Latest / Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein / The Dream is Alive

Transcript

The Dream is Alive · Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Hey.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: You're watching Podlandia. Hi.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: I'm Fred Armison, I'm Karrie Brownstein, and this is AO
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: rewatch heo rewatch.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: We are going to be looking back on Portlandia.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: We're going to take a look at all of the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: episodes that we've done of Portlandia, which ran from twenty
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: eleven to twenty eighteen, and talk about them as we've
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: been watching them.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Yes, nice to see you, by the way.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Nice to see you too. I'm so happy we're doing this.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Me too.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I really haven't had an opportunity to watch the show
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: in the meantime since we stopped, so this is it's
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: been really fun for me.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Same same here. Yeah, it's re airing on Netflix.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: So I feel like a lot of people are watching
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: it right now and have started to text me or
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: call me or just come up to me people I
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: don't know and are mentioning things.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Again. It sort of never went away, but it feels
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: also like a refresher, you know.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Also like people send me memes and stuff. And
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I believe there's also a channel on some cable systems
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: that runs the show continuously.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Sure, So whatever you say, why are we doing this podcast?
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Aside from it being on Netflix now and on that
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: cable channel. We've always remained friends anyway, so we haven't
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: seen each other, we've worked together. So let's talk about
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the roots of the show where, yes, why we started,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: where it all came from. And it goes back to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the nineties in that I was and am a huge
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: fan of Slater Kenny and was friends with your drummer
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: at the time, Janet Weiss, And that also we shared
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: many friends because I was in a band in the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: nineties and you were as well, we shared some friends.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: We like knew many of the same people.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I just want to point out that some
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: listeners might not know who are what Slater Kenny is,
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: which is a band that I formed in college in
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: the nineteen nineties in Olympia, Washington. And Fred was in
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: a band Trench Mouth in Chicago, and at the time,
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: you know, their pre Internet, it was just word of mouth,
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: and you met people through touring, so you know, you
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: would go there was a whole sort of circuit and
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: system of like going from one town to the next,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: you would meet other people in the music scene. You
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: really relied on them for everything, you know, like where
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: are the best places to eat, what venues should we play? Ad?
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: You know, this is how you also discovered music. Just
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: people would sort of point you in a right direction,
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: or you listen to a certain label from a city,
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: and you got to know all those bands. And I
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: remember sleeping on your couch. You were out of town.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: I was on tour. I stayed at your apartment. My
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: friend was friends with Damon who was in Trench Mouth,
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: and I just remember, oh, yeah, this is Fred's house. Okay,
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: you know I know of Fred. So this was before
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: you were on SNL. I just knew you as a
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: drummer in a punk band, and you knew me as
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: you know, a guitarist and Slater Kinney.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: That's those are sort of pre TV.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Identities and still an identity I think that we hold
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: on to is you know, we we still consider ourselves musicians,
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: and I think the lens through which we view a
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: lot of phenomena was very much formed in these early
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: years when we play music and by the scenes we
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: came up in. You know, that sensibility very like very nineties,
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: very sort of indie punk rock. You know, we've not
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: only did it inform us, but it's something that we've
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: grappled with, you know, the stuff that really was helpful
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: and also the stuff that kind of hampered us at times.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: And we'll end up talking about that a lot in
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: the podcast because you know, my friend calls it punk damage.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: You know, you're just like a lot of the stuff
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: was so strident, and you know you sort of fight
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: with that later like what was useful about that sensibility
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: and what, yeah, just made things more difficult. And we
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: infuse a lot of this into the show.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Including characters that we met while we were on tour
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: or recording, people who had their own studios, people who
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: ran label, people had venues, fans, you know, what the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: whole experience was like in the music world. We do
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: revisit in on Portland.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Yah exactly.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: So yeah, So going back, basically, we were in each
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: other's like circles, you know, sort of extended social circles.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: And then you were officially on SNL and Slater Kinney
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: was touring and we were coming through New York and
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: through our drummer Janet Wise you mentioned you were friends
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: with you invited us to SNL. It was Jennifer Garner
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: was the host, Beck was the musical guest. We were
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: really excited to go, but unfortunately we had our own show.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: I think we were playing at Irving Plaza and so
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: you said, why don't you come to the after party. So,
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: you know, we played the show, we showed up to
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: this after party and that's where I met you.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: And you had a little button with my face on it.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because because at the time, I think from that
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: album you had pins for each band member.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Yes, and it was they were taken from when we
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: had toured Australia and were each holding koalas.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, so I had the carry one.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: On, you had the carry one on, which is you know, flattering.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: And I was also like, oh, who is this guy
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: that's like wearing a button with my face on it?
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And in the writers in my office at SNL, I
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: purposefully kept it undecorated. I didn't want it to be
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: homie or anything like it. But on my bulletin board
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I had a poster of Slater Kenny and it was
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: one of those smaller posters. It wasn't like a poster poster.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: It was like one of those little ones. And the
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: point about all of this is that Sleeter Kenny is
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: my favorite band and when I first heard you guys play.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: When I first heard your records, it was really an
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: epiphany for me. It really was in my life. I think,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: like many people, people who grew up on certain types
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: of music, you know, you start with the Beatles and
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the Who, and then punk sort of took over. And
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: for me, Prince, these are all sort of like answers
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to what I used to listen to before punk. And
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: then Prince sort of like was like, well, that's what
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Sleeter Kenny was that for me. Where after all that,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I was like, this is what I've been looking for,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and I was obsessed. People use that word a lot, obsessed,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: but I would say that that is an accurate description
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of how much I listened to Sleeter Kenny.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: What's interesting about that, Well, first of all, thank you,
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: and you know, it's always been very a source of
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: pride for me that you're such a fan of the band,
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: because you are such an amazing musician and anyway, so
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: thank you. But I remember back in that sorry, but
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: I remember back in the day when I would meet
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: some of your co stars in snl Amy Tina, they
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: would say like, oh, Fred's obsessed with your band, Fred
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: love Slater Kinney, Like I think they were tired of
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: hearing about Slater Kinney.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Honestly, yep, yeah, you know which.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: Was I was like, I'm so sorry that our musual
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: friend talks about the band. I mean, they were really
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: nice about it, but they just thought it was kind
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: of funny because I think compared to some of your cohorts,
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: your interests were a little bit different. You know, you
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: music was such an obsession for you, and your musical taste.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Was not mainstream.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: That sounds right.
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: So after this night, I remember us keeping in touch,
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: and at one point you said, hey, it'd be really
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: fun to collaborate in in something. And again I assumed, well,
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: we'll collaborate on music, but you actually were interested in
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: shooting a video doing some comedy, and you had been
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: asked by the John Kerry campaign presidential campaig to make
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: a video. And this is then the first time that
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: we collaborate, and you fly to Portland and we shoot
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: this very silly video.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: And you can explain it because.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Well, at the time, Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: was on trial. So at this point the government had
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: been overthrown and in court he wore he didn't look
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: like he didn't have his military outfit on. He had
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a sort of version of a suit that looked kind
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: of like rock and rolling, meaning like you know, and
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: someone like Pete Townsend or part Weller or whoever, you know,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: when they dressed kind of nicely. And he also had
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: like his beard was different and his hair was different,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and he had like a he looked sort of British
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: to me. And I just thought, what if there's this
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: character of Saddam Hussein who's British and is only into music,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: same guy, but he does want to talk to talk
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: about the dictatorship. So we did this video called boinc, which.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: Is the name of the cable access show, this stake
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: cable access show that my character Cindy Overton hosts.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: And I think you thought of the title right away.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I think in the moment you just said you welcome
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: to Boinc.
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm getting the first post bunker interview, like
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: an exclusive ye with Sadam Hussein.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: And I had my you know, I had like a
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: fake beard on their suit. I think I put even
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I might have been put like a little bit of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: like dark under my eyes, you know, or my eyebrows.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I know, I made my eyebrows really dark, and I
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: had the guitar. I might have had your guitar. And
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I think this was in Korin's basement.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so my bandmate Krn Tucker from Slater Guinney, we
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: shot it in her basement. That was the set for BOK.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: You had a guitar and you just played guitar a lot.
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: You spoke in a British accent.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Yep, and you just were interviewing and you were already
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a character sort of like nervously, you know, trying to
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: get information from Saddam Hussein and you know, not nervous,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: you know, like a sort of cable access vibe.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, what a big get for my show?
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, you know, yeah, and I remember that shooting these
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: opening credits. By the way, what did we have for
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: a crew? Just Patrick, I think, right, Jeff Buchanan. Jeff Buchanan, okay,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and he did everything. Yeah, so Jeff Buchanan did all
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: of it, the camera work, editing. The opening credits were
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: there was graffiti near Corn's house and it was the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: video was you scraping off the graffiti, cleaning off the graffiti,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: just like your expression was, you know, these dumb kids
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: making you know. And I remember in that moment realizing
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: which I was already convinced anyway, I was like, oh,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: this is who I want to work with. We were
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: in line when it comes to tone and comedy. I
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: just feel like we were like right exactly on the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: same page of the message we were trying to send,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: whatever that is. And we'll talk about that too and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: what it goes back to, what bands it was inspired by,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: what comedy, whatever it was, it was exactly what I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: was looking for. It did feel like a puzzle piece.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: Well, I will say that whose sensibility it didn't work
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: for was the John Kerry campaign, who never used that
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: video but also lost the election. So just putting that
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: out there.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: We'll also put out there that should he run again.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Exactly that video is there and really holds.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Up and holds up. I believe the original was eight minutes.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: Longer or longer maybe fourteen Yeah, throw it up there. Yeah, anyway,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: vote for Carrie. So after that, we definitely enjoy working
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: with each other. We decide we're going to keep doing this,
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: and you kept coming up to Portland, and I think
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: this really helps create a look and a feel for
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: what ends up being portlandy We just happened to keep shooting.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: You lived in New York, but we kept shooting in Portland.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: We kept using local restaurants and businesses. We went to
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: a place called Reading Frenzy, which was near Powell's Books,
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: which is this really famous independent bookstore in Portland, kind
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: of a tourist destination. And there's this little shop called
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: Reading Frenzy and it had like fanzines and you know,
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: small print books. And the proprietor, Chloe you Daily, she
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: was an acquaintance of Mind, and she said, yeah, you
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: can shoot at my store. So we had these characters
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: Tony and Candice, and I mean I remember going and
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: buying a very expensive wig, just you know, long straight
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: black hair with bangs, and we went to Goodwill and
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: bought some clothing.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: You know, we just sort of threw this together.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: And then we just went and collected flyers from like
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: co ops and other like you know, little like corkboards
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: and whatnot. And just the whole conceit of this sketch
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: was just us deciding which flyers to put up in
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: the store at this little bookshop.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: And that was the birth of feminist bookstore.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I don't even remember where my wig came from. Probably
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: from the same place, you know. I actually no, I
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: do remember we went there was like a one of
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: those like just wig shops.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Wigland. It's on Northeast Broadway. It's still there, great
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: wig shop. We I mean we bought inexpensive wigs. Yeah,
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: because I remember later when Tony and Cannice became characters
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: on Portlandia, obviously we had to improve upon these these wigs.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that It's funny because I don't remember either
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: of us having like the ambition of, like, listen, if
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: we get this together, we could really pitch this as
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: a show someday. It was for no reason. It was
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: just let's just do this.
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And we made seven or eight videos before we
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: even thought about it as anything bigger than it was.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: We were just enjoying working together. We were just having
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: our friends film us. At this point. It's Patrick Stanton.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: We did one in la we did one in New York,
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: but most of the time we were in Portland. And
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: you know, in addition to feminist books or there are
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: a couple other there was, we.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: Did have these bike rights activists.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: Yep, and you end up having a character Spike, who's
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: kind of a you know, bicycle rights enthusiasts. So yeah,
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: there's just these early this like these kernels of what
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: would become Portland. We called it thunder Ant. We originally
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: going to call it thunder Egg, which is the official
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: state rock of Oregon. And then we looked at MySpace
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: and there was a band with like seventy followers call
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: and you are very kind in this way, and you
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: were just like, I just don't want to take the
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: name thunder Egg. There's already this established band, So we
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: changed it to thunder Ant, and that was the moniker
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: you know that we used until your manager Tim Sarkas,
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: who then became my manager, later said hey, you guys,
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: this is a thing like you guys have a you
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: love working with each other. There's a sensibility and a
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: point of view like what if this was a TV show.
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: We never said. This was just a completely organic dynamic.
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: It stemmed from our friendship and we did not start
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: out with like, hey, let's pitch a show.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Nope.
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: It it's hard to stress how different this is from
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: the way people approach things, like in some ways, it's
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: much more analogous to the way I formed Slater Kinney
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: or the way you probably formed trench Mouth, which was
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: just who are people I want to be around? Who
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: are people who I respect and admire and I glean
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: inspiration from. I want to keep hanging out with this person,
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: but I want to keep hanging out with them in
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: a way where we get to do something creative. And
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: that was thunder ant. It was not hey, let's set
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: a general meeting and this is Fred Armison. He you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: I think you guys would like each other, or even like, hey,
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: I were friends, but like, what's the most ambitious thing
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: we could do together? It was really we had almost
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: like ten sketches, ten videos before we even thought of
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: this as a show.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And it was just online. We didn't try to monetize
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: it in any way. It was just these videos that
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: were up I don't think even told that many people
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: about it. We didn't even we didn't have a campaign
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: of like you got to watch these videos. They were
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: just up there.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And then and we did decide, like, let's pitch
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: this as a show.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: Our friend Patrick, who we mentioned he flew to New York,
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: I was actually living in New York at the time.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: We filmed a little introduction and we kind of put
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: together a little I guess would be called sizzle reel
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: of just basically like a demo video, like here's a
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: proof of concept. And that was the pitch, and I'm
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: actually really glad that we had sketches something to actually
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: show them. We didn't have a script, which is sometimes
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: what people pitched with. We didn't really have like an
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: out you know, a story outline. We just said, this
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: is sort of what it would be like. It's really
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: just the two of us doing silly things.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: And we pitched that.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I guess we should talk about
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: you were on SNL and we were actually required in
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: this obligatory way, like you know, Broadway Video, which is
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: Lauren's production company, they have the right of first refusal.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: We literally had to ask Lauren for permission, and we
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: assumed he would say thanks, but no, like this is
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: weird to Indie for me.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I have you know I have a Giants by the way,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Lauren Michael's the creator of Saturday Night Live. Yeah, but
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: we did and through his company, Andrew Singer at Broadway
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Video decided to take it on.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and he went into the rooms with us. We
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: pitched to Comedy Central and IFC, and was there one
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: more do we pitch to?
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Can remember?
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: I definitely I remember Comedy Central, Oh and Adult Swim.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: Okay and Adult Swim in Comedy Central both said no
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: one does get shows. And then I f C, which
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: was the Independent Film Channel, and they mostly really did
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: just show like Tarantino Films and you know, just indie movies,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: and they were just starting to original programming. They had
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: a couple things on, but very very few shows, and
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: I think we just lucked out. They were really looking
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: to start doing more of that, and they needed creators
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: and shows, and they took a chance on us and
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: said okay and ordered a pilot, just a pilot, not
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: not straight to series, you know, not anything too you know,
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: big or like it. Just they were like, okay, we'll
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: try a pilot.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Before we get to that. I was just I just
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: remembered that. Remember the video that we made in New York.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: In my apartment.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it was a similar setup to this, where
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: it was two little desks facing each other.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know what the premise was. It was almost
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: like we were going to start each episode with us talking.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: To each other or something.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: That's right, And I also want to point out that
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: at the time you were new to the world of
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I can't say the new to the world of comedy,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: but just let's say new to Lauren Michael's world.
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: Oh, I mean that's like an understatement, like I was
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: just yeah, yeah, I mean thanks, but you know, I
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: mean it's more it's even more of an understatement. And you.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Were and are fifty percent you were, you know, a
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: co collaborator of this show, this that we were pitching
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: that didn't have a title, so Lauren had trust. But
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: still there was like a moment that sealed it for him.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: Right, I mean, contextually, you're working with the best of
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: the best. You know, if this was going to be
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: like designed in a lab, you know, you're already working
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: with Maya Rudolph, you're working with Kristin Wig, You're working
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: with Amy Pohle or like certainly someone easily could have said, oh,
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: Fred wants to do his own show separate from SNL. Great,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: well let's pair him with Maya, you know, let's let's
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: put him with Kristen like Apps. Of course, and you
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: and I were fairly untested, you know, in the bigger
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: scheme of things, and certainly untested with Laurene. He knew
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: that you like you and I were friends, that's about it,
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: but we didn't know each other personally.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: So you get married and.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: You asked me to be the best man essentially, and
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: to give the toast.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: And I was the only person.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: There was no other speed. He wasn't like no family,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: nobody just here, just me there.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: It wasn't like, hey, we're going to do a whole
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: series of toasts. Can you do the lead off toast
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: or can you emc. It was like, hey, we don't
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: want to do a lot of talking and stuff. We
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: want to keep it simple. So it's just me. So
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: I write a toast and I remember, I'm, you know,
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: at the wedding any and I look around and it
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: is it's all the aforementioned people plus Tina Fey, plus
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: You're you're marrying Elizabeth Moss.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: This is the peak of mad Men, you know.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: So it's like Jon Ham, it's Matt Winer, the creator
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: of the show.
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: I mean, this is a very like stacked event. And
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: I'm I'm.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: An indie musician, you know, and I give this toast.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: I it's comedic, it's heartfelt, and I I kind of
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: can't believe that. I wasn't more scared it just but
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: I did it. And I remember later you telling me like,
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: you know, that was kind of your audition for Lauren. Now,
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: if you had told me that beforehand, I didn't know beforehand, No, no,
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: I know, but if I had even thought that that
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: could have been the case. I wasn't thinking of any
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: of that. I mean, you're just one of my best friends.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: I just you know, am wishing you the best and
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: trying to create some like context for this you know,
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: ceremony and for these nuptials. And later I you know,
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: when you couched it like that, and when you sort
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: of realized that was the case. Yeah, it was sort
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: of mind blowing because I, in retrospect, I should have
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: been so much more nervous.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it was so well written and well done.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: And it was also it was Lauren also who told
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: me later like, I'm sure he didn't realize it, but
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: it was as it was happening, he was like, oh right, yeah,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that's her audition.
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think what he realized was like, the
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: show is actually reliant on this chemistry.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: It has to be these two people, like it's.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: You know, if it was you and someone from SNL,
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: Like that's a whole different show. But but this show,
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: what you know, comes to be Portlandia. That's Fredd and Carry.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Like the way they connect, you know, what they connect on,
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: what they find funny, you know, their friendship, the seamlessness
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: of it, the intimacy of it, Like we just can't
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: replicate that even if we're just pulling from someone that
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: everyone knows, well, that's like a really funny woman that's famous, Like,
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: it just won't be this. It will be something else
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: and it could be great, but it's not going to
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: be this. And I think that's one of the brilliant
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: things about Lauren is he knows that he knows that
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: that that's how things work, and that trust, that faith
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: in us I think really went a long way, you know,
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: and he ends up, you know, fighting for us at
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: certain moments, especially you know, we filmed the pilot and
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: he we needed a fast pickup order because you were
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: going to you needed to be back in SNL in
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: the fall. We shot the pilot in like May or something,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: and he's like, you got to decide otherwise, you know,
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: if we wait a year, if we sort of dick.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Around, like we all know this is not going to happen.
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: And he was a big champion and you know still
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: is in uh came up to Portland often and visited us,
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: and yeah, anyway, but yeah, that's that always sort of
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: gives me chills thinking about, like I get nervous now
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: for an event that took place, you know, twenty years ago.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: And he was right, all those instincts were right about it.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah when we first so we pitched the show at IFC,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: and we didn't have a title just yet.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: No, and nor did we pitch it as a show
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: that would be shot in Portland. That to me is
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: always so interesting, Like we knew that the show had
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: like a certain feel to it, that the sketches had
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: a certain feel. We were definitely reveling in absurdity. We
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: wanted things to be silly, irreverent, like you know, there
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: was all these ingredients, but we never actually thought of
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: Place as part of that, which is ridiculous because of
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: course Place.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: Was very much informing what we were doing.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: I just think we one, we didn't take it for granted,
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: and we didn't assume that anyone would sign off and
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: shooting in Portland like most people, especially at the time.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: You know, now, of course a lot of things don't
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: shoot in LA and that's a problem. But at the time,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: tons of things shot in LA and that just seemed
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: like a given. Yeah, and yeah, it was sort of
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: someone else. In fact, it was IFC that was like,
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: of course, you guys should shoot in Portland.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I think Evan Schapiro, Okay, yeah at IFC at I
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and it was that was good news. I mean, I
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: love going to Portland anyway. So and then we shot
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: so much of it there that I love that we
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: got to do that.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: I think it absolutely made the show. You know, it
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: looked different. Uh, all the people who populated the show
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: in terms of the background don't look like you know,
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: LA actors, Like it's just like it feels.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, everything about it. We shot on location.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: We didn't end up like setting up at a sound
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: stage and building sets like it just and it became
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: a stand in. You know, it wasn't Portland, it was Portlandia,
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: and so it became a stand in for an ideology
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: or a way of trying to live or do your
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: best or just it just it allowed it to be
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: heightened and we wanted something that felt a little bit mythical,
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: a little bit magical. Like we didn't want to be
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: always grounded in reality. We wanted to be able to
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: like step off into this place that was imaginative and strange.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: And I think it all it just coalesced into something.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: And we were very fortunate because again we didn't come
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: into this with like, and this is what we want
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: to do and it has to be the city. Like
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: a lot of this we lucked into and then realized later, oh,
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: it had to be this and it wouldn't have been
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: the same any other way. But yeah, even the title
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: Portlandia didn't exist.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had a few titles in the running. And
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: then it was someone at Broadway Video, Marx who's from Portland,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: who pointed out that there's a statue there called Portlandia,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: and that was an immediate yes, yeah, that makes so
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: much sense.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it just conjures something. It's just like, oh, okay,
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: it's a place. It's a real place, but it's also
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: an imagined space. And I think having that kind of
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: blank canvas was really helpful. And yeah, I think the
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: other titles were not great.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: I have a picture of us somewhere with the whiteboard
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: with the other titles written in.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, so yes, A one with Stumptown, which is,
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: you know, a coffee shop in Portland that's now global
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: but at the time was a pretty small local business.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: There was what were some of the others I don't remember.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I think something like from the the City of Portland
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Something that might be wrong, but
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: something with the city the word city in it, okay.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: And there's a couple others. I mean, it was thunder
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Ant in there.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: It maybe was it, maybe it was I think.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Just as a yeah, obligatory left let's add this in
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: as a title idea. And then Jonathan Kreisel, who was
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: at SNL working on some of the short films that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: they had, like in an addition to Lonely Island. Yeah,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: he would. John would do some videos as well. So
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: we met with him and then he became our co creator,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: co director or director.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: I mean, Jonathan really elevated the show. You know, you
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: and I were thinking in terms of character and story,
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: and Jonathan was thinking visually. And I think one as
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: we get into these episodes, I have been struck by
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: how ambitious the visuals are. That you know, there is
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: a cinematic quality to it that I think I totally
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: credit to krysl You know, he just was thinking big.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: He didn't want it to look like, Okay, we're just
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: just people in a room talking like he wanted there
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: it was. There are a lot of exteriors, there was pacing, like,
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: there was visual storytelling like I'm I'm really surprised what
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: we were able to pull off. And I think that's
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: just stemming from his you know, filmmaking prowess, like he
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: really I think it was before he I mean now
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: he directs a lot of things.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: This was some of the first stuff he directed, and
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: I think he had he was like, yeah, I want
• 31:45
  Speaker 4: to do all this big stuff and try it out
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: on the show.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he worked a bit on with Timinaria. But then
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: and Nick Kroll all right, or is that after?
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: I think it was at the time, I'm not sure.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: But yeah. Also, I remember him in the writer's room.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: This is how little I knew. We would have a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: sketch idea and he would say something like yeah, but
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: how do you show that, which is a way of
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: saying no, And he was right where I I didn't
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: have an answer. I was like, yeah, that's true. How
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: do we show that you know, this is a sketch idea.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and we'll have Jonathan on the show. Sorry, we'll
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: have Jonathan on this podcast because you know, it's I
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: think it's important to talk to him.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: He's just so in the DNA of the show.
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we were not thinking visually as much as we
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: were content and write commedially. Yeah, And we brought in
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: Alison Silverman yep, who was a writer on The Colbert
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: Report and.
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: What else did.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: She was a bunch of stuff, but she was definitely like.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: Most recently from the time Colbert Report. And it was
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: kind of just the four of us.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: That was it, and that's we worked out of whereas
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: like later seasons would work out of Portland. That one
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: that was in at Universe.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: In a small office with no desk, no, just a
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: couple of chairs.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: In a room, a whiteboard.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: And we started thinking of this mostly the pilot.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: And between the pilot and getting the season ordered, just
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: to give you some more background to it, because of
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: my schedule, we needed like a little bit of a
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: rush answer from i FC.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: Yes, which is again very rare.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: It's hard to really convey how green we were, like,
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: how like the things that were happening and happening at
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: a rapid pace. We're so unusual, like now we sort
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: of know how glacial development is and production, but we
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: just kept lucking at to it. I think partly, I
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: fc their enthusiasm, you know, just getting into you know,
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: doing original programming. They were moving at and able to
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: be more nimble, like moving at a much faster pace
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: and yeah, which just the time crunch of you going
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: back to SNEL. I think they were a little bit
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: like if it's not now never, okay, so what is
• 34:20
  Speaker 4: it like watching you know, like just going back and
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: looking like as we launch into this podcast, we've done,
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: you know, for this first episode, We've just started rewatching
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: this stuff.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I love the sort of the blindness of it, the
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: sort of like the naivete like, yeah, yeah, let's just
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: you know, make this thing that I but but by
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: two people who still have the same viewpoint, but still yeah,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: you know, without like a final goal.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's there's an innocence to it. I think there's
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: an earnestness to it for sure, and a sincerity. I
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: think that you and I are sincere people. I think
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: we are not cynics, you know, or at least when
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: I feel that mindset encroaching. I'm always trying to like
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: show it away, and I think there is a sweetness
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: to the show and a lot of characters. I think
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: I'm reminded of that when I'm watching it. I'm reminded
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: of the fact that we were mostly exploring elements of ourselves,
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: you know, some small facet of our personality or you know,
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: like people we could have been if we had made
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: different decisions, like we weren't sort of looking out at
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: the world and making other people targets of our derision
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: or scorn. It was like, oh, I'm so curious why
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: I have this part of myself that comes out when
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: these certain things happen.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: Or Yeah, it just it felt very curious and.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: Very like it like an exploration.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: And I see that when I watch it, and I'm.
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: Like, oh, yeah, there's okay, there's it's almost sweeter than
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: I remember in some ways.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel exactly the same, sweeter than I remember. Yeah,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not going you no, you go well, I was
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: going to say, like the thing, I like that it's
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: so long ago, and seeing that we were already close friends,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: then yes, I love that.
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: And I can even see in Okay, so we play
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: a version of ourselves in the show Fred and Carry,
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: and I will say this now and I'll point it
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: out later. There there's some reality to that, and then
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: there's I think we wanted to allow Fred and Carry
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: to be just a little more guileless and clueless and
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: just sillier. So we are just not as smart sometimes,
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: or I would like to think that this version of
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: myself smarter than the Portlandia Carry And you will see
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: that over and over again, like just for the sake
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: of comedy, we just allow this ignorance to come about,
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: just so we're not like stuck and like, well, no,
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: Fred Armison wouldn't do that, but I do see every
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: once in a while, no, not every once in a while,
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: a lot I'm like, oh, this is a real conversation
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: because there's so much improvisation. I think that's the other
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: thing to point out early on, Like, especially in these
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: first couple of seasons. You know, we would obviously pitch,
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: you know, sketch ideas, and they we did have beats
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: for each sketch and an outline, but there was a
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: very rudimentary script, and if there was a script, we
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: often basically threw it out, And so when I see
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: us talking as Fred and Carry, but also in other characters,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: I can tell, oh, my gosh, this is just a
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: real conversation you and I are having. I can also
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: tell when we're actually really annoyed at one another, like
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: when in terms of like if someone says something that's
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: annoying that actually irks Carry or irks Fred, I.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: Can see it. It's an interesting like mirror, yeah for sure, accurate.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Then physically, like you know, I'm so glad that
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: we grew up on bands in that whenever I see
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: that bands start looking older, I like it. I like
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: that they had different eras of their existence. So when
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: I look back and I see that, Okay, that's a
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: younger version, it's a good feeling like, hey, that was
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: what Yeah, that's what the band looked like back then.
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: That's what we look like.
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: For me, I feel like the first season hate my haircut.
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: I'm like, what is that haircut? I basically have had
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: the same hair by the way, for since like seventh grade,
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: different versions of it. This is like season one is
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: like not my favorite version. My bangs don't feel connected
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: to the rest of my hair. It was like I
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: had two different people cut it. I might have cut
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: my hair that year. I have no idea. It's very
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: I just noticed it. I was like, what's happening here?
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: Oh, I can't answer that question. Also, I feel.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: Like like I'm wearing lipstick now, but like I'm like,
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: why is my character?
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: Why is Carrie wearing such bright lipstick?
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: And every scene like it's just it's day it's daytime,
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: Like okay, you know, but I think in my mind
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: again in that sort of like naivitate, it's like, well,
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: I'm on camera, we should definitely put a lipstick on,
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: So it's like, what, Like, no, it's the reality.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: But and I see that across all characters, like just
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: looking at early versions of like you know, the costume
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: and the makeup, and even though we were working with
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: consummate professionals, like we all just were like I don't know.
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: In some ways sometimes just there is just that sort
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: of figuring it out. But I like that there's a
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: charm to it for me looking back, like it gave
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: us somewhere to go.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think dress style wise, I'm kind of the same.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: And that's a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: I see myself wearing a hoodie, and I remember at
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the time thinking someday I won't wear hoodies anymore.
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: That is not true, and.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: I'm like still wearing hoodies and I really wanted to
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: outgrow it. And this jacket that I'm wearing today, I
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: actually chose not because it matched anything on Portlandia's just
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: because I like green jackets. Yeah, but then I did
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: have jackets like this back then, So I'm like, I
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: guess that's what I gravitate towards. So I feel mostly
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: good about it. I just wish I had outgrown hoodies.
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: There's still time.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: There's still time.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: There's still time.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: It'd be nice to sort of put that aside.
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: You know what a little goal is, or sorry, you
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: know what a little goal could be is to not
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: wear a hoodie on this podcast.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I love it. Just let's start small, let's try. I'm
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: saying that to.
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: Myself, okay, but then also watching it, I will say, like,
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm just like the the show is very white.
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: Sometimes I'm like, just I will just look at certain things.
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: When I was watching the show, I'm like, oh, this
• 41:06
  Speaker 4: is there's too many white people in this scene, like
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: Dream of the Ninties, dream of the nineties. I was
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: just like, ugh, like, do better. This is Yeah, there's
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: definitely some of that. Yeah, and it does improve. But
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: like watching that, I was like, what and.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: There's so many people, there's so many people in the video.
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I and I'm just not even specifically that sketch,
• 41:31
  Speaker 4: I think in general, not just about other things.
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: Like i will just say like.
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: I'm watching some of these sketches and I'm like, I
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: would not do that now, you know, Like I and
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, and I'm a flawed person. I'm just like,
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: oh my gosh, like this sketch does not hold up
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: to me. I'm not talking about dreaming the nineties. I
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: really love that to sketch, but like other sketches. So
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: just so people know when we watching this, I'm just like,
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: oh my god, yes, let's not do that.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: And we when we'll talk about those things and we.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Improve, I mean definitely, yeah, that got better over time.
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, but just you know, I'm not even
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: talking about dreaming that n needs a nymmor just some
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: other sketches. I just and I'll say, like at the
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: beginning of the I'll be like, yeah, this one makes
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: me cringe. You know, because you're just like, oh, yeah,
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: I don't. I don't have a defense for this one.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I have a that this is a lame defense. Oh boy, no,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: it's not even a defense. It's not even a defense.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: It's gonna sound defensive.
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: It already does that.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I have the same feeling you do, or I'm sorry,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I always have the same feeling you do. But sometimes,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: but I'll remind myself. I'll say, like, I'm Venezuelan. That's
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: just something. I'm like, I'm just that's me talking to myself.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm Korean and Venezuelan. I'm going to put that
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: in there as a sort of like, Okay, don't be
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: too hard on yourself.
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: Of course, no, I mean yeah.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: I'm leaving that as I understand that that is, you know,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: it is not a perfect defense, but it's just something.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, I mean, yeah, we are bringing ourselves to it.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and we each have we possess multitudes, we have
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: our own identities and indexers of those identities, and we
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: bring our own flaws and contradictions to it. And that's
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: just who we are. I mean, I feel like we're
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: very like the show is in conversation with the city
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: and we are in conversation with the show like it.
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: To me, Portlandia is kind of a very ongoing discourse,
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: you know, and it's interesting to sort of look back on,
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: and this I think podcast just extends that discourse.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: I think we always as we were writing, felt like
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: we're exploring you know, ideas and phenomena and a way
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: of being in the world and sort of critiquing it.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: But also it's you know, embracing it and just trying
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: to have and be funny. And what I like about
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: this podcast is that just continues the conversation and like
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: there's no sort of final word on it. Like certainly
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: a Portlandia sketch is not the final word on anything.
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: Like our intention was to have.
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: Fun and make people laugh and you know, sometimes make
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: people think or just to you know, like be observational.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: But that's not you know, like that doesn't mean we
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: did it the right way all the time. Well a
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: lot of time we didn't. Yeah, Honestly, a lot of
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: the sketches in a good way to me hold up
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: and some things we predicted. Some things I was like, well,
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: well we were ahead of the curve here.
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And since then we've sort of kept in
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: touch about that. Yeah, or we'll see something in the news.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: I remember when Pitchfork got sold or oh yeah I
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: didn't again, didn't really get shut down, but sort of
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: bought up by another company. Yeah, we had a sketch
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: about that.
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think the last thing I to say
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: is that, like I think another one of our intentions
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: and one of the reasons I create anything is to
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: feel a connection with people. And that connection is not
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: always just like joyful. Human connection is also one that's
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: uncomfortable sometimes, and I think that's okay, and we just
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: have to have it be uncomfortable sometimes, you know, because
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: authentic connection and communicating with people is about communicating through
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: the good and bad of it. So I'll to say that,
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: like the intention I think of the show and this
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: podcast is to feel a human connection and to just
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: ride that out, you know, through all the sort of
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: iterations of what that means. A lot of people once
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: it came back on Netflix, you know, sort of were
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: as curious as we were, like what from the show
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: sort of felt ahead of its time, what kind of
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: holds up what feels like a relic? You know, because
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: we were sort of capturing a specific moment.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: It's.
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it's interesting to kind of a look at
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: all those things, and it's there's so many sketches. So
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: it's it's a really fun journey for us. We hope
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: it is for the audience as well. Plus the other
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: thing that people may not know is you and I
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: hang out outside of Portlandia's so, like we were saying,
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: we hung out before the show started, and we have hung.
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: Out every year since.
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: So this is again it's a continuation of a conversation
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: that we have with each other all the time. Not
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: that we're always talking about the show, but just you know,
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: we're talking about some of the things that we discussed
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: on the show that we showed on Portlandia. Like that's
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: just in the ether for us, Like it's part of
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: our friendship sort of commenting on and thinking about these things.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: Plus we've spent many years in the interim texting each other.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: I wish the show is still on because I have
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: this idea if we were still doing the.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Show, so many, so many ideas there, Yeah, it would
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: have made any sense.
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: Anyway, thanks for listening.
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: We're excited to bring you back through port Landia a.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Bit. What what what what wa wa wa wa one
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: w u n nash