Latest / Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein / Jonathan Krisel Part 2

Transcript

Jonathan Krisel Part 2 · Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, watch, watch.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Hey, hey, hey, watch, watch. Hey, hey, hey, watch, watch.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL> <HAL>.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: You're watching Podlandia.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Hi, this is Keri.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I'm Fred.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: And this is AAO Rewatch.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: A Portlandia Rewatch podcast. And today we've got Jonathan Kreisel
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: with us, co-creator, director. Hello.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Thanks for coming back.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: And we're going from the end of season one, kind
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of like when we were figuring out what the show is.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: And I feel like we really were like immediately, we
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: had like, A focus. Yeah.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: Wait, let's zoom out slightly. Let's talk about like our
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: experiences after season one. Because this is the first time
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: like it kind of like it took off a little bit, right?
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: Like we were very, I remember being very surprised at
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: the response and reception of the show. Like what was
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: your guys' experience of like the season, the first season airing,
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: the press and just like feedback from friends or like
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: what do you guys remember from that time?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I remember it. being immediate in that my cast members
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: of SNL were talking to me about it. And the
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: details that they knew about the show signified to me
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: that it was more than they were just saying, oh,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: nice job on your show. They were into it and
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: they really knew it. And that's when I knew that
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: it was more than just.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Like a lark that you were.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It was something, the feeling, it was like a
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: substantial feeling. And then, and a million other things. And
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: also like, I think even press wise, like just like
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: a lot.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I remember at the time, the New York times was
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: writing a lot of articles about Portland as this sort
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of case study and like what was to come or something.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: And I thought, not that that's related to the reviews
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: of the show, but Portland was like just this thing
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: that people were talking about. And I think we, so
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: it became part of that dialogue. I remember being somewhere
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and people were talking about the show in front of
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: me and I'm like, Oh my God, I'm watching this.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: this like organic moment of people talking about it. And
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: then I don't even know if I interjected, but it
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: was just cool. Then, you know, okay, something is kind
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: of in the zeitgeist.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I'm seeing the conversation.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: And certain phrases, especially from season one, like cacao or
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: put a bird on it. And speaking of New York
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: times articles, there started to be this sentence structure of
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: put a blank on it. It started to appear as
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: like article titles. And that was so strange and surreal. Yeah.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And I remember when we started season two, I think
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: it was season two, we were near that brewery and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: they had a chicken salad and it said like, put
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a bird on it salad or something. We saw it
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: on a menu. And I was like, okay, you're right.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: That phrase was everywhere.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: And Kerry, what was it like for you? This is
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: kind of like your move from musician to musician comedian.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: I mean, it was very surreal because, you know, Slater
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Kinney was a critically acclaimed band and certainly a band
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: that some people knew or, you know, many people, but
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: not in like a mainstream way. You know, there was
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: kind of just like a ceiling to that. And I
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: always could tell if I was in a room, who
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: would know me? Like, okay, this person has a certain
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: haircut or a tattoo or, you know, is wearing certain
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: shoes or something.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: I'm like, they're going to know Slater Kinney. But when you...
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: the weirdest thing for me was that change.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Like just exponentially, like TV is just, you are just
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: in people's living rooms or on their device. And there
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: is just that sense that they know you in a
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: different way. And that was very first unnerving and also exciting,
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: but very odd. Like it was just, it just went
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: from being able to pinpoint who I might have a
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: connection with to just feeling like anyone at any point, might.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Come up to me.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: And at first I would just be like, Hey, like, Oh,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: we must know each other from something. And then I realized, Oh,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: they just know me from TV. And that was a
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: massive shift.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Let's leave it there.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: And not in a bad way. Sorry.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: You're not in a bad way, but like definitely a
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: like life changing and like kind of soon after was
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: that New Yorker profile. I think that was either at,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: I would think it was season two, but yeah, I mean, I,
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: And I feel like for maybe for all of us,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: I mean, this was certainly like you created this show,
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: you know, it's very different than being on someone else's thing,
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: you know, like just, it felt like we, we had
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: ownership over this, which is I think a very different
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: way of being in the world. And I think in
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: terms of like our peers, you know, that really changes
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: the perception of you. And, you know, like I remember
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: really quickly, I don't know if it must've been season
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: two or people, I mean, you started, you were like,
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: people wanted to make shows with you.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: I mean, that just, things definitely started happening in a
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: way that I think we didn't expect. Because as we
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: talked about, you and I have talked about, we talked
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: about last time John was on the show. It felt,
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: it's such an insular filming experience. So to have something feel...
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Like you're in such a silo and it doesn't touch
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: at all. And like New York, LA, pop culture, and
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: then to put it out in the world and have
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: it sort of explode out there. There's such a dissonance
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: between those two things. Yeah.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I remember they also, going into that next summer, really
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: made room to make this show happen. So right away
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: we were working on it. As soon as I was
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: done with that season of SNL, I felt like they
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: prioritized us going into productions.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: And sometimes they would let you come back like an
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: episode late, right?
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that started to happen.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: But it really changed the landscape of SNL too because
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: nobody was doing outside stuff and now all of a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: sudden they're all doing outside stuff during the summer. It
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: just changed a lot. Maybe it wasn't just this.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it became a sort of thing that happened.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Who did we bring on season two for writing? Was
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: that when Carrie Dornetto came on?
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: And this is when we wrote at Gus's?
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: And we also wrote at Lauren's office at Paramount. Because
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: I remember we did have Bill Oakley on Facebook. That's right. Skype.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Or was that season three?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Was it?
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: I thought it was season three.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, maybe you're right.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Where Bill.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Bill was there. Oh, and then Carrie left.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: And Chelsea Dornette. Chelsea Peretti. Chelsea Peretti. I think that
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: was season three.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I think you're right. I think you're right. Oh, yeah.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: So season two was Carrie. And where did we do it?
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Was that Gus's?
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: This is where.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because that's where we said, oh, let's go for
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: a bike ride. And Carrie's like, I'm so good at
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: bike riding. And it fell immediately.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: That's the other Carrie, by the way, not me.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Because there's train tracks in Portland, which is so scary
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: on a bike. Because if you get right in them,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you're dead and your bike is going to break.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: And literally there's signs everywhere depicting a bicyclist.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: Falling into the tram tracks.
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: And she suddenly was the living incarnate of that sign.
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: And it was really scary. And she legitimately hurt herself.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: She was injured. It was bad.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: But those offices were great. And I remember feeling like, oh,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: we're really in Portland. We're really working there.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: That was the coolest office. You're like, I'm working in
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Gus Van Sant's office. First of all, if you imagine
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: what that looks like, it's right. Very cinematic loft kind
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: of space.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: An old brick building across from a brewery.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: That was so cool. Yeah. And what I'm trying to think,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: what are, I bet, like we talked about this on
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: the last episode with you, like often there's an analogy
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: for like, what album are we writing? I bet we
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: talked about like a good follow-up album because that was
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: definitely our intention.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I felt like the cure of first album was always
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: coming up to me. That's what I remember.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: For some reason, Regatta de Blanc comes up for me.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I think a second Police album where like they really,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: you know, figured out their sound.
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I can't believe I'm describing it that way, but you
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: know what I mean? Or even Talking Heads, more songs
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: about buildings and food.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's a good one.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: Or even like going from Bleach to Nevermind for Nirvana
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: and then from Nevermind in utero.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Those are some big shifts.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to think of what we pitched in those
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: early like blue sky days.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: And I'm trying to, For season two?
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Well, I feel like the idea of the wraparound solidified.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Even though we had it in season one, there was
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: something about it that was like very, it has to
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: be this way. That there's like a main sketch that
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: goes throughout.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: And writing for specific characters was something that we sort of.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Just like, Touched on in season one, just barely.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but we didn't do a ton of recurring.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: We did a little bit of Nina and.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Lance season one, but definitely season two, we were like, okay,
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: here are this like a few characters who we really like,
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: could we write towards them?
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: And then obviously that became even more of, you know,
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: something we did later on. But the second season, we
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: were like, oh wait, Peter and Nance, we like them.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We had, is cops redesign on here? Yeah.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: On that season. Uh-huh.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: That's Carrie and Fred. And the mayor, we started writing
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: for Kyle. We were like, I was going to come back.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Well, he was in the first season. He was missing.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: Right. Yeah.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: He was, he was in three, I think in the
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: first season.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: That was crazy.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: I wanted to address also that like we had Jody
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: from SNL. Our hair person, Jody McPherson.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: And, um, She didn't come back season two, did she?
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Or did she one more season?
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: One more season, maybe the third as well. Or she
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: designed at least from New York.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, not to think it was a small show,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: but the characters and the wigs and the costumes were
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: like at the highest level. So that if you saw something,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I know that person. They weren't archetypes of Portland, LA,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: New York, Austin, whatever. They were so well done. Those
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: wigs really were next level.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, and I feel like that was something that,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: you in particular were allergic to SNL, which has a
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: very high level of that. But you knew the difference
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: between a bad wig and a good wig and how
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: that creates believability. And that's a real person versus a caricature.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: And we didn't want to portray caricatures. We were always
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: writing from like, what would we do?
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: Or this is someone I know.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Or we know someone. Yeah, exactly. They're real people.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And I mean, we were very lucky. To have
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: someone that... I mean, they were literally going off and
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: winning Emmys in the fall for SNL.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: They were.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Multiple years.
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: And Amanda.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Actually, I think first season, Amanda... Was it first or second?
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: First or second season.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Our costume designer won the Emmy.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: She got an Emmy.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: She won a couple.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: She won two, yeah.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: So for how low budget our show was, we were
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: punching well above our.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Weight, I thought.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: The costumes were amazing.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Really, really good.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: So good.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Nothing repeated.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: I mean.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Nothing. There was just, yeah.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: And she knew the costumes and the characters so intimately.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: And like for, and I think we've probably talked about
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: this a little bit, but for how quickly we had
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: to change from one character to the next and just
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: go from like one sketch to the next, being able
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: to put a wig on and know exactly who this
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: person is and how they talk or being able to
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: put like a piece of jewelry on. It's like, okay,
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: this is heavy. So now my posture is different. Like
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: it's so important for how quickly we were working. And,
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: you know, I really credit like all, you know, Jen, Jodi, Amanda,
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: Jess Needham, our makeup artist for that.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Just like, oh, this eyeshadow. Okay.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: This is who this is. Yeah.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: But I remember that.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: All kind of coming together season two, like just that
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: starting to like click. And we made some personnel changes,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: you know, like.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: When did we get the RVs?
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: RV was season one.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: It was.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: No, not the Airstream. RV, we had season one.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, the Airstream.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Oh, okay.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: So the RV was season one.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: The Airstream was later, right? Like season four.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: You might be right. Yeah.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: But the RV was, even though it was clunky, it
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: was kind of like a nice, I mean, it was,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: you don't have a hair makeup, a hair trailer, clothing trailer,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: personal trailer. It's an RV, period.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah. All of us in one place.
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And we've talked about a little bit, like talked
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: about guests coming on and being like, you'll be changing
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: with us.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: Just go in that back room and shut the door.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: We'll leave you alone.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Also, me and you, like we changed right in front
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: of each other, just like wigs, everything. There was no
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: time or room to be like, to have.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Modesty, really.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: But you know what was a big season two? Battlestar Galactica.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: That was huge.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: That was huge. And that was really us getting out
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: in front of binge TV or whatever. Like so early on.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And just exciting to have like the actual cast of
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Battlestar Galactica and Ronald D.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Moore.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Who's still the coolest guy.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: He has For All Mankind and Outlander. Like these big...
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: shows that are.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: Like yeah and edward james almost like i just couldn't
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: believe that you know it's it is strange like the
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: caliber like to me i still kind of can't believe
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: like the caliber of guest star yeah but it's actually
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: those i mean yeah we had some like a-list actors
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: but when we.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: Got someone like ronald d moore on the show.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: Like someone who was an another creator yeah you know
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: that wanted to like come into our world and like
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: understood what we were doing. Like just having someone else
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: that you respect get it was really rewarding.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And who doesn't always do it. Like even Amy Mann,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: like she's so funny.
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: So funny.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: But you know, like she's a musician. So it's just
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: cool to see people doing other things. But if you're
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: super creative and you can do other creative things well,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: because you're a fan of them or whatever.
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I feel like for sure one more episode
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: was like the touchstone of season two. Like that to
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: me was sort of like a peak of probably the
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: entire series. But like I think a lot of people deeply,
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: deeply related to that feeling.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: And also the logic of, I don't know who came
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: up with the idea of looking through the phone book.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that was my idea. I can't remember
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: what it was based on, but yeah, it was so funny.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: What a great idea of like, there he is.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: That casting of that other guy who was the local
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Ronald D. Moore, he became one of the cast members.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Chico slash Henry. God, he was hilarious. And literally he
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: drove his cousin, Floyd, who we would also have on
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the show sometimes. He was in the reggae band with
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: the mayor.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: And his niece was also on our show.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: That's right. But Simon was like, you drove your cousin.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Would you mind auditioning as well? Okay.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: He made me laugh so hard because he was just.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So funny.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: He was great.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And people, like, buying into it, like, and we
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: rarely had a problem with guest stars, local or otherwise,
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: trying to go big. Like, people really played it straight
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: and they kept it very grounded, which is always what
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: we needed.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we were very lucky.
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: Did you feel like there were people, like, how much
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: directing did you do in terms of performance? Like, I mean,
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: we sometimes got feedback, but, like, with some of the, like,
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: guest stars or local actors do you remember having to
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: focus on that at all or I.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Mean the audition process was pretty extensive and they were
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: improvising a lot in the audition so you really did
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: get a sense of their thing but like for instance
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I can't remember what season it was in but the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the library with the records in it.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: No that's season two yeah yeah that.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: To me was where the locals were like, okay, we
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: get this game too. And we know a lot about
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: records too. And it was like, okay, this is like
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: really exciting. And watching that one back, that thing is
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: so funny and so specific. But Joe and Karina, right?
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Like they were so good as a match to you guys,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: like throwing it back in your face. It was so good.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Joe was getting like emotional, like angry, like that just
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: like taking offense a little bit.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And I remember you said, that's pabulum. And I'm like,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: what is that word? But it's so funny. It's so good.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: And then Isaac Brock comes in to give his records
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: away at the end.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Oh, so that's interesting because that was something we were
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: not privy to. Like we, Fred and I just show
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: up to set and there's like, you know, oh, here's
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: the day players.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: But like, what was the like casting process?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I think I remember Karina. There were just people that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: you would see in the auditions and go, ooh, okay,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: they didn't get this one, but bring them back. I
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: want to find a spot for them. And then I
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: think it was Simon saying, well, her boyfriend at the time, Joe,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: was like, okay, bring real couples in. And Simon was
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: just so entrenched in the world of Portland. So he
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: knew the people.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: And so.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: But just like, okay, we need someone who really knows
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: music because otherwise it'll have no momentum. It'll just die
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: because you guys will do one and then they'll die.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: So I think that was just finding... Yeah, I don't...
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: But yeah, they were so good.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Did her budget go up in that second season?
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: No, I think it went up like season five or something.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it probably went up a little
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: bit year to year, but then I remember there was
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: one sort of jump but the production never really changed
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: all that much from year to year. I mean, I
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: can't remember a big change. Season three, we got a
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: different camera that was a little easier to use, but
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: it was basically the same camera. I don't remember. We
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: had better mics one time or something.
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Do you remember having to like talk to IFC or
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: talk to Andrew Singer and like justify something in the
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: budget or that?
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, I remember one sketch in particular. I still think
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: about this constantly. I don't know what season it was in,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: but there was a scene and it's so good where
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: it's like, it's been cold and the sun comes out
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: and everyone rushes out summer. And then it's like, it's gone,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: you know? And that's a classic kind of East coast thing.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: And LA, we don't have that, but you know, there's
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: people feel like the sun is coming out and it's
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: been so cold. So we said, well, in order to
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: do that, we need a light. And we need it
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: to be a big light so we can mimic the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: sun coming out. We talked about a light every lunch
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: for months. Could we afford this light? It might have
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to come up from LA. might have to come from
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Seattle we don't have this light in Portland it's gonna
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: cost this amount of money this could we and eventually
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: it was like we can't afford it we just can't
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: do it so we'll just do it sort of like
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: we'll fake it in post-production and The scrutiny that went
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: into every financial decision beyond just like the normal stuff
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: was excruciating. And I remember I was working on another
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: show like only maybe a little while later. And they're like, oh, yeah,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: let's get a couple of cranes and stuff. And I
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: was like, how can you do that? We talked about
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: this one light for so long. It was just it's
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: baked into me. I can't spend money on a show.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: It's hard for me because I just know what it
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: took to do. Portlandia, like every decision was scrutinized and
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: you know, it always made it better in a way.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: It would be like, well, we can't do certain things
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: on this show. Who cares? Like it doesn't really matter. Yeah.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I feel like those limitations are good.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, they're frustrating and I feel like we all
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: felt them at times, but it forced us to be,
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: you know, imagine imaginative and for sure. Yeah.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Did we stop? Improvising at some point. I remember, I
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: have a feeling it like.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Not a hundred percent.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: But a little bit like I felt like.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Like around season seven, eight.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Something where we were like, we figured out that it
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: was becoming, it was taking up a lot of time.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: It definitely takes more time.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, I remember watching the camera operators start
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: to have to shift and.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: You can see it on screen.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Because it takes a really long time.
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Like especially Feminist Bookstore.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: Season one and two.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, we would see it in the edit room. The
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: camera would just drop. We'd be like, whoa, we can't
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: use that take. They're like, my arm hurts, dude.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: And I could, I would sometimes get distracted out of
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: the corner. I just see someone just like almost fall over.
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And there was, and you just, yeah, we wouldn't,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: you wouldn't yell cut. Well, because we were still going.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And those are long takes.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: And we used a lot of that stuff. It wasn't
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: all just off in random places. I mean, or sometimes
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: if you hit on something, I'm like, okay, now that's
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the scene.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: We found it now.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: Um, and were there things like directorially, were you from
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: season one to two where you're like, okay, this worked,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: I'm going to steer you guys or steer this sketch
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: towards that.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, definitely you like, remember, oh, that worked. Let's
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: try that again. But I don't, I don't think anything
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: changed that much about it. Um, Yeah, I don't.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: Did we get something to make it easier on the
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: camera operators? I felt like there was.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Well, we definitely got the camera season three. That was
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a lot easier for them. But I think also because
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: it was handheld, like we did. They started like kind
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of rest faking the handheld, like putting it on a tripod.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So they weren't. Yeah, they did. They did start to
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: do that because I just always remember Aubrey was like
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: so far away because we had these lenses that you
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: could be far away, which was good. But then it's
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: really shaky. She'd always just be dying in a corner.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, first season for sure. You can see it's
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: just like really wobbly.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was very bouncy.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Do either of you remember sketches that we didn't do?
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I remember first season we had on the board one
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: where we were like, oh, let's get Bob Odenkirk to
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: play a farmer, like a backyard farmer character. raising chickens
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: or something like that, like urban farmer. And we're like,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: this is gold. This is going to be good. And
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: we could just never like, well, what's the joke of it?
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: It was just like, we could never figure it out.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: What was funny about it, but it went, I don't
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: think it migrated to season two. Yeah. And it was
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: like drifting around on a card and just never made it.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: I thought of one the other day because I saw this,
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: which was, we had one about a tandem bike that
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: was called divorce maker.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: That's really funny.
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: And we could not, like, yeah, we would laugh at
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: it when we would see it. And then we just
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: could not figure out a story for it at all.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: And it just kept getting moved.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And the friend collector.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Friend collector.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Friend collector.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: Because I heard that term. I'm like, okay, that's definitely good.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: And then we could just never figure it out.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: Same with age mirror was one that you would bring
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: up and I, it was, you know, where you think
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: you look a certain way young and then you see
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: someone your same age that you like went to high
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: school or college with and.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: You're like, Oh my God, they look so old. You're like, wait,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: do I look like that?
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: And you're like, yeah, which is so, it's a great
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: observation and it's very real.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: But there's no sketch. Like what, what can the sketch be?
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: We did something about your, your birthday when they're like,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: you're turning 50 and you're like, that's wrong, right? Didn't
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: we do that?
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Something.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: With your mom was in it?
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: But it was funny.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: Was it when you go off to the other towns,
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: like the Cheville?
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: I thought it was one with Kumail as like a.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: That's different too, I think.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: We must have tried to shoehorn it a million times.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: With Tunde from TV on the Road.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: That's the one I'm talking about.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that, I loved that one.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: That's with Rachel Dratch, I think. No. I think that's
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: that one, isn't it?
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: No.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: No, she's with the, when I'm, dating an Italian.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: Mom.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, that reminds me. You had an idea, right? For
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: called third day Italy, which we made.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: Oh yes.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: And it was such a funny idea. You pitched it.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Start to fish, right? Totally got this. And you're like,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I wrote the script. It was 40 pages long.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I'm like, this is going to be three minutes long.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: And it was the most hilarious script. And all the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: crew would come up to me like, this is 40
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: pages long. How are we making this? You guys know
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: how the show is made.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: I remember the other side of this. I remember thinking, oh,
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: I really, there's other parts to this sketch. That I
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: guess we're just not doing.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: But we did. I think all of them. They just
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: weren't as long each scene.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you didn't do them.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Customs. We did that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: But there's one like she always has a big water bottle.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: That turned out really good.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: That was a really fun one. Yeah, she was great.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: And then we made like a little European hotel room.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah. But the bathroom that was like, the shower is
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: like right there.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Or you're like, it's sort of sexy, but not always.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: It is a real experience when you travel.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: You're like, come on with these.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: These like sex showers. Yeah. Put that away. Like I
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: just have to take a shower sometimes.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: I remember this one we could never figure out, which
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: was Portland. Centuries and centuries ago.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: But they still, I remember you pitching that.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Was it the writing letters.
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: From the Oregon trail, like writing letters or something like that?
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: I can't remember what it was, but we just couldn't
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: figure out what it was going to be.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: I do remember that.
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: One thing I did like about our writer's room, every
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: iteration of it is that it was like, it was
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: easy to pitch something and have it fall flat.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: And it's just, we just moved right on. Like it
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: just was so supportive. I felt like that, you know, like, yeah, yeah.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Or sometimes it would, Turn into something else.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Like it could be resurrected.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: But I just felt like there was a lot of
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: just like support and rooting for each other, but also
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: like not caring that much if.
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: Your idea didn't.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: Like we would even sometimes fight for things again. And
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: then other, my favorite thing about you is when you
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: don't like something and you just sort of let it,
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: you kind of just hope it's going to go away.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we could do that.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And then it's like, usually we don't end up
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: doing it, but like sometimes at the very end, you'd
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: actually be like, I just think I don't like that.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: But for a while you're trying to be like nice
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Well, I wonder if.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: There's anything, because I can't think of that we ever
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: did a sketch that I didn't want to do.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: No, but a good example would be like, I think
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: early on season one, there was like, oh, we could
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: do something about the art gallery.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Uh-huh.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And we were like, you know what? And I think
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: you were kind of like, art has been made fun of.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: It's just too low hanging fruit. Like, let's do something
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: a little more original. And I was like, that was
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: a good mantra throughout. Like, if you've seen it or
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: it's like making, because you know, these types of characters
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: you see in other things and people like making fun
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: of them. And it's just never funny because you're like,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: are just people try to make, They're in this community
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and they're making fun of like people go to Erewhon
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: or whatever it is. Like, well, we all go there
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: every once in a while. Like, it's fine. Like, I
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: don't know. There's just an attitude towards making fun of
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: something that just sometimes we go icky and like you're
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: not in on the joke. You're like, yeah, that person
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: is so stupid. later yoga or whatever it's just like
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: oh god don't do that don't do that joke.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: Yeah what i appreciate about the show is like often
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: we would just set something in a world that was
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: familiar but it would be about something else like sandra
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: goes to meditation but.
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: It's really joke on meditation yeah it's.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: Just about that she's imagining this guy and how great
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: he is you know.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: And It's a different joke than the obvious joke of
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: like meditating is so stupid. It's like, no, no, that's fine.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: We like to meditate. It's what you imagine about the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: person you're sitting next to. Yeah.
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: And I remember with, it was either, it was one
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: of you guys with Bryce and Lisa. I remember when
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: we were doing put a bird on it and this
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: would continue into the the rest of the seasons with
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: the rest of the characters we were just doing put
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: a bird on it it was like conceptual and presentational
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: and you were like there has to be a dynamic
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: between you guys and that's when we started like i
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: started bothering you and you kind of turned into this
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: like fussy bryce turned into really fussy and like you
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: got dust in your eye and it suddenly became who
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: cares about put a bird.
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: On it it's about a couple right yeah you.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Know it's so funny that you're like wait that's where
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the comedy is going because the put on a bird
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: is such a well-observed thing but that lasts like 15 seconds.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: And then like, oh wait, but it's about these weird people.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: I think that's how it could last and not feel dated.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Because maybe that put a bird on a joke was
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: so timely at the moment. I don't see that bird
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: thing as much. But it's so funny. Because it's you
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: two guys as a couple who has like passive-aggressive issues
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: with each other. Yeah.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: But starting to write for character, I think, and like,
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: that's what people watch in like sitcoms or dramas is like,
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: you're watching, it doesn't matter where you put them in space,
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: you put them in a hospital, whatever.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: It's like the characters.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: And I feel like when we realized that we could,
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: it didn't just have to be like, Oh, this funny idea.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: Like it added, I think more heart to it.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: Another great one in season two is, and, this guest
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: stars and idea was, um, the motorcycle where, um, Peter
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: and Nance see Deidre Aaron on a motorcycle and decide
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: they need to shake up their life.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Cause he calls, he calls Peter an old man. Hey
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: old man.
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: And then they go, yeah, that was, those were characters
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: I loved writing for because we, I always understood what
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: their dynamic was.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: But like Abby and Christine, another example of like.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, I forgot about that. They were so funny.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: So good.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Where they invite us in for the, to swing.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: And Danger was, Danger Aaron was really good as a
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: sort of, he pops up a lot.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. He was really good.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: You know what it is now? I was, because you said,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: it's not birds anymore, putting a bird, I see deer
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: with antlers.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, antlers.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: As a sort of, And some hotels.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: But even the Ace Hotel, I'm like, is it still
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: in Portland?
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Not in Portland anymore.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: It's gone.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Wow. I think it's mostly gone. It's still in Seattle.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Downtown LA is gone, I think.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: It's still in Brooklyn. They have one in Toronto. It's
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: still in Brooklyn and Manhattan. And I think still in London.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: But that was kind of like that Deuce Hotel. I
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: was looking at that today. I'm like, yeah, we were
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: doing the Ace Hotel thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Clearly.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: But it's kind of over, I guess.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: I wonder if that kind of hotel is over.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I think it is. But you know what they revolutionized?
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I always think about the Ace Hotel. They had in
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: the shower, the dispenser. And then all hotels were like, actually,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: that's a good idea.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like a big thing.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: But they revolutionized that.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. I remember that for the first time
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: I saw that. I actually don't love that.
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: Because I just feel like I'm just putting my hand,
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: like I'm always touching.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: But I mean, I guess that's true of anything. But
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: I'm just like, is that clean? I don't know.
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: But it seems more hip than a little bottle of shampoo.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah. It's not as wasteful.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Right. Yeah.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I guess, like, I think we even addressed this
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: back then. A lot of those hotels also have, like,
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: simple signage.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Soap. Oh, yeah. But I think they were kind of
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: a frontrunner.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: And a clever sign to say that you did not
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: want to be disturbed.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: Like a phrase that was not.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: Oh, that would be such a good new sketch.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Because you know the ones who made like, you know,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: what's the couple that does like all the art, bad
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: art for Good Walls?
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Remember that one? Yeah, yeah.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: That would be so good if we did.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, those people. God, that was hilarious. And we did
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: it with Sean Hayes. Remember that?
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: He was so funny.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: But we should have done it with Do Not Disturb. Yes.
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: It would be such a good sketch.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: No, no. We also did one when we were coming
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: up with puns for business names.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: Do you remember that?
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Was there a guest star in that too?
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: I think it was just.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Just you two.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: But what was the.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: It was like faux restaurants.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: But you had one of the craziest ones, which was
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: planned pizza hood.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: Or a pizza shop.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I don't remember that.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: That's a.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: Good one.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Which is one of the.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Dumbest things I've ever heard and it's so good.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: That's hilarious.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: I was like, what?
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: But was that sketch, was it that we were doing
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: different businesses? Yeah.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, okay.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was just one of those like.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: But then they did bad art too.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there was a separate thing.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. But which one was Sean Hayes in? Bad art.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Bad art Goodwills.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, it was, it was.
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Before we wrap this up, do you remember any
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: common bits that we did pre-shooting? Like, When we get
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: to set, was there anything that like.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Why do you remember? I don't.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: What do you mean?
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Like a thing that.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Like some joke or something. I just like, we got
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: so used to each other.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: That I think we just started doing kind of the
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: same jokes.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: I remember one of yours was to show up and
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: not pretend that you didn't know what we were doing.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, you just be like, sorry, what are
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: we doing today? What is this again? As if you
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: didn't even know that you were on Portlandia.
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: And also Ian reminded me that you would sometimes also
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: be like, I just have to do a quick thing.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: And you would turn the camera and like promote something.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: But we really like we're in a groove. I mean, yeah.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: And I feel like every day was like 7 a.m.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: 7 p.m.
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: It was bare. There were some nights, but very few.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Not much at all. Yeah.
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: And I wonder if this was a season that you,
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: we went into September and you and the last couple
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: episodes were gone. Had to go just on the weekends,
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: had to do that crazy schedule where you would take off, fly.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: On a red eye.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Do SNL and come back.
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: Come back, which is, I mean, yeah.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: But I also loved it.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: The drama of being on, you know, got to get
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: on the plane.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: That's a long flight.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: It's a long flight.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: It's a long flight. No joke. Especially coming back.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: It's like with the headwind. Anyway, Jonathan, thank you for
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: coming on this podcast.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Of course.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Pleasure I guess thank you for being part of the team.
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: Wait did you just bring up the bit thing because
• 35:51
  Speaker 4: you wanted us to no no I.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: Was actually trying to I think we had some routines
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: kind of that like but I don't remember vaguely familiar
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: I just I just remember that we like the beginnings
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: of our days were very fun and easy.
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: Yes I will say I liked showing up to work
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: oh my god it was a blast.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah there was no boss really You know what I mean?
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: It was really like just us.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then David reading the newspaper.
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: It was great.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: You know, but I will say something that's just odd
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: about the way we would do it because everything was
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: like at call time. You guys come at seven.
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: I come at seven.
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: And then it was like, you guys go into hair
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: and makeup at seven, start getting ready. And we would
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: just like set up the first shot without you guys.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: That is not the way it's done.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Or no, right. No stand-ins, right? We didn't do any,
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: no rehearsals.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: It was just like, okay, so you have to stand
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: right here. You do the first take, start moving around.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Everyone would go, ah, what are they doing? Because there
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: was no, but it worked. It kind of worked. For
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: the most part, it worked. Occasionally, it would fall apart.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: It's true.
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: And because this was my first experience, I didn't know
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: that usually you go in, there's blocking.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't know that either.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: Like focus marks, like all these things.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: They would always be like focusing. They walked over there.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Where are they going? Because we were trying to do
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: it so simple. You're there. You're there. That's it. That's
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: all we can do. And so most of the time,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: that would work.
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: Oh, also, I guess one thing. Sorry, I know we're
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: over time. Yeah. One thing I wanted to ask you about,
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: because so many DPs don't like to do it, but
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: you did cross coverage. Like, and why, why is that?
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: Or cross shooting? Why is that? Sorry, not cross coverage.
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: And why?
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: Well, explain why that's.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Well, you know what it was? I saw Thunder and,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: and I saw, I just knew, okay, this is, this
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: is a hundred percent improvised and that's important. So we
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: got to just get it. So, you know, when we
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: did Tim and Eric, we had three cameras. I'm like,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: that's essential to it working. Like if we have to
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: do like this person and that, and it's just not
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: going to work. I could just tell that you guys were,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: it was like, you're having fun in the moment, lightning
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: in a bow, got it. We have to be able
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: to capture that. So I just was like, we have
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: to do it that way because yeah, because you have
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: to be able to cut it down later and change it.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: And so I had a lot of experience doing that.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, we have to do it. It's just essential.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: No one cared. And Bryce was like, totally up for
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: it so that was huge that was huge to the
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: success of the show I think if someone had come
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: in with a more traditional like here's how you do
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: a show it wouldn't have worked so it was good
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: to not know everything even though I had done other
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: shows we also didn't know what we were doing so
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: it was like nice that was the first time I
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: think I had like no I had done some other
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: stuff but like call times and like unions and all
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff it was I had done it
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: a little bit but but this was such a family vibe.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: It didn't never felt like super structured or anything.
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I was just thinking of that when you were
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: saying that, like, we didn't feel reined in, like there
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: is such a freedom in knowing like, Oh my gosh,
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: I don't have to read, especially with improv where like
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: some script supervisor who would have had to write down everything.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Supervisors. I could, I could talk about them for hours.
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: And then you'd have to read it back. I mean,
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: it just, we just didn't have to worry about that.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I would say the first time this, A script supervisor
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: would start for the season. They'd see the first shot.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: They'd come up to me. Okay, so what just happened?
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: I have no idea. And I'm like, don't worry, don't worry,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: don't worry. I'm keeping track of it. Just kind of
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: keep track. But it was it was hilarious.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: I remember you doing that motion. Don't worry. Like I
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: think I've seen those conversations. You're like, don't worry.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. No, no, you go. You go. You go.
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: No, for real.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: Uh, well, this is a separate thought is the one
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: thing I remember about John has five o'clock in the afternoon,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: a little bit of ice cream, a lot of ice cream. Yeah.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Still do that towards the end. It's just, yeah, I
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: love that. That's so funny.
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: I feel like one of the only places I've run
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: into in the last, like, couple years is at an
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: ice cream place on Hillhurst.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: Really? Like Jenny's Ice Cream?
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Huh. I mean, when you have little kids, you go
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: to a lot of ice cream. I haven't been to
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: ice cream all that much recently. But, yeah, ice cream
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: was booming in Portland when we.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: Were making this show. It was booming. We gave Salt
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: and Straw a shout out earlier.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: I know, we did.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Because they were, like, a little... They were just like
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: getting started.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, there was always a line.
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: There still is always a line.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: But it was only in Portland at that time, right? Yeah. Yeah.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: Same with Voodoo Donuts. Only in Portland.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: At that time.
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: At that time.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: Now it's everywhere.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Including here, I think.
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: That seems like a good place to wrap up. Jonathan,
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: thanks for being on the podcast.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Of course.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you, John.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: Rewatch.
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: Rewatch.