April 28-May 4, 2005

mixpicks

Giant-Head Todd

by A.D. Amorosi

comedy

If Bob Newhart and Steven Wright could conceive, the result of their unsightly union could be Todd Barry. Whether you've witnessed him at the Tinkle Sunday night showcase in New York City (with David Cross as his nervous foil), throughout several trippy CDs — Falling Off the Bone and Medium Energy — or as part of the Comedy Central Presents standup series, you'll have noticed Barry is the driest monotoned monologist to ever manage super-stud status. More often than not, his calmly drawled laconicism and dirty-mouthed sensuality have made him charming to alt-rock crowds who've come to see bands he's opened for, Yo La Tengo and They Might Be Giants among them. I found him at his computer and interviewed him via e-mail.

City Paper: You seem a sober fellow. Why do you think comedy — your particular brand of it — manifested itself within you, rather than you taking to, say architecture, economics or dentistry?
Todd Barry: Well, being toothless, that sort of rules out dentistry. I don't even know what the term "architecture" means. And I am actually a well-respected economist.

CP: I've heard you called dry and wry. Would you like to find another rhyme within that subset, or another set altogether, to describe your humor? TB: Wet and set, tasty and hasty.

CP: I couldn't open the poster download on www.toddbarry.com to see your poses. What sort of person should have them on their ceiling like I did my Led Zep poster as a kid?
TB: Oh, the color one is basically a vivid red-and-orange color background. The black and white is an equally vivid black and white. Who has them on their ceiling? Basically everyone but you. Sorry to hit that hard just three questions in.

CP: Falling Off the Bone — it's actually quite musical, very psychedelic. Are you Lemon Jelly psychedelic; 13th Floor Elevators psychedelic?
TB: I'm honey-mustard psychedelic.

CP: Not that anyone gives a fig about James Wolcott or Vanity Fair, but in the May issue, Wolcott claims that all standup past 1982 — except Chris Rock and Mario Cantone — is dead, has "lost its thrill factor, its tightrope-walking tension … has become acutely self-conscious about its own processes and mechanisms." What say you?
TB: Wow. That's interesting. I actually saw him at Caroline's once. He seems a little too bright to make a sweeping generalization like that. AND HE CLEARLY HASN'T SEEN ME, RIGHT? I'M THRILLING!!

CP: What line of yours do you find yourself most repeating over the course of the last few shows?
TB: You've been great, Philly!

CP: Outside of this interview, is there anything in your career you wish you hadn't done?
TB: Nothing outside this interview. Not even the cigarette commercials in Japan.

Todd Barry, Thu., April 28, 9 p.m., $8, with Josh "Hollywood" Agran and Rusty Ward, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888.