"Fred Armisen"

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Hi.

I'm Sean.

And this is SmartList.

By the way, it's just one at a time.

Okay, just start again.

Just do it one more time.

Go.

Hi.

My name is Will.

R.

No.

I'm so good.

You can't do half.

I was going to do

and also that's my name.

Well, I thought this is syllables.

Okay, so, okay.

I.

No.

Oh, my God.

No wonder they call this show Smartless.

There you go. Smart, my God.
No wonder they call this show Smartless. There you go.
Smart. Smart.
Smart. Smart.
Smart. Smart.
Will, before you hopped on, Jason and I were talking about timeliness and being on time. I said, you know, sometimes I go to the doctor's office 15 minutes late on purpose so that I can cover the 15-minute wait I would have had to do had I been on time.
Right. You do that? No? No, I don't.
Will doesn't go to the doctor. His religion doesn't allow him to.
Right? Here we go. Great.
Now we're going to get the letters. Here come the letters.
Herbs, right? You just do it with herbs and... A few herbs and spices.
You talk to the planets. And I do my crystals, as you know.
Crystals. Were you ever into crystals? You were totally into crystals.
No way. No, I was more of a coke guy.
Crystal was just too extreme for me. Guys, we're having a blast.
We're having a blast. No, did you ever, do you believe in, you ever had your fortune read, like with tarot cards? You ever done that, Sean? Oh, yeah.
I think a long time ago. Wait, sorry, that was for Sean, but Jason, go ahead.
Yeah, go. Insert story.
Well, listen, if you must know, I'm married to a wonderful woman. Let me just start with a qualifier.
You know, she and I, I will say, I'm not allergic to this whole notion of astrology. Oh, really? I don't let it guide what I do, but sometimes it's kind of a fun, helpful confirmer, right? Potentially.
You don't believe that though, because it's all generally speaking. Well, I was very circumspect about the whole thing as a caveman like me.
I got circumspect too when I was born. Yeah, no, I had a great doctor.
Just beautiful, beautiful work. Um, uh, and, uh, but the, um, the, uh, the woman that I was with, well, girl that I was with for eight years before, uh, Amanda, um, I should say young lady.
Uh, we were in our teens and twenties. Uh she went you get you get a lot of pushback i've

seen pushback for using different terms i've seen specifically us and i know that you don't mean any harm by it you actually just i'm just trying to keep up you know yeah um so uh so she went she she would see an astrologist um and did so for the full eight years we were together now often my name would come up in her thing.

And this woman, and then I, I consequently went in there, you know, cause my, my, my girlfriend, you know, got me a session or two. This woman's record, as far as accuracy goes with forecasting the future and what, and to look up was 95% for eight full years.
Now, hang on. Here's the weird part.
When I started going out with Amanda, my current wife,

which was only a few years after me and the young lady,

she was seeing the same woman.

And so I now have been with Amanda for 20 years.

Yeah.

Loved every minute of it.

Sure.

I'm still seeing this woman.

That's not what you said last Thursday.

No, no, no, no, Will.

When you called me frantically last Thursday.

No, no, no, no, Will, Will, Will, Will. Yeah.
So now I've got 30 years of this woman's record. Still 95% accurate.
Okay, but so of what? It's real. 95% right of predicting the future? Of saying watch out for the middle of December.
There's going to be a situation, and there's some specifics to it that are indisputably non-vague. Like what? Like your chicken salad is going to come and the chicken's going to be overcooked? Stuff like that? Well, no, but close.
Because don't you think if there's somebody out there that's that correct all the time that we'd know about it? Of course. Well, but that's why you know about astrology.
I'm telling you. You'd think that they'd be richer.
They'd be billionaires. By the way, every time I see one of those, I drive by, I always go, I knew that was going to be there.
I heard a male laugh from our surprise guest. Because he loves slash hates my terrible jokes and has for a long time.
Well, who doesn't? Because I know that he's addicted to terrible jokes himself, which is just such a delightful quality. Right up my alley.
Our guest today,

I didn't know this.

He was born in Mississippi.

He was born in Mississippi.

I've known him for a number of years.

I did not know this.

Grew up in New York State.

And he originally started out

in show business as a musician.

He was a drummer for many years.

And then he parlayed that.

He started to perform in a lot more comedies and sketch comedies, et cetera, et cetera. As soon as I name, I start listing his credits, you're going to know who he is.
So it's a race to like just getting it all out as much as I can. Okay, well go slow because I want to guess.
Put it this way. One of my favorite stories and I do want to talk to him about this is that he had a brother who lived in East Berlin and he used to, told me stories about going to visit him, going through Checkpoint Charlie to visit his brother, A, which is a very unique experience.
So this is not a young guest. He's about our age.
Jim Neighbors. Is it Jim Neighbors? This is Jim Neighbors? It's not Jim Neighbors.
Jim, reveal your camera. No, but do not reveal.
He's been nominated for many Emmys for writing. He has, he's nominated for, he actually received a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album.
He was a Saturday Night Live cast member for 11 years. He's created a bunch of shows, one of which is one of the funniest shows in memory called Portlandia.
It's one of my favorite people of all time. It's Fred Armisen.
Comedy royalty. There he is.
Good Lord, Fred. He does.
Oh, look, he's back in Berlin. It looks like you showered.
Did you shower today? I actually, I just did take a shower. I'm in London right now.
Oh, you are? Oh. Yeah.
What are you doing there? So we're only allowed to take showers at night here. That's how they're doing lockdown.
They're doing lockdown like with showers and like with water and stuff. No way.
What a weird. Yeah.
And there's no science behind it. They just came up with that.
They just wanted a rule of some kind. Right.
They were like, let's just make up the rule. This is just a real all-star booking here, Will.
Will. I know.
Will, you've really done it. This is fantastic.
Fred is one of my favorite people of all time. Likewise.
You don't like him more than I do. You don't like him more than I do.
Fred, you are universally known. Now, you're very well known as a comedian and as a performer and as a writer.
But what people don't know is you're maybe the greatest texter, joke texter of all time. This is true.
I want to receive. People who know Fred share stories of texts they receive from Fred at various times.
Yeah. I've read your texts out loud.
I have not. And I have not received any.
Jason, we just haven't kept in touch like that. Oh, come on.
Well, first of all, you're all my favorite people. I love this podcast.
I really do. I love you guys.
I've worked with all of you. Are you saying goodbye right now? Are you saying goodbye? Yeah.
We just started. No, because it's so late here.
It's so late. Well, it's so great to have you.
No, but I've worked with all you guys. Yeah.
Isn't that crazy? Is this past your bedtime late or no? Is it almost bedtime? It is. And what are you doing there? It's 9 o'clock at night.
I'm shooting a show here. You know Matt Berry, the comedian Matt Berry? Yeah, of course.
Yeah. Yeah, so I'm doing that for like a week.
No way. Yeah.
He's great. Matt Berry is a hilarious guy.
He had a really funny show called Toast of London, but before that he was an incredible performer. He's been done amazing things for years.
He's a profoundly funny guy. I've only met him once, I think, but yeah.
Uh, so that's fun. Are you, pardon my ignorance here, but you'll, you'll, if you don't know already, I'm an Indian.
Just in general. Yeah.
I'm usually in a cave. What is the status of Portlandia? Are you in the middle of that? Are you done with that? No, no.
We finished it like a couple years ago. We did eight seasons.
And that was it. Man, that show was good.
Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Now, do you want to do another one like that? Or did you just like that was just too special, too great, I don't even want to try? Too special, I don't even want to try. That was like a perfect mix of getting to work with Carrie and getting to be in Portland and all that stuff.
So it was like, it was just perfect. It's everything that I ever wanted.
But that was your baby. Do you want to continue making babies? Like you would never consider doing like Silver Lake Andia, right? No.
Nice. Maybe.
Nice. Yeah.
Thanks. Sorry, it would be Eagle Rocklandia.
Or Highland Park. Highland Park Andia.
Yeah, you're right. Sorry.
Excuse me for my 2004 reference. No, that's okay.

But what feels nice, what feels good is that I felt so good about Portlandia that whatever the next show I get to do that comes along, I'll be psyched about.

Right.

But it's like until then, you'll do actor for hire stuff because that was a lot of heavy lifting that you were doing on that.

Yes. And so it's probably nice to just sit in your trailer and wait for them to call for first hand yes yeah you were so nice to have me on portland it's one of my favorite all-time shows it was such a i laughed oh you were so hard doing that sean you were on it yes it was so funny we did a sketch where we got bad art for coffee shop walls you know coffee shops always have terrible art, terrible paintings? So we had to look through a bunch of them to find the worst art.
Jason, you and I are the only people that Fred knows who he'd never asked to be on Portlandia. So it says a lot about what he loves.
No, I think, Will, we did ask you. Couldn't make your deal.
And you couldn't do it. Yes, the one time I couldn't do it.
So Jason was the only one who's not. Yeah.
Jason, are you busy enough? Yeah. Well, how about you? Let's start with texts.
How about just a text? I would love to text with you. I would love to.
Yeah. You know, by the way, Fred and I did this movie called The Rocker years ago with like Bradley Cooper and Sudeikis and Rainn Wilson, a bunch of people.
And we were there for like a week, two weeks, something like that. And that was like, I don't know, 2005 or 2006, right?

Yeah, Toronto.

We shot it in Toronto.

And we were shooting in Toronto.

So he sends me a text.

This is from Fred from like two years ago, like 2019.

I'm in Toronto.

Hey, is the Rocker production office still open?

Maybe I'll go say hi.

15 years.

But isn't there like, don't you feel like that should happen? Like there should always be like some little office somewhere that they're like, hey, just in case. If you have some receipts to bring back or something.
We got some of the props in case you need to get pickups. We're here.
Fred used to do this thing. Amy used to tell me all the time when they were doing SNL, Fred would, and the bigger the star, the better.
They do like the read through, like-through, like, the first, you know, the first pitch in Lauren's office, and then Fred would go up to, like, you know, Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise or whatever and go, hey, can I get your cell number really quick? Right out of the gate. Right out of the gate.
I think I tried to do it to Al Gore because, you know, he was, like, like in the government and let me give him a number one fred you seem to be like the most the most

calm you're always so calm and collected and kind and generous do you have you ever raised

your voice or screamed or yelled at anybody in your life yeah sure i have well then so so then

you've caught it too i caught it i caught it it's a virus it's an anger virus um there was one guy

Thank you. yeah sure i have well then so so then you've caught it too i caught it i caught it it's a virus it's an anger virus um there was one guy walking a dog i was in chicago a guy was walking his dog a cat came out in front of it and he kicked the cat oh my god no way out of the way and i freaked out i freaked out yeah good so see now that guy deserved he had to come yeah If somebody has it coming, I will make it very clear how badly you deserve this.
I mean, I will at least articulate. What did you do? You just screamed your head off at him? Yeah.
I talk about this idea all the time, though, with a buddy of mine. We talk about this idea of, you know, having to go to anger management.
And, of course, the kind of the workaround is don't get angry in the first place because now you're just managing, you're just trying to manage those feelings. And if you can get to the other side of the equation so that you don't get mad in the first place and people say, well, that's easy enough.
But it's kind of true. I don't want to be in a position where I'm having emotions and feelings that I don't like and now I have to manage those.
I don't want to get there in the first place. I just want to say something really, really quick about anger.
And I'm not saying this is a good thing to do is that, um, I sometimes, the most angry I get is if I have to wait somewhere too long. So yeah, say I go to a restaurant and for whatever reason, nothing against the restaurant, they're too busy.
They're understaffed. The way I, uh, sometimes express my anger is I just leave.
So I'll just simmer for a while. I'm like, Oh God, I'm so hungry.
Right. And then I'll go, I'm done.
I'm just going to go. That's how.
What a monster. What a monster.
Take that restaurant. What a monster you are.
But if I may, that is something that's like, so that's your own thing. So you're getting frustrated.
You wish that they were on time. They are not on time.
And so you're being accountable for your level, your short level of patience level of, of, of patience. Right.
So I get that only during hunger. Yeah.
Right. But if somebody does something that is wrong, are you supposed to pretend it didn't happen or ignore it or walk away? Like, I just, I don't know.
I don't know how, what to do with that. I'm too afraid of violence to like, well, but I mean, I mean, let's assume somebody's not going to punch you out.
I mean, I'm assuming that, you know, we're all civil and, you know, they need to be called out on something. So they don't do that same thing to you again.
Well, you're making me a little angry that you're— Yeah, see? I'm not letting this go. You're not letting it go, and I'm really trying to get, I'm trying to talk to these guys.

Okay, Fred, okay, Fred, just cool it.

For one second, Fred, because Fred's getting visibly agitated.

It's just, sorry, go ahead, Fred, I cut you off.

It's all right.

Let's just get through these questions real fast.

Let's wrap this up.

Contractually, we have to do this.

We have to get to at least 45 minutes. None of us to let's just let's stay stipple none of us let's say none of us want to wait wait wait Fred so Fred tells me so years ago we're working in and Fred goes we're talking about East Berlin he's like yeah I was in East Berlin I go what do you mean he goes well my brother lives there i go wedding and he goes yeah i went across and i was so crazy i remember you told me a story like going camping and then like they came and checked up on you like the military or whatever yeah this is like the 80s when like yeah you know both sides were uh super paranoid and so uh my dad had a son before he came to the states he he was in germany and uh he my-brother, Fabrizio, was raised in East Germany.
So he couldn't leave, the Berlin Wall and everything. So I went to go visit him.
Crossed through the, you know, you go through Checkpoint Charlie, and they, like, go through your passport and stamp everything. I was a teenager.
And sure enough, when you're there, the Stasi really do kind of, like, keep an eye on you. They're polite, but they just, they're around a lot.
And I was camping up in the northern part of East Germany. And they just, you know, opened up the zipper of the tent.
And they sort of let me see your passport. Hello.
And what they do is they read your passport back to you. You are Fred Armisen.
You live in, you know, and that's it. But I have another part of this story, Will.
Yeah. I might have told, you know what? I think I did tell you about this.
Tell me, tell me, tell me. I went back to what used to be East Berlin, and I visited Fabrizio's mom.
All right, that's my dad's ex. She went to the Stasi Center to see what information they had on her.
I think I told you this. And she showed me, she made photocopies of pages of books of what they had about her.
It's like us going to the CIA or something. And they had photos of the inside of her refrigerator when she wasn't home.
No way. No way.
Photos of just people coming and going and all that stuff. But also, like, she's like, look what they took pictures of.
Why? So, as you know, and right. And Fred, sorry, we talked about this because then I read that book on the Stasi.
I read one that you told me about and then I told you about one. No, I told you about one.
You told me about that one that I read, yeah. Yeah.
And so what they would do is when the wall came down, if you were East German, you were allowed to, whatever files they had not destroyed, you were allowed to go and requisition them and look at your file. And what people found out was friends, neighbors, family were spying on them.
So remember Katarina Witt, the skater? I saw this documentary. She looked at her file finally.
And in it, it said that her training partner, who is her lifelong friend, this guy had been informing on her all her life. Oh, wow.
And it divided them, of course, and they haven't spoken since. It was very controversial.
And so that's not surprising that your mom, I don't think you did tell me that. And now you're starring in the single camera comedy version of that, aren't you?

Yeah, it's so funny.

Isn't it called At My Vits End?

Or did that not clear?

Yeah.

At My Vits End.

That's nice.

With a shrug.

You know, I wonder, I don't want to get political here, but like.

Oh, let's do it.

Yeah, no, let's do it. You want a debate? We've covered anger, and now let's do this.
And then we're going to do religion right afterwards. Take a position, and then Fred, you take the other position.
Go, baby, go. I would probably be very healthy for everybody in this country to know how crazy it is in a lot of parts of this world so that they would appreciate, you you know, for as oblong as, as stuff in our country is sometimes, it's still frigging fantastic.
And we're all one, even though we don't, like, maybe it would just be a nice unifier. I know at least me just going out of the country and vacationing and having a great time.
I, when I come back, America has never been more beautiful to me. But like, when you hear stories about like, how did governments get to a point where they actually recruit your family members to spy? I mean, granted that was back in the cold war, but you know, it's still, it, it happens around the world.
And it's, it's in my lifetime. It's not, you know, it's a long time ago, but not, it's in my memory.
And also that I couldn't meet my half brother because he couldn't leave. There was a wall had a physical wall that he just you know wait so you never met your your brother oh yeah yeah no now we're now we're in touch now i've visited him and stuff now you wish there was a wall now you wish they put the wall back am i right or am i wrong yeah this guy i was thinking about being political i was thinking freddie about your character uh what was his name nich Nicholas Fenn? Oh, Nicholas Fane.
Nicholas Fane. Oh, my God.
Do you remember that character Freddie used to do on SNL where he was a political comedian? Yes. So funny.
Oh, my God. And he couldn't finish a sentence.
And he he'd like pull out like the new york times

and the way in like the wall street journal and he'd go like here we go here we go people um new york state says they adjust the budget i was thinking about you guys when i saw it so and then he would just never finish what he would say no thought was ever finished you know and then it would and then it would taper off and do you know i had an uncle and it had nothing to do with being And we will be right back.

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Our show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Hey guys, everybody should have a support system, right? Who's your support system? My support system, as you well know, talk about all the time, is Scotty.
And of course, my two besties, Will and Jason. Whenever I have a problem, an issue, I talk to them about it.
And if they're not available, I will talk to a therapist and I've been going to therapy for a long time and it's always great. So think about your favorite leaders, mentors, and idols.
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Now, I'm sure you get this question a lot, so I apologize. But just hearing that story, it made me think like, do you have to miss the sort of the lab, the factory of, you can just think up some crazy character like that and you can get it on its feet and maybe even make it to national broadcast by Saturday and then it's gone.
Like, do you miss being in that weekly environment and opportunity? Yeah. Yeah.
You know, I mean, I did it for long enough that I'm not like pining to, you know, go back in time in that way. But yeah, I do miss not having that immediacy of just like any dumb idea.
All of a sudden was being, also not just it being produced, but you're getting to do it with your friends. Right.
And then they're adding to it and they're laughing. And yeah, I mean, that was just like right away.
What was that process for you, Fred? Cause I'm a little unclear. So you, I'm right that you were, of course you still are a musician and you were a drummer.
And then you, where did, how did you start doing sketch? Like where did that come in? I just started doing, I played drums in bands for a long time and wasn't getting very far. It was a lot of work and we'd go on tour and not that many people would come out.
But when I started doing comedy, like making these little videos and stuff, this is pre-internet. Um, I just got asked to do more and more stuff.
And then I would do like some kind of standup where like I would do a character, um, at Largo or something. And then, had enough tape to audition for SNL.

Part of that, by the way, was a pilot that Bob Odenkirk did called Next, a sketch show.

Who was in that with you?

Remember?

Nick Swartzen, Jay Johnston.

Wow.

Bob.

Dave did a couple things on there.

So because of – anyway.

And we're going to talk about it. Nick Swartzen, Jay Johnston, Bob.
Dave did a couple things on there. So, because of, anyway.
And was that because of, like, Largo? Like, you were doing stuff and Bob identified you and said, hey, would you come and do this pilot with us? Yeah, yes, that's exactly. Wow.
He's the one who really got me on TV. Oh, man.
Oh, man. What, Fred? And so when you say you were doing videos before the internet, what does that mean? Like you'd literally like make short little movies on VHS tapes and send them around? Yeah, of me as different characters interviewing bands.
No way. So you'd make a bunch of copies of those tapes and send out multiple tapes? Yeah, just like records or something.
Like I'd make dubs of these videos. Do you have an agent or anything like that at that time no no no no i was just a drummer oh yeah nobody nothing i love that you are a drummer i'm such a drum fan and freak i wish i knew how to play i play my steering wheel all the time but i can't well i can't what is that it's called independence right where you're you're the bass drum goes at a different time as the hi-hat and i can't separate those first of all it's never too late and it's supposed to be a fun instrument so all that stuff about it being like so precise and stuff it doesn't matter fred it's it's not so pretty you're surprising your drummer because you you do have the maybe one of the better timings of anybody around.
So it always added up to me. I mean that in a way.
I've always thought that. Oh, yeah, there's something musical about.
Sean, you're the same way. You're very musical.
You understand rhythm and all that kind of stuff. Well, they're very closely connected music and comedy.
Explain it to us. I'm so sorry that I cut to you.
Hold on, hold on.

I really make sure we're rolling.

One second while I get this in.

So with rhythm, just like one, two, three, four.

Sure.

So boring.

Fred, favorite drummer of all time?

John Bonham, great choice.

Great choice.

Good, good.

Oh, yeah, that's a great choice. And favorite band, The Beatles, right favorite band the Beatles right I mean what the fuck man come on what the fuck what is this sorry guys I'm really not asking great questions what is this favorite movie favorite movie The Godfather what Godfather what so what guys I apologize this is non-information this is non-information.
Wait, Fred. Citizen Kane's

the greatest movie

of all time.

Okay, well,

thanks a lot, man.

And there's our show.

Favorite director,

Scorsese.

Oh, wow.

I didn't expect that.

Hey, listen,

not a lot of people

know John Bonin.

Do you play something

other than the drums?

Or no, just drums?

My favorite drummer,

I would say,

I have to ignore your questions, Sean.

I have to.

No, I get it.

Sean, you've got to shut up, guy.

It's okay.

I'm crossing them off as a...

They don't need to be answered.

I just have...

I'm legally obligated.

I like that you really have a pencil.

Yeah, no.

My favorite drummer,

I would say it's Clemberk from Blondie

and then Keith Moon.

Oh, yeah.

Sure, sure.

Keith Moon.

Keith Moon from what?

The Who, you Philistine.

Yeah.

And also, do I play anything else?

I play some guitar and some bass.

Sure.

Okay, that's great.

See, you answered the question.

Will Arnett plays the air bass.

You ever seen Will play the air bass?

I do really well.

Really well.

Are you guys musicians?

You guys are musicians, right?

Sean is.

Sean is?

Sean is.

Go ahead, Sean.

Sean, what do you play?

Sorry, do you consider musical theater to fall in that category? Hey, you sang in the movie. You sang in the rocker.
Yeah. I know, I sang.
I did. I sang in the movie.
How about that? In the rocker. I think I'm a second.
Will, Will, Will. You totally sang.
Will, I want to hear, Will, I've never heard you sing. Just do happy birthday for a second.
It's terrible. But Fred came in and he plays the bassist in the rocker.
And he kept doing this gross move that all those bands used to do where he would spin around with the fucking bass. And it would make me – it would always take me out of it because it would make me laugh so hard.
My favorite thing that you do, Will, when you do air bass is not only will you tune it, right? So you bring the hand up on top and tune it and then back on it.

But then you do this thing where you go, okay, and then you know how the bass player always catches the eyes of the lead singer.

Catches the eye of the lead singer.

And then it's a double knee bend.

So he's just chilling, right?

He's chilling, right?

He's playing bass with the band.

And then all of a sudden the lead singer happens to kill the middle song.

Give him a little.

And he just goes.

Yeah. And then he does basically like a cur him a little, and he just goes.
Yeah.

And then he does basically like a curtsy, double knee curtsy.

So Freddie, so you get,

so you do the sketch show

with Bob and those guys,

and then you get enough tape together

to submit to SNL,

and you audition in L.A. for SNL,

or you go to New York first?

New York.

So you go to New York.

Lauren doesn't see you in L.A.,

you just go to New York.

Go to New York.

And had that been a dream of yours

to be on the show?

Like, had you always been like,

on the show? Like, had you always been like, oh my God, I'd kill to be on Saturday Night Live or was it just like another audition? Or did you have sexy indifference? No, it was more like I always loved SNL. I loved it.
So it was just like, it was so mind-blowingly crazy of an idea that I was thrilled. But wasn't even in my no pressure because it really like this this this this ain't gonna happen exactly what it was like i was like i was thrilled enough to be in at that studio auditioning because i you know still kind of like i was only a couple years away from having been a drummer in a band so i was like oh i'm at nbc they paid for my plane ticket right this is crazy i got a free plane ticket and then i think it really did help me relax in the audition yeah where i i felt like this is uh incredible but the first one was um at ucb and then it was at the studio like they said ucb on 26th street under the tennis bubble that one? Yeah.
No, no. It was the one before that one.
Oh, the one on 22nd? Yeah. Before they got kicked out of there.
Oh, no kidding. Yeah, yeah.
I guess that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because you were, one of my favorite things about when Fred was on SNL, apart from just being a delight and being hilarious and I loved seeing him all the time. Well, you're so nice.
Thanks, buddy. But I was, Fred knew all the musicians too and they all knew Fred so it would always be like, Fred would be like, oh, hey, do you know Jeff Tweedy? And I'd be like, no, I don't.
But I'm really happy to be talking with him from Wilco or you knew all the guys from like The Shins or you knew the, you know what I mean? Like you knew all those guys. That was kind of your world a little bit.
And kind of, it was, and SNL was like a weird sort of crossroads of kind of both, you know, your past and your present in a way. Yeah.
Did you ever get involved in the booking of those, of the bands? Did they ever, did they ever take your suggestions or your advice at all? Oh, only, um, later, just like in, in mentioning a band to them.

But I don't think during my run there, really.

It was only like towards the end where I was a little more loose about recommending bands and stuff. I wonder what that process is.

I wonder how much of that is like influence from labels or how they go about picking.

It's really weird.

A lot of it is like mysterious. But some of it is is just a weird timing thing of this seems right right now.
Like the hosts, right? And it's not even necessarily having a hit. It's just a weird timing thing of they are in the ether right now in just the right way.
About to break or something. Yeah, and then a lot of about them from that show.
Yeah. I always did.
I always watched SNL. And I still do.
I watch it all the time. I never miss an episode.
I love it. Wow.
That's great. Is there somebody on there right now that you particularly find extra talented or? Oh, man.
I really love this cast. I think Beck Bennett is really funny.
Heidi Gardner. It's such a cliche thing to say, but they are all great.
Yeah. You know, someone in the cast will come up with some sketch or something on Update that is just incredible.
I love it. I love that show.
Was that your favorite part, getting to kind of, because you did a lot of sketches, but going to do characters on Update, that's where you, I feel like not a lot of people can pull it off. And it was something that you seemed to enjoy a lot.
Like it looked like you really enjoyed doing those characters on Update. Yeah, that was kind of like, it was just an easy way in where I didn't have to explain it.
And also where a whole sketch didn't have to lean on me. Right.
And think that's also like i also don't think i have that kind of energy to be the center of a sketch like that you know some people have that energy where they can really like hold it together but i think for me it worked out a little better on update where it's it's a shorter amount of time and it's just the character being you know crazy and in his own have you always wanted to be that have you always wanted to be kind of like part of an ensemble and never like the leading guy out in front all the time no no no that it's it's that's it it's like a really comfortable spot for me it's the drummer mentality right and it is very much like being a drummer it's like same kind of thing you know in the back but still making a lot of noise and hitting cymbals and stuff but but you know nothing without the rest of the band i just prefer it but then you leave so then you leave snl after like 11 years i want to say yeah and you and you and carrie brownstein uh create portlandia which was kind of a first of all a phenomenal show we talked about at the top of the show here but it's such a phenomenal show so funny fred and thanks man yeah you guys i mean you got to it was a great way for you to kind of it was almost like a natural progression of doing your characters that you do on update and then going in and i guess just kind of beating them out a little bit more and giving them a little air. But it does go sort of counter to that thing.
Like, you and Carrie carried that show together, but it was really important for you were front and center. Like, you know, virtually every scene of every show for the most part.
Yeah, but we split it. At least we split, as opposed to it just being, like, just me.
Talk about your relationship with Carrie in that. So how did you, how did you and Carrie sort of come together? Yeah.
Because she, Carrie, Carrie Brownstein, of course, fantastic musician. And, you know, she'd been in the band Sleater-Kinney for a long time, an incredible band.
And then how was it that she all of a sudden? Yeah, how did you guys meet? Yeah, how did you guys create that? Well, in the 90s, Sleater-Kinney, or they still are my favorite band, and I knew the drummer, Janet Weiss. So I knew Janet in the late 90s and would stay in touch with her and stuff, and then when, in the early 2000s, Sleater-Kinney came to play in New York, I couldn't go to the show because of SNL, but I was like, why don't you come to the party instead?

And I met Carrie at this party.

We already knew each other, kind of.

Like, we knew a lot of the same people.

You know, the band is from Portland.

And it was just this immediate thing where I just knew we were going to be friends.

I was like, this is going to be, I just know it. And it turned out to be true.
Like we just, it was an immediate thing. And I would go visit her in Portland.
And it was a thing of like, I didn't want to be like, let's start a band. It's such a, you know, it's so expected.
Like, yeah, we put out a single. So I was like, let's, why don't we just shoot some videos and just put them online? And that's how we started doing it.
So we would do them in Portland and we just put them up on this site. And all of a sudden we had enough of these videos.
Some of it was like the, the feminist bookstore and all kinds of stuff. And those, those sort of, they ended up being on the show.
We had enough to like make a pilot. So when my manager was like, what's the next thing you want to do is i was like i have enough of these videos why don't we just turn this into a show and then we pitched it and was that the first time she was on camera acting and stuff like that like how did was she comfortable with all that stuff she's done a couple little thing little i mean like i she did a commercial once and but I guess a sketch comedy was like her first thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She wasn't looking to be an actor.

She was, she was, she was a musician.

And so like when you said, let's, let's do something on camera, did she, did she balk at all at that?

No, she, for some reason, it just seemed, it made sense.

Yeah.

Also that we were in Portland, you know.

You were in Portland.

You guys have good chemistry, I guess.

So that probably made her feel at ease right in that way.

Like. Yeah.
There were also, there was like no pressure on it. There was no goal.
It was just like, let's just make these videos that that we think are funny and that'll be enough. And then you guys were like, let's let's make this show and let's give half half of the money to Lauren.
Let's give half of the money to Lauren. I still I still try to pay him.
I still still try to send him whatever. Hell yes.
Always help. Always help.
So, so when, so, so when you started on SNL, was that the first time that you were spending significant time in New York city? And if so, how, how did you like the city? How did you like that life? I'm originally from Long Island where like I was close enough to the city that we would, I would go in, you know, or my family would go in. Um, but living in Manhattan was great.
I lived up on the Upper West Side and, um, that's where I am right now. I thought you lived in LA.
And by the way, by the way, he's on the Upper West Side and I'm on Long Island. True story.
There you go. Are you really? Yeah.
Yeah. What are you doing on Long Island? Um, in your childhood at home, we're making a documentary about your life.

Oh, wow.

And it starts here.

So that's why we're doing the, yeah.

And it's so fucking, we were just in your room.

We do really long takes where we just let the film roll out.

And we let the film in it.

And it's a lot of like,

and it's just a lot of slow pans around your room

because it's still intact.

So it's just a lot of like slow pans, right?

And we're going to have very little score.

So it's going to be quite dry.

It's going to be quite dry. Yeah.
By the way, how great are documentaries in general? Can we talk about that? Sure. Well, let's just go ahead and go into that subject.
They're great. What's your favorite documentary? They're all great.
I don't have, I don't do favorites with documentaries. I think they're all.
Oh, but then you did that other series that. But then you did documentary now, which shows how much respect you really have for documentaries.
How dare you, Fred? But Jason, I feel like I skipped over. You were asking me a real question, and then I just did a bit.
Well, you know, because Will started with, obviously, shitty research saying that you were born in Mississippi, and so I thought, well, New York City would probably be— No, that's true. Okay.
Oh, that's true. Yeah, we'll cut that out.
No, we'll cut that out. We'll cut that out.
I was born there, and then my parents moved up to New York. So then I was raised on my own.
It's called moving, Jason. It's called...
People don't just stay... You're not like born here, and now you've got to stay here forever.
In Germany, you do, yes. In East Germany, you stay here forever.
Oh, yeah. You're not going anywhere, no.
It'd be nice. You can look over if your window's high enough.
Are those dirty American Levi's you have on? Oh, where'd you get them? Oh, she got some Levi's. That's what we used to have to bring as presents.
Jeans. Levi's, sure.
I love jeans. Yeah, get some cool jeans, man.
Hey, look at this guy's got some cool jeans and he's kicking and he's got some really nice Drakkar Noir. Okay, here we are spitting out all the hits.
He's Germany's favorite record station. Falco, Amadeus.
Uh-oh. You heard me? I was playing Rock Me Amadeus.
I heard, yes. I heard.
And you were talking about waiting rooms and doctor's offices. I know.
Sean wants to get back into the waiting room. Sean doesn't like to waste time in waiting rooms.
He likes to... I know, but what I don't understand is that Sean says he goes 15 minutes early, but like...
Oh, 15 minutes later. Oh, late.
But how do you even time that out? Because it's so difficult parking and, like, getting the right elevator and all that stuff. How do you time exactly that 15 minutes late? Getting the right elevator.
Really carefully. Don't you feel like every doctor visit is like, where am I going? No, because I go so frequently.
Yeah, what's going on do you go to a lot do you go to the doctor a lot i do i do i i i uh i like to check in all the time how's my blood doing how's my foot doing how's my back doing well how how what so are you sean are you one of those guys that gets your your annual physical every year i don't wait probably that long i probably probably go a couple times a year. Come on now.
Are you being serious? Yeah, I'm being totally serious. You're talking about full blood panels and you're on the fucking treadmill and you've got hoses on you and stuff? Well, how about this? I went and he goes, have you been feeling tired? And I go, yeah, your thyroid level is low.
So I started taking... This guy knows he's got a live one on his hands.
He's just going to train you. Talk about second home.
This guy built a fucking, are you kidding? You know, my next patient, he's actually got a podcast called about fucking hypochondria. This guy is a cash cow.
Make him wait 15 minutes and then bring him in to see me. It's unbelievable.
Uh-huh. You're feeling tired? You get hungry? Take some of this.
You get hungry, huh? Yeah, that doesn't sound right. Are you finding yourself breathing a bunch? In through your nose and out through the mouth? Oh, no.
Yeah, sit down. Fred, are you, you're not a hypochondriac, I don't think.
I don't think I am, no. No.
You don't strike me as that. What's, anything wrong with you at all, Fred? Anything you'd like to change about yourself? Things that are bothering you? I think I'm a people pleaser.
I could, that would be a good change. You'd like to care less? Yeah.
Show me one people that you've pleased. One that happy.
I would love to meet them. I would love to meet them.

One that feels satisfied.

Is that when people go, like, I'm a people pleaser.

I'm like, no, when are you going to start?

What are you talking about?

You haven't pleased me for a while.

One that feels safe to vocalize that.

I also hate it when people say this.

People go, you know, believe me, nobody's going to be tougher on me than myself.

And I always think, let me have a crack at it.

Let me have a crack at it.

Let me have a fucking crack at it. Let me try.
Let me try. I'll do it.
I'll do it. Knock your back.
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Sport Clips, it's a game changer. Fred, I have a really, really boring question.
Oh, thank God. Who did you find funny when you were younger? Is there a pamphlet you used, Sean? Benny Hill.
I thought Benny Hill was funny. Benny Hill, really? Yeah.
Huh. When I was a kid, I'm saying.
When I was a kid. Oh, yeah, when you were like seven.
But then... When you were a teenager.
When you were like 1985. When I was a teenager, I watched SNL.
So it would be the Eddie Murphy years where I was sort of a teenager. But there were still reruns from like, you know, the Dan Aykroyd years and stuff.
So it was like right in between. How about when you were like in your 20s in those years where you're like thinking maybe I want to do this.
Who the people who are working like for me for instance i'll give you an example when i remember in the 90s when i was living in new york and i saw bob and david doing mr show yeah and i thought fuck that's great i wish i could do that really i wish i could be funny like that like those guys so were you all super starstruck when when cross uh camerested Development? Who, me? Yeah, or had you met him before? No, we had met before. I kind of knew him a little bit already.
But yeah, I mean, I was such a, he knew that. I was such a huge fan of his and Bob's.
And yeah, of course, man. Like I was.
Very cool. Yeah.
Larry Sanders was like that for me. Yeah.
Where when that show started, when I'd start seeing that, I'd go, what are they doing?

What is that?

What is this even called?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, it was just so great like that.

That whole no winking kind of thing.

Yeah.

Just like it was no one was asking for a laugh at all.

And if they heard you laugh, they'd be offended.

Like this is serious shit.

I don't mind if somebody winks at me, though.

You know what I mean?

I'm just saying like on a train.

Sure.

I don't mind like if somebody.

I don't mind if somebody winks at me, though. You know what I mean? I'm just saying, like, on a train.
Sure. I don't mind, like, if somebody...
On a train. Yeah.
Like, if I want to... I'm going to do it right now.
Wink at me, Fred. Fred's winking at...
By the way, you can really put people off if you say something and then you just start... And then you wink a little bit.
And then just, like... Just in the middle.
Because I do do i will wink at people and my buddy josh will go like don't fucking wink at me yeah man i wonder if winking died already i wonder if it's about to you know i i go through phases of it i'll end up i'll wink for like a week or something like that and then and then i'll stop for a while but i'll just involuntarily do kind of what you're talking about, Will. Sean, you were just practicing.
Sean, we just practicing. I was practicing because, you know what? God, you're so stupid, Sean.
Oh, my God. You're trying to see if you can do it with both hands? Sean was just practicing quietly.
I was really in my own head. I was like, do I do that? And I do do it.
I do it to Scotty all the time, my husband Scotty. And I'll do it in the most gross, disgusting, despicable way possible.
He'll be like, God, you know what? Like if we get in an argument, in the middle of the argument, I go, everything's going to be okay. And he fucking hates it.
Oh, yeah. So you do that to enrage him.
Most people don't wink to enrage people. Yeah, go ahead.
I've been working on camera is the half wink, where the lids never actually touch. It's just a little bit of like a, it's just a little, it's like a little fissure.
I know exactly what you mean. Both eyes or one eye? No, no, just the one it's, it's, it's, it's the cheesier cousin.
Yeah. Right.
Actually, if you can get cheesier, Jason, it's usually accompanied by like a, or just like like a, huh? You know what I mean?

Is it ever done not sarcastically, like without irony?

I don't know how to do non-sarcastic humor.

That's what I mean.

I don't mind if somebody winks me. The real wink, I think.

Like a real wink on it.

If you're on a train and somebody gives you a real wink.

Ew, what?

Did you say wank?

Does that happen?

No, in England you get a real wink, and in here you get a real wink, yeah.

But if you, no, I'm saying if you get a, like if you're like on a bus,

always on public transportation.

Thank you. happen a real no in england you get a real wink and in here you get a real wink yeah but if you know i'm saying if you get a like if if you're like on a bus always on public transport but if you're in a imagine if you're in a restaurant and you looked across you're having dinner with somebody you're having jason you're having dinner with amanda yeah and you're sitting there and then you looked across and then there was another couple they're having dinner and the guy just looked over at you and winked.
Oh. Would you...
What would you... I would check my plate.
Let's see what the fuck is this guy talking... No, but have any of you actually ever winked at somebody to hit on them? The original purpose of the wink.
No. I've never used it.
No, that's so gross. No.
Right, would that even work? And if so, what year did that work last in? I feel like Winking went out right after the release of Rod Stewart's Blondes Have More Fun. It was right after that.
As soon as that record came out, then Winking went out. A lot of people can't wink with both eyes.
You know, only one eye works for the winking. That's called blink.
Yeah, that's blinking. I mean, they can only wink with one eye.
The other eye does not work for winking. I think it's made up.
Fred, do you love working? Boy, that was smooth. Thanks, Sean.
Thanks. Let's move on.
Do you love working? Because you work all the time. Do you love it? Fred, are you a workaholic? I do.
I'm a workaholic, and I love working. You do? I like my calendar to be filled.
If there's empty dates, I'm like, okay, what can I figure out for that? Are you being serious?

Yeah.

I prefer to be working.

When was the last time you took like a vacation?

I can't remember.

Vacation!

Do you want to take a vacation?

What just happened?

What happened?

I'm serious.

Lay down, Sean.

Elevate your ankles.

Get them up over your heart.

I literally thought somebody had hijacked our show.'m like what the fuck is going on? I was trying to do my will that was so weird Sean how long did the guy say the mushrooms were going to last? I was trying to do my will it's supposed to be micro dosing not macro dosing I can't do impressions I like to work all the time too but I do really like my family and i do like i do like to do zero as well there's nothing in between yeah same so i got i got problems what about traveling yeah traveling jason you mean for vacation yeah uh i i don't as well uh the the boring answer i apologize is that my mother was a flight attendant um when i was a kid growing up. So we flew everywhere.
I've been all over the world, but at an age before I could appreciate the cultural value of it. So it was just, wait, so we're going to fly away from my toys and my friends again? And I got to sleep in some weird place.
So I kind of have a bad taste in my mouth about travel and wanderlust and all that stuff. So I'm not the best person to ask about that.
Yes, you are. Yes, you are.
Yes, you are. Don't ever let anyone say that to you, Jason.
You're the best person to ask. Do you like the traveling, Will? I do.
I certainly... Sean.
I don't. I do not love it, no.
Sean travels. I feel like the last few trips, I had to make him travel.
Yeah, I have to. I'm going to a trip to see Will tomorrow, actually.
And it's an actual trip. Well, I'm going at the end of next week, Sean.
You've been threatening to be there at the same time I'm going to be there. Are you going to? I can't.
What do you mean you can't? They're both coming to see me in the next week. Are they really? Sean and Scotty are coming out tomorrow and then Jason and the kids and Amanda are coming next week.
Sean, why are you not going to be there when I'm here? I have to go back for work to LA so I can't stick around. Because of work, you see? Now, Freddie, so like you go to New York, you go to London for a week, which right now is a pain in the ass because I'm sure there are a lot of protocols and shit you have to go through before you start work, I imagine.
Yeah, I mean... It looks like you're still at the airport.
Are you still in a room in an airport? No, I'm at my hotel. Okay.
I swear to God, I'm not at the airport. Oh my God.
Why would I lie? I'm at a hotel. I believe you.
I'm in quarantine. I'm not allowed to leave.
They're still in quarantine here. You're not allowed to leave the hotel for a little while? I'm not allowed to leave the hotel.
For how long? Five days. Wow.
Oh my God. So what, do you literally have to stay in the hotel room for five days? Yep.
Tell us what you've been doing. You can't even go outside.
I'm trying to memorize my lines. Huh.
You need five days to memorize a week of lines? It takes me a little extra work. You're not good at that, huh? I think I'm not.
I think I'm okay. I'm okay if I keep practicing it.
But I am not like, I don't pick it up that easy. So you would always use the cards on SNL? You'd never get off book at all? No, we're not supposed to.
Not supposed to. You're supposed to look right at the cards so that you look like you're looking at the other person.
Right, but what if you learn your lines and you can look at the person? It changes too often. Yeah.
It changes too often. From dress rehearsal to air, without fail, everything just gets changed.
Right. Wow.
Jason, you know less than tracy from wisconsin no i'm just i am i'm just thinking back to the the when i was there but how many times you've hosted snl and you and how many times have we gone snl together you're right it does it does change quite a bit yeah it changes and then what do you want to do you want to put wally you want to put Wally out of work? You want Wally? Yeah, totally. Come on.
Oh, Wally's kids don't need braces. Okay, that's cool.
Oh, Wally doesn't need to pay his mortgage. Where'd he go? He doesn't need a house.
No, Wally. Why would Wally need a house? This kid's only raining.
It's only rain, Jason. Does rain bother? Why would rain bother? I mean, he's a human.
He's a living organism on the planet. Rain should give him nourishment.
That place is such a special spot. My God.
I love Wally. I just love it.
I love it so much. I do text with Wally sometimes, by the way.
You do? I thought you made that name up. That's a real person.
No, no. He's the guy.
He's got like a whole system that like now the people who people who worked for him do Seth's show or, you know.

Fred, did I miss what, did we talk about at the top?

Why are you in London?

What is the project you're working on there?

I'm working on a show that Matt Berry does.

Oh, that's right.

You said that.

Sorry.

And it's a show called Toast of London.

Okay.

Toast of London.

Oh, so you, oh, they're doing another season of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, I didn't know that.

That's great.

It's so funny. It's so funny.
That's great. Oh, so they're doing another season of it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I didn't know that. That's great.
It's so funny.

It's so funny.

That's great.

Who else?

Yeah, I've just been reading my lines.

Who else is in it?

I'm not sure.

I think Rashida's doing something.

I was actually going to say,

who else are you going to see when you're there,

like once they break you out?

Oh, I don't know yet.

I don't know yet,

but I really love it here, for real.

I really, really do.

Yeah, same.

I love London.

Same, same, same, same.

So you're in the room for... Oh, I don't know yet.
I don't know yet, but I really love it here, for real.

I really, really do. Yeah, same.

I love London.

Same, same, same, same.

So you're in the room for five days.

So it's all room service and learning your lines.

And is there some TV watching or is there some reading?

You know, I tried and I watched a little bit of TV and it just made me sleepy.

It was great, but it was like a lot of reality TV. So then what are you doing? Are you, are you a reader? Do you read books or do you, are you making music? Um, that's such a good question.
Why do I feel like I've, I feel like I've been communicating a lot. I feel like I've been emailing and texting.
So a lot of that kind of stuff, this was like my big event for today. No joke.
My whole day was like, this is my thing. Okay, I'm going to build a day around that.
I did bring my guitar. I brought my guitar.
Okay, great. You want to play us a little something? You've been working on anything? I had this little travel guitar that I have.
I took it out of the room because I was like, is there anything worse than seeing that someone's got a guitar in their room? Yeah, it's always in the background.

It's always in the background. But I have this little travel guitar that I brought to me.
Oh, look at that. It looks like this, but then there's no head to it.
Yeah. So it's always in tune.
There it is. Okay.
So we've got a great theme song for Smartless. but if we were to have a second best theme tune for Smartless,

it would be... Okay, so we've got a great theme song for Smartless, but if we were to have a second best theme tune for Smartless, it probably would go like...
You probably want, you know, your audience, you want them on their feet. You want them jumping up on their feet.
You want them clapping their hands. Energy, yeah.
So it's very sort of, you just want the rhythm. Yeah.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, get up. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, get up.
Get up. Welcome, listener.
Get up. Again, again, and again.
I say get up. Get up.
Again, and again, and again. Jump up and down.
And then that's it. That's great.
I think you just, yeah,

no melody,

just a little.

I think it's great.

where it's just like

your ears are bleeding

and you're like,

God,

I just,

no matter what they're talking about

on this podcast,

it's going to be better than this.

Yeah.

What music are you listening to

right now,

Freddie?

What are you listening to?

There's a band I really love

called Deaf Rain.

Man,

they're terrible.

It's so funny you brought them up.

Oh,

go to hell. You know what? No, no, no.
Let's hear it. Okay.
Let's hear it. Deaf Rain.
Man, they're terrible. It's so funny you brought them up.
Oh, go to hell. You know what? No, no, no.
Let's hear it. Let's hear it.
Deaf Rain? I've never heard of them. D-E-F-R-A-I-N, like rain, like what Will was talking about before.
Deaf Rain. And what kind of music do they make? They're a duo from Dallas, and it's like spooky, I'd say kind of electronic, but it's very spooky.
That's cool. And I love it.
I'm going to look him up. Definitely.
Fred, where do you fall on Duran Duran? I'm a big Duran Duran guy. You sure are, Will.
I think they were really revolutionary in bringing new romantic music to MTV, to the masses. There we go.
Like no other, I don't think any other band succeeded like they did. They were a real new romantic band.
I think John Taylor is a great bass player. Yep.
I like that most of their, the band members are like sort of intact. They have like most of the guys.
Yeah. And I think that like the early, like early days of synth synth like they are the ones who like brought it to top 10.
Oh God. I just want to go sailing with Simon LeBron.
Who's kidding? Who's kidding? Yeah. It can happen.
Make that happen for sure. So Freddie, so now you're there doing this show with Matt Barry.
You've done, you kind of, I kind of want to get back to what Jason was saying. Like, you did Portlandia.
You killed it. Like, what for you would be the thing that you feel like you haven't done yet, in comedy anyway, that would be like, oh, that's something I really want to go and tackle? I would say doing something in a foreign language, but really doing something in a foreign language.

Like really doing it?

Like in Farsi, something in Farsi.

Wow.

Where it's not like, where it's like not, you know, it's not like the joke of it isn't that I'm speaking Farsi.

Right, right, right.

It's like something that takes place.

And why do you want to do that?

Because of the challenge of it?

Yeah, like something that takes place in Tehran. Because, yeah, because of the challenge of it.
Yeah. Well, assuming that's serious.
Yeah, that's serious. Okay.
Aside from that, though, just generally with your career, with the acting, with the writing, with the producing. So are you, is your sort of, um, are you looking to, uh, escalate things at like, is, is your, is your, is your internal clock going, okay, what, what could be net? Or are you happy to just kind of just live, keep things as is? I want to be fed.
I want to be housed. I want to be happy.
I just want to cruise along. Or, or are you, are you the type of person that's looking to this could lead to this could lead to that and how strong is your ambition it's a combo of the two in that none of my aspirations as i was going along were ever that grand anyway it was portlandia was always like this is this is fine it doesn't have to be on a huge

network right so um but it still was uh but it still was very satisfying so it's like a combo of the two of like i like this pace this is feeling really i'm you know every day every day seems to be something exciting i'm in london or you know italy or something and then um and then And I do, I just, I honestly do like the idea

of something completely foreign to me.

Yeah.

Something like in another language,

something that like I haven't done before.

So like a mix.

Let me ask it a different way.

What if a, if you were part of something

that became uncontrollably massive

and you couldn't walk down the street, but you had.

You don't mean like elephantitis.

Yeah.

You mean a project.

Yeah.

I'm just saying, how would you, if you had a massive amount of what people would call

success, what would that be a happy thing?

Would that make you uncomfortable?

Oh, yeah.

Would you be like, God damn it, I can't go to the market anymore no i'd be like oh how nice that things turned out this way who knew uh-huh who knew i sometimes think about that with um bob odenkirk with the fact that better call saw was so huge it had nothing to do with what his plan was you know yeah he was you know doing sketch comedy and all this other stuff and like it seemed, I like that sort of surprise. Right.
And do you think you'd be able to adapt to that? Yeah, sure. Are you kidding? Fred can't wait to not be able to go to the market.
Yeah. I hate markets.
He hates fucking... Fred, I just figured it out.
I figured it out. We have to do a comedy, and we both have to do it in Germany where we play guards.
Stasi border guards. It's all in subtitles.
It's like Checkpoint. And it's called Checkpoint Charlies.
And we're just two border guards and we live in East Berlin. Maybe we could do it where we both find out that we're supposed to spy on each other.
Yes. You're like, oh, you're my guy? Oh, I'm your guy.
Okay. I got to look in your fridge.
Send me some shots of your fridge. That's actually really funny.
That's really good, right? I mean, if you're listening out there, feel free to call either of our reps, and Fred and I will take a meeting. And then the scene would be like, where are you going? I don't know where you're going.
I don't know. Yeah.
Apparently, you seem to know where I'm going. It seems to be so important to you.
What, do you want a map? What's on your sandwich? You have plenty of mayo at home. I'm surprised you didn't use any.
There's a camera over the fridge. There's a camera here, a camera there.
A camera there. One take, one camera.
By the way, for a police force, that's pretty cool.

Stasi.

How come we don't have that?

It's not as good as Checkpoint Chaz is.

Why don't we have a domestic intelligence network?

You know what I mean?

I mean, it's like we get kind of like robbed of all that kind of shit over here.

You know what I mean?

We don't have like cool like domestic intelligence services that are like watching us and stuff.

Not one of them.

No. I know.
It's like because we talk about the American experience, but we've us and stuff. Not one of them.
No.

I know.

It's like, because we talk about the American experience, but we've been like...

Give it to us.

Like, let us have it.

So anyway, Freddie, fuck, so great to have you on the show, man.

No!

Yeah.

Don't end it.

Let's talk.

We just did bits.

Let's talk. When's did bits.
Let's talk.

When's your birthday?

You got any pets?

No pets.

When's your birthday?

How about favorite colors?

Sean, you didn't get to the favorite color question.

I did see.

There's a beautiful color I saw maybe a month ago.

Where were you?

Where were you?

Jesus Christ.

You guys should check it out. It's so beautiful.
Fred, I want to say something. I don't know when I'm ever going to see you again.
Hopefully soon when you're back in L.A. or something.
Are you dying, Sean? Holy shit. Yeah, what's going on? I always wanted to say this, that you are truly, truly one of of the funniest people and I just think you are so incredibly talented good love oh well it's mutual Sean that's really really nice you are the tip top Fred you guys are Fred used to do this bit down at 8H at SNL and he'd walk walk around and pretend he was like an intern, and he'd go, I'm the only one that's normal around here.
He used to fucking make me laugh so hard. Normal.
Fred, you're the funny. I love you guys.
I love you. I love your show a lot.
You're the comedian's comedian. You're the comedian's comedian.
You really are.

Everybody loves you, and you're the, for good reason,

you're the fucking funniest, and you're such a lovely guy.

And thank you for saying yes.

Yeah.

And I can't wait to see you again soon, hopefully.

And all the best.

Thanks, you guys, and hope you have a good visit with each other.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, pal.

Thanks, man.

Have fun, Freddie.

We love you, Freddie.

We love you.

We love you. We love you.
We love you. We love you.

We love you.

We love you.

We love you.

What a kind, funny, talented man.

He really is.

I mean, I meant what I said.

Nice going, Will.

Nice going.

He's one of those, I love.

He was on my list, too, to be on the show.

He's always got a really great bit, too.

You can have not seen him for three years,

and he'll come up and go,

Hey, can I ask you something really? It's just like no time has passed. Yeah.
And he's always got a bit and, but he's such a sweetheart of a guy. Yeah, he is.
Fred did this thing when we're doing that rocker thing. He walked up one day, they had a bunch of bottles of water, and he just grabs a bottle of water and he goes, nice budget, and then walks away.
But he always, and he's got, you know, when he was on SNL, he did, I don't know, 30 different characters that he would bring on to. I loved when he did Prince.
He would always, he would always whisper in people's ear. Prince.
I do love Nicholas Fain, that political, God, that thing made me... It's stuff that he would do with Kristen Wiig all the time, too.
It's so clear that they had just this great, great, this chemical reaction together, you know. For sure.
He's going down in history as one of the greats from Saturday Night Live. For sure.
I agree. All of the decades.
Yeah. I agree.
He did a sketch about a guy who's got a one-man show

that is one of the most

cringeworthy and hilarious

sketches. Oh my God.

Immediately look up Fred Armisen

one-man show. It's one of

the funniest things you'll ever watch.

For me, it is. It absolutely destroys

me. Well, that's why I was

asking, like, do you miss being

in that weekly lab?

I feel like... You know why

I don't we—I'm mad we don't get to see that every single week. I know.
That's how I feel. Well, that's kind of what I was saying, though.
But I don't think he misses it because he does it all day. So he does it with everybody he meets.
I guess I was saying I miss it. Yeah.
I miss seeing what comes out of his head each week.

Yeah.

Yeah. Of course, because it's brilliant.

I remember him one time texting Amy saying, hey, I can't make this stand-up.

I'm supposed to do a stand-up gig in Dallas next week or Austin.

I can't make it.

Here's the thing.

And he sent all the details, including the travel times, the person to meet,

hear when the shows are.

And then he writes, thanks so much. Super detailed flight numbers, everything.
I can't make it. Can you do it for me? Thank you.
Fuck. Hilarious.
He is so funny. Oh, my God.
I just got a text from him. Oh, my God.
Guys, I just got a real-life text from Fred. You did? That's nice.
Yeah. Oh, now I'm floating.
Oh, my God. And that, you know what? You got a text from him.
You did? That's nice. Oh, now I'm floating.
Oh my God.

And that, you know what?

You got a text from me.

You know why that is?

Because that's a bye product.

Product of the show.

Hang on the show.

Bye.

Good job.

Bye.

Smart.

Nice.

Smart. Nice.
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