Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. The President of the United States on
Speaker 1: my first day in office, I said I'd closed Wanton
Speaker 1: and mobit is it closed yet? No, that's Fred Armisson
Speaker 1: on Saturday Night Live, adding to the show's distinguished line
Speaker 1: of oddly perfect presidential impressions that started with Chevy Chase.
Speaker 1: Now there was Fred, who also plays other important icons
Speaker 1: such as Larry King, Mak mood Am, A Dinajade, Rupert Murdoch,
Speaker 1: and Prince Attention, sexy passengers. This grew jets about to
Speaker 1: take off, so please direct your attention to my co host,
Speaker 1: Miss Beyonce. No. Fred Armison grew up in Valley Stream,
Speaker 1: Long Island with a Venezuelan mother and a German Japanese father.
Speaker 1: My mom really loved Saturday Night Line. She loved it.
Speaker 1: She I remember her talking about Chevy Chase and she
Speaker 1: would say, like, Oh, Chevy Chase, he's so funny. You
Speaker 1: just look at his face and you want to laugh.
Speaker 1: And then made a huge impression on me. And even
Speaker 1: as a kid, I thought, yeah, what is that like
Speaker 1: a guy who just from looking at him right away?
Speaker 1: You know it doesn't absolutely. Armiston is also co creator
Speaker 1: of Portlandia, a playfully subversive sketch comedy show on i
Speaker 1: f C in which he co stars with the musician
Speaker 1: Carrie Brownstein. And I have to get up early for work,
Speaker 1: so let's get in her pgs and we'll watch one
Speaker 1: more Okay, one more, so good? So good? What time
Speaker 1: is it? It's like daylight? Any How did that even happen?
Speaker 1: We just stayed up on late Do you want to
Speaker 1: watch more Landia, which he produces while SNL is on hiatus,
Speaker 1: recently won a Peabody Award. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your guidance and for believing in the show and for
Speaker 1: allowing us a freedom not to be reckless but to
Speaker 1: be bold. Fred missing as part of the American comedy landscape,
Speaker 1: but he took an unusual path to get there. For
Speaker 1: ten years, he was a punk rock drummer in a
Speaker 1: band called trench Mouth. I worked so hard on that band.
Speaker 1: It was like an obsession for me. But it was
Speaker 1: like I just worked every day. We were in the van.
Speaker 1: We toward toward towards booking places, booking, booking, booking, booking,
Speaker 1: and just trying to get slots and clubs over what
Speaker 1: area the States, in Canada, and you were all floating
Speaker 1: and reloading your own equipment. They were your own roadies.
Speaker 1: Absolutely didn't bring any extra people to save money up
Speaker 1: and downstairs the middle of the night, lifting lifting, lifting drums, symbols, amps.
Speaker 1: Then if it was a local show, flyers records, getting
Speaker 1: them out to people, getting them out to radio stations.
Speaker 1: It was non stop and the same band, same band
Speaker 1: for ten years too. I'd say maybe nine years. Was
Speaker 1: it successful? It depends how you look at That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I want to know you were definition definition.
Speaker 1: I had success in getting becoming closer with my friends.
Speaker 1: I had success in playing the drums. I played a
Speaker 1: lot of drums for a long enjoyed myself, travel the
Speaker 1: country and I'm not much of a drinker. Played in Europe,
Speaker 1: played in the States. So absolutely that all that stuff
Speaker 1: was like, that's a success? Was it what I wanted?
Speaker 1: I wanted much more? Did much more? Why? Why? Why?
Speaker 1: Because I want I wanted to be as big I
Speaker 1: remember this is going to sound I'll just be honest
Speaker 1: about what I wanted. But I was wanted to be
Speaker 1: as big as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was like, God,
Speaker 1: they're huge, they're huge. What we can do it? So
Speaker 1: because we never attained that, and I would see bands
Speaker 1: from Chicago kind of swooped right by us. I saw
Speaker 1: it as not a success, and that's what kind of
Speaker 1: got me into doing comedy. In fact, I remember one
Speaker 1: band in particular. I remember seeing the drummer and saying
Speaker 1: to myself that I don't want to be that. And
Speaker 1: he was older than me, so he must have been
Speaker 1: who knows what, thirty forty or something like that. He
Speaker 1: was a drummer in a very knew more how old
Speaker 1: I must have been ten years older and said ten
Speaker 1: years from I don't want I saw he had some
Speaker 1: gray hair, and which is nothing wrong with that I'm saying,
Speaker 1: but this is what I did not like was that
Speaker 1: he was still lugging his equipment and I just I
Speaker 1: was just like, I don't want to be that guy.
Speaker 1: I don't want to arrive in some town and find
Speaker 1: a place to stay. It just doesn't look nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Like you've done that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fine for when you're in your twenties, it's great.
Speaker 1: We slept on floors, shared tell rooms shared really like
Speaker 1: the worst kinds of places you could imagine. You get
Speaker 1: stuck together, stuck together. Describe trench Mouth's music. Who wrote
Speaker 1: the songs we all did together? You all did. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When we did the songwriting appen, you just like get
Speaker 1: together and say today's rehearsal songwriting day. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like we had band practice every whatever, three times a
Speaker 1: week or something twice a week, and you just sit
Speaker 1: in a room and you're like, I have this one
Speaker 1: part and I have this other part, and we just
Speaker 1: put them all together. But it was very frenetic and
Speaker 1: loud and percussive, and it was a cacophony, just like noise.
Speaker 1: I was a little bit of a ham so, like,
Speaker 1: I really want to play a lot of drums, like
Speaker 1: Heath Moon style noise, noise, noise all the way through.
Speaker 1: And that was kind of like what a lot of
Speaker 1: bands were like that. So it was kind of just
Speaker 1: the way it was. It was pretty noisy. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, I love the drums, so and you still
Speaker 1: play I do. I do. I love get invited to
Speaker 1: come play with somebody who was famous. It depends what
Speaker 1: you consider famous. For me, it was the Bengals asked
Speaker 1: me to play with them recently. Yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I'm paid to go see the Bengals
Speaker 1: and then at a show recently they'll come up and
Speaker 1: play a song absolutely, and then I loved it. I
Speaker 1: loved it. So you're really two people. There's you, the
Speaker 1: musical you, and you don't want to let that die
Speaker 1: and you still play every now and then. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: still have just a drum set. Yeah, but I don't
Speaker 1: do anything like I don't fancy myself like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: still making music. I won't like put out like you know,
Speaker 1: original songs and like that no one needs to hear.
Speaker 1: You know. I'm grateful to be a comedian. I'm not
Speaker 1: like a struggling anything. But for fun, I will go
Speaker 1: and play music. Armison went with his band to Austin,
Speaker 1: Texas for the south By Southwest Music Festival. Along with
Speaker 1: his drums, he brought a video camera. And there were
Speaker 1: always seminars and stuff how to make it in the
Speaker 1: music biz, And somehow I got it in my head
Speaker 1: to interview people do different characters, and uh, it just
Speaker 1: became this, this video and you've never done anything like
Speaker 1: that before. You're down there, and the and the whole,
Speaker 1: the whole experience down there was a musical one, but
Speaker 1: you start doing funny stuff and I don't even know
Speaker 1: why I did it, you know, I was just like
Speaker 1: I just thought it would be a fun thing to do.
Speaker 1: And a friend of mine edited it together, and that
Speaker 1: tape This is nineteen sort of made the rounds. They
Speaker 1: wrote about it in this local Chicago paper. And then
Speaker 1: I showed it at a club there that I used
Speaker 1: to play in Trench Mouth. At this club as many
Speaker 1: people turn out for that as with the band, So
Speaker 1: right away I knew like, oh, I could do this
Speaker 1: and not have to load in my equipment back and forth,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Like the reaction was
Speaker 1: greater than when I was in a band. On that night,
Speaker 1: I thought, oh, this might be a way to go.
Speaker 1: I'm here with the aluminum grove. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: know from you guys who thought up the name of
Speaker 1: the band. And I don't mean like originally, I mean
Speaker 1: like who was the person who decided that that was
Speaker 1: going to be the name? And what record label are
Speaker 1: you on? Is it the same record label that you're
Speaker 1: on a couple of years ago, or is the one
Speaker 1: that's going to be different, and is it the one
Speaker 1: that's gonna be on in Europe? Did everybody in Trench
Speaker 1: Mouth get really sad than did they know you were
Speaker 1: going to go? Um? Maybe? But they're my friends, so
Speaker 1: I think based you know, they had they kept on
Speaker 1: going with another band called All of Them, and they
Speaker 1: said they hate you, damn it. But hatred equals love. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's still an Emotional're not ignoring me. I
Speaker 1: think we were already broken up or breaking up, so
Speaker 1: it was a very natural progression. At the time, I
Speaker 1: was playing drums for Blue Man Group in chicoge So, Um,
Speaker 1: that's doing the same thing every night, isn't it. That's
Speaker 1: a show? Yeah, that grab you. I learned a lot,
Speaker 1: you did. I learned a lot from that show, because
Speaker 1: do you have you very familiar with this playing down
Speaker 1: for years pure entertainment. You know, I'm up there in
Speaker 1: this sort of the drums are above this stage and
Speaker 1: you can kind of look down at the audience. And
Speaker 1: I learned that lawns want to just be entertained. You
Speaker 1: don't have to overthink anything if you're if you if
Speaker 1: you're entertaining enough, they're there they want something to do
Speaker 1: at night. You're predisposed. How long did you do that?
Speaker 1: Two years? Two years? It's the first time I got
Speaker 1: a paycheck for playing the drums, and to me, it
Speaker 1: was a million of the last and the last. Yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely after that comedy, so you're yeah, that's the last
Speaker 1: thing that man. Um simplicity to not overthink ideas speed.
Speaker 1: They changed from one bit, as it were, to the
Speaker 1: next very quickly. Um. I think, uh reinvention a little bit.
Speaker 1: They would keep sort of renewing the show a little
Speaker 1: bit just to keep it lively. That that is what
Speaker 1: I came away with the most of that. Audiences want
Speaker 1: to want to be entertained. And then what happens after that,
Speaker 1: That's when I started doing comedy. And then doing comedy
Speaker 1: where from those videos that I was telling you about,
Speaker 1: I started traveling the country showing it in l A,
Speaker 1: San Francisco, New York. You took made it into a
Speaker 1: stand upack kind of I would just you know, they'd
Speaker 1: write something in the paper, and people came out in
Speaker 1: all these cities. And then I went to l A clubs,
Speaker 1: comedy clubs, rock clubs, rock clubs. There was no music,
Speaker 1: no music, just showed this video and talked a little bit,
Speaker 1: and that's it. How long we're on stage? I mean
Speaker 1: total of like half an hour forty something really short,
Speaker 1: just a little people dug it. Absolutely, It's pretty internet.
Speaker 1: So showing a video was more of an event. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was no such thing as like sort of why
Speaker 1: don't you just watch it online? Um? And then someone
Speaker 1: from HBO was at one of the shows, and then
Speaker 1: I started doing these videos for HBO. They had like
Speaker 1: this these other channels like HBO Zone Latina, So there's
Speaker 1: something called HBO Zone which is this sort of like
Speaker 1: alternative channel. And then I did these little interstitial pieces
Speaker 1: for them. Who hired you to do this, woman Elaine Brown?
Speaker 1: It was through someone else who worked for a show
Speaker 1: called Reverb, which is a rock show on HBO, So
Speaker 1: it sort of indirect. I did so many reviews for them,
Speaker 1: and then I started making enough money that I didn't
Speaker 1: have to live in Chicago anymore. I was like, I can.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to live in l A. I moved
Speaker 1: to l A and then I started doing stand up
Speaker 1: like characters and stuff on stage where this is one
Speaker 1: club that I loved called Largo, and people like David
Speaker 1: Cross and Bob oden Kirk and Marylyn Rice Cup would
Speaker 1: perform there, and I just wanted to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: So I just started doing some stand up there as
Speaker 1: different characters. And so now are you in the full
Speaker 1: world of sitting down and writing for those shows? You're
Speaker 1: sitting down doing a lot of writing. Then it's like, yes, no,
Speaker 1: I did all that for sure. I moved to l
Speaker 1: A and I I just wanted to fit in, you know,
Speaker 1: I was on my own and I just wanted to
Speaker 1: perform there and I would just do characters. Yeah. Did
Speaker 1: you make old new friends right away to fall into
Speaker 1: the comedy world, Yeah, I did. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: be part of it, you know what I mean? So
Speaker 1: I think it was and you were open to it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I just and who became your pals there
Speaker 1: in l A Um Paul F. Tompkins Bob oden Kirk
Speaker 1: really helped me out a lot from doing stand up there.
Speaker 1: He had a pilot for a show called Next, which
Speaker 1: had different characters and it was a sort of variety
Speaker 1: show and he got me onto the past for that.
Speaker 1: And from that is where I have like all um
Speaker 1: tape to submit to SNL. Hello, welcome to focus on talent.
Speaker 1: I am go hard lip shifts and today my very
Speaker 1: special guest is the wonderfully simple Way Romano. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming. This is really great. Do you
Speaker 1: begin instead up comedy and so and I think that
Speaker 1: your act was not so good? Yes, well it seems
Speaker 1: to make people smile. I guess yes, yes, but perhaps
Speaker 1: it is a yawn and you are paid by the
Speaker 1: yawn and that's why you're so rich. Yes, I had
Speaker 1: enough tape to submit to SNL. My agents and manager
Speaker 1: sent it to them, and then I was on the
Speaker 1: cast and two thousand two, so you show up to
Speaker 1: New York to do the show. I flew into do
Speaker 1: the auditions. You know, I was flipping out that I
Speaker 1: even got to do the auditions. All yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I met Tina Favor the first time Lauren, and Tina
Speaker 1: was the head writer of them. I b leave, so
Speaker 1: I think her and Dennis McNicholas. I couldn't even believe
Speaker 1: I was in that studio. Yeah it was. I'm still
Speaker 1: blown away by it. And then when you started, you
Speaker 1: were a featured player. And then how many years you
Speaker 1: did you do that? Before you drive? Two years? It
Speaker 1: was Will Forte and I and was it frustrating to
Speaker 1: be a future player, because again, no, no, I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I'm fresh from carrying drums. I'm fresh from just doing
Speaker 1: stand up at large. I can't. There's a part of
Speaker 1: me that still is like, I can't believe it. A
Speaker 1: lot of people on the show don't since that they
Speaker 1: leave and they don't realize how good they've had it.
Speaker 1: But people who have left the show have told me
Speaker 1: and I listened to them, and they say, it's the
Speaker 1: best job I've ever had. Yeah, it's going to be
Speaker 1: one of them. You know, you're not gonna have that
Speaker 1: much freedom and that much variety. I always tell people,
Speaker 1: don't leave the show and become the thing you made
Speaker 1: fun of on the show, right, And that's a real trip,
Speaker 1: because you're gonna go out there and do with the jobs.
Speaker 1: And one of the greatest risks in my mind is
Speaker 1: that people will characterized you. Oh yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: can see you doing a movie where you're when a
Speaker 1: really smart cast and a smart director and you like
Speaker 1: lock everybody in the gymnasium and burn the gymnasium down
Speaker 1: to the ground. You could go either way, don't you think.
Speaker 1: I hope. So I wanted to straight acting. Mm, that's tricky. Um,
Speaker 1: but if there's a way to do it, it's tricky
Speaker 1: because I don't want to look like I'm unhappy with comedy.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go out there and say, for
Speaker 1: lack of a better word, an audience like, hey, this
Speaker 1: is what I really do. However, I think these days
Speaker 1: there are roles that are both comedic and dramatic. I
Speaker 1: like that that line is becoming blurry. So my answer
Speaker 1: is kind of like, I think there's a way that
Speaker 1: Peter Sellers did. It was comedy comedy somewhere, and he
Speaker 1: occupies a very very distinct place. You have comic actors
Speaker 1: who made their reputation in comedic roles who have tried
Speaker 1: to go over into dramatic films and it's worked to
Speaker 1: some degree or hasn't worked, Billy Crystall and Robin Williams
Speaker 1: and so forth. And I think you have a real opportunity,
Speaker 1: and it's never more vivid than it is in Portlandia
Speaker 1: that you could go both ways and do the comic
Speaker 1: and the dramatic. Do you feel that way, yes, because
Speaker 1: when we do the show, when we write the show,
Speaker 1: we don't always think about, like what's the funniest thing, right,
Speaker 1: Like what what seems interesting to us? What what's going
Speaker 1: to look? If they comes, it comes great. If it's
Speaker 1: not quite comedy, that's okay, Like that's it's something else
Speaker 1: in between. Did I did read that? Do you The
Speaker 1: thing of mc sweeney's was comparing CD tracks and album
Speaker 1: tracks and if you read that, Yeah? Do you read
Speaker 1: that thing? And mother Jones about eco chairs and eco
Speaker 1: waste to sit? I did? Yeah, I did that thing.
Speaker 1: It's been about all the festivals. Did you read that
Speaker 1: thing in Peace? It was about the National thinks well
Speaker 1: about all that mid century houses? Yeah? Did read the
Speaker 1: New York Times? Yes? New York observe, Yes, Washington hosts
Speaker 1: Journal of course, ready to read that steampunk art. Did
Speaker 1: not like the end of it. Did you read that
Speaker 1: skywriting over the Plammett River? Yes? Read thetune? Yes? Last night? Ye?
Speaker 1: Do you read it? Yes? There were Yes. Did you
Speaker 1: read that thing that I wrote in the sand on
Speaker 1: the beach? Did you read the Portland to read the
Speaker 1: Wilmah to read the Seattle Stranger? I loved it. I
Speaker 1: think everybody who would listen to this podcast knows. Carrie
Speaker 1: Brown's team from from the show. But did you know
Speaker 1: Carrie when? When did you meet her? I met her
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, I think, but I know I
Speaker 1: had We had mutual friends, going back to you just
Speaker 1: started the feature playing bit of the contract. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I knew the drummer in her band, Janet in seven
Speaker 1: or Carrie lives in Portland, Portland and her band was
Speaker 1: like my favorite bands bands leader Kenny. I became friendly
Speaker 1: with them. We just had a lot of mutual friends.
Speaker 1: They came to New York to play. I just invited
Speaker 1: them to come to the show. They had a show
Speaker 1: that night, so they came to the after party and
Speaker 1: I met Carrie there and it was the strangest thing.
Speaker 1: Carrie and I just became instant friends. That happens, and
Speaker 1: she knew who you were from the TV show. Fully,
Speaker 1: it just worked cooked. Yeah, ever since then? And then
Speaker 1: how soon after that? I mean, what was the relationship
Speaker 1: like between that and when you started Portland? Which is
Speaker 1: only how many years old? Plane is we're going to
Speaker 1: a third season. You started hatching it four years ago.
Speaker 1: Let's further back in that. We had a website where
Speaker 1: we would make little videos. This was the birth of
Speaker 1: that was this video as well. Yeah, so it was
Speaker 1: just we just made these videos. Well it was going
Speaker 1: to be thunder egg which is the Oregon State rock
Speaker 1: and then there was a band called thunder Eggs that
Speaker 1: were like out of respect, like, let's think of something else,
Speaker 1: and we just came up with thunder An and uh,
Speaker 1: we just made these videos. I'd go to Portland. It
Speaker 1: was like the equivalent of jamming, you know. And so
Speaker 1: instead of doing that, which is just like so what
Speaker 1: you know, like, hey, we have this band, we just
Speaker 1: thought let's make these videos. There was no pressure on it.
Speaker 1: It's just like, let's just didn't like it, Yeah, for
Speaker 1: no reason, let's just come up with characters, let's make
Speaker 1: these tapes. And then we did. And then we had
Speaker 1: all these videos on this website. I remember reading that
Speaker 1: you did about a dozen of them, correct, Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: about right. And then then we just had enough to
Speaker 1: pitch a TV show and then how does Portland become
Speaker 1: a show? Who buys the show? Um? It was kind
Speaker 1: of a thing where I was just talking to my manager,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do next? What's something about okar?
Speaker 1: And I thought thunder and let's just turn it see
Speaker 1: if we can turn it into something. And then Carrie
Speaker 1: and I just thought, yeah, let's let's pitch it. We
Speaker 1: are ready for that. Does she want that? Yeah? She
Speaker 1: seems like somebody who lived in Portland and lived on
Speaker 1: the fringe and was very very talented deliberately that she
Speaker 1: didn't want to be mainstream successful. Um. I think she
Speaker 1: just likes doing it, so she does what she wants.
Speaker 1: She's a perfect mix of like she just enjoys, you know,
Speaker 1: performing and isn't like so crazy ambitious that she's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what's the next thing? What's the next thing. She's very like,
Speaker 1: let's work on some projects and a lot of it's
Speaker 1: our friendship. We just like working together. And then we
Speaker 1: pitched it to Broadway Video and your singer and then
Speaker 1: uh so you know Lauren and as a group, we
Speaker 1: pitched it to i f C. They said, go and
Speaker 1: do a pilot, which we did and then the next
Speaker 1: thing we knew we're doing the show and you shoot
Speaker 1: the show in Portland obviously, And what was it like
Speaker 1: to crew up a show there is there a lot
Speaker 1: of production up there. Yeah, I mean it was it
Speaker 1: was incredible. I mean we had I didn't have time
Speaker 1: to stop and think about, Wow, isn't this cool. We
Speaker 1: just had to get you know, a director with John Chrystal.
Speaker 1: We had to get you know, producers, line producers on board.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot to do. And then we had
Speaker 1: to come up with the sketches too. And where's the
Speaker 1: production facility? We just shoot on location. Where's the production
Speaker 1: offices and some defunct building. Yeah, it wasn't like a
Speaker 1: missile factory. It was like it was like this old sneaker.
Speaker 1: It was like an abandoned sports store or sports something,
Speaker 1: action sports something, some like is the production office for
Speaker 1: the show? It was it just channing. It changed the
Speaker 1: second year. We just you know, it's which I kind
Speaker 1: of like. At first I didn't like, but it's something
Speaker 1: I've grown to like. Is it it just changes to
Speaker 1: whatever is the cheapest place to rent space. I think
Speaker 1: when things are permanent, that's a that's kind of a
Speaker 1: scary thing. Is then you just assume too much. Is
Speaker 1: there a lot of other production in Portland? Me, there
Speaker 1: a lot of the there's a few other things. Um,
Speaker 1: the leverage is shot there, grim is shot there, but
Speaker 1: I think that's it maybe, so not a lot of
Speaker 1: shot there, not a lot, not a lot. I think
Speaker 1: it's nice that that everyone's employed. You know, anything that
Speaker 1: brings employment to a city, it's got to be great.
Speaker 1: Now when you go there, I'm assuming to start the show,
Speaker 1: you've never lived there before, No, but I've gone there
Speaker 1: soul you had because you've spent so much time, so
Speaker 1: you knew what this Portland's head was. That's what also
Speaker 1: got us to doing this show there. I mean, like
Speaker 1: I would visit carry all the time, thunder for years.
Speaker 1: I've been going there, and she'd lived there for how long?
Speaker 1: Um forever? For what I think she's she's originally from
Speaker 1: Washington State and then she moved to Portland whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: ten years ago or something. So what is your experience
Speaker 1: being in Portland? Do people say stuff to you? All
Speaker 1: the love it, They're so nice about it. And I
Speaker 1: really like it there. You know, I'm I'm a city guy.
Speaker 1: I'm from New York and and I still love it there.
Speaker 1: It's smaller, but it's still it's still a city and
Speaker 1: clean and nice and good food somewhere really civil, really
Speaker 1: just physically pretty and and kind of overcast, which I
Speaker 1: really like. Do you think when SNL is over you'll
Speaker 1: stay in New York. You think Los Angeles is where
Speaker 1: you don't think I'm gonna try. Yeah, I'm sure spend
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll spend some time in l A and
Speaker 1: sometime in Portland, But I mean, I love it here.
Speaker 1: Do you develop films now? Do you write films at
Speaker 1: all for yourself? I've started to Yeah, I started to. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like when I when I try to write
Speaker 1: something for myself and it ends up in TV form.
Speaker 1: But still I want to try to expand that. You
Speaker 1: would never do a TV series? Um? Do I would
Speaker 1: do anything? Anything it seems interesting. I would. I would
Speaker 1: do anything it seems like something you know good to
Speaker 1: be part of. So when you sign a contract like
Speaker 1: with Broadway Video for those people who don't know this,
Speaker 1: that's Lawrence Company, Rice Production Arm and you have to
Speaker 1: deliver how many episodes? Ten? You just do ten. First
Speaker 1: one was six, the second was ten. This one's gonna
Speaker 1: be tanned. I was gonna say, because because eventually you
Speaker 1: start again when as soon as I'm done with SNL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're gonna go right out to Portlood with carry and
Speaker 1: start again and do ten and that ten will take
Speaker 1: you through through the summer, So you spend your whole
Speaker 1: summer working with Kerry, then you come back to SNL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have a little bit of a break. No, in fact,
Speaker 1: it overlaps a little bit. In fact, I might have
Speaker 1: to miss some maybe a little bit of rehearsing when
Speaker 1: we come right back next year, because I think it's
Speaker 1: going to bleed into October a little bit. What do
Speaker 1: you do for fun? I just work all that time.
Speaker 1: Will you do his work because that's what you wanted. Yeah,
Speaker 1: today I'm going to go into work and we're gonna
Speaker 1: start writing. And it's work, but it's still you know,
Speaker 1: trying to think of things for for the show. What
Speaker 1: do you watch on tv UM lately? Game of Thrones.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm very addicted to every story that's going
Speaker 1: on in that show. It's so well done. It's so
Speaker 1: well done, and and it's a weird mix of like
Speaker 1: it's kind of historical not historical fan I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess at this point it's just fantasy, but like it's
Speaker 1: just it's just so well done. I really really love it.
Speaker 1: Downton Abbey's really watch I have to watch that. I
Speaker 1: haven't watched that Girls is really great. That shows a
Speaker 1: good so many great things. I always remember Favreau had
Speaker 1: that show Dinner for five. Remember that I used to
Speaker 1: watch that show. I love that show, and Favreau had
Speaker 1: these people on it. Favreau's talking to these people and
Speaker 1: he says, well, you know, win the movie business. There's
Speaker 1: three things. There's the director, there's the script, and there's
Speaker 1: the cast. And he said, you can afford to take
Speaker 1: a chance on one of the three. He said, but
Speaker 1: if two of the three, let alone three. But if
Speaker 1: two are in doubt or you have questions about, he said,
Speaker 1: don't do the movie. I remember sitting there in my
Speaker 1: bed and I'd already been in the movie business for
Speaker 1: like you know, I was, I was forty years old
Speaker 1: or forty years I remember sitting there going, damn now.
Speaker 1: He tells me, damn you, John, that was that's really good.
Speaker 1: He taught me big list. Did you ever meet someone
Speaker 1: who was an idol of yours and you really had
Speaker 1: an amazing experience chatting with the absolute for example, Steve Martin, Right,
Speaker 1: I mean, oh him, uh, he's you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: even weird talking about it because I feel like I
Speaker 1: know him somewhat. But in the comedy world or in
Speaker 1: the entertainment world. He's just like the experiences greater than
Speaker 1: I ever thought it would be because I idolize him.
Speaker 1: And then on top of it, the way he's just
Speaker 1: the way he is, you know, that's part of the thing,
Speaker 1: that seeing how people are as people. That's another nice surprise.
Speaker 1: He's a very sweet, gry He's just yeah, and he
Speaker 1: loves art, and that's like, Yeah, you seem very goal oriented.
Speaker 1: You've had goals. You wanted to be in the band,
Speaker 1: You did the band, You did that until you were done,
Speaker 1: you put it down, you went to this, You've moved along.
Speaker 1: What else do you want to do? Um? Someday one
Speaker 1: you invent a type of entertainment that isn't is really
Speaker 1: blurry between comedy and something else that doesn't have a
Speaker 1: name yet. But I do want to see if there's
Speaker 1: another way to another level of um fooling people as
Speaker 1: opposed to just doing a character something a little bigger
Speaker 1: than that. And I don't know quite how to do
Speaker 1: it yet, but I do think being famous has killed
Speaker 1: that opportunity for you personally, and sometimes so that someone
Speaker 1: you have to get someone else to do it and
Speaker 1: produce that yeah, because you couldn't do that, because you
Speaker 1: meant you show up, they know something's going on. But, uh,
Speaker 1: do you find that do you find that when you
Speaker 1: walk up to people automatically like someone said something to me,
Speaker 1: They said to me, you're you're at a wonderful place
Speaker 1: which is also a terrible place, that place where people
Speaker 1: are going to laugh at you, whether you're funny or not.
Speaker 1: I meant it as a dig. Do you find that's
Speaker 1: true with you, that wherever you go, people are predisposed
Speaker 1: to you saying something yeah. Or if I do like
Speaker 1: a stand up show, where I find that I want
Speaker 1: to put more effort into it, but sometimes I don't
Speaker 1: really have to, so that might not be a good thing.
Speaker 1: So what about it in your personal life? How is
Speaker 1: your personal life changed as a result of being famous? Um,
Speaker 1: it's everything I ever wanted. But there are some things
Speaker 1: about it that are just very new and just very interesting,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I love New York. I love writing
Speaker 1: on the subway. My subway rights an't as private as
Speaker 1: they used to be. That's when I start trying to
Speaker 1: think of ideas. I listen to music, and that's just different.
Speaker 1: Now people say things to you, yeah, perfectly nice, perfectly nice.
Speaker 1: I would have done the same had I met whoever.
Speaker 1: But that's that's changed, like a different kind of subway. Right.
Speaker 1: What about your relationship with your family, your friends? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you still have the same friends, Yeah, kind of,
Speaker 1: but I've got, you know, got new friends, new circles
Speaker 1: of friends. Yes, but I've maintained my friendships with the
Speaker 1: guys in the old band then Kirk, Yeah, absolutely, he's
Speaker 1: in l a though, right, Yeah, let's text each other.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so I do maintain relationship with this even
Speaker 1: if I'm if we're both busy, Paul F. Tompkins, whoever,
Speaker 1: I still try to keep those alive. This is the
Speaker 1: last thing I want to say to you, which you
Speaker 1: could say a million things too well, but I'm saying that, uh,
Speaker 1: without getting too personal. You know you've been married twice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you find you were married twice, correct, that's correct.
Speaker 1: And and the first one was in Chicago before I
Speaker 1: was doing comedy, and that's someone who I'm still friends with, Sally.
Speaker 1: That was during the music days, yes, the Keith Moon days.
Speaker 1: And then you were married the second time, yes, But
Speaker 1: would you say that like from things I've read, you
Speaker 1: find that because of what you crave, what you love.
Speaker 1: You speak very lovingly about Carrie and how you and
Speaker 1: she you're just friends, but she's like you're you know,
Speaker 1: she's your last text of the day. Do you think
Speaker 1: that she's kind of your soul mate? Without a doubt.
Speaker 1: It's all the things that I've ever wanted, you know,
Speaker 1: as from like the physical stuff, but the intimacy that
Speaker 1: I have with her is like no other, Like it's
Speaker 1: something that and it's only it's taking me a while
Speaker 1: to realize, Like, wait a minute, I am super super
Speaker 1: close with her. I mean we work all day together
Speaker 1: on portlanda and then we hang out afterwards. I mean,
Speaker 1: what is that? Because people don't understand in this business
Speaker 1: how important it is, Like do you have to be
Speaker 1: It depends on who the person is. Yeah, I also
Speaker 1: feel like you want someone who you can be not
Speaker 1: great around, meaning you know, like I want I want
Speaker 1: to be able to be kind of boring sometimes or
Speaker 1: say something dumb, and it's okay. That pressure is I
Speaker 1: like that pressure not to be there to have to
Speaker 1: be super funny and intelligent all the time. It's nice
Speaker 1: when I like I'm competitive, Yeah, where I'm just like
Speaker 1: the comedy world is very competitive, isn't it. I guess
Speaker 1: I haven't walked into that too much. I wasn't part
Speaker 1: of a comedy troop or anything. And so and the
Speaker 1: stand ups I've become friends with, I've all been very
Speaker 1: you know, supportive. Definitely, depending on the outcome of the election.
Speaker 1: You can expect to see more of Fred Armison on
Speaker 1: SNL next season as Barack Obama, but definitely more of
Speaker 1: Prince Portland Ia is entering its third season on I
Speaker 1: f C. Can I play a customer in Portland? Can
Speaker 1: I come to a restaurant any time I come in
Speaker 1: to do something? Who would I play? What would I order? Um?
Speaker 1: I think you would uh come from southern California and
Speaker 1: you'd order all kinds of meats a meat a fiction.
Speaker 1: People think of it as a veggie place, but it's
Speaker 1: actually a very meaty place. Yeah, it's very like cured
Speaker 1: meats and sausages that but we haven't explored that much.
Speaker 1: Maybe it could be a meat salesman. Yeah, even better,
Speaker 1: maybe it could be a meat salesman comes and charts
Speaker 1: and graphs of the loins and actually the sections of
Speaker 1: the pig and the cow and the organs and yeah,
Speaker 1: I love it, and the answers yes right, I means time. Well,
Speaker 1: come see you important. This is Alec Baldwin and you're
Speaker 1: listening to here's the thing, m