"Awk-weird," Andy Samberg blurts out in a voice that's just a bit too loud. Kirsten Dunst, his Ray-Ban-wearing alleged former fling, has unexpectedly walked into Sant Ambroeus, the West Village bistro where Samberg and I are meeting. A little while later, he looks at me and says, ambivalently: "I probably should go up and say hi -- that's what people do, right?"
While the word "Muppet" is often invoked when referring to Samberg, he's actually more of a Fraggle. His mouth is extremely wide in proportion to the rest of his face and his hair (probably his most defining feature), which starts as a recently-showered mess, morphs slowly and steadily into a tall pile of straight-up Jewfro by the end of our lunch.
The 29-year-old Saturday Night Live newbie turned movie star is as goofy as they come -- this is a man, after all, who first appeared and then solidified himself within the American consciousness by creating a hardcore rap about Magnolia cupcakes and, subsequently, for sticking his dick in a box. Despite (or more likely because of) his proclivity for making crass and ridiculous jokes about replacing peg legs on pirates with his dong, he's rapidly become both a part of and a challenge to the mainstream comedy world.
His extreme silliness often gets him compared to a young Adam Sandler (I think also, partly, because their names sound so similar), but, says SNL creator Lorne Michaels, "I don't really see that." He continues, "to put it this way, I didn't have a déjà vu moment when I first saw Andy Samberg."
Though much of his schtick errs on the dorky side (it should be noted that he is a major abbreviator -- competition becomes "competish," appropriate: "approps") there is something very un-awk-weird about Samberg. He's ever humble -- when he found out we wanted him to actually look handsome on the cover, he was frankly shocked -- but not since Jimmy Fallon has there been an SNL cast member capable of even allegedly dating Kirsten Dunst. Maybe it's because he's younger than the rest of the cast, or because he cites Joanna Newsom as one of his favorite singers and looks like the guy sitting across from you on the L train -- whatever the case, girls with tote-bags who wear leggings find him adorable.
Andy wears a customized T-shirt and wristband by American Apparel and tights by Running Funky. Cape, shorts, rollerskates and socks from Austins Wardrobe.
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