Latest / Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein / Jonathan Krisel Part 1

Transcript

Jonathan Krisel Part 1 · Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein

0:02
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, watch.
0:10
Speaker 2: Hey, you're listening to Podlanda. This is Fred, and this
0:15
Speaker 2: is Kerry and this is Ao Rewatch Ao rewatch a
0:19
Speaker 2: Portlandia Rewatch podcast. Hy friend, Kerry, Hey, we have a guest,
0:25
Speaker 2: ourst one, our first guest, and it's an important guest
0:28
Speaker 2: in some ways, maybe the most important guest.
0:32
Speaker 3: Agreed because you could say, if this was a three
0:36
Speaker 3: person podcast, this would be our third person exactly.
0:40
Speaker 4: This is Jonathan Chryslon.
0:42
Speaker 1: Hello, thank you for having me.
0:45
Speaker 4: This is our director, co creator, co creator.
0:49
Speaker 2: Creator, co writer and the director exclusively for the first
0:52
Speaker 2: two seasons three I think, okay, first three, yeah, I
0:58
Speaker 2: think so, yeah, yeah.
1:00
Speaker 1: I missed two of season four something like that. I
1:03
Speaker 1: can't remember something like that.
1:04
Speaker 3: But we were like, as we've been going through these episodes,
1:08
Speaker 3: you come up all the time naturally because we know,
1:11
Speaker 3: you know, the ideas were yours and that like the
1:14
Speaker 3: way it looks and everything, and it just keeps coming up.
1:18
Speaker 3: So it's it's great to actually meet you. We did
1:24
Speaker 3: the show for Zoom pre pre covid, pre covid, but.
1:30
Speaker 2: But when we the first episode I guess of the podcast,
1:33
Speaker 2: we spent a lot of time talking about how the
1:35
Speaker 2: show came together and we sort of talked up through
1:38
Speaker 2: thunder Ants and friend and I and we did touch
1:41
Speaker 2: on meeting you, but we wanted to get it from
1:42
Speaker 2: your perspective. What do you remember freaks?
1:47
Speaker 1: Okay, because I remember I had well, obviously I I
1:54
Speaker 1: knew thunder Aunt, of course, because it was just around
1:57
Speaker 1: and Doug was editing it. I remember that. And I
2:02
Speaker 1: remember I was working SNL and there was this thing
2:05
Speaker 1: in there Fred's doing a show and then I was like, oh,
2:08
Speaker 1: and it's ThunderAnt with Carrie. It's being turned into a show.
2:11
Speaker 1: And they're like, I think you guys weren't there. But
2:13
Speaker 1: I met with Andrew Singer at Broadway Video Lauren's company,
2:17
Speaker 1: and they were like, so it's going to be a
2:19
Speaker 1: show where Fred and Carey work at an office and
2:23
Speaker 1: come up with sketches. They get hired to make sketches
2:28
Speaker 1: and every week. I don't know whose idea this was,
2:31
Speaker 1: but they'll do like three sketches per episode, but they'll
2:36
Speaker 1: be them work at this office that sells sketches or something.
2:38
Speaker 1: I don't know, something like that. That's what it was
2:40
Speaker 1: sold to me. But we're kind of shoot it in Portland.
2:43
Speaker 1: We know that. I was like, okay, I mean, I
2:48
Speaker 1: couldn't really understand that idea, but I just knew, like,
2:52
Speaker 1: I'm a fan and I want to be a part
2:54
Speaker 1: of it. That's this is what I remember.
2:57
Speaker 4: We want a way to pitch it. We didn't. That
2:59
Speaker 4: was an rida no.
3:00
Speaker 1: So then I said, so. Then I had a meeting
3:03
Speaker 1: with Dan Pasternak at i FC, and I had been
3:07
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and I knew it was going to
3:10
Speaker 1: be in Portland, and I knew the Feminist Bookstore was
3:12
Speaker 1: like one of this recurring things for sure. Maybe I
3:16
Speaker 1: had talked to you about it at SNL or something
3:18
Speaker 1: must have. And I was like, but what if it's
3:21
Speaker 1: just the town is the unifying thing and it's just
3:25
Speaker 1: like the random weirdos in Portland or something like that.
3:29
Speaker 1: And the network was like, okay, yes, we like that,
3:32
Speaker 1: and that seems like all it needs anyway, That's what
3:37
Speaker 1: I remember from the early early talks.
3:42
Speaker 2: Well, we remember you remember meeting with us, so too.
3:44
Speaker 1: Right, I do remember meeting with you guys, Yes, I
3:48
Speaker 1: do remember that.
3:49
Speaker 2: And we only met with one other potential director and I.
3:52
Speaker 1: Know who that was. Did you talk about that?
3:54
Speaker 2: We didn't say their name.
3:55
Speaker 1: But we because there's actually a funny anecdote which we
3:58
Speaker 1: could talk about later.
4:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, perfectly fine, perfectly fine.
4:04
Speaker 3: He was great, But yeah, i'd worked with you on SNL.
4:08
Speaker 1: Got Tim and Eric too, That's right.
4:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember the meeting that we were like, yeah,
4:14
Speaker 2: we like John, but I feel like you didn't necessarily
4:18
Speaker 2: like I remember thinking like, this guy's not even not
4:19
Speaker 2: into it, and then you called I well based on
4:24
Speaker 2: I mean if you were thinking that it was in
4:25
Speaker 2: office and you were like this is a terrible idea,
4:28
Speaker 2: but I think you called back right or you like
4:31
Speaker 2: talked to Andrew later, and maybe that's when you talked
4:34
Speaker 2: about the being having a unifying Well, I.
4:37
Speaker 1: Knew I had to go into the network where they
4:39
Speaker 1: were like, well, we know you met with them, but
4:41
Speaker 1: you got to meet with us. And then I was like, Okay,
4:43
Speaker 1: I'm going to come in with the whole huge thing
4:45
Speaker 1: because I'm like i gotta do this, whatever it ends
4:48
Speaker 1: up being, just because I'm a fan of this voice,
4:53
Speaker 1: this comedy voice, whatever it is. But then I also
4:56
Speaker 1: remember it was at the Universe Left, They're like, Okay,
4:58
Speaker 1: we're starting on the show, like it is happening and
5:01
Speaker 1: it's going to be on such and such date. I
5:03
Speaker 1: remember driving in and being like, is anyone here? I
5:08
Speaker 1: don't even remember if I had, like anyway, It was
5:10
Speaker 1: just very But then we were working in the Universal a.
5:12
Speaker 2: Lot in that tiny office.
5:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was great.
5:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, with Alison Silverman and we talked about a little bit.
5:19
Speaker 2: And then we had Jason Benzuk's come in for a
5:21
Speaker 2: couple of days of pitching.
5:23
Speaker 1: I don't remember that, maybe I do.
5:26
Speaker 2: And then we everything was one reason maybe that you
5:30
Speaker 2: don't remember because it was so expedited, because.
5:32
Speaker 1: I remember it was just like because Fred had to
5:34
Speaker 1: go back to us.
5:34
Speaker 2: Yes, we had to shoot the pilot really quickly. Yeah,
5:38
Speaker 2: and then we went up to Portland.
5:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, what's the first thing we shot?
5:44
Speaker 2: Well, remember it's tricky because we weren't actually shooting what
5:48
Speaker 2: became the pilot.
5:49
Speaker 1: No, I remember that the episode that song for Portland. Yeah,
5:52
Speaker 1: but the very first peace that we shot, like the
5:56
Speaker 1: first time.
5:56
Speaker 4: We were on set.
5:57
Speaker 2: It wasn't put a bird on it was it? Because
5:59
Speaker 2: that seemed early to me.
6:00
Speaker 4: Okay, I can't remember.
6:02
Speaker 1: It was either the dog outside the child being the
6:07
Speaker 1: dog tied up outside the restaurant. I remember that very
6:10
Speaker 1: early on but honestly, I don't remember.
6:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't remember at all.
6:16
Speaker 2: Or was it I wouldn't have been Kyle the first day,
6:19
Speaker 2: would it like?
6:20
Speaker 1: Or like one of those were weird because I always
6:21
Speaker 1: had shoot in the Mayor's office like on Saturday. Oh right, right,
6:25
Speaker 1: because it was the actual mayor's office.
6:27
Speaker 3: But burn on it. I have a memory of it
6:29
Speaker 3: being a first something something felt.
6:32
Speaker 1: Like maybe I remember we had the pigeon and Dan.
6:36
Speaker 2: I remember Dan being there too, and best being on
6:38
Speaker 2: that at that shop.
6:39
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, something felt like a first day of sorts.
6:45
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
6:47
Speaker 1: I remember having lunch on the first day on I
6:49
Speaker 1: was on Alberta, right, so maybe it was maybe that shop.
6:54
Speaker 2: Oh but that was on Mississippi, Mississippi.
6:57
Speaker 1: Okay, wait, I remember having lunch with maybe Katie O Kady.
7:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, maybe it was.
7:05
Speaker 1: Maybe it was because there was another part of it
7:07
Speaker 1: that we shot later, Yes, at the very end.
7:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, we came a couple of days.
7:12
Speaker 3: The footage that you like, everything that you had on
7:15
Speaker 3: that first the pilot, Yeah, how did you turn it
7:19
Speaker 3: into it?
7:20
Speaker 1: Took a while. I remember I seeing an early early
7:22
Speaker 1: early cut that was like probably like an hour long
7:26
Speaker 1: being like, this is not good, but it will get good,
7:30
Speaker 1: because obviously, when you have so much improvised stuff, it
7:33
Speaker 1: takes a while to like whittle it down to what
7:38
Speaker 1: that two minutes is or whatever. So there's a lot
7:40
Speaker 1: of different and I just remember the Feminist books store
7:42
Speaker 1: had a lot of stuff, but boom, it quickly got
7:48
Speaker 1: a million times better and then I was like, whoa,
7:51
Speaker 1: this is so good and I can't remember. We would
7:53
Speaker 1: sit around the editor room going this is so specific
7:58
Speaker 1: and is that gonna that seems great? We love it,
8:02
Speaker 1: but like I've never seen a sketch show. At least
8:06
Speaker 1: at the time, it just felt like this is such
8:08
Speaker 1: a unique slice of the world that we're making fun
8:11
Speaker 1: of or loving. We would always talk about we love
8:14
Speaker 1: the characters, we don't make fun of them, or something
8:16
Speaker 1: like that. So anyway, I don't know, it just felt
8:18
Speaker 1: like I'm loving this, but will people understand what this is?
8:23
Speaker 1: At least right when we were making that pilot, it
8:26
Speaker 1: just felt like, wow, who was the editor? It was
8:29
Speaker 1: Dan Loengino and Doug Lasson. How they both did the pilot? Yeah, yeah,
8:35
Speaker 1: And I would always like in the early days, I
8:37
Speaker 1: would edit like one scene and then by like season two.
8:41
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm good, just because I had started
8:44
Speaker 1: as an editor too with those guys too. Yeah, so
8:46
Speaker 1: I just like, oh, there's one I want to do,
8:49
Speaker 1: but quickly I gave that up.
8:51
Speaker 2: But yeah, what was your because you had not been
8:55
Speaker 2: to Portland before? Right?
8:57
Speaker 1: Well? I had been to Portland but sort of in
8:59
Speaker 1: a different eric as my grandfather lived in Welsh's, Oregon,
9:02
Speaker 1: which is like like forty five minutes away. I had
9:05
Speaker 1: been to the twenty four hour Church of Elvis, right
9:07
Speaker 1: Remember that was like kind of a different era.
9:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was like the no was sort of late nineties,
9:12
Speaker 2: late nineties downtown.
9:14
Speaker 1: But I didn't experience kind of what you had experienced
9:18
Speaker 1: living there. I just experienced it more as a tourist.
9:21
Speaker 1: I guess.
9:28
Speaker 2: What was your impression of like filming, like when you
9:31
Speaker 2: crewed up in Portland and we were like, you know,
9:34
Speaker 2: getting the DP, Like, what was your impression of just
9:36
Speaker 2: like that whole millieu?
9:39
Speaker 1: Now was it that first season that we worked at
9:41
Speaker 1: a gust Fan Sant's office?
9:43
Speaker 2: That was yeah? Second season?
9:46
Speaker 1: Well, because what I quickly found through David crest Do sir,
9:52
Speaker 1: who's local that you had worked with and you knew
9:55
Speaker 1: that there was such a film community there that and
9:58
Speaker 1: it seemed like it was the gust fans, it kind
10:00
Speaker 1: of Nike, I don't know what it was, but there
10:03
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, this is a deep town of filmmakers
10:07
Speaker 1: and people who really care about film and no cool
10:10
Speaker 1: stuff and some cinematographers. But I was really like, I
10:13
Speaker 1: need a cinematographer who gets comedy and like, we're not
10:18
Speaker 1: making like a movie that's slow or making something this
10:21
Speaker 1: victim of and then so yeah, then we met Bryce
10:24
Speaker 1: Fortner and he had been shooting Wayney Days, David Wayne's
10:27
Speaker 1: what do you call YouTube show back then web web
10:31
Speaker 1: series websary Sorry sorry, So I was like, oh my god,
10:35
Speaker 1: there's someone here who like totally gets it, Like Wayney
10:37
Speaker 1: Days was actually really good and he totally got it.
10:40
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, this is so exciting.
10:43
Speaker 1: And that really was huge to find someone local who
10:46
Speaker 1: could do it. Obviously we had the crew like Kyler
10:49
Speaker 1: Robinson and Amanda need Him and even Simon max Hill
10:52
Speaker 1: who I just saw recently. Just a great group of
10:55
Speaker 1: people that you that was essential to the show, Like
10:59
Speaker 1: I don't, like, you couldn't. Everyone involved was like special
11:04
Speaker 1: and made it the show even more special than just
11:07
Speaker 1: the people at the top. So it was that that
11:09
Speaker 1: was really I mean we just felt it felt like
11:11
Speaker 1: a family very fast immediately. Yeah, and you knew a
11:14
Speaker 1: lot of them already.
11:16
Speaker 2: I knew some of them. I had never met Bryce,
11:18
Speaker 2: I knew Amanda, but a lot of the people were
11:20
Speaker 2: new to me. I mean we had like TG and Aubrey. Yeah,
11:26
Speaker 2: so it had a familial feeling right away. Remember that
11:29
Speaker 2: one of the Baldwin brothers was in that building.
11:32
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I remember that.
11:34
Speaker 2: We were like sharing an office with Yeah.
11:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he was making a movie there something.
11:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:40
Speaker 4: Yeah. How did we get Amanda?
11:42
Speaker 1: You knew her?
11:43
Speaker 2: Yeah? And David and Amanda.
11:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, David crestlike was running a commercial productive company
11:50
Speaker 1: in Portland and all the pas that kind of came
11:53
Speaker 1: through there. He would say, what do you want to be, Oh,
11:55
Speaker 1: I want to be a costome science. Okay, you set
11:57
Speaker 1: that up, you get that going, and I'll hire you. Amanda, go, Simon,
12:01
Speaker 1: I want to be a castic. Great, set up your
12:03
Speaker 1: own company. I'll hire And so they each were like
12:06
Speaker 1: trained by David. He was their mentor by Tyler too,
12:09
Speaker 1: and they he just kind of was like launched all
12:12
Speaker 1: these young people and then we got to hire all
12:16
Speaker 1: of them and they were all amazing. So I think
12:19
Speaker 1: David was press. I still think of it as just
12:22
Speaker 1: like one of the best. When you would see the
12:25
Speaker 1: Portlandia crew driving down the street, it was I don't
12:27
Speaker 1: know if you guys talked about this, like the school
12:29
Speaker 1: bus turned into a snack truck, like all the trucks,
12:32
Speaker 1: the ice cream truck turned into the I mean.
12:34
Speaker 2: It was just it was like a children's show. It
12:37
Speaker 2: was just like this circus coming into town. But you're
12:40
Speaker 2: right that David really like helped inform the culture of
12:44
Speaker 2: the show. Like I don't I think we talked about
12:46
Speaker 2: this how he did not like we did not have
12:49
Speaker 2: a video village, and like how that like kept us
12:51
Speaker 2: so nimble. It was basically like no one sat on set.
12:54
Speaker 1: Would allowed director's chairs because we don't. He was like,
12:57
Speaker 1: we don't have time to sit. We got to just
12:59
Speaker 1: keep moving.
12:59
Speaker 2: And he was that's right, we literally didn't have time really,
13:01
Speaker 2: and it did keep us moving.
13:02
Speaker 1: And and I had a little monitor that had like
13:05
Speaker 1: a little antenna on it, like a little TV, and
13:07
Speaker 1: the signal was sent and it would come in a
13:09
Speaker 1: little fuzzy sometimes and I literally could change the channel
13:12
Speaker 1: and watch soap operas on this TV and it was
13:16
Speaker 1: so small I could barely see it. So I'm like, Okay,
13:19
Speaker 1: it looks pretty good this tiny. Then when I see
13:22
Speaker 1: it in the editor, I'm like, wow, this looks incredible.
13:25
Speaker 1: So but it was, Yeah, it was very handmade vibe.
13:29
Speaker 3: When uh, I was remembering that, like some sketches as
13:34
Speaker 3: we started shooting, I did you know, I didn't know
13:37
Speaker 3: what the end result was going to be? Like I
13:39
Speaker 3: thought of did you read? I didn't have a clear
13:41
Speaker 3: picture of.
13:41
Speaker 4: What that was going to be. How did you know that? Like?
13:46
Speaker 4: How did you.
13:47
Speaker 3: Deal with us as performers saying like, hey, you know,
13:51
Speaker 3: we're tired, we don't even know what this is.
13:53
Speaker 4: How do you how did you manage to push?
13:56
Speaker 1: But you guys were very accommodating and easy, not exactly
14:00
Speaker 1: always knowing exactly what you were being at. I thought
14:03
Speaker 1: that that was always really easy. I mean, we the
14:08
Speaker 1: editors and I we had just come up under this
14:11
Speaker 1: system that we had sort of perfected over the years
14:14
Speaker 1: of like editing as this true playground. So I just knew, like, okay,
14:19
Speaker 1: here's the pieces, especially for something like that, and we
14:22
Speaker 1: had already done I think at that point that other
14:24
Speaker 1: one you got to get out of here, which was
14:27
Speaker 1: kind of in a way like from the first season.
14:29
Speaker 2: Like the beta version of that, yeah, exactly.
14:32
Speaker 1: Where it just becomes like we can tell we can
14:34
Speaker 1: make jokes that are not just dialogue that's written. That's funny.
14:37
Speaker 1: It's like and we would talk about this in the
14:40
Speaker 1: writers from too, like the different style of energy piece.
14:46
Speaker 1: We always had different color cards kind of for that.
14:48
Speaker 1: So that to me was like, this is more of
14:50
Speaker 1: a textural piece that is like I mean, it was
14:56
Speaker 1: a great observation. I think that was Harry's idea about
14:59
Speaker 1: like did you read this article? Did you? And then
15:02
Speaker 1: we take that concept and turn it into this like cacophony.
15:06
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you remember, like when we
15:07
Speaker 1: like Doug who's the master of editing that kind of stuff.
15:10
Speaker 1: You use the same shot twice the second time you
15:14
Speaker 1: see it, it is so funny, and we just we
15:16
Speaker 1: really coming from to America and all that stuff, we
15:19
Speaker 1: learned these tricks about how to make people laugh, but
15:23
Speaker 1: not through just dialogue, through editing, how editing can and
15:28
Speaker 1: it's true for all comedy editing is the key. You
15:30
Speaker 1: have to just gather. You could be so funny on set,
15:33
Speaker 1: and you could edit it to be unfunny. It's very
15:35
Speaker 1: easy to do. So yeah, I don't know that that
15:39
Speaker 1: just became like and I just felt like you guys
15:41
Speaker 1: were already in that being both musicians that you kind
15:45
Speaker 1: of you know, we could we could make stuff that
15:47
Speaker 1: that was more rhythmic and percussive, and we did a
15:50
Speaker 1: lot of music pieces. I remember the whole music thing,
15:54
Speaker 1: Like just watching you guys make all that music was
15:58
Speaker 1: like truly like a map was so cool.
16:02
Speaker 3: I remember when the day you came in with the
16:04
Speaker 3: idea of the gream of the nineties.
16:07
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that too. It was a very dramatic day. Yeah,
16:10
Speaker 1: but yeah, I had been driving around just thinking about
16:14
Speaker 1: I mean just talks that we would have. Yeah, you know,
16:17
Speaker 1: like you just kind of not always just on work,
16:19
Speaker 1: but like the fact that and coming in as an
16:23
Speaker 1: outsider to Portland going like, oh this is you know,
16:27
Speaker 1: because I was a kid of the nineties, just kind
16:29
Speaker 1: of like that that message that was coming through was like, yeah,
16:33
Speaker 1: it can be yourself and that I don't know, the
16:36
Speaker 1: whole Lollapalooza concert and everything was just kind of like
16:40
Speaker 1: outsider world and that was like, oh, we have this town.
16:44
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I just kept driving around, listening
16:46
Speaker 1: to music, thinking about that and going guys, and I
16:49
Speaker 1: was thinking about that, trying to prepare for this, like
16:52
Speaker 1: the Suicidal Tendency song like Institutionalized or I don't know
16:58
Speaker 1: if you remember this song, the Sweater song by Maren Kdell. No.
17:03
Speaker 1: It was this kind of like I don't know, mid
17:05
Speaker 1: nineties song, but it would be these songs where people.
17:07
Speaker 2: Would talk wait, not Weezer sweater song.
17:10
Speaker 1: It was pre the Weezer sweater song. I or not
17:13
Speaker 1: a surf at That song popular where they would talk
17:16
Speaker 1: during the verses and I always liked it. And there
17:19
Speaker 1: was another guy who did a lot of that and
17:20
Speaker 1: I can't think of his name. It was about he was.
17:24
Speaker 1: He did a bunch of songs like where he was.
17:26
Speaker 2: Jesus, Oh, yes, yes, you know who's that.
17:32
Speaker 1: I can't think of it anyway. So it's like, let's
17:34
Speaker 1: do a song like that. Because to me, the concept
17:36
Speaker 1: of like writing a song like Lonely Island, I'm like,
17:39
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't know how to do that exactly.
17:41
Speaker 1: But this is we can talk about it and then
17:44
Speaker 1: have this chorus that kicks it in as a song.
17:46
Speaker 1: So it's like a different format that we used a
17:49
Speaker 1: couple of times throughout the show.
17:50
Speaker 4: It's great.
17:51
Speaker 1: I love that suicide Tendency song. I think about it
17:54
Speaker 1: all the time.
17:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's intense.
17:56
Speaker 1: It's intense, and he's like, oh and I just get
17:59
Speaker 1: a PEPSI I just want to are you on drugs?
18:02
Speaker 1: And then there's a chorus.
18:05
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, they say that institutionalized.
18:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
18:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember when you came in that day because
18:12
Speaker 2: even at the time, it felt momentous, like it was
18:16
Speaker 2: like you just completely like cracked something that we needed,
18:19
Speaker 2: Like we.
18:20
Speaker 1: Made it to you guys in a car and I
18:23
Speaker 1: played a song to kind of explain how it would work.
18:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like we needed a thesis for the
18:31
Speaker 2: show and just like some idea like you know, you know,
18:37
Speaker 2: guiding principle essentially, and it became that in this way
18:41
Speaker 2: that like I think if we didn't have that in
18:44
Speaker 2: the first season, like that was the and I was
18:46
Speaker 2: what that anchored it and everyone understood and I remember
18:48
Speaker 2: we you know, we talked about this, but Lauren understood
18:52
Speaker 2: that the Yeah, and it was like to be the first,
18:56
Speaker 2: but it was I remember you must have had because
18:59
Speaker 2: I know that feeling too. We were like, this is
19:01
Speaker 2: a good idea. I just have to make sure that
19:03
Speaker 2: they get that it's a good idea, which we did,
19:06
Speaker 2: and it did feel kind of big.
19:09
Speaker 4: Yeah when we watched it. The production is so huge.
19:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that was a lot of David Cress because
19:15
Speaker 1: I was just feeding him like, Okay, here's kind of
19:17
Speaker 1: the idea, like I want this, and he'd be like,
19:20
Speaker 1: how about a guy in a really tall bicycle or something.
19:22
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, he got it. Yeah, so just give
19:25
Speaker 1: me all those elements of like nineties whatever.
19:29
Speaker 2: It was, Yeah, Like from a director's standpoint, like because
19:34
Speaker 2: you know, we've talked about how the scripts were basically
19:37
Speaker 2: outlined a little bit of dialogue that we almost got
19:41
Speaker 2: you know, did away with immediately. Like how helpful were
19:46
Speaker 2: the various departments that were like adding to the visuals,
19:49
Speaker 2: Like like, how was that process for you working with
19:51
Speaker 2: like Amanda Tyler.
19:53
Speaker 1: I mean both of them would just they a lot
19:57
Speaker 1: of times there's a thing in the script and then
19:59
Speaker 1: they wear this outfit. We didn't really put those details in.
20:02
Speaker 1: They would just go, oh, I get this character. It
20:04
Speaker 1: was always character based, like I get this character, I
20:06
Speaker 1: get what their house would be like, and they would
20:08
Speaker 1: really just provide so much exers that we really took
20:11
Speaker 1: for granted and didn't realize how amazing it was to
20:15
Speaker 1: have like that mind, those other minds adding to it,
20:19
Speaker 1: because then all of a sudden we'd be on segue,
20:21
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is hilarious. We got to do
20:23
Speaker 1: a scene over here with this thing that we didn't
20:25
Speaker 1: even you know, like I think of so many examples,
20:29
Speaker 1: but a very specific one was I mean, this wasn't
20:31
Speaker 1: even anyone planned for. But when you're shooting in that
20:35
Speaker 1: cell phone store with Koumeil and there was a display
20:37
Speaker 1: of sun, yes, and all of a sudden we're like,
20:40
Speaker 1: this has to be and he got it and.
20:43
Speaker 2: It just like or the Amy Man the sweater, the
20:45
Speaker 2: tiny sweater and when Amy Man it does our house cleaning,
20:48
Speaker 2: my god, and she shrinks the sweater and then I
20:51
Speaker 2: wasn't in the script. Well, all I know is that
20:53
Speaker 2: Fred brings it back in the dumpster divers, yes, and
20:56
Speaker 2: that that would have been them just putting that in there.
20:59
Speaker 2: I agree, yes, yeah, we're like, it definitely was in
21:02
Speaker 2: the script. That she shrunk a sweater but later them
21:05
Speaker 2: for them to think, like, let's have this connective tissue,
21:08
Speaker 2: and then that became one of the funniest moments in
21:10
Speaker 2: The Dumpster Drivers, where you're you literally put it on
21:12
Speaker 2: your body. Yeah, and like that, like they were thinking
21:17
Speaker 2: so deeply. And obviously we've worked on a ton of
21:19
Speaker 2: shows with many talented people, but I will say from
21:23
Speaker 2: like a production design and like costume design standpoint, like
21:27
Speaker 2: that level, next level, like brain galacy stuff is really
21:32
Speaker 2: it is rare. It's pretty rare.
21:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I would say Simon too. At the casting
21:36
Speaker 1: I mean the cast of I mean, obviously we brought
21:40
Speaker 1: in like friends, celebrities and stuff for guest stars and stuff,
21:42
Speaker 1: but the local acting pool is incredible and added so
21:49
Speaker 1: much to it, and some very specific characters that just
21:53
Speaker 1: became part of the cast and that weren't just I
21:57
Speaker 1: mean Simon was like, oh, there's a guy in my heart.
22:00
Speaker 1: I remember when we were looking for the nerd, which
22:02
Speaker 1: was actually very hard to do.
22:04
Speaker 2: No, not remember oh the nerd for the nerds, it
22:07
Speaker 2: was actually.
22:08
Speaker 1: Very challenging to find because we were such well, the
22:12
Speaker 1: nerd of the sitcom is like not it's not like yeah,
22:16
Speaker 1: and he's like, there's a guy who works in my
22:18
Speaker 1: hardware store. I'm going to try to bring him in.
22:20
Speaker 1: And then the guy was great. It's probably the first
22:24
Speaker 1: and last thing he ever did, but it was awesome
22:26
Speaker 1: for us.
22:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, I felt like it made the show look so
22:29
Speaker 2: different and so site specific in that it wasn't just
22:32
Speaker 2: populated by actors like I mean, yes, there was a
22:35
Speaker 2: lot of low level but like that you hadn't seen before,
22:39
Speaker 2: Like because we weren't shooting in La it was like, oh,
22:41
Speaker 2: I've seen that guy on this other stuff. It was
22:43
Speaker 2: just you only ever saw them on our show.
22:45
Speaker 1: But to us, they became celebrities.
22:47
Speaker 2: We loved them, we love yeah, and we would write
22:49
Speaker 2: for them and be like this is they will be
22:51
Speaker 2: in this sketch and I love It's. One of the
22:54
Speaker 2: things I miss about not doing the show is there
22:55
Speaker 2: was all those people who I stopped seeing super granted
22:59
Speaker 2: I would see them every day. Yeah yeah. And also
23:03
Speaker 2: back another thing I thought that and I don't know,
23:05
Speaker 2: maybe you learned this and TiO min Eric because I
23:07
Speaker 2: feel like your use of just like non speaking roles
23:09
Speaker 2: like cutaways like where you know where.
23:12
Speaker 1: You get, well, that was a little bit of financial
23:14
Speaker 1: respond okay, because we always make our list of like, okay,
23:16
Speaker 1: we need I don't know, fifty guest stars for the season,
23:20
Speaker 1: and David was, well, you guys, we only have a
23:22
Speaker 1: budget at thirty. I go, well, okay, I'll play like
23:25
Speaker 1: two of them and like ten of them don't need
23:27
Speaker 1: to speak. So then it just became a thing of
23:29
Speaker 1: like this can't speak because we're trying to cut corners
23:33
Speaker 1: on the budget. And the show was very cheap. Oh yes,
23:37
Speaker 1: Pino was one hundred thousand dollars. I remember that. Wow,
23:40
Speaker 1: which in today's terms is probably a little more, but
23:43
Speaker 1: still it was.
23:44
Speaker 2: It was really threadbare. It was running gun for sure.
23:53
Speaker 2: We were just talking about the goat box earlier. I
23:55
Speaker 2: remember stealing a shot driving like obviously we'd interacted with
23:59
Speaker 2: those goats like time and that when we wrote there.
24:01
Speaker 2: But I remember we were I think it was for
24:03
Speaker 2: the cell phone when we were just talking about but
24:04
Speaker 2: we would just be driving from one location to a
24:06
Speaker 2: next next, or walking and we would just be like,
24:08
Speaker 2: let's get a quick thing here. Like there was so
24:10
Speaker 2: much of that, just like spontaneous.
24:12
Speaker 1: Which the town is really helpful for that.
24:14
Speaker 2: The town is helpful and just so people understand that's
24:17
Speaker 2: very hard to do. Like you, it is really rare
24:20
Speaker 2: to be on any TV show and just be like,
24:23
Speaker 2: let's steal this show possible, like without permits or without
24:26
Speaker 2: like someone just under the auspices of someone be like,
24:29
Speaker 2: sure you can do that without someone be like, hold on,
24:31
Speaker 2: I got to walk in. Let's get the locations to
24:32
Speaker 2: make sure we're going to walk in. We got to
24:33
Speaker 2: get the contract going. We would do that after like
24:36
Speaker 2: they'd be like, okay, thanks, can you sign this?
24:38
Speaker 3: It was an afterthought. Yeah, I remember, this is an
24:41
Speaker 3: insurance thing.
24:42
Speaker 2: That I was waiting.
24:45
Speaker 1: I don't think, oh, I remember, I know what you're
24:46
Speaker 1: going to say.
24:46
Speaker 3: A thing spike with bicycle rides the bicycle like when
24:49
Speaker 3: I was well, when I got set out, I just
24:53
Speaker 3: had think yourself. Yeah, I was by myself, which is
24:56
Speaker 3: fine with me.
24:57
Speaker 1: I have no Maybe it was a car following you
24:59
Speaker 1: or leading you maybe or a bike or something. Yeah,
25:02
Speaker 1: but I remember I remember waiting for you.
25:06
Speaker 4: My memory is off.
25:07
Speaker 1: You go yeah, and then mean like but the driving
25:11
Speaker 1: when we would just put all the cameras in the car,
25:12
Speaker 1: you guys would just drive. I remember we were in
25:14
Speaker 1: that ambulance. We used it, but we were just going
25:19
Speaker 1: through stop signs and I just could.
25:21
Speaker 2: Have You went on on a bike. I went out
25:24
Speaker 2: on a ski do with a go pro way out
25:27
Speaker 2: in the river. Remember them with the Sea World episode.
25:31
Speaker 2: I mean you guys, there was not even someone like
25:33
Speaker 2: near me to be like, well, for safety, we'll follow
25:36
Speaker 2: her out.
25:36
Speaker 1: The show was very safe. No, it was the car
25:40
Speaker 1: because there were so many cameras you couldn't even see.
25:43
Speaker 3: I was scared that because there were so many real
25:46
Speaker 3: bicycle people that I thought one of these days.
25:48
Speaker 1: I remembered, I was worried.
25:50
Speaker 4: That I was going to hit someone on a bicycle.
25:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember riding on the back of a motorcycle
25:55
Speaker 2: like with that stunt guy. There was definitely, Yeah, there
25:59
Speaker 2: was a lot of that.
26:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, for better or worse.
26:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is something I don't This is a real question.
26:04
Speaker 3: Yeah that I don't understand that I think both of
26:07
Speaker 3: you probably take for granted. When I watched portl India
26:10
Speaker 3: opening credits, the whole show, there is a color like,
26:15
Speaker 3: there's a look to it and it can't be as
26:18
Speaker 3: simple as oh, we just set up cameras. What is
26:21
Speaker 3: this trick that made it look so rich and like
26:26
Speaker 3: mysterious and what is the camera?
26:30
Speaker 1: Well, okay, i'll tell you the first two seasons. This
26:34
Speaker 1: I was because I was always on these inexpensive, like
26:39
Speaker 1: low budget projects. We're always like what's the next thing,
26:42
Speaker 1: And on TI min Ark were always experimenting with stuff,
26:44
Speaker 1: and we had shot with this still camera, which became
26:47
Speaker 1: all the rage after. But we shot the first two
26:50
Speaker 1: seasons of Portland on the still cannon, you know camera
26:55
Speaker 1: that you just buy at the store, and the camera
26:58
Speaker 1: operators are always complaining about it because it was a
27:00
Speaker 1: pain in the US. But it looks really cool and
27:02
Speaker 1: the lenses are like very beautiful and you get this
27:06
Speaker 1: amazing look that at the time was impossible. We must
27:12
Speaker 1: have been the first thing to shoot on that technology
27:16
Speaker 1: in a big show or movie or something, because it
27:20
Speaker 1: was very early on in that technology. So it definitely
27:23
Speaker 1: gave it. But in my mind I was like, well,
27:27
Speaker 1: if let's say Gus Van Sant or some indie film
27:32
Speaker 1: independent film channel was making a sketch show like this
27:34
Speaker 1: is what it would be. That was sort of the
27:36
Speaker 1: north star of the vibe of it. So it was
27:39
Speaker 1: more like low key and like your guys' performances were
27:42
Speaker 1: always like very dry and grounded, and it's like, so,
27:45
Speaker 1: can we do something that's not like in your face comedy.
27:48
Speaker 1: This would be this version of it have its own aesthetic.
27:51
Speaker 1: But I think, I think that's what you're talking about.
27:53
Speaker 4: That's exactly that's the exactly what I was wondering about.
27:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, is there a filter on to intro, on the
28:01
Speaker 3: intro and the interests?
28:04
Speaker 1: Yes, there was a lot. We were just throwing because
28:07
Speaker 1: you got to understand the first episode, which that title
28:10
Speaker 1: sequence was in, and from we finished. Okay, so we
28:15
Speaker 1: shot the show in the summer. We did the pilot
28:18
Speaker 1: quick turn around. Yes, we'll do a serious then we
28:20
Speaker 1: shot it. Then you went to SNL. Then I went
28:23
Speaker 1: to SNL too because I was still working there. The
28:25
Speaker 1: editors came to New York and we would just work
28:27
Speaker 1: on it like during the day and night. I fell
28:30
Speaker 1: asleep many times in the edit room. So but then
28:34
Speaker 1: Christmas time came around, everything went back to LA. The
28:39
Speaker 1: show was not done and it got shipped to my
28:42
Speaker 1: house and I had just had a baby, and so
28:45
Speaker 1: literally I would go in. I would start at like midnight.
28:50
Speaker 1: I worked till like six in the morning, just trying
28:52
Speaker 1: to finish the show. So I'm sure I was in
28:54
Speaker 1: some program throwing random filters on that title sequence because
28:59
Speaker 1: there was a lot of like prosumer filters, and I
29:01
Speaker 1: was just like, try to try that. I was just
29:03
Speaker 1: trying and literally finished the show. I couldn't believe that.
29:09
Speaker 1: And then they were like, you have to lay this
29:10
Speaker 1: off for air. I'm like, I don't even know exactly
29:14
Speaker 1: how to do that. I did it wrong. I did
29:16
Speaker 1: it wrong. But when the show first aired, the volume
29:19
Speaker 1: was wrong.
29:20
Speaker 2: What do you mean the volume was wrong? Like it
29:22
Speaker 2: wasn't sound mixed.
29:23
Speaker 1: No, Basically, this is even crazier the first season sound mixes.
29:28
Speaker 1: We didn't go into a sound mixing studio. I literally
29:31
Speaker 1: just gave it on a drive to this friend of
29:33
Speaker 1: a friend and he's like, I do albums. I'm like,
29:38
Speaker 1: you're supposed to put tone at the beginning, like, dude,
29:40
Speaker 1: so it sets the level for who's ever airing it.
29:44
Speaker 1: And I was like, I think it should be this
29:45
Speaker 1: or that. I said it wrong, so the show when
29:48
Speaker 1: people they had to turn it up. This was too
29:50
Speaker 1: low anyway, Wow, there was no one working on it
29:53
Speaker 1: but me. It was crazy. I couldn't believe it and
29:56
Speaker 1: I should I should have called somebody and be like,
29:58
Speaker 1: what am I supposed to do?
30:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, we flew so under the radar.
30:02
Speaker 1: I mean it was a different time. Yeah, of television.
30:05
Speaker 1: It was like i FC was like it was I
30:09
Speaker 1: don't know what it was, but it was just like, really,
30:14
Speaker 1: no one is paying attention. Yes, and an executive level, yes,
30:17
Speaker 1: there were people paying attention. I've gotten in trouble for
30:20
Speaker 1: think stupid things in the past. It's just like it was.
30:24
Speaker 1: It was a wild West and it was great. It
30:26
Speaker 1: made great content.
30:27
Speaker 2: We were just talking about we were just naming a
30:29
Speaker 2: few shows like Delocated or Heartshet Hollered, like adults swim
30:33
Speaker 2: adults swim human, I mean human. Yeah, but like just
30:37
Speaker 2: things were like there would not that would just be
30:40
Speaker 2: maybe on YouTube now maybe not maybe, you know.
30:43
Speaker 1: And I still I say this now, like comedy is
30:45
Speaker 1: missing that throwaway like throw away but like that lower
30:50
Speaker 1: budget thing where it's just like it's we're like kids
30:53
Speaker 1: in the Hall or something where it say, it's just
30:54
Speaker 1: like late night or something where you can just make
30:57
Speaker 1: weird stuff. Not all comedy has to be so beautiful
31:00
Speaker 1: and like you know, like you just need that punk
31:04
Speaker 1: energy sometimes in making comedy, it's just you take it
31:08
Speaker 1: too seriously. It kind of stifles it.
31:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, even the way you're describing like your editorial process,
31:13
Speaker 2: it's so anarchic, you know, and it's just like you
31:16
Speaker 2: kind of like leaving the mistakes and it's like old music,
31:19
Speaker 2: you know, you're like, oh my god, they're out of
31:21
Speaker 2: key here, or like you can hear them.
31:22
Speaker 1: Kind of energy is good.
31:24
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it's just it's about feel And I think we.
31:26
Speaker 1: Talked about that a lot. Did you talk about that?
31:29
Speaker 2: No, not really.
31:29
Speaker 1: We would always talk about the first albums of bands
31:33
Speaker 1: that we love, right, Oh, yeah, I always talk about that, like, yeah,
31:37
Speaker 1: the first album has a lot of mistakes in it,
31:38
Speaker 1: it's really rough and they've been working on it for
31:40
Speaker 1: ten years or whatever, and then the second album they
31:43
Speaker 1: rush out and it doesn't work as well or something
31:46
Speaker 1: like that. But we remember we talked about that a lot.
31:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel like when we'd first get to in
31:51
Speaker 2: the writer's room, we'd have, you know, like you kind
31:52
Speaker 2: of have like an analogy like that was definitely one,
31:55
Speaker 2: and we would name like the albums that were like great,
31:58
Speaker 2: great first albums. But for us though, I think we
32:01
Speaker 2: were lucky that the first season was kind of truncated
32:03
Speaker 2: because it allowed the second season to actually kind of
32:06
Speaker 2: like drift off like some of that energy, but like
32:08
Speaker 2: slightly just a little more refined. I felt like we
32:12
Speaker 2: kind of hit our stride there, and.
32:13
Speaker 1: We also kind of knew what it was. I think
32:15
Speaker 1: in the first season, we're like, we had some scenes
32:18
Speaker 1: that we didn't end up using. We were like, is
32:20
Speaker 1: it this? Do we have like interviews or remember yes.
32:23
Speaker 2: Yes, or like the Dandy Warhol's the Courtney Corney tape
32:26
Speaker 2: right Taylor Taylor.
32:28
Speaker 1: Because we were just like, we don't know what it is.
32:31
Speaker 1: It could be all these things. And then we kind
32:32
Speaker 1: of found it and then second season was like, Okay,
32:35
Speaker 1: boom boom boom.
32:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, that feels like a good place to stop for
32:39
Speaker 2: this first interview with John. We will be continuing in
32:43
Speaker 2: the next episode.
32:44
Speaker 4: Thanks for being there.
33:06
Speaker 1: What un one one one one one one one one
33:10
Speaker 1: one one one n