm | Post a Comment
If you haven't heard of Garfunkel and Oates yet, you probably will soon. (No, it's not a long-lost collaboration between folk singer Art Garfunkel and pop/soul singer John Oates.) Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci are two actresses and singers also known as the musical comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates. They've appeared on Raising Hope, Scrubs, Last House on the Left, Bored to Death, and The Big Bang Theory. They've performed on The Tonight Show and were just signed to a pilot deal with HBO. They also recently hosted our monthly charity auction at Amoeba Hollywood to celebrate the release of their new comedy album, All Over Your Face.

Riki and Kate met at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles and began working together on a short film called Imaginary Larry. As Garfunkel and Oates they create satirical folk songs covering topics like same sex marriage ("Sex With Ducks"), gently telling a guy they aren't interested ("I Would Never [Have Sex With You]"), and the joys of pregnancy ("Pregnant Women Are Smug"). You can buy All Over Your Face here or at Amoeba Hollywood.

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CAUTION: FLAMMABLE!

Posted by Job O Brother, November 18, 2008 11:37am | Comments (1)
fire
The view from my window. That store in the middle is Linda Thai - they have great food.

*Cough, cough!*

Hello! Greetings from *cough* Hollywood!

Sorry about the grey ash everywhere. It’s from the fires. And the heat. Strange, isn’t it? To be in the middle of November and planning your day around which businesses have air conditioning? (Amoeba Music, by the way, has air conditioning.) This is how we do winter in LA: pretend the blazing heat is an Arctic chill and those flakes of ash falling from the sky are snowflakes.

Also, that fat man laughing loudly on Sunset Boulevard is Santa. Nevermind that you’ve never seen Santa throw-up in the gutter and scream that the government put wires in his cereal. This is how we do winter in LA.

*Cough, cough* Word.

I must admit, I kind of like the way the air smells when Los Angeles is consumed in hell-fire. Kind of like everything’s hickory smoked. Kind of delicious, and reminds me of Christmas gifts of Hickory Farms, like you might find a smoked and dried Pasadena nestled in a box of fake grass, next to some strawberry candy. Sounds good, right? Who wouldn’t want to spread a little smoked Pasadena on a poppy-seed cracker? Maybe add a sprig of dill. Mmm!
meat gift
The last seven days – we’ll call it a week for short – have been packed with all sorts of activities. Let’s start with the most improbable of them:

(In which Job is a commercial.)

Posted by Job O Brother, May 1, 2007 11:08am | Comments (3)
I’m always on the lookout for two things: hilarious TV and a man with an African-shaped birthmark on his right shoulder. Hilarious TV because it lowers my stress level and inspires me; the man with the birthmark because he orphaned me at age eight and burned my farm down.

Both are equally difficult to find.

Thanks to today’s plethora of cable TV stations (Hot Glue & Margarine Channel, anyone?) there has been an outcropping of novel shows. I tend to enjoy comedy that pushes the boundaries of acceptable (South Park, Strangers With Candy) or are chock full of non-sequiturs (Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Aqua Teen Hunger Force). You get me, right? We’re all on the same page here.

One show that many of you don’t seem to have seen/noticed is “Upright Citizens Brigade”. It’s not brand new. It ran for three seasons on Comedy Central (1998-2000). One star of the show many of you will know is Amy Poehler, who my friends tell me is on something called Saturday Night Live? I dunno, I’ve never heard of it.

Anyway, the premise is that a team of four people, the Upright Citizens Brigade, are waging a secret battle against all-things-average and mundane in the world. They bring chaos to conformity. (In this respect, they mirror the customers who shop the DVD section of Amoeba Music Hollywood.)

It’s sketch comedy. The material is garnered from the troupe’s live shows, originally based in Chicago, now in NYC. In this respect, the show is similar to The Kids in the Hall, though the style of it – the way it ebbs and flows – feels more like Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

If you like any of the titles I’ve dropped above, I would expect you to also adore this too-overlooked gem. Unfortunately, only season one is available on DVD.

Do yourself a favor and snag a copy. Then do me a favor and, if you see the man with the birthmark, shoot a tranquilizer dart in his neck, restrain him, and give me a ring-a-ding. Thanks!