very lucky to be joined here tonight i three extremely talented people
please welcome Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and John PeopleSoft
Fred you know I'm
I remember speaking to you a baby about five years ago for story during the
Middle
a writers strike when Saturday Night Live was was dark
and you were occupying your time with these kinda quirky online videos that
you were making with Carrie
called funder and yeah and in one a
she was interviewing you and you're playing saddam hussein but you're
playing him
as if you were assertive British rock musician in the nineteen sixties yeah
those are the first things that we did and and that's like another
you know that's why I could tell that it was going to be something that when
last little while to do you think I've thunder and as that was that with the
genesis of what
Portlandia would eventually become out definitely
definitely man this it's from that that this you know the show became
eventually what it was but that was the kinda roots have it all when you
even page 282 IFC with a dislike what they actually want how r
I that was yes failing to use up to what like yeah
really great catch phrase yeah
you gonna be the white guy yeah Fred I think I think some
people may know this about you when you were very accomplished musician already
before you got to
I think it was brilliant separate right did somebody say brilliant
yeah I'm sorry thank you yeah and and
carry you were also in in a band that some people on this stage may consider
when the greatest
that rock bands of all time I'm what would is it about
rock music and and and calm any i mean is it is it that
are are rock musicians all aspiring comedians to
to some extent hopefully not that I
I think I yeah I mean I A um I don't know I guess there's just
a fearlessness and a danger and kinda
a willingness to go to a precipice and two
take a leap into do something messy and I think all of us are willing
to have moments that feel and graceful and clumsy
and a little bit on unruly and then hopefully to kind of
steady ourselves and to sort a balance between those two things
and also a a many my favorite comedy group
had an element to them that seem like they're a kind of a band like Monty
Python Kids in the Hall
there's something about them that had a very sort of rock quality to them
when I saw the founder and videos on my let's not treat this
like at television show hey let's have fun not
try some stuff out this low pressure which i think is the musicians in a
recording studio as I cannot see if we come up a sign we did it
lol you know it's cool take the pressure off and I think when you watch a like
out that's 17 something like that before so
that did come from the music world
and away carried me do you feel like a threesome you have
the most direct claim to the Pacific Northwest and and to Portland
I mean technically you think I guess I was born in Seattle
I've never lived anywhere else and so technically yes but
that and is a blessing and a curse because it doesn't actually
serve any better than you know serving any better than anyone else
don't think right for it but for the for those who ever have never been to the
real
Portland I mean is it it's we're yeah I
a more messed up I really bizarre a place
yes its oddly beautiful like I
okay that's an Acer yeah it is beautiful I'm like a
like a kid that grew up with like really great parents yell complaining about it
anything to me
I northwest is amazing was there a lotta brainstorming
even going to that first season about characters or even be
the kinds of people that you might encounter their who the
who would populated place like this you just
look at you know certain stores like feminist bookstore is kinda matching
what those people would look like I don't think
even knew it people like that specifically and then
just you know what trying costumes and stuff it just kind of just somehow came
together
so on so demanding over that reality like there's those characters cap and
they have their first
we first meet them like China get the dog free his
tied up outside the restaurant and it was like you know
there's a very specific or something like I was just thinking going camping
everyday
I and and a
just in the in that very first season even before
Portlandia had started airing did you find that the
local population where they we need to have generally helpful or the a little
bit wary of what you're doing so helpful
just love let us everywhere stores streets
shut down streets like that the police department that lets us use their cars
I extra it's not a joke I mean I
agrees with a couple hundred yards away when is in there and there's the
computer
yeah and a weapon yeah night he says of like talking to a skateboarder yeah this
is really need to get that's buttons for this and you know that's the siren and
that said I just picture like new york is very different yeah
every feminist bookstore in Portland claim to be the inspiration for
women women for those just one yeah I miss you there
allographs I yeah fred win and im and by a
lunar calendar yeah I
it was hand drawn there was a gun drawn and yeah as a reminder
yeah and house is obsessed with that place is just you know this there's
so many rules that were written on the walls and I
ever simon says wifi password family from I
did you think it was in any way sure risky T
in to be having fun with these kinds of people
the seriousness with missus characters that were sort of lampooning
take themselves um tape I don't watch TV
I one other things that is
you know more or less constant it through the show and and the
the different characters is that I mean it's often focusing on
on do ours and that you know often for entire playing couples are for to carry
the friend does
there some kind of an analog for for Carrie to play I is that is that by
design is it important to you that that
be won the dynamics of the show I think if
the most important thing because that its
I think people when they watch the show their there if the friendship
that brings you back its that dynamic and you can see all those people looking
for having fun and
I think this is what Portlandia has this real
dynamic between two people and that's what makes it different
and is that relationship you're coming back for what is the dynamic between the
two them in this
before you go into production on issues and I mean do you have kinda for more
you know writers room people sitting around a table pitch and yeah
gets very best part is pretty traditional informal Mike
we started in Los Angeles mean where the studio there we do
come in every day and a straight-up ideas upon a board and pets ideas and
that party that would save my small it's very small so three of us maybe one
other person
yeah pretty small on try to keep it
Portlandia Voice for and then and then
also although I mean all the writing is done even before you go out on a
location to start filming redact most having
musically outlined its you know it's have we improvise
because I this is gonna sound lame but I came to idea that companies like
alchemy it's like this weird thing they're tryna
create but there's no want to use blocking the rules
it's not good anymore you got it like really go
out its this over here that's fine but you're making artisanal television and
you're really doing it on the seas mamon respect that nah
thank you so if it's only we're gonna use it
to win a start a taking questions from the audience people like to ask your
baby can ask a question
yeah I know this is about here's the deal
legally whose I can't discuss what with
me I you and I look
we're just buddies yeah am I
Boston the crazy who knows what happened by I
congratulations on the refuge yesterday go
I'm we don't let this happen okay yeah
yeah