“Have you ever rocked the Neti Pot?” Don’t answer that. It’s not a question, it’s a song. A rap in fact, one of the many from comedy duo Tim Girrbach and Rodney Umble, a.k.a. Squirm and Germ. Making their second Piccolo appearance, Squirm and Germ bring their awkward, white-boy rapper antics to Theatre 99 and the set list, is, as the Neti reference might suggest, eclectic.
“We are returning with some perennial favorites, as well as new songs, and/or remixes to keep it fresh every night,” says Girrbach. Expect to hear “Maine, MOFO,” an ode to vacationing in the Northeast state with riffs on lobsters, biking through Acadia, and longing to live in a lighthouse. And then there’s their signature beat, “Pregnant in the Club,” featuring such lyrics as “Just cuz I got a baby bump don’t mean we can’t dry hump.” Incidentally, the track won the duo second place at the Apollo Theatre in 2012.
And while it’ll be hard to duplicate Apollo-level intensity, Girrbach says, “We hope that the beautiful venue combined with our raucous performance will have you feeling like you are at a concert with crazed high energy, costume changes, lighting effects, lasers, live synths, and even more of our signature scintillating dance moves.”
Those moves and their comic timing were honed at improv university Upright Citizens Brigade, where the two trained. But their foray into music developed from a combined love of hip-hop and appreciation for the absurd.
“Our music comes from everywhere. Usually our songs are about things we’re legitimately in love with and/or life themes that annoy or scare the hell out of us such as babies, geography, aging, and nostril awareness,” says Umble. Or mistaken identity as in their song “Dopplegangers — “I’m tired of being called Michael Cera. Oh you get that too?” — complete with an harmonic ode to the umlaut. Vowel jokes? Comedy gold.
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