July 16, 2026 • 47 mins
The dream of podcasting is alive in 2026. It's been 15 years since the cult classic comedy series Portlandia introduced the world to the 90's time capsule filled with wacky characters that outlined the unique neighborhoods that make up the city. Now Carrie and Fred are back, reliving all the weirdness.
To begin, they're starting with all the events that led up to the launch of Portlandia, including Carrie's toast at Fred's wedding, which was secretly an audition for Lorne Michaels; Fred's days as a Sleater-Kinney fan boy; and the wildly inappropriate campaign video they made for John Kerry.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, hey, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
You're watching Podlandia. Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm Fred Armison, I'm Karrie Brownstein, and this is AO
rewatch heo rewatch.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We are going to be looking back on Portlandia.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We're going to take a look at all of the
episodes that we've done of Portlandia, which ran from twenty
eleven to twenty eighteen, and talk about them as we've
been watching them.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yes, nice to see you, by the way.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Nice to see you too. I'm so happy we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I really haven't had an opportunity to watch the show
in the meantime since we stopped, so this is it's
been really fun for me.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Same same here. Yeah, it's re airing on Netflix.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So I feel like a lot of people are watching
it right now and have started to text me or
call me or just come up to me people I
don't know and are mentioning things.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Again. It sort of never went away, but it feels
also like a refresher, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, Also like people send me memes and stuff. And
I believe there's also a channel on some cable systems
that runs the show continuously.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Sure, So whatever you say, why are we doing this podcast?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Aside from it being on Netflix now and on that
cable channel. We've always remained friends anyway, so we haven't
seen each other, we've worked together. So let's talk about
the roots of the show where, yes, why we started,
where it all came from. And it goes back to
the nineties in that I was and am a huge
(02:10):
fan of Slater Kenny and was friends with your drummer
at the time, Janet Weiss, And that also we shared
many friends because I was in a band in the
nineties and you were as well, we shared some friends.
We like knew many of the same people.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Yeah, and I just want to point out that some
listeners might not know who are what Slater Kenny is,
which is a band that I formed in college in
the nineteen nineties in Olympia, Washington. And Fred was in
a band Trench Mouth in Chicago, and at the time,
(02:48):
you know, their pre Internet, it was just word of mouth,
and you met people through touring, so you know, you
would go there was a whole sort of circuit and
system of like going from one town to the next,
you would meet other people in the music scene. You
really relied on them for everything, you know, like where
are the best places to eat, what venues should we play? Ad?
(03:11):
You know, this is how you also discovered music. Just
people would sort of point you in a right direction,
or you listen to a certain label from a city,
and you got to know all those bands. And I
remember sleeping on your couch. You were out of town.
I was on tour. I stayed at your apartment. My
friend was friends with Damon who was in Trench Mouth,
(03:33):
and I just remember, oh, yeah, this is Fred's house. Okay,
you know I know of Fred. So this was before
you were on SNL. I just knew you as a
drummer in a punk band, and you knew me as
you know, a guitarist and Slater Kinney.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
That's those are sort of pre TV.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Identities and still an identity I think that we hold
on to is you know, we we still consider ourselves musicians,
and I think the lens through which we view a
lot of phenomena was very much formed in these early
years when we play music and by the scenes we
came up in. You know, that sensibility very like very nineties,
(04:14):
very sort of indie punk rock. You know, we've not
only did it inform us, but it's something that we've
grappled with, you know, the stuff that really was helpful
and also the stuff that kind of hampered us at times.
And we'll end up talking about that a lot in
the podcast because you know, my friend calls it punk damage.
You know, you're just like a lot of the stuff
(04:34):
was so strident, and you know you sort of fight
with that later like what was useful about that sensibility
and what, yeah, just made things more difficult. And we
infuse a lot of this into the show.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Including characters that we met while we were on tour
or recording, people who had their own studios, people who
ran label, people had venues, fans, you know, what the
whole experience was like in the music world. We do
(05:09):
revisit in on Portland.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yah exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
So yeah, So going back, basically, we were in each
other's like circles, you know, sort of extended social circles.
And then you were officially on SNL and Slater Kinney
was touring and we were coming through New York and
through our drummer Janet Wise you mentioned you were friends
(05:32):
with you invited us to SNL. It was Jennifer Garner
was the host, Beck was the musical guest. We were
really excited to go, but unfortunately we had our own show.
I think we were playing at Irving Plaza and so
you said, why don't you come to the after party. So,
you know, we played the show, we showed up to
this after party and that's where I met you.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And you had a little button with my face on it.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, because because at the time, I think from that
album you had pins for each band member.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Yes, and it was they were taken from when we
had toured Australia and were each holding koalas.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah. Yeah, so I had the carry one.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
On, you had the carry one on, which is you know, flattering.
And I was also like, oh, who is this guy
that's like wearing a button with my face on it?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And in the writers in my office at SNL, I
purposefully kept it undecorated. I didn't want it to be
homie or anything like it. But on my bulletin board
I had a poster of Slater Kenny and it was
one of those smaller posters. It wasn't like a poster poster.
It was like one of those little ones. And the
(06:41):
point about all of this is that Sleeter Kenny is
my favorite band and when I first heard you guys play.
When I first heard your records, it was really an
epiphany for me. It really was in my life. I think,
like many people, people who grew up on certain types
(07:02):
of music, you know, you start with the Beatles and
the Who, and then punk sort of took over. And
for me, Prince, these are all sort of like answers
to what I used to listen to before punk. And
then Prince sort of like was like, well, that's what
(07:24):
Sleeter Kenny was that for me. Where after all that,
I was like, this is what I've been looking for,
and I was obsessed. People use that word a lot, obsessed,
but I would say that that is an accurate description
of how much I listened to Sleeter Kenny.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
What's interesting about that, Well, first of all, thank you,
and you know, it's always been very a source of
pride for me that you're such a fan of the band,
because you are such an amazing musician and anyway, so
thank you. But I remember back in that sorry, but
I remember back in the day when I would meet
some of your co stars in snl Amy Tina, they
(08:06):
would say like, oh, Fred's obsessed with your band, Fred
love Slater Kinney, Like I think they were tired of
hearing about Slater Kinney.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Honestly, yep, yeah, you know which.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Was I was like, I'm so sorry that our musual
friend talks about the band. I mean, they were really
nice about it, but they just thought it was kind
of funny because I think compared to some of your cohorts,
your interests were a little bit different. You know, you
music was such an obsession for you, and your musical taste.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Was not mainstream.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That sounds right.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
So after this night, I remember us keeping in touch,
and at one point you said, hey, it'd be really
fun to collaborate in in something. And again I assumed, well,
we'll collaborate on music, but you actually were interested in
shooting a video doing some comedy, and you had been
asked by the John Kerry campaign presidential campaig to make
(09:01):
a video. And this is then the first time that
we collaborate, and you fly to Portland and we shoot
this very silly video.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
And you can explain it because.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Well, at the time, Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq,
was on trial. So at this point the government had
been overthrown and in court he wore he didn't look
like he didn't have his military outfit on. He had
(09:31):
a sort of version of a suit that looked kind
of like rock and rolling, meaning like you know, and
someone like Pete Townsend or part Weller or whoever, you know,
when they dressed kind of nicely. And he also had
like his beard was different and his hair was different,
and he had like a he looked sort of British
to me. And I just thought, what if there's this
(09:55):
character of Saddam Hussein who's British and is only into music,
same guy, but he does want to talk to talk
about the dictatorship. So we did this video called boinc, which.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Is the name of the cable access show, this stake
cable access show that my character Cindy Overton hosts.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And I think you thought of the title right away.
I think in the moment you just said you welcome
to Boinc.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, and I'm getting the first post bunker interview, like
an exclusive ye with Sadam Hussein.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And I had my you know, I had like a
fake beard on their suit. I think I put even
I might have been put like a little bit of
like dark under my eyes, you know, or my eyebrows.
I know, I made my eyebrows really dark, and I
had the guitar. I might have had your guitar. And
I think this was in Korin's basement.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, so my bandmate Krn Tucker from Slater Guinney, we
shot it in her basement. That was the set for BOK.
You had a guitar and you just played guitar a lot.
You spoke in a British accent.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yep, and you just were interviewing and you were already
a character sort of like nervously, you know, trying to
get information from Saddam Hussein and you know, not nervous,
you know, like a sort of cable access vibe.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah, well, what a big get for my show?
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yes, you know, yeah, and I remember that shooting these
opening credits. By the way, what did we have for
a crew? Just Patrick, I think, right, Jeff Buchanan. Jeff Buchanan, okay,
and he did everything. Yeah, so Jeff Buchanan did all
(11:32):
of it, the camera work, editing. The opening credits were
there was graffiti near Corn's house and it was the
video was you scraping off the graffiti, cleaning off the graffiti,
just like your expression was, you know, these dumb kids
(11:53):
making you know. And I remember in that moment realizing
which I was already convinced anyway, I was like, oh,
this is who I want to work with. We were
in line when it comes to tone and comedy. I
just feel like we were like right exactly on the
(12:14):
same page of the message we were trying to send,
whatever that is. And we'll talk about that too and
what it goes back to, what bands it was inspired by,
what comedy, whatever it was, it was exactly what I
was looking for. It did feel like a puzzle piece.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Well, I will say that whose sensibility it didn't work
for was the John Kerry campaign, who never used that
video but also lost the election. So just putting that
out there.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
We'll also put out there that should he run again.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Exactly that video is there and really holds.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Up and holds up. I believe the original was eight minutes.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Longer or longer maybe fourteen Yeah, throw it up there. Yeah, anyway,
vote for Carrie. So after that, we definitely enjoy working
with each other. We decide we're going to keep doing this,
and you kept coming up to Portland, and I think
this really helps create a look and a feel for
(13:17):
what ends up being portlandy We just happened to keep shooting.
You lived in New York, but we kept shooting in Portland.
We kept using local restaurants and businesses. We went to
a place called Reading Frenzy, which was near Powell's Books,
which is this really famous independent bookstore in Portland, kind
of a tourist destination. And there's this little shop called
(13:38):
Reading Frenzy and it had like fanzines and you know,
small print books. And the proprietor, Chloe you Daily, she
was an acquaintance of Mind, and she said, yeah, you
can shoot at my store. So we had these characters
Tony and Candice, and I mean I remember going and
buying a very expensive wig, just you know, long straight
(14:03):
black hair with bangs, and we went to Goodwill and
bought some clothing.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You know, we just sort of threw this together.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And then we just went and collected flyers from like
co ops and other like you know, little like corkboards
and whatnot. And just the whole conceit of this sketch
was just us deciding which flyers to put up in
the store at this little bookshop.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And that was the birth of feminist bookstore.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I don't even remember where my wig came from. Probably
from the same place, you know. I actually no, I
do remember we went there was like a one of
those like just wig shops.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, Wigland. It's on Northeast Broadway. It's still there, great
wig shop. We I mean we bought inexpensive wigs. Yeah,
because I remember later when Tony and Cannice became characters
on Portlandia, obviously we had to improve upon these these wigs.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
But yeah, that It's funny because I don't remember either
of us having like the ambition of, like, listen, if
we get this together, we could really pitch this as
a show someday. It was for no reason. It was
just let's just do this.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Yeah, And we made seven or eight videos before we
even thought about it as anything bigger than it was.
We were just enjoying working together. We were just having
our friends film us. At this point. It's Patrick Stanton.
We did one in la we did one in New York,
(15:36):
but most of the time we were in Portland. And
you know, in addition to feminist books or there are
a couple other there was, we.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Did have these bike rights activists.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yep, and you end up having a character Spike, who's
kind of a you know, bicycle rights enthusiasts. So yeah,
there's just these early this like these kernels of what
would become Portland. We called it thunder Ant. We originally
going to call it thunder Egg, which is the official
state rock of Oregon. And then we looked at MySpace
(16:10):
and there was a band with like seventy followers call
and you are very kind in this way, and you
were just like, I just don't want to take the
name thunder Egg. There's already this established band, So we
changed it to thunder Ant, and that was the moniker
you know that we used until your manager Tim Sarkas,
(16:30):
who then became my manager, later said hey, you guys,
this is a thing like you guys have a you
love working with each other. There's a sensibility and a
point of view like what if this was a TV show.
We never said. This was just a completely organic dynamic.
It stemmed from our friendship and we did not start
(16:53):
out with like, hey, let's pitch a show.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Nope.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
It it's hard to stress how different this is from
the way people approach things, like in some ways, it's
much more analogous to the way I formed Slater Kinney
or the way you probably formed trench Mouth, which was
just who are people I want to be around? Who
are people who I respect and admire and I glean
inspiration from. I want to keep hanging out with this person,
(17:16):
but I want to keep hanging out with them in
a way where we get to do something creative. And
that was thunder ant. It was not hey, let's set
a general meeting and this is Fred Armison. He you know,
I think you guys would like each other, or even like, hey,
I were friends, but like, what's the most ambitious thing
we could do together? It was really we had almost
(17:38):
like ten sketches, ten videos before we even thought of
this as a show.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
And it was just online. We didn't try to monetize
it in any way. It was just these videos that
were up I don't think even told that many people
about it. We didn't even we didn't have a campaign
of like you got to watch these videos. They were
just up there.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah. And then and we did decide, like, let's pitch
this as a show.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Our friend Patrick, who we mentioned he flew to New York,
I was actually living in New York at the time.
We filmed a little introduction and we kind of put
together a little I guess would be called sizzle reel
of just basically like a demo video, like here's a
proof of concept. And that was the pitch, and I'm
actually really glad that we had sketches something to actually
(18:27):
show them. We didn't have a script, which is sometimes
what people pitched with. We didn't really have like an
out you know, a story outline. We just said, this
is sort of what it would be like. It's really
just the two of us doing silly things.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And we pitched that.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Well, first of all, I guess we should talk about
you were on SNL and we were actually required in
this obligatory way, like you know, Broadway Video, which is
Lauren's production company, they have the right of first refusal.
We literally had to ask Lauren for permission, and we
assumed he would say thanks, but no, like this is
weird to Indie for me.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I have you know I have a Giants by the way,
Lauren Michael's the creator of Saturday Night Live. Yeah, but
we did and through his company, Andrew Singer at Broadway
Video decided to take it on.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah, and he went into the rooms with us. We
pitched to Comedy Central and IFC, and was there one
more do we pitch to?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Can remember?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I definitely I remember Comedy Central, Oh and Adult Swim.
Okay and Adult Swim in Comedy Central both said no
one does get shows. And then I f C, which
was the Independent Film Channel, and they mostly really did
just show like Tarantino Films and you know, just indie movies,
(19:51):
and they were just starting to original programming. They had
a couple things on, but very very few shows, and
I think we just lucked out. They were really looking
to start doing more of that, and they needed creators
and shows, and they took a chance on us and
said okay and ordered a pilot, just a pilot, not
(20:13):
not straight to series, you know, not anything too you know,
big or like it. Just they were like, okay, we'll
try a pilot.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Before we get to that. I was just I just
remembered that. Remember the video that we made in New York.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
In my apartment.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yes, yeah, it was a similar setup to this, where
it was two little desks facing each other.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I don't know what the premise was. It was almost
like we were going to start each episode with us talking.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
To each other or something.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That's right, And I also want to point out that
at the time you were new to the world of
I can't say the new to the world of comedy,
but just let's say new to Lauren Michael's world.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Oh, I mean that's like an understatement, like I was
just yeah, yeah, I mean thanks, but you know, I
mean it's more it's even more of an understatement. And you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Were and are fifty percent you were, you know, a
co collaborator of this show, this that we were pitching
that didn't have a title, so Lauren had trust. But
still there was like a moment that sealed it for him.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Right, I mean, contextually, you're working with the best of
the best. You know, if this was going to be
like designed in a lab, you know, you're already working
with Maya Rudolph, you're working with Kristin Wig, You're working
with Amy Pohle or like certainly someone easily could have said, oh,
Fred wants to do his own show separate from SNL. Great,
well let's pair him with Maya, you know, let's let's
(22:09):
put him with Kristen like Apps. Of course, and you
and I were fairly untested, you know, in the bigger
scheme of things, and certainly untested with Laurene. He knew
that you like you and I were friends, that's about it,
but we didn't know each other personally.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So you get married and.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You asked me to be the best man essentially, and
to give the toast.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And I was the only person.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
There was no other speed. He wasn't like no family,
nobody just here, just me there.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
It wasn't like, hey, we're going to do a whole
series of toasts. Can you do the lead off toast
or can you emc. It was like, hey, we don't
want to do a lot of talking and stuff. We
want to keep it simple. So it's just me. So
I write a toast and I remember, I'm, you know,
at the wedding any and I look around and it
is it's all the aforementioned people plus Tina Fey, plus
(23:07):
You're you're marrying Elizabeth Moss.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
This is the peak of mad Men, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So it's like Jon Ham, it's Matt Winer, the creator
of the show.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I mean, this is a very like stacked event. And
I'm I'm.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
An indie musician, you know, and I give this toast.
I it's comedic, it's heartfelt, and I I kind of
can't believe that. I wasn't more scared it just but
I did it. And I remember later you telling me like,
(23:39):
you know, that was kind of your audition for Lauren. Now,
if you had told me that beforehand, I didn't know beforehand, No, no,
I know, but if I had even thought that that
could have been the case. I wasn't thinking of any
of that. I mean, you're just one of my best friends.
I just you know, am wishing you the best and
trying to create some like context for this you know,
(24:01):
ceremony and for these nuptials. And later I you know,
when you couched it like that, and when you sort
of realized that was the case. Yeah, it was sort
of mind blowing because I, in retrospect, I should have
been so much more nervous.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, but it was so well written and well done.
And it was also it was Lauren also who told
me later like, I'm sure he didn't realize it, but
it was as it was happening, he was like, oh right, yeah,
that's her audition.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, And I think what he realized was like, the
show is actually reliant on this chemistry.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
It has to be these two people, like it's.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
You know, if it was you and someone from SNL,
Like that's a whole different show. But but this show,
what you know, comes to be Portlandia. That's Fredd and Carry.
Like the way they connect, you know, what they connect on,
what they find funny, you know, their friendship, the seamlessness
of it, the intimacy of it, Like we just can't
(25:01):
replicate that even if we're just pulling from someone that
everyone knows, well, that's like a really funny woman that's famous, Like,
it just won't be this. It will be something else
and it could be great, but it's not going to
be this. And I think that's one of the brilliant
things about Lauren is he knows that he knows that
that that's how things work, and that trust, that faith
(25:23):
in us I think really went a long way, you know,
and he ends up, you know, fighting for us at
certain moments, especially you know, we filmed the pilot and
he we needed a fast pickup order because you were
going to you needed to be back in SNL in
the fall. We shot the pilot in like May or something,
(25:44):
and he's like, you got to decide otherwise, you know,
if we wait a year, if we sort of dick.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Around, like we all know this is not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
And he was a big champion and you know still
is in uh came up to Portland often and visited us,
and yeah, anyway, but yeah, that's that always sort of
gives me chills thinking about, like I get nervous now
for an event that took place, you know, twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And he was right, all those instincts were right about it.
Yeah when we first so we pitched the show at IFC,
and we didn't have a title just yet.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
No, and nor did we pitch it as a show
that would be shot in Portland. That to me is
always so interesting, Like we knew that the show had
like a certain feel to it, that the sketches had
a certain feel. We were definitely reveling in absurdity. We
wanted things to be silly, irreverent, like you know, there
(26:43):
was all these ingredients, but we never actually thought of
Place as part of that, which is ridiculous because of
course Place.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Was very much informing what we were doing.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
I just think we one, we didn't take it for granted,
and we didn't assume that anyone would sign off and
shooting in Portland like most people, especially at the time.
You know, now, of course a lot of things don't
shoot in LA and that's a problem. But at the time,
tons of things shot in LA and that just seemed
like a given. Yeah, and yeah, it was sort of
someone else. In fact, it was IFC that was like,
(27:15):
of course, you guys should shoot in Portland.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I think Evan Schapiro, Okay, yeah at IFC at I
and it was that was good news. I mean, I
love going to Portland anyway. So and then we shot
so much of it there that I love that we
got to do that.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I think it absolutely made the show. You know, it
looked different. Uh, all the people who populated the show
in terms of the background don't look like you know,
LA actors, Like it's just like it feels.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, everything about it. We shot on location.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
We didn't end up like setting up at a sound
stage and building sets like it just and it became
a stand in. You know, it wasn't Portland, it was Portlandia,
and so it became a stand in for an ideology
or a way of trying to live or do your
best or just it just it allowed it to be
(28:13):
heightened and we wanted something that felt a little bit mythical,
a little bit magical. Like we didn't want to be
always grounded in reality. We wanted to be able to
like step off into this place that was imaginative and strange.
And I think it all it just coalesced into something.
And we were very fortunate because again we didn't come
(28:36):
into this with like, and this is what we want
to do and it has to be the city. Like
a lot of this we lucked into and then realized later, oh,
it had to be this and it wouldn't have been
the same any other way. But yeah, even the title
Portlandia didn't exist.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, we had a few titles in the running. And
then it was someone at Broadway Video, Marx who's from Portland,
who pointed out that there's a statue there called Portlandia,
and that was an immediate yes, yeah, that makes so
(29:12):
much sense.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Yeah, it just conjures something. It's just like, oh, okay,
it's a place. It's a real place, but it's also
an imagined space. And I think having that kind of
blank canvas was really helpful. And yeah, I think the
other titles were not great.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I have a picture of us somewhere with the whiteboard
with the other titles written in.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Oh yeah, so yes, A one with Stumptown, which is,
you know, a coffee shop in Portland that's now global
but at the time was a pretty small local business.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
There was what were some of the others I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I think something like from the the City of Portland
or something like that. Something that might be wrong, but
something with the city the word city in it, okay.
And there's a couple others. I mean, it was thunder
Ant in there.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
It maybe was it, maybe it was I think.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Just as a yeah, obligatory left let's add this in
as a title idea. And then Jonathan Kreisel, who was
at SNL working on some of the short films that
they had, like in an addition to Lonely Island. Yeah,
he would. John would do some videos as well. So
(30:38):
we met with him and then he became our co creator,
co director or director.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
I mean, Jonathan really elevated the show. You know, you
and I were thinking in terms of character and story,
and Jonathan was thinking visually. And I think one as
we get into these episodes, I have been struck by
how ambitious the visuals are. That you know, there is
(31:06):
a cinematic quality to it that I think I totally
credit to krysl You know, he just was thinking big.
He didn't want it to look like, Okay, we're just
just people in a room talking like he wanted there
it was. There are a lot of exteriors, there was pacing, like,
there was visual storytelling like I'm I'm really surprised what
(31:28):
we were able to pull off. And I think that's
just stemming from his you know, filmmaking prowess, like he
really I think it was before he I mean now
he directs a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
This was some of the first stuff he directed, and
I think he had he was like, yeah, I want
to do all this big stuff and try it out
on the show.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, he worked a bit on with Timinaria. But then
and Nick Kroll all right, or is that after?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I think it was at the time, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
But yeah. Also, I remember him in the writer's room.
This is how little I knew. We would have a
sketch idea and he would say something like yeah, but
how do you show that, which is a way of
saying no, And he was right where I I didn't
have an answer. I was like, yeah, that's true. How
do we show that you know, this is a sketch idea.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Yeah, and we'll have Jonathan on the show. Sorry, we'll
have Jonathan on this podcast because you know, it's I
think it's important to talk to him.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
He's just so in the DNA of the show.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yeah, we were not thinking visually as much as we
were content and write commedially. Yeah, And we brought in
Alison Silverman yep, who was a writer on The Colbert
Report and.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
What else did.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
She was a bunch of stuff, but she was definitely like.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Most recently from the time Colbert Report. And it was
kind of just the four of us.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That was it, and that's we worked out of whereas
like later seasons would work out of Portland. That one
that was in at Universe.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
In a small office with no desk, no, just a
couple of chairs.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
In a room, a whiteboard.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
And we started thinking of this mostly the pilot.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
And between the pilot and getting the season ordered, just
to give you some more background to it, because of
my schedule, we needed like a little bit of a
rush answer from i FC.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yes, which is again very rare.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
It's hard to really convey how green we were, like,
how like the things that were happening and happening at
a rapid pace. We're so unusual, like now we sort
of know how glacial development is and production, but we
just kept lucking at to it. I think partly, I
fc their enthusiasm, you know, just getting into you know,
(34:05):
doing original programming. They were moving at and able to
be more nimble, like moving at a much faster pace
and yeah, which just the time crunch of you going
back to SNEL. I think they were a little bit
like if it's not now never, okay, so what is
it like watching you know, like just going back and
(34:26):
looking like as we launch into this podcast, we've done,
you know, for this first episode, We've just started rewatching
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
I love the sort of the blindness of it, the
sort of like the naivete like, yeah, yeah, let's just
you know, make this thing that I but but by
two people who still have the same viewpoint, but still yeah,
you know, without like a final goal.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Yeah, there's there's an innocence to it. I think there's
an earnestness to it for sure, and a sincerity. I
think that you and I are sincere people. I think
we are not cynics, you know, or at least when
I feel that mindset encroaching. I'm always trying to like
(35:17):
show it away, and I think there is a sweetness
to the show and a lot of characters. I think
I'm reminded of that when I'm watching it. I'm reminded
of the fact that we were mostly exploring elements of ourselves,
you know, some small facet of our personality or you know,
like people we could have been if we had made
(35:39):
different decisions, like we weren't sort of looking out at
the world and making other people targets of our derision
or scorn. It was like, oh, I'm so curious why
I have this part of myself that comes out when
these certain things happen.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Or Yeah, it just it felt very curious and.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Very like it like an exploration.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
And I see that when I watch it, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Like, oh, yeah, there's okay, there's it's almost sweeter than
I remember in some ways.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, I feel exactly the same, sweeter than I remember. Yeah,
I'm not going you no, you go well, I was
going to say, like the thing, I like that it's
so long ago, and seeing that we were already close friends,
then yes, I love that.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
And I can even see in Okay, so we play
a version of ourselves in the show Fred and Carry,
and I will say this now and I'll point it
out later. There there's some reality to that, and then
there's I think we wanted to allow Fred and Carry
to be just a little more guileless and clueless and
(36:53):
just sillier. So we are just not as smart sometimes,
or I would like to think that this version of
myself smarter than the Portlandia Carry And you will see
that over and over again, like just for the sake
of comedy, we just allow this ignorance to come about,
just so we're not like stuck and like, well, no,
Fred Armison wouldn't do that, but I do see every
(37:16):
once in a while, no, not every once in a while,
a lot I'm like, oh, this is a real conversation
because there's so much improvisation. I think that's the other
thing to point out early on, Like, especially in these
first couple of seasons. You know, we would obviously pitch,
you know, sketch ideas, and they we did have beats
for each sketch and an outline, but there was a
(37:37):
very rudimentary script, and if there was a script, we
often basically threw it out, And so when I see
us talking as Fred and Carry, but also in other characters,
I can tell, oh, my gosh, this is just a
real conversation you and I are having. I can also
tell when we're actually really annoyed at one another, like
when in terms of like if someone says something that's
(37:57):
annoying that actually irks Carry or irks Fred, I.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Can see it. It's an interesting like mirror, yeah for sure, accurate.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah. Then physically, like you know, I'm so glad that
we grew up on bands in that whenever I see
that bands start looking older, I like it. I like
that they had different eras of their existence. So when
I look back and I see that, Okay, that's a
younger version, it's a good feeling like, hey, that was
(38:32):
what Yeah, that's what the band looked like back then.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
That's what we look like.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
For me, I feel like the first season hate my haircut.
I'm like, what is that haircut? I basically have had
the same hair by the way, for since like seventh grade,
different versions of it. This is like season one is
like not my favorite version. My bangs don't feel connected
to the rest of my hair. It was like I
(38:56):
had two different people cut it. I might have cut
my hair that year. I have no idea. It's very
I just noticed it. I was like, what's happening here?
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Oh, I can't answer that question. Also, I feel.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Like like I'm wearing lipstick now, but like I'm like,
why is my character?
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Why is Carrie wearing such bright lipstick?
Speaker 4 (39:14):
And every scene like it's just it's day it's daytime,
Like okay, you know, but I think in my mind
again in that sort of like naivitate, it's like, well,
I'm on camera, we should definitely put a lipstick on,
you know.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
So it's like, what, Like, no, it's the reality.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
But and I see that across all characters, like just
looking at early versions of like you know, the costume
and the makeup, and even though we were working with
consummate professionals, like we all just were like I don't know.
In some ways sometimes just there is just that sort
of figuring it out. But I like that there's a
charm to it for me looking back, like it gave
(39:49):
us somewhere to go.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, I think dress style wise, I'm kind of the same.
And that's a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes
I see myself wearing a hoodie, and I remember at
the time thinking someday I won't wear hoodies anymore.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
That is not true, and.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
I'm like still wearing hoodies and I really wanted to
outgrow it. And this jacket that I'm wearing today, I
actually chose not because it matched anything on Portlandia's just
because I like green jackets. Yeah, but then I did
have jackets like this back then, So I'm like, I
guess that's what I gravitate towards. So I feel mostly
(40:29):
good about it. I just wish I had outgrown hoodies.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
There's still time.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
There's still time.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
There's still time.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
It'd be nice to sort of put that aside.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
You know what a little goal is, or sorry, you
know what a little goal could be is to not
wear a hoodie on this podcast.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I love it. Just let's start small, let's try. I'm
saying that to.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Myself, okay, but then also watching it, I will say, like,
you know, I'm just like the the show is very white.
Sometimes I'm like, just I will just look at certain things.
When I was watching the show, I'm like, oh, this
is there's too many white people in this scene, like
Dream of the Ninties, dream of the nineties. I was
(41:13):
just like, ugh, like, do better. This is Yeah, there's
definitely some of that. Yeah, and it does improve. But
like watching that, I was like, what and.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
There's so many people, there's so many people in the video.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Yeah, and I and I'm just not even specifically that sketch,
I think in general, not just about other things.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Like i will just say like.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
I'm watching some of these sketches and I'm like, I
would not do that now, you know, Like I and
I'm sorry, and I'm a flawed person. I'm just like,
oh my gosh, like this sketch does not hold up
to me. I'm not talking about dreaming the nineties. I
really love that to sketch, but like other sketches. So
just so people know when we watching this, I'm just like,
(41:57):
oh my god, yes, let's not do that.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
And we when we'll talk about those things and we.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Improve, I mean definitely, yeah, that got better over time.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
But yeah, yeah, but just you know, I'm not even
talking about dreaming that n needs a nymmor just some
other sketches. I just and I'll say, like at the
beginning of the I'll be like, yeah, this one makes
me cringe. You know, because you're just like, oh, yeah,
I don't. I don't have a defense for this one.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
I have a that this is a lame defense. Oh boy, no,
it's not even a defense. It's not even a defense.
It's gonna sound defensive.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
It already does that.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Sometimes I have the same feeling you do, or I'm sorry,
I always have the same feeling you do. But sometimes,
but I'll remind myself. I'll say, like, I'm Venezuelan. That's
just something. I'm like, I'm just that's me talking to myself.
So I'm Korean and Venezuelan. I'm going to put that
in there as a sort of like, Okay, don't be
(42:56):
too hard on yourself.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
Of course, no, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
I'm leaving that as I understand that that is, you know,
it is not a perfect defense, but it's just something.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Oh, I mean, yeah, we are bringing ourselves to it.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Yeah, and we each have we possess multitudes, we have
our own identities and indexers of those identities, and we
bring our own flaws and contradictions to it. And that's
just who we are. I mean, I feel like we're
very like the show is in conversation with the city
and we are in conversation with the show like it.
(43:32):
To me, Portlandia is kind of a very ongoing discourse,
you know, and it's interesting to sort of look back on,
and this I think podcast just extends that discourse.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
I think we always as we were writing, felt like
we're exploring you know, ideas and phenomena and a way
of being in the world and sort of critiquing it.
But also it's you know, embracing it and just trying
to have and be funny. And what I like about
this podcast is that just continues the conversation and like
(44:06):
there's no sort of final word on it. Like certainly
a Portlandia sketch is not the final word on anything.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Like our intention was to have.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Fun and make people laugh and you know, sometimes make
people think or just to you know, like be observational.
But that's not you know, like that doesn't mean we
did it the right way all the time. Well a
lot of time we didn't. Yeah, Honestly, a lot of
(44:34):
the sketches in a good way to me hold up
and some things we predicted. Some things I was like, well,
well we were ahead of the curve here.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Oh yeah, And since then we've sort of kept in
touch about that. Yeah, or we'll see something in the news.
I remember when Pitchfork got sold or oh yeah I
didn't again, didn't really get shut down, but sort of
bought up by another company. Yeah, we had a sketch
about that.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Yeah, And I think the last thing I to say
is that, like I think another one of our intentions
and one of the reasons I create anything is to
feel a connection with people. And that connection is not
always just like joyful. Human connection is also one that's
uncomfortable sometimes, and I think that's okay, and we just
(45:19):
have to have it be uncomfortable sometimes, you know, because
authentic connection and communicating with people is about communicating through
the good and bad of it. So I'll to say that,
like the intention I think of the show and this
podcast is to feel a human connection and to just
ride that out, you know, through all the sort of
iterations of what that means. A lot of people once
(45:41):
it came back on Netflix, you know, sort of were
as curious as we were, like what from the show
sort of felt ahead of its time, what kind of
holds up what feels like a relic? You know, because
we were sort of capturing a specific moment.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
It's.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah, so it's interesting to kind of a look at
all those things, and it's there's so many sketches. So
it's it's a really fun journey for us. We hope
it is for the audience as well. Plus the other
thing that people may not know is you and I
hang out outside of Portlandia's so, like we were saying,
we hung out before the show started, and we have hung.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Out every year since.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
So this is again it's a continuation of a conversation
that we have with each other all the time. Not
that we're always talking about the show, but just you know,
we're talking about some of the things that we discussed
on the show that we showed on Portlandia. Like that's
just in the ether for us, Like it's part of
our friendship sort of commenting on and thinking about these things.
(46:42):
Plus we've spent many years in the interim texting each other.
I wish the show is still on because I have
this idea if we were still doing the.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Show, so many, so many ideas there, Yeah, it would
have made any sense.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Anyway, thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
We're excited to bring you back through port Landia a.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Bit. What what what what wa wa wa wa one
w u n nash
Hey, hey, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
You're watching Podlandia. Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm Fred Armison, I'm Karrie Brownstein, and this is AO
rewatch heo rewatch.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
We are going to be looking back on Portlandia.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We're going to take a look at all of the
episodes that we've done of Portlandia, which ran from twenty
eleven to twenty eighteen, and talk about them as we've
been watching them.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yes, nice to see you, by the way.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Nice to see you too. I'm so happy we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I really haven't had an opportunity to watch the show
in the meantime since we stopped, so this is it's
been really fun for me.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Same same here. Yeah, it's re airing on Netflix.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So I feel like a lot of people are watching
it right now and have started to text me or
call me or just come up to me people I
don't know and are mentioning things.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Again. It sort of never went away, but it feels
also like a refresher, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, Also like people send me memes and stuff. And
I believe there's also a channel on some cable systems
that runs the show continuously.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Sure, So whatever you say, why are we doing this podcast?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Aside from it being on Netflix now and on that
cable channel. We've always remained friends anyway, so we haven't
seen each other, we've worked together. So let's talk about
the roots of the show where, yes, why we started,
where it all came from. And it goes back to
the nineties in that I was and am a huge
(02:10):
fan of Slater Kenny and was friends with your drummer
at the time, Janet Weiss, And that also we shared
many friends because I was in a band in the
nineties and you were as well, we shared some friends.
We like knew many of the same people.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Yeah, and I just want to point out that some
listeners might not know who are what Slater Kenny is,
which is a band that I formed in college in
the nineteen nineties in Olympia, Washington. And Fred was in
a band Trench Mouth in Chicago, and at the time,
(02:48):
you know, their pre Internet, it was just word of mouth,
and you met people through touring, so you know, you
would go there was a whole sort of circuit and
system of like going from one town to the next,
you would meet other people in the music scene. You
really relied on them for everything, you know, like where
are the best places to eat, what venues should we play? Ad?
(03:11):
You know, this is how you also discovered music. Just
people would sort of point you in a right direction,
or you listen to a certain label from a city,
and you got to know all those bands. And I
remember sleeping on your couch. You were out of town.
I was on tour. I stayed at your apartment. My
friend was friends with Damon who was in Trench Mouth,
(03:33):
and I just remember, oh, yeah, this is Fred's house. Okay,
you know I know of Fred. So this was before
you were on SNL. I just knew you as a
drummer in a punk band, and you knew me as
you know, a guitarist and Slater Kinney.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
That's those are sort of pre TV.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Identities and still an identity I think that we hold
on to is you know, we we still consider ourselves musicians,
and I think the lens through which we view a
lot of phenomena was very much formed in these early
years when we play music and by the scenes we
came up in. You know, that sensibility very like very nineties,
(04:14):
very sort of indie punk rock. You know, we've not
only did it inform us, but it's something that we've
grappled with, you know, the stuff that really was helpful
and also the stuff that kind of hampered us at times.
And we'll end up talking about that a lot in
the podcast because you know, my friend calls it punk damage.
You know, you're just like a lot of the stuff
(04:34):
was so strident, and you know you sort of fight
with that later like what was useful about that sensibility
and what, yeah, just made things more difficult. And we
infuse a lot of this into the show.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Including characters that we met while we were on tour
or recording, people who had their own studios, people who
ran label, people had venues, fans, you know, what the
whole experience was like in the music world. We do
(05:09):
revisit in on Portland.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yah exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
So yeah, So going back, basically, we were in each
other's like circles, you know, sort of extended social circles.
And then you were officially on SNL and Slater Kinney
was touring and we were coming through New York and
through our drummer Janet Wise you mentioned you were friends
(05:32):
with you invited us to SNL. It was Jennifer Garner
was the host, Beck was the musical guest. We were
really excited to go, but unfortunately we had our own show.
I think we were playing at Irving Plaza and so
you said, why don't you come to the after party. So,
you know, we played the show, we showed up to
this after party and that's where I met you.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And you had a little button with my face on it.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, because because at the time, I think from that
album you had pins for each band member.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Yes, and it was they were taken from when we
had toured Australia and were each holding koalas.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah. Yeah, so I had the carry one.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
On, you had the carry one on, which is you know, flattering.
And I was also like, oh, who is this guy
that's like wearing a button with my face on it?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And in the writers in my office at SNL, I
purposefully kept it undecorated. I didn't want it to be
homie or anything like it. But on my bulletin board
I had a poster of Slater Kenny and it was
one of those smaller posters. It wasn't like a poster poster.
It was like one of those little ones. And the
(06:41):
point about all of this is that Sleeter Kenny is
my favorite band and when I first heard you guys play.
When I first heard your records, it was really an
epiphany for me. It really was in my life. I think,
like many people, people who grew up on certain types
(07:02):
of music, you know, you start with the Beatles and
the Who, and then punk sort of took over. And
for me, Prince, these are all sort of like answers
to what I used to listen to before punk. And
then Prince sort of like was like, well, that's what
(07:24):
Sleeter Kenny was that for me. Where after all that,
I was like, this is what I've been looking for,
and I was obsessed. People use that word a lot, obsessed,
but I would say that that is an accurate description
of how much I listened to Sleeter Kenny.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
What's interesting about that, Well, first of all, thank you,
and you know, it's always been very a source of
pride for me that you're such a fan of the band,
because you are such an amazing musician and anyway, so
thank you. But I remember back in that sorry, but
I remember back in the day when I would meet
some of your co stars in snl Amy Tina, they
(08:06):
would say like, oh, Fred's obsessed with your band, Fred
love Slater Kinney, Like I think they were tired of
hearing about Slater Kinney.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Honestly, yep, yeah, you know which.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Was I was like, I'm so sorry that our musual
friend talks about the band. I mean, they were really
nice about it, but they just thought it was kind
of funny because I think compared to some of your cohorts,
your interests were a little bit different. You know, you
music was such an obsession for you, and your musical taste.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Was not mainstream.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That sounds right.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
So after this night, I remember us keeping in touch,
and at one point you said, hey, it'd be really
fun to collaborate in in something. And again I assumed, well,
we'll collaborate on music, but you actually were interested in
shooting a video doing some comedy, and you had been
asked by the John Kerry campaign presidential campaig to make
(09:01):
a video. And this is then the first time that
we collaborate, and you fly to Portland and we shoot
this very silly video.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
And you can explain it because.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Well, at the time, Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq,
was on trial. So at this point the government had
been overthrown and in court he wore he didn't look
like he didn't have his military outfit on. He had
(09:31):
a sort of version of a suit that looked kind
of like rock and rolling, meaning like you know, and
someone like Pete Townsend or part Weller or whoever, you know,
when they dressed kind of nicely. And he also had
like his beard was different and his hair was different,
and he had like a he looked sort of British
to me. And I just thought, what if there's this
(09:55):
character of Saddam Hussein who's British and is only into music,
same guy, but he does want to talk to talk
about the dictatorship. So we did this video called boinc, which.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Is the name of the cable access show, this stake
cable access show that my character Cindy Overton hosts.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And I think you thought of the title right away.
I think in the moment you just said you welcome
to Boinc.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
Yeah, and I'm getting the first post bunker interview, like
an exclusive ye with Sadam Hussein.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And I had my you know, I had like a
fake beard on their suit. I think I put even
I might have been put like a little bit of
like dark under my eyes, you know, or my eyebrows.
I know, I made my eyebrows really dark, and I
had the guitar. I might have had your guitar. And
I think this was in Korin's basement.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, so my bandmate Krn Tucker from Slater Guinney, we
shot it in her basement. That was the set for BOK.
You had a guitar and you just played guitar a lot.
You spoke in a British accent.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yep, and you just were interviewing and you were already
a character sort of like nervously, you know, trying to
get information from Saddam Hussein and you know, not nervous,
you know, like a sort of cable access vibe.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Yeah, well, what a big get for my show?
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yes, you know, yeah, and I remember that shooting these
opening credits. By the way, what did we have for
a crew? Just Patrick, I think, right, Jeff Buchanan. Jeff Buchanan, okay,
and he did everything. Yeah, so Jeff Buchanan did all
(11:32):
of it, the camera work, editing. The opening credits were
there was graffiti near Corn's house and it was the
video was you scraping off the graffiti, cleaning off the graffiti,
just like your expression was, you know, these dumb kids
(11:53):
making you know. And I remember in that moment realizing
which I was already convinced anyway, I was like, oh,
this is who I want to work with. We were
in line when it comes to tone and comedy. I
just feel like we were like right exactly on the
(12:14):
same page of the message we were trying to send,
whatever that is. And we'll talk about that too and
what it goes back to, what bands it was inspired by,
what comedy, whatever it was, it was exactly what I
was looking for. It did feel like a puzzle piece.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
Well, I will say that whose sensibility it didn't work
for was the John Kerry campaign, who never used that
video but also lost the election. So just putting that
out there.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
We'll also put out there that should he run again.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Exactly that video is there and really holds.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Up and holds up. I believe the original was eight minutes.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Longer or longer maybe fourteen Yeah, throw it up there. Yeah, anyway,
vote for Carrie. So after that, we definitely enjoy working
with each other. We decide we're going to keep doing this,
and you kept coming up to Portland, and I think
this really helps create a look and a feel for
(13:17):
what ends up being portlandy We just happened to keep shooting.
You lived in New York, but we kept shooting in Portland.
We kept using local restaurants and businesses. We went to
a place called Reading Frenzy, which was near Powell's Books,
which is this really famous independent bookstore in Portland, kind
of a tourist destination. And there's this little shop called
(13:38):
Reading Frenzy and it had like fanzines and you know,
small print books. And the proprietor, Chloe you Daily, she
was an acquaintance of Mind, and she said, yeah, you
can shoot at my store. So we had these characters
Tony and Candice, and I mean I remember going and
buying a very expensive wig, just you know, long straight
(14:03):
black hair with bangs, and we went to Goodwill and
bought some clothing.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
You know, we just sort of threw this together.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And then we just went and collected flyers from like
co ops and other like you know, little like corkboards
and whatnot. And just the whole conceit of this sketch
was just us deciding which flyers to put up in
the store at this little bookshop.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And that was the birth of feminist bookstore.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I don't even remember where my wig came from. Probably
from the same place, you know. I actually no, I
do remember we went there was like a one of
those like just wig shops.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yeah, Wigland. It's on Northeast Broadway. It's still there, great
wig shop. We I mean we bought inexpensive wigs. Yeah,
because I remember later when Tony and Cannice became characters
on Portlandia, obviously we had to improve upon these these wigs.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
But yeah, that It's funny because I don't remember either
of us having like the ambition of, like, listen, if
we get this together, we could really pitch this as
a show someday. It was for no reason. It was
just let's just do this.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Yeah, And we made seven or eight videos before we
even thought about it as anything bigger than it was.
We were just enjoying working together. We were just having
our friends film us. At this point. It's Patrick Stanton.
We did one in la we did one in New York,
(15:36):
but most of the time we were in Portland. And
you know, in addition to feminist books or there are
a couple other there was, we.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Did have these bike rights activists.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yep, and you end up having a character Spike, who's
kind of a you know, bicycle rights enthusiasts. So yeah,
there's just these early this like these kernels of what
would become Portland. We called it thunder Ant. We originally
going to call it thunder Egg, which is the official
state rock of Oregon. And then we looked at MySpace
(16:10):
and there was a band with like seventy followers call
and you are very kind in this way, and you
were just like, I just don't want to take the
name thunder Egg. There's already this established band, So we
changed it to thunder Ant, and that was the moniker
you know that we used until your manager Tim Sarkas,
(16:30):
who then became my manager, later said hey, you guys,
this is a thing like you guys have a you
love working with each other. There's a sensibility and a
point of view like what if this was a TV show.
We never said. This was just a completely organic dynamic.
It stemmed from our friendship and we did not start
(16:53):
out with like, hey, let's pitch a show.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Nope.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
It it's hard to stress how different this is from
the way people approach things, like in some ways, it's
much more analogous to the way I formed Slater Kinney
or the way you probably formed trench Mouth, which was
just who are people I want to be around? Who
are people who I respect and admire and I glean
inspiration from. I want to keep hanging out with this person,
(17:16):
but I want to keep hanging out with them in
a way where we get to do something creative. And
that was thunder ant. It was not hey, let's set
a general meeting and this is Fred Armison. He you know,
I think you guys would like each other, or even like, hey,
I were friends, but like, what's the most ambitious thing
we could do together? It was really we had almost
(17:38):
like ten sketches, ten videos before we even thought of
this as a show.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
And it was just online. We didn't try to monetize
it in any way. It was just these videos that
were up I don't think even told that many people
about it. We didn't even we didn't have a campaign
of like you got to watch these videos. They were
just up there.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah. And then and we did decide, like, let's pitch
this as a show.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Our friend Patrick, who we mentioned he flew to New York,
I was actually living in New York at the time.
We filmed a little introduction and we kind of put
together a little I guess would be called sizzle reel
of just basically like a demo video, like here's a
proof of concept. And that was the pitch, and I'm
actually really glad that we had sketches something to actually
(18:27):
show them. We didn't have a script, which is sometimes
what people pitched with. We didn't really have like an
out you know, a story outline. We just said, this
is sort of what it would be like. It's really
just the two of us doing silly things.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And we pitched that.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
Well, first of all, I guess we should talk about
you were on SNL and we were actually required in
this obligatory way, like you know, Broadway Video, which is
Lauren's production company, they have the right of first refusal.
We literally had to ask Lauren for permission, and we
assumed he would say thanks, but no, like this is
weird to Indie for me.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I have you know I have a Giants by the way,
Lauren Michael's the creator of Saturday Night Live. Yeah, but
we did and through his company, Andrew Singer at Broadway
Video decided to take it on.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah, and he went into the rooms with us. We
pitched to Comedy Central and IFC, and was there one
more do we pitch to?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Can remember?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I definitely I remember Comedy Central, Oh and Adult Swim.
Okay and Adult Swim in Comedy Central both said no
one does get shows. And then I f C, which
was the Independent Film Channel, and they mostly really did
just show like Tarantino Films and you know, just indie movies,
(19:51):
and they were just starting to original programming. They had
a couple things on, but very very few shows, and
I think we just lucked out. They were really looking
to start doing more of that, and they needed creators
and shows, and they took a chance on us and
said okay and ordered a pilot, just a pilot, not
(20:13):
not straight to series, you know, not anything too you know,
big or like it. Just they were like, okay, we'll
try a pilot.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Before we get to that. I was just I just
remembered that. Remember the video that we made in New York.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
In my apartment.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yes, yeah, it was a similar setup to this, where
it was two little desks facing each other.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I don't know what the premise was. It was almost
like we were going to start each episode with us talking.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
To each other or something.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That's right, And I also want to point out that
at the time you were new to the world of
I can't say the new to the world of comedy,
but just let's say new to Lauren Michael's world.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Oh, I mean that's like an understatement, like I was
just yeah, yeah, I mean thanks, but you know, I
mean it's more it's even more of an understatement. And you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Were and are fifty percent you were, you know, a
co collaborator of this show, this that we were pitching
that didn't have a title, so Lauren had trust. But
still there was like a moment that sealed it for him.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Right, I mean, contextually, you're working with the best of
the best. You know, if this was going to be
like designed in a lab, you know, you're already working
with Maya Rudolph, you're working with Kristin Wig, You're working
with Amy Pohle or like certainly someone easily could have said, oh,
Fred wants to do his own show separate from SNL. Great,
well let's pair him with Maya, you know, let's let's
(22:09):
put him with Kristen like Apps. Of course, and you
and I were fairly untested, you know, in the bigger
scheme of things, and certainly untested with Laurene. He knew
that you like you and I were friends, that's about it,
but we didn't know each other personally.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
So you get married and.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You asked me to be the best man essentially, and
to give the toast.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And I was the only person.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
There was no other speed. He wasn't like no family,
nobody just here, just me there.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
It wasn't like, hey, we're going to do a whole
series of toasts. Can you do the lead off toast
or can you emc. It was like, hey, we don't
want to do a lot of talking and stuff. We
want to keep it simple. So it's just me. So
I write a toast and I remember, I'm, you know,
at the wedding any and I look around and it
is it's all the aforementioned people plus Tina Fey, plus
(23:07):
You're you're marrying Elizabeth Moss.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
This is the peak of mad Men, you know.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So it's like Jon Ham, it's Matt Winer, the creator
of the show.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
I mean, this is a very like stacked event. And
I'm I'm.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
An indie musician, you know, and I give this toast.
I it's comedic, it's heartfelt, and I I kind of
can't believe that. I wasn't more scared it just but
I did it. And I remember later you telling me like,
(23:39):
you know, that was kind of your audition for Lauren. Now,
if you had told me that beforehand, I didn't know beforehand, No, no,
I know, but if I had even thought that that
could have been the case. I wasn't thinking of any
of that. I mean, you're just one of my best friends.
I just you know, am wishing you the best and
trying to create some like context for this you know,
(24:01):
ceremony and for these nuptials. And later I you know,
when you couched it like that, and when you sort
of realized that was the case. Yeah, it was sort
of mind blowing because I, in retrospect, I should have
been so much more nervous.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Yeah, but it was so well written and well done.
And it was also it was Lauren also who told
me later like, I'm sure he didn't realize it, but
it was as it was happening, he was like, oh right, yeah,
that's her audition.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Yeah, And I think what he realized was like, the
show is actually reliant on this chemistry.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
It has to be these two people, like it's.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
You know, if it was you and someone from SNL,
Like that's a whole different show. But but this show,
what you know, comes to be Portlandia. That's Fredd and Carry.
Like the way they connect, you know, what they connect on,
what they find funny, you know, their friendship, the seamlessness
of it, the intimacy of it, Like we just can't
(25:01):
replicate that even if we're just pulling from someone that
everyone knows, well, that's like a really funny woman that's famous, Like,
it just won't be this. It will be something else
and it could be great, but it's not going to
be this. And I think that's one of the brilliant
things about Lauren is he knows that he knows that
that that's how things work, and that trust, that faith
(25:23):
in us I think really went a long way, you know,
and he ends up, you know, fighting for us at
certain moments, especially you know, we filmed the pilot and
he we needed a fast pickup order because you were
going to you needed to be back in SNL in
the fall. We shot the pilot in like May or something,
(25:44):
and he's like, you got to decide otherwise, you know,
if we wait a year, if we sort of dick.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Around, like we all know this is not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
And he was a big champion and you know still
is in uh came up to Portland often and visited us,
and yeah, anyway, but yeah, that's that always sort of
gives me chills thinking about, like I get nervous now
for an event that took place, you know, twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And he was right, all those instincts were right about it.
Yeah when we first so we pitched the show at IFC,
and we didn't have a title just yet.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
No, and nor did we pitch it as a show
that would be shot in Portland. That to me is
always so interesting, Like we knew that the show had
like a certain feel to it, that the sketches had
a certain feel. We were definitely reveling in absurdity. We
wanted things to be silly, irreverent, like you know, there
(26:43):
was all these ingredients, but we never actually thought of
Place as part of that, which is ridiculous because of
course Place.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Was very much informing what we were doing.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
I just think we one, we didn't take it for granted,
and we didn't assume that anyone would sign off and
shooting in Portland like most people, especially at the time.
You know, now, of course a lot of things don't
shoot in LA and that's a problem. But at the time,
tons of things shot in LA and that just seemed
like a given. Yeah, and yeah, it was sort of
someone else. In fact, it was IFC that was like,
(27:15):
of course, you guys should shoot in Portland.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I think Evan Schapiro, Okay, yeah at IFC at I
and it was that was good news. I mean, I
love going to Portland anyway. So and then we shot
so much of it there that I love that we
got to do that.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I think it absolutely made the show. You know, it
looked different. Uh, all the people who populated the show
in terms of the background don't look like you know,
LA actors, Like it's just like it feels.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, everything about it. We shot on location.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
We didn't end up like setting up at a sound
stage and building sets like it just and it became
a stand in. You know, it wasn't Portland, it was Portlandia,
and so it became a stand in for an ideology
or a way of trying to live or do your
best or just it just it allowed it to be
(28:13):
heightened and we wanted something that felt a little bit mythical,
a little bit magical. Like we didn't want to be
always grounded in reality. We wanted to be able to
like step off into this place that was imaginative and strange.
And I think it all it just coalesced into something.
And we were very fortunate because again we didn't come
(28:36):
into this with like, and this is what we want
to do and it has to be the city. Like
a lot of this we lucked into and then realized later, oh,
it had to be this and it wouldn't have been
the same any other way. But yeah, even the title
Portlandia didn't exist.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah, we had a few titles in the running. And
then it was someone at Broadway Video, Marx who's from Portland,
who pointed out that there's a statue there called Portlandia,
and that was an immediate yes, yeah, that makes so
(29:12):
much sense.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
Yeah, it just conjures something. It's just like, oh, okay,
it's a place. It's a real place, but it's also
an imagined space. And I think having that kind of
blank canvas was really helpful. And yeah, I think the
other titles were not great.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I have a picture of us somewhere with the whiteboard
with the other titles written in.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
Oh yeah, so yes, A one with Stumptown, which is,
you know, a coffee shop in Portland that's now global
but at the time was a pretty small local business.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
There was what were some of the others I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I think something like from the the City of Portland
or something like that. Something that might be wrong, but
something with the city the word city in it, okay.
And there's a couple others. I mean, it was thunder
Ant in there.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
It maybe was it, maybe it was I think.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Just as a yeah, obligatory left let's add this in
as a title idea. And then Jonathan Kreisel, who was
at SNL working on some of the short films that
they had, like in an addition to Lonely Island. Yeah,
he would. John would do some videos as well. So
(30:38):
we met with him and then he became our co creator,
co director or director.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
I mean, Jonathan really elevated the show. You know, you
and I were thinking in terms of character and story,
and Jonathan was thinking visually. And I think one as
we get into these episodes, I have been struck by
how ambitious the visuals are. That you know, there is
(31:06):
a cinematic quality to it that I think I totally
credit to krysl You know, he just was thinking big.
He didn't want it to look like, Okay, we're just
just people in a room talking like he wanted there
it was. There are a lot of exteriors, there was pacing, like,
there was visual storytelling like I'm I'm really surprised what
(31:28):
we were able to pull off. And I think that's
just stemming from his you know, filmmaking prowess, like he
really I think it was before he I mean now
he directs a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (31:40):
This was some of the first stuff he directed, and
I think he had he was like, yeah, I want
to do all this big stuff and try it out
on the show.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, he worked a bit on with Timinaria. But then
and Nick Kroll all right, or is that after?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I think it was at the time, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
But yeah. Also, I remember him in the writer's room.
This is how little I knew. We would have a
sketch idea and he would say something like yeah, but
how do you show that, which is a way of
saying no, And he was right where I I didn't
have an answer. I was like, yeah, that's true. How
do we show that you know, this is a sketch idea.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Yeah, and we'll have Jonathan on the show. Sorry, we'll
have Jonathan on this podcast because you know, it's I
think it's important to talk to him.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
He's just so in the DNA of the show.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yeah, we were not thinking visually as much as we
were content and write commedially. Yeah, And we brought in
Alison Silverman yep, who was a writer on The Colbert
Report and.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
What else did.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
She was a bunch of stuff, but she was definitely like.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Most recently from the time Colbert Report. And it was
kind of just the four of us.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That was it, and that's we worked out of whereas
like later seasons would work out of Portland. That one
that was in at Universe.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
In a small office with no desk, no, just a
couple of chairs.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
In a room, a whiteboard.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
And we started thinking of this mostly the pilot.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
And between the pilot and getting the season ordered, just
to give you some more background to it, because of
my schedule, we needed like a little bit of a
rush answer from i FC.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yes, which is again very rare.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
It's hard to really convey how green we were, like,
how like the things that were happening and happening at
a rapid pace. We're so unusual, like now we sort
of know how glacial development is and production, but we
just kept lucking at to it. I think partly, I
fc their enthusiasm, you know, just getting into you know,
(34:05):
doing original programming. They were moving at and able to
be more nimble, like moving at a much faster pace
and yeah, which just the time crunch of you going
back to SNEL. I think they were a little bit
like if it's not now never, okay, so what is
it like watching you know, like just going back and
(34:26):
looking like as we launch into this podcast, we've done,
you know, for this first episode, We've just started rewatching
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
I love the sort of the blindness of it, the
sort of like the naivete like, yeah, yeah, let's just
you know, make this thing that I but but by
two people who still have the same viewpoint, but still yeah,
you know, without like a final goal.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Yeah, there's there's an innocence to it. I think there's
an earnestness to it for sure, and a sincerity. I
think that you and I are sincere people. I think
we are not cynics, you know, or at least when
I feel that mindset encroaching. I'm always trying to like
(35:17):
show it away, and I think there is a sweetness
to the show and a lot of characters. I think
I'm reminded of that when I'm watching it. I'm reminded
of the fact that we were mostly exploring elements of ourselves,
you know, some small facet of our personality or you know,
like people we could have been if we had made
(35:39):
different decisions, like we weren't sort of looking out at
the world and making other people targets of our derision
or scorn. It was like, oh, I'm so curious why
I have this part of myself that comes out when
these certain things happen.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Or Yeah, it just it felt very curious and.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Very like it like an exploration.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
And I see that when I watch it, and I'm.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Like, oh, yeah, there's okay, there's it's almost sweeter than
I remember in some ways.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
Yeah, I feel exactly the same, sweeter than I remember. Yeah,
I'm not going you no, you go well, I was
going to say, like the thing, I like that it's
so long ago, and seeing that we were already close friends,
then yes, I love that.
Speaker 4 (36:32):
And I can even see in Okay, so we play
a version of ourselves in the show Fred and Carry,
and I will say this now and I'll point it
out later. There there's some reality to that, and then
there's I think we wanted to allow Fred and Carry
to be just a little more guileless and clueless and
(36:53):
just sillier. So we are just not as smart sometimes,
or I would like to think that this version of
myself smarter than the Portlandia Carry And you will see
that over and over again, like just for the sake
of comedy, we just allow this ignorance to come about,
just so we're not like stuck and like, well, no,
Fred Armison wouldn't do that, but I do see every
(37:16):
once in a while, no, not every once in a while,
a lot I'm like, oh, this is a real conversation
because there's so much improvisation. I think that's the other
thing to point out early on, Like, especially in these
first couple of seasons. You know, we would obviously pitch,
you know, sketch ideas, and they we did have beats
for each sketch and an outline, but there was a
(37:37):
very rudimentary script, and if there was a script, we
often basically threw it out, And so when I see
us talking as Fred and Carry, but also in other characters,
I can tell, oh, my gosh, this is just a
real conversation you and I are having. I can also
tell when we're actually really annoyed at one another, like
when in terms of like if someone says something that's
(37:57):
annoying that actually irks Carry or irks Fred, I.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Can see it. It's an interesting like mirror, yeah for sure, accurate.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah. Then physically, like you know, I'm so glad that
we grew up on bands in that whenever I see
that bands start looking older, I like it. I like
that they had different eras of their existence. So when
I look back and I see that, Okay, that's a
younger version, it's a good feeling like, hey, that was
(38:32):
what Yeah, that's what the band looked like back then.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
That's what we look like.
Speaker 4 (38:36):
For me, I feel like the first season hate my haircut.
I'm like, what is that haircut? I basically have had
the same hair by the way, for since like seventh grade,
different versions of it. This is like season one is
like not my favorite version. My bangs don't feel connected
to the rest of my hair. It was like I
(38:56):
had two different people cut it. I might have cut
my hair that year. I have no idea. It's very
I just noticed it. I was like, what's happening here?
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Oh, I can't answer that question. Also, I feel.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
Like like I'm wearing lipstick now, but like I'm like,
why is my character?
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Why is Carrie wearing such bright lipstick?
Speaker 4 (39:14):
And every scene like it's just it's day it's daytime,
Like okay, you know, but I think in my mind
again in that sort of like naivitate, it's like, well,
I'm on camera, we should definitely put a lipstick on,
you know.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
So it's like, what, Like, no, it's the reality.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
But and I see that across all characters, like just
looking at early versions of like you know, the costume
and the makeup, and even though we were working with
consummate professionals, like we all just were like I don't know.
In some ways sometimes just there is just that sort
of figuring it out. But I like that there's a
charm to it for me looking back, like it gave
(39:49):
us somewhere to go.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, I think dress style wise, I'm kind of the same.
And that's a good thing and a bad thing. Sometimes
I see myself wearing a hoodie, and I remember at
the time thinking someday I won't wear hoodies anymore.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
That is not true, and.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
I'm like still wearing hoodies and I really wanted to
outgrow it. And this jacket that I'm wearing today, I
actually chose not because it matched anything on Portlandia's just
because I like green jackets. Yeah, but then I did
have jackets like this back then, So I'm like, I
guess that's what I gravitate towards. So I feel mostly
(40:29):
good about it. I just wish I had outgrown hoodies.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
There's still time.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
There's still time.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
There's still time.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
It'd be nice to sort of put that aside.
Speaker 4 (40:39):
You know what a little goal is, or sorry, you
know what a little goal could be is to not
wear a hoodie on this podcast.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I love it. Just let's start small, let's try. I'm
saying that to.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Myself, okay, but then also watching it, I will say, like,
you know, I'm just like the the show is very white.
Sometimes I'm like, just I will just look at certain things.
When I was watching the show, I'm like, oh, this
is there's too many white people in this scene, like
Dream of the Ninties, dream of the nineties. I was
(41:13):
just like, ugh, like, do better. This is Yeah, there's
definitely some of that. Yeah, and it does improve. But
like watching that, I was like, what and.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
There's so many people, there's so many people in the video.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Yeah, and I and I'm just not even specifically that sketch,
I think in general, not just about other things.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Like i will just say like.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
I'm watching some of these sketches and I'm like, I
would not do that now, you know, Like I and
I'm sorry, and I'm a flawed person. I'm just like,
oh my gosh, like this sketch does not hold up
to me. I'm not talking about dreaming the nineties. I
really love that to sketch, but like other sketches. So
just so people know when we watching this, I'm just like,
(41:57):
oh my god, yes, let's not do that.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
And we when we'll talk about those things and we.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Improve, I mean definitely, yeah, that got better over time.
Speaker 4 (42:09):
But yeah, yeah, but just you know, I'm not even
talking about dreaming that n needs a nymmor just some
other sketches. I just and I'll say, like at the
beginning of the I'll be like, yeah, this one makes
me cringe. You know, because you're just like, oh, yeah,
I don't. I don't have a defense for this one.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
I have a that this is a lame defense. Oh boy, no,
it's not even a defense. It's not even a defense.
It's gonna sound defensive.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
It already does that.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Sometimes I have the same feeling you do, or I'm sorry,
I always have the same feeling you do. But sometimes,
but I'll remind myself. I'll say, like, I'm Venezuelan. That's
just something. I'm like, I'm just that's me talking to myself.
So I'm Korean and Venezuelan. I'm going to put that
in there as a sort of like, Okay, don't be
(42:56):
too hard on yourself.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
Of course, no, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
I'm leaving that as I understand that that is, you know,
it is not a perfect defense, but it's just something.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Oh, I mean, yeah, we are bringing ourselves to it.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Yeah, and we each have we possess multitudes, we have
our own identities and indexers of those identities, and we
bring our own flaws and contradictions to it. And that's
just who we are. I mean, I feel like we're
very like the show is in conversation with the city
and we are in conversation with the show like it.
(43:32):
To me, Portlandia is kind of a very ongoing discourse,
you know, and it's interesting to sort of look back on,
and this I think podcast just extends that discourse.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
You know.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
I think we always as we were writing, felt like
we're exploring you know, ideas and phenomena and a way
of being in the world and sort of critiquing it.
But also it's you know, embracing it and just trying
to have and be funny. And what I like about
this podcast is that just continues the conversation and like
(44:06):
there's no sort of final word on it. Like certainly
a Portlandia sketch is not the final word on anything.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Like our intention was to have.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Fun and make people laugh and you know, sometimes make
people think or just to you know, like be observational.
But that's not you know, like that doesn't mean we
did it the right way all the time. Well a
lot of time we didn't. Yeah, Honestly, a lot of
(44:34):
the sketches in a good way to me hold up
and some things we predicted. Some things I was like, well,
well we were ahead of the curve here.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Oh yeah, And since then we've sort of kept in
touch about that. Yeah, or we'll see something in the news.
I remember when Pitchfork got sold or oh yeah I
didn't again, didn't really get shut down, but sort of
bought up by another company. Yeah, we had a sketch
about that.
Speaker 4 (44:58):
Yeah, And I think the last thing I to say
is that, like I think another one of our intentions
and one of the reasons I create anything is to
feel a connection with people. And that connection is not
always just like joyful. Human connection is also one that's
uncomfortable sometimes, and I think that's okay, and we just
(45:19):
have to have it be uncomfortable sometimes, you know, because
authentic connection and communicating with people is about communicating through
the good and bad of it. So I'll to say that,
like the intention I think of the show and this
podcast is to feel a human connection and to just
ride that out, you know, through all the sort of
iterations of what that means. A lot of people once
(45:41):
it came back on Netflix, you know, sort of were
as curious as we were, like what from the show
sort of felt ahead of its time, what kind of
holds up what feels like a relic? You know, because
we were sort of capturing a specific moment.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
It's.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah, so it's interesting to kind of a look at
all those things, and it's there's so many sketches. So
it's it's a really fun journey for us. We hope
it is for the audience as well. Plus the other
thing that people may not know is you and I
hang out outside of Portlandia's so, like we were saying,
we hung out before the show started, and we have hung.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Out every year since.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
So this is again it's a continuation of a conversation
that we have with each other all the time. Not
that we're always talking about the show, but just you know,
we're talking about some of the things that we discussed
on the show that we showed on Portlandia. Like that's
just in the ether for us, Like it's part of
our friendship sort of commenting on and thinking about these things.
(46:42):
Plus we've spent many years in the interim texting each other.
I wish the show is still on because I have
this idea if we were still doing the.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Show, so many, so many ideas there, Yeah, it would
have made any sense.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
You know.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Anyway, thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
We're excited to bring you back through port Landia a.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Bit. What what what what wa wa wa wa one
w u n nash
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