interview

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Garfunkel and Oates heading to the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis

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The women behind the musical-comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates don't look like troublemakers.

Kate Micucci, with her ukulele and doe-eyed reactions to the chaos around her, made her the ideal candidate to play a fragile geek on "The Big Bang Theory," so intimidated by big-hearted Raj that she climbed out a bathroom window in the middle of a date. Guitar player Riki Lindhome, who had a recurring role on "Gilmore Girls," exudes a Midwest-bred wholesomeness straight out of "Little House on the Prairie."

But it's those innocent first impressions that allow them to get away with comic murder.

On their IFC self-titled series as well as on a tour that brings them to Minneapolis on Friday, the longtime friends perform peppy, poppy numbers (that have titles like "Sex With Ducks," "Gay Boyfriend" and "This Party Took a Turn for the Douche") with "Sesame Street"-like enthusiasm — and lyrics that would make Grover's hair fall out.

We spoke to the red-hot pair by phone from their apartments in Los Angeles.  Read more...

Garfunkel And Oates Talk New IFC Show, ‘Beige Curtains’ And Not Smoking Weed With Their Fans

I first met Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci back in 2010 during an interview, in the basement of Comix, a bygone New York City comedy venue. That same month, my colleagues and I spoke to Nick Kroll, Donald Glover, Whitney Cummings and Chelsea Peretti in the same, tiny room, not knowing that four years later every single one of them would have their own television show.  Read more...

Ethan Miller via Getty Images

Ethan Miller via Getty Images

Watch a clip of 'Garfunkel and Oates' guest-starring the actual Oates

The pair have assembled an impressive lineup of guest stars for their first season, including Chris Parnell, Natasha Leggero, Anthony Jeselnik, Tig Notaro, Steve Agee, Chris Hardwick, and, most improbably, Sir Ben Kingsley. But in terms of metatextual humor, it’s hard to beat a cameo from the group’s partial namesake John Oates. He appears in an episode entitled “Rule 34” (airing this Thursday, Aug. 14), in which Garfunkel and Oates encounter a porn version of themselves played by Abby Elliott and Sugar Lyn Beard.  Read more...

The GQ+A: Garfunkel and Oates's Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome on the Best Dating Advice They've Ever Received

Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome like a good underdog story. Case in point: the name of their musical comedy duo is Garfunkel and Oates. For their quirky and highly entertaining new IFC series, Garfunkel and Oates, the pair dipped into their own experiences to play a struggling comedy team trying to claw their way up to what Lindhome calls "the middle class of show business." In the first episode, premiering this Thursday, Kate’s ineffectual agent spoils her big audition, while Riki’s sex life becomes, er, messy because of her...weak gag reflex. Was the gag reflex bit based on experience too, we asked? "I plead the Fifth!" said Lindhome. But she and Micucci were game to tell us all about burning bridges, hanging out with John Oates, and dropping some dating advice.  Read more...

Garfunkel and Oates Saying What Everyone Else Is Thinking

Seven years since a pair of quickly written songs landed thousands of clicks and an unintended audience on YouTube, prompting them to turn their sweetly foul-mouthed and subversive brand of musical comedy into a genuine live act as Garfunkel and Oates, Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel) and Kate Micucci (Oates) have become the most well-known guitar and ukulele players who have tackled their distaste for smug pregnant women, their ignorance on performing handjobs, and the virginal loophole of anal sex. Following a number of chart-climbing albums—their most recent 2012's All Over Your Face—and a recent series of shorts for HBO, Lindhome and Micucci are hoping to follow the cult success of Flight of Conchords with their very own self-titled television program, debuting this week (Thursday at 10 PM) on IFC. Taking a breather from a long weekend of promotion at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego, the duo discussed the difference between themselves and their characters "Riki" and "Kate," John Oates, and having porn and puppets featured in the same episode.  Read more...