The comedians of music

Posted by Andrew

Michael Showalter plays Schubas March 14th

The intersection of music and comedy seems to continually be adding lanes in the independent world. Sure, the likes of Weird Al or the Rutles existed long before Stephen Lynch or Demetri Martin, but there is more and more of an overlap between the two mediums. In an interview last year with Pitchfork, David Cross pointed out the connection as well:

There's quite an overlap between musicians-- especially drummers-- who have an affection and a proclivity towards comedy and comedians who fantasize about being in a band. And a lot of comics play instruments: Zach [Galifianakis] plays piano, Demetri Martin and Sarah Silverman play guitar. The two worlds have more similarities than they do difference.

(While on the subject of David Cross, if you’ve never read his satirical attempt at Pitchfork reviews, you probably should)

More recently, former Sleater-Kinney frontwoman has teamed up with Fred Armisen to create one of the funniest and highly self-reflexive comedies in recent memory, IFC’s "Portlandia." Music videos have often been away to promote humor (a recent example by the New Pornographers) and I notice more and more on my twitter feed about musicians collabing with comedians.