Andy Samberg aims to be the new Adam Sandler

Samberg aims to be new Sandler



NEW YORK -- When Andy Samberg was a kid, one of his most frequently played CDs wasn't by a musical act, but by his comedic hero, Adam Sandler.

"Sandler's first album, I probably listened to like a million times," Samberg, in a recent interview, said of Sandler's 1993 CD They're All Gonna Laugh at You!

"It's like summer camp for me, discovering that with all my friends. ... It was truly inspirational."

Samberg hopes to have a similar affect on people with this month's release of Incredibad, a new CD/DVD he released with his writing partners Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, childhood friends collectively known as The Lonely Island. While The Lonely Island may not be a household name, the clips the group has produced for Saturday Night Live have become viral sensations, like J--- in My Pants and D--- in a Box, which featured a memorable appearance by Justin Timberlake.

Those songs are included on Incredibad, along with a DVD with shorts from the show, as well as new material.

"I think if you're into what we do, we're delivering on that in spades," said Samberg.

It was The Lonely Island's digital short film, Lazy Sunday, that lit the spark for Samberg's white-hot career. When Saturday Night Live aired it in December 2005, Samberg was a goofy 27-year-old rookie, basically unknown to even the show's most devout fans. Within a week, the video -- a geeky, hip-hop paean to The Chronicles of Narnia -- was viewed more than a million times on the Internet. Since then, The Lonely Island's shorts, like Natalie Portman's Natalie's Rap, have become instant Internet hits (Their new single, I'm On a Boat featuring T-Pain has topped iTunes' music video chart).

The new CD/DVD features their greatest hits as well as new collaborations with top stars like Jack Black, Norah Jones, and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.

"We just sat down at the beginning and were like, 'Whose careers can we ruin?' And then we just picked names out of a hat," Taccone joked.

From:
http://calsun.canoe.ca/Showbiz/2009/02/27/8552306-sun.html


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Nice! I like Jorma's joke. =^)

Yeah, Sandler's album was an inspiration for a lot of us. Something Sandler did, though, was that he managed to transfer from SNL to have a hit album to movies. His album sales eventually died off (they just got more and more crass and less random), but his movies remain strong.

So what I wonder is if Andy Samberg can transition to films. These bit roles he's doing (like last year's Nick and Norah and this year's I Love You, Man) will definitely help give him someexperience and a following, but 2007's Hot Rod lacked character development and it didn't hit with the audiences.

Enjoy!

- TAE