Fred Armisen

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In my mind, you jump from one big thing to the next.

Let's just go with that.

Welcome back to Everybody Knows Your Name.

Today we're going to be talking with Fred Armison.

There are people who both write and perform, but it's rare to be equally great at both.

And that's what Fred Armison is.

He's great at both, time and time again.

I've so enjoyed watching him over the years, from his amazing 11-season run on SNL to co-creating hilarious shows like Portlandia, Documentary Now, and Moonbase 8.

He is a multi-talented guy with a really interesting family background that you'll hear about in a minute.

So let's get to it.

Here's Fred Armison.

I'm happy to see you again.

Thanks for for asking me to do this.

You too.

Thank you for the nicety.

You just took the time because I'm nervous, but I'll

know you as nervous at all.

This is you.

Every time I see you in public at these events, you have really good posture and you're just friendly to everyone.

Everyone seems to know you.

Oh, yeah, or everybody knows your name.

But like, there's like

you always, you never do you seem like you have anxiety or like

to me, you seem to be saying, this is where I'm meant to be

nice yeah that's what it feels like i'm gonna keep that phrase in my head the next time i go in public are you an anxious person no no that's funny yeah i am you look like you should be an anxious person yeah you're not and no i'm vice versa i have anxiety um

with social things and and performance and stuff like that

your life my life yeah yeah i'm i kind of although i mean i'm a a little bit of a loner.

Like, I do like alone time.

I do like, uh,

you know, I don't really go out, like, I don't seek out parties and stuff like that.

I'm not like that social.

But,

so it's like a mix of like, I don't have anxiety, but also like to sort of, I like a nice night at home.

I think that's why I like this so much during a podcast, because I am not the guy who would go, oh, let's go have a beer.

You know,

I will always say, that sounds fantastic.

I will catch up with you.

Yep.

And don't, you know, same.

So now I have an excuse as if we sat down in the corner of some party and talked for an hour.

Yep.

It is a privilege.

It's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Whenever there's a,

whenever there's like a, we're going to this other thing after, I'm always done.

I'm like, no, this was our dinner.

This was our,

I don't need a second.

I was kind of famous on cheers for saying, oh, I'll catch up.

Absolutely.

Sounds great.

And Woody would roll his eyes because I would never

show up.

You guys, like that.

Everyone from that show went, why am I retelling your career?

But everyone on that show, what a strange thing that everyone really turned out to have

great careers.

And I don't think every TV show is like that, where

that's the sort of peak of it, you know, for them.

But you guys, it's like.

Good writing.

I think if you have really, really, really good writing and it isn't just a pop fad of the moment, you stand a better chance, at least, of going on.

Woody's gone on so much and makes so many wonderful movies that I've taken to just watching his films on my cell phone because I feel like it is my way of controlling his fame.

Yeah.

So

he really just eases into all these incredible movies.

Yeah, he's a really good audience.

We love you, Woody, wherever you are.

Sometimes.

Sometimes.

That's the key word there.

Sometimes.

okay so this morning uh with mary i i watched skip gates

okay yes following your finding your roots yeah and mary and i both did it at different times that's right and it's it is an amazing experience because you you can hear about your you know somebody can tell you about your ancestors or you can read something or whatever but when somebody places you there with photographs and letters and documents, wasn't it for you extraordinary?

I know you can tell that story of learning something you didn't know about your heritage.

But still, that moment.

I think also, by the way, we might have been on the same season.

I think so.

I have like a vague recollection of like, as they were rolling out the people who are on the show.

You guys being, I think.

Following your root, finding your root

is Skip Gates and Harvard, bless their hearts harvard uh

you know uh smart people looking up every research documentary if there's a paper trail for your ancestry they will find it then they create a book for you to open and read on camera and it talks to you about your life and the session you know the show is only an hour or whatever but like the session is like four hours of them unfolding these things in front of you and you know they do like a year's worth of research and they really research And I asked them, I was like, how do you guys do it?

How

it can't just be, you know, internet sleuthing.

And one of the keys, they said, was church records that religious organizations keep good records on.

But it was incredible.

Real estate, any kind of speed, any

school record.

And school records is how they figured out that my grandfather wasn't Japanese.

He is Korean.

And this was total news to you.

Total news to you.

I mean, I saw it on your face.

Yeah.

To the point where I went, had gone through my life saying, hey, I'm a quarter Japanese.

And I adopted some of the personality traits of what I thought Japanese was.

Like,

I like my food this way.

And, you know, I have this sense of design, which in my mind, I was like, I think it's because I'm part Japanese.

And it wasn't the case at all.

And the reason

my grandfather,

I guess, faked being Japanese is that they had racism

in Japan, living in Japan, educated in Japan, but Koreans would educate their kids or rich Koreans in Japan.

But there was racism against Koreans.

So

and it became

horrendously violent.

Yep.

Yeah.

Which made him

switch.

Oh, yeah.

As a

sense of survival.

Yeah.

I'm Japanese.

This is my name.

And

You knew that he was a went on to become a famous dancer.

Yeah.

He knew all about all that stuff we knew.

Yeah.

Choreographer, dancer, and

avant-garde dancing, which is like for the time, I keep thinking avant-garde is invented in the 70s or 60s, but it's incredible that way back then, that's what he was doing.

In the 20s or 30s, was that?

Yeah.

Well, he was doing it in the 40s,

30s and 40s.

And then came here to teach at Cal State Fuller.

Yeah,

somewhere.

Yeah.

But then was here for a while and traveled all over.

He had kids all over Europe, including my dad, and you know,

traveled all over the place.

So your dad was German.

So he was raised German.

Raised German.

Knew his father, though.

Well, barely.

Barely.

Yeah.

Oh, I see.

See,

he moved on.

Yep.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

So he was raised by his mother, but he didn't really know his dad.

He kind of knew who he was, but didn't get to know him.

So did that,

did anything change once you went, oh, wait, my history's a little different than I thought it was for you.

The things that changed for me were,

like I said, you know,

the fake sense of being something just because you've got it in your head that you're genetically something

but

also as far as like education and

you know knowing of knowing history it didn't occur to me that there was racism against koreans in japan and i'm i know it's documented i'm sure i know it's in history books but like i was like there's so much i don't know i for all i know i'm i would have

i i would have thought that everything was just peaceful and wonderful between the two countries and just that you know i i feel like sometimes things like that seem so specific to like Europe and America.

I'm like, of course that happens all over the world.

So there was that.

It was like a little bit of

an awakening of that.

Also, of Korea, like, I think I didn't think enough about, I've got to like get out there and I want to travel there and get to know.

Have you?

I haven't yet, no, but I want to.

That's the neat thing, I think, of what Skip does.

History can be very dry and you go,

it's intellectual or something.

But when you place a relative in a historical setting, all of a sudden you are

really interested in that period and what was going on.

I found.

That's exactly.

That's so well said that I wish I had said it that way.

Go ahead.

We can edit.

But it's true.

That's exactly it.

I think you read history and it kind of goes through you.

Now, I understand that was a hard time.

That sounds like a terrible, terrible war.

But you're right.

As soon as it's like part of your own history, you're like, wait, explain again what that was.

What was it about your history?

Well, I have a

family.

My nephew is...

His life is about his heritage and where he came from.

And he literally knew

everything that Skip Gates

and all of the

researchers came up with.

I have always gone, yamma, yamma, yamma, when he's talking.

I'm sorry, sorry, Eric, but it's not my fascination.

So I heard things through Skip viscerally and differently,

but he kind of knew it.

So I knew a great deal about it.

But the thing that really landed, and now I'm going to blank on her name, but she was

Anne.

Very good Hutchinson.

He did not look that up.

I think he just said it.

He's fascinated by my past.

My God.

That was good, man.

That was good.

But she,

you know, Puritan early days in America colonies, she...

started preaching within her house.

Women were not allowed to do anything, touch religion in any way other than, you know, yes, sir, no, sir, kind of thing.

She would teach to a small group of people

her interpretation,

which was, you don't need a church or a priest.

God is available.

Your relationship is with God.

You don't need an intermediary.

Well, that got into a lot of trouble.

And the reason why we could trace our heritage back that far was because the governor of Massachusetts was the

served as the judge for her trial and once you got a trial she went to oh yes and was

and her mistake was she started eviscerating all the people who were trying her rightfully so but nevertheless not a great idea but not playing the game of like right so she was uh exiled to um kind of the the the outskirts of civilization as we knew it back then and was In one state.

He was the governor of Massachusetts.

I don't know where she ended up, but west,

where there were tribes that were still very actively trying to get rid of us.

And

at some point,

a tribe that she had befriended, or they befriended her, said, you need to leave right now.

There is going to be an uprising and you will not be safe.

And she said, oh, nonsense.

I'll be fine.

And she wasn't.

So there was was hubris there, but she was this remarkable woman that I kind of see in a little bit in my mother, you know, and my sister, maybe my, you know,

sense of what it's like to be a woman or my willingness to learn that I don't know what it's like to be a woman or whatever.

I feel like that kind of trickled down.

So she is in your lineage.

Yeah.

My mom's side.

Wow.

No, my father's side.

Forgive me.

Yeah, yeah.

Naturally, it was my father's side.

Yeah.

Not my mother.

Sorry.

Wow.

They were like,

hey, something's going to go down.

You should take off.

And she was like, I shouldn't.

I'm rambling and this is your time.

But

anyway, okay.

But you are on TV while you

divert.

I feel bad that I diverted a lot, but I was just interested in, we've had the same experience.

Yes.

Yeah.

I won't.

I'll let Mary tell you someday her story.

All right.

That's you, kind of.

Yeah.

And you had this kind of maybe exotic's the wrong word, but you were exposed to a lot of

different cultures or at least the possibility of coming from different cultures.

Yeah.

That's informed you, I'm assuming.

And then along comes drums.

And I

tell me how that happens, because that seems to be your, was that your first, oh, I want to be a creative soul.

Oh, immediately.

And

I mean, it could be, my mom's Venezuelan and my dad's German, but we lived in Brazil for a little while.

And Brazil is where I first saw drums.

They had this,

they had these sort of samba parades, or they call them samba schools.

And I was a kid, but I remember being drawn to seeing,

it's all percussion.

The whole parade is percussion.

Surudos and panderas.

And I, even as a kid,

was really

hypnotized by it.

And then,

you know, we're an American family.

We also would go to like Disneyland

on trips.

And then even there, there'd be some,

you know, little jazz combo or something.

And then I would age what?

Eight.

And then I'd be, you know, I'd see whatever, a little ragtime band.

And the drummer, I would just, my eyes would always focus on that.

So somewhere in there, I, that's.

And you asked, can I have a drum set?

Yes.

I remember they also bought me Beatles albums.

And I remember hearing I Am the Walrus.

And there's a drum intro to it that

I just was like, that is what I want to do.

And I still feel that way.

That hasn't left me.

Like, I still hear drums and go, oh, that's what I want to do.

I love it.

I love it.

They look great.

They sound great.

There's something about the way people look when they're playing drums that I like for the most part.

And you really are

controlling a great deal of the rest of the music that comes out of all the other instruments.

I mean,

right?

I mean, you are literally setting the beat.

Yeah.

And at the same time, you're sort of behind the rest of the group, like you're seated.

So it's this like

distant, there's like a distant, you know, you're sort of controlling everything, but you know, you're not the lead singer.

So there's something about that that I like as well.

So it's not showy

in the same way.

Right.

I guess it is showy that there's like symbols and stuff, but

you know, it's not like, it's just like, not like being at the front.

Did you have

heroes or people you looked up to who were drummers?

Oh, who were the heroes?

Still, still.

I mean, I first loved Keith Moon

and Ringo, of course.

Ringo

loved Ringo.

And then from there, it went on to,

as I got older, the drummer for Devo, Alan Myers, drummer for Blondie,

Talking Heads, all those bands, I sort of like, I started to gravitate towards that.

But my first, the first drummer that I was like, oh, I want to be like him was Keith Moon.

And I still look at pictures of Keith Moon and I'm like,

you know, I want to disappear into the picture.

Like, what's going on there?

Because he was so just

theatrical and funny.

He seemed like a funny person.

How's your body as a result of being a drummer for so long?

Because it does,

in some cases, take it out of you.

Yeah, it affects your hearing because symbols are like right here.

And when you're in your 20s, you bang away at them so much and it doesn't occur to you or to me, wear earplugs.

You're just like, what?

I'm 20, you know?

And they are such a shrill sound that they really cut into your hearing.

And then now,

sometimes when I'm going to sleep, I'll hear like

a little tinnitus.

And then carrying drums around, I think really does your back.

The whole kit, you mean?

Yeah, because you have to, there's hardware for it.

And,

you know,

in your 20s, okay, you're lifting stuff up and down the stairs, but then your 30s, you're still kind of doing it.

And it's just, it's one of those things that like, I think it affects your back.

It doesn't make you stronger.

Like I got good at lifting cases.

It just actually makes your back resent it.

So now anything I've got to pick up, like suitcases, my back's like, we did that already.

We're done.

Don't attempt it.

So that's where I feel it the most is back and ears.

Ears killed me.

Really, really got me.

I remember one of the first times I music, I have this bizarre relationship, meaning

I thoroughly enjoy it when I'm listening to it and it can be as diverse pretty much.

And I cannot tell you a lyric because what happens to me is I immediately go into some fantasy land.

I go into some place, which is great.

I mean, how wonderful for music, but I cannot tell you who played what and sang what words.

And until Mary came along, now I'm starting to listen to lyrics because she's a songwriter now.

But

back then, I think one of the first drum solos that I went, oh, wait a minute, minute, was Seal

A Little Gotta Get a Little Crazy.

There's a drum thing after that, after about the third crazy thing.

Yeah, yeah.

It just was like, whoa.

I haven't thought about that.

Yeah.

That's a good one to pick.

Most people pick like some classic

stuff.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, Seal.

But Seal is great.

He has great intros to everything.

Wow, Seal.

Now I want to go listen to that again.

Phil Collins, who's now slightly related because Mary's son is married to Phil's daughter, Lily.

Oh, I didn't know that?

Yeah.

So we have a drama in our family, yes.

Yeah, that's your family now.

But about lyrics, I'm pretty much the same, where I also go off into fantasy land and I just, you know, my imagination goes.

And the reason I notice it is because other people will tell me about how much they love a lyric.

And I'm like, oh, I never even thought about what they were saying.

I, the only lyrics that work on me is anything that's repeated.

If something's repeated over and over, then I'm like, oh, I love that.

I love Roxanne.

Yeah, yeah.

Great.

Keep it going.

But then otherwise, it just kind of like

almost like an instrument and I don't hear the specifics of it.

Right.

And then someone has to explain it to me.

You know.

I don't know why that is.

Some people really hook on to it.

So now you're eight, nine, ten, and you're drumming.

Yeah.

My parents, you know, know, God bless them.

God bless them because that's a tough

drum kid.

That's a tough one.

It's loud.

Yeah.

Where did you play?

In your room?

Up in my room.

Yeah.

In a little suburban house.

But for the purposes of this podcast, I want to make it seem like I lived in a

mansion.

We'll throw up some.

Yeah, just something like

so.

We had our own recording studio.

It's not the truth, but we had multiple studios that they had built for me because I'm so ashamed.

I'm so ashamed of being middle class.

Like that's so humiliating.

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So, yeah, they got me drums and I kept going.

I took lessons and really learned.

But you're just kind of this isolated

drummer in your room.

Yeah.

When did it break out to, oh, let me be part of a group?

Or, oh, early on.

Like, because I had friends, you know, by luck, one friend who played guitar, another friend who played guitar.

And it's this, you're, it's just, it's so funny being so young.

And you don't even have ambition.

You're not like, hey, we got to form a band.

It's just, they come over with their amp.

And

as much as it sounds like a joke, like, I think our amps are from like the Sears catalog, like a Sears guitar, which weren't bad.

They were fine for kids.

And then we'd all get together and play.

I don't even know what we played, but it was just, we didn't have a name or anything.

Just all of us.

But then turning into a teenager.

That's when you're like, okay, now here's another friend.

And we're going to, we're going to, here's a a bass player.

That's when it gets different.

And you see other people roughly your age actually starting to

get out in the world.

Yep.

So let's do it.

Let's do it.

And then there's also those friends who are like, that's not cool.

This is cool.

So

you start to have like, like, like a, you start to have sort of like your own lane that's really strict.

So like, we're not a heavy metal band.

We're this band.

And then you're, you know, I think all friends do that anyway.

Like, that's cool.

That's not cool.

And then other friends introducing me to new kinds of records and stuff.

So

it was very exciting.

I loved it.

And is funny Fred showing up yet or no?

This is not.

Yes, amongst friends.

Like we all made each other laugh.

Always a part of our lives.

Loved watching SNL.

Loved watching SC TV.

We were like into all the sketch shows.

Fridays, I remember we watched um

and then

but not as a career it was just

it was just like let's be a band although a lot of the bands i liked had a sort of

comedic quality like devo and talking heads had a sort of you know not comedy comedy but something quirky and observational about it that i liked yeah and then you moved right to be part of the band or oh yeah well i went to college still not standing up and being funny.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Zero, zero.

Zero, zero.

Like, I went to college and then moved to Chicago.

And then I was in my 20s.

And then I was in a band with good friends.

The real deal.

The real deal.

That's like, now we're going to go on tour.

Now let's really try our best.

And

reviews, all of the above, or just packing.

Was it pre-reviews?

It was just very like, we toured all the time in punk rock circles.

And

it depends on how i look at it some days i go oh we didn't not enough people came to our shows but then i'm like well we toured we did okay yeah so not enough to make a living but enough that we'd stay on the road for a while and met some great people so that was the first sort of professional like okay now this is what i'm trying to do and then that band broke up and I auditioned for Blue Man Group.

Blue Man Group was in Chicago.

And I...

Is this pre-New York?

they're New York.

Oh, first they were in New York and they opened a franchise, like a version in Chicago.

I auditioned for that.

And then I was one of the drummers.

They had a rotating band.

And then that was my first paycheck.

I would say that's my first show biz paycheck was

being in and playing for Blue Man Group.

And you just answered an ad.

Yep.

How funny.

I was almost, that sounded antiquated.

And then I'm like, no, that is what happened.

For some reason in my head, I was like, no, it must have been something online.

There was no online.

It was 1997 or something.

Or there was no, online wasn't in my life.

But yeah, I answered Ned, audition, and there I was.

And it changed my life.

That was like, that was my first

version of seeing that entertainment can actually be something you can

be in business.

And you're watching very unique

and funny

skits or whatever you call them performances, Blue Man group, right?

So you're getting a dash of funny while you're the drum.

When you say backup drummer, they would do these things where they would hit the drums, the one I saw, and they had liquid coming up or something, and they'd send it, and the lights were amazing.

And you'd were you backing them?

When you say backup, were you?

So, yeah, in a sense, like above the stage, lit by black light, would would be a band, a trio, drummer, zither player, and something called

a stick, a chapman stick.

Bass-like.

Like a bass-like instrument.

And

we were above the stage playing along with the blue man.

So that's what that was.

And when I say rotating, is there

different fill-in musicians per show?

So I would play like two shows a week.

And I remember I made $100 a show.

And $100 was like a million dollars to me.

My first was $125.

It was.

Right.

You couldn't believe it.

You looked at it like, I just got a paycheck.

All I was used to was like restaurant, you know, tips or whatever.

To see something for playing the drums was, and like you said, the Blue Men,

you know, they're kind of avant-garde.

You know, that's like.

experimental theater in a way, but it was still popular.

So

I learned a lot from that.

I took my first $125 check, went to a bank to get a credit card.

Wait, wait.

Laughed out of there.

Laughed out.

You were like, so you deposited it?

No, I just said, I have it.

I was no longer the out-of-work actor.

I'm now a hired working actor.

So kind of off-Broadway.

And I would like a credit card, please.

And they said, no.

No, yes.

All right.

Full disclosure.

My cousin was a vice president two floors up.

This was Manufacturers Hanover Trust.

And he used to get so upset that I would show up in my out-of-work actor's clothes and he was had to dress in a suit and all of that.

And he'd say, please, please don't come up and visit me.

Please, please don't.

But I turned to the guy who said no credit card said, oh, by the way, my cousin Dandy is a vice president upstairs.

And I got

a credit card.

Yeah.

Because I was going to say, like, now I feel like credit card companies are want.

Yes.

They really are like, yes, I need to.

You're going to go into debt here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But

yeah, those early checks, God.

Okay, take me from music to, oh, wait, I'm funny.

Well,

it was a strange thing.

I was in this band.

We broke up.

I was in Blue Man Group, and I felt a little,

I wasn't like the rock star I wanted to be.

I was like, I set out to really,

you know, to be in a famous band.

So I felt a little disappointed.

And

my wife at the time, who's from England, introduced me to like British comedy.

You know, she's all these shows that we had on VHS and stuff.

And there was something about it I really like.

I know it's such a cool thing to say, like, hey, only British comedy, but she's from England.

And

I did this thing where I just bought a video camera and I went went to this music festival in 1998 and I interviewed bands as different characters.

Who knows why?

As an exercise, you know.

And

something about the tape that I made made the rounds.

It was like, did you edit it?

A friend of mine edited it.

In fact, a friend of mine who I didn't know very well, just this guy was like, hey, I'll edit it.

So wherever you are, thank you for doing that.

And were we analog?

Oh, yeah.

yeah oh yeah yeah

analog you know videotape or it was like um

high eight right uh

but i made vhs copies and i sort of gave them out as a sort of here's you know here's something in austin where was it no austin was the festival but i was living in chicago But so you went down.

And this festival is like bold.

That costs money to go try your I was already going to play with other bands.

I was a fill-in drummer for a couple bands and they were like, you know, I was like, okay, I'll go down and play.

There are some conferences and some talks that they're doing.

Why don't I go in and just sort of, you know, interview people just as a joke.

And that video made the rounds.

And that video is what set me off to doing comedy.

It's been non-stop.

Who saw it that

gave you feedback?

Or did it go on?

Did it

go online?

There was no online.

There was no online, but there was a gentleman named Will Tannis at Warner Brothers Records, who was a co-producer of

a music show in HBO called Reverb.

And he's like, oh, you'd be perfect to do little interstitials on that.

And then it just, I got, I did that as a gig.

So same kind of paycheck thing.

I was like, wow, they're paying me to do this thing.

I'll do it.

And it just kept going.

So were you deadpan kind of?

Yeah, yeah.

You have to figure out that this was yes yes me doing characters and you didn't offend the band you were interviewing or the whoever no no i pretended to be german or deaf or you know i just pretended to be different or blind i remember once just like but the questions were yeah we're never really from what i remember really making fun of the band it wasn't that kind of thing it was more like I try to get their sympathy in a way.

Right.

And

it just.

Is that still to be had oh can you find it somewhere oh yeah yeah i think it's out there uh fred armerson's guide to music and and south by southwest 1998

and um

from there you know from that hbo thing i got i moved to la i was in chicago and then i started doing stand-up at largo

right and from there uh wait now

there's still a difference between having a kind of funny character and doing interviews.

Did you sit in a room and just start writing your stand-up?

It was more that

I wanted to do it.

So I was like, what can I do?

I could do a character on stage.

It was more like,

and Largo was perfect because there'd be all these comedians.

And I thought, where do I fit?

How can I do something that's like a little different?

Because I don't have the gift of, you know, telling those kinds of jokes.

So I was like, I could be a character and

fool people for a little while.

And that's, that'll be part of the show.

This is around

2000.

and

Bob Odenkirk was there and I became friendly with him and he put me on a pilot of a sketch show he was doing called next

and that became like a more of an official

entryway where I had

things that I could send out as you know clips for clips for like auditioning for SNL so very quickly with people with people's help is how I got to SNL so I was doing comedy but and was it a just pure light bulb this is it.

Oh, I want to be it was, it was such a fast light bulb that I didn't even have time to observe it.

Before I knew it, that's all I was doing.

I was just like saying yes to gigs and

I was on Bob's, I mean, Bob really, he plucked me from Largo and put me on TV.

I forget that he was stand-up.

Yeah, I always think of him in these incredibly dramatic.

Oh my God.

He was like,

him and David, you know, doing Mr.

Show was like, that was like the show.

That was like the sketch show to,

you know, rise up to.

They were like, yeah, the centerpiece in a way.

Very time.

Yeah.

And then come Saturday Night Live.

Yep.

And then I had enough tape to send us Saturday Night Live and auditioned for them.

And Marcy Klein

showed my tape to Lauren and, you know, all the way through was just like

quick doors opening.

and my first uh tv show that i was on was conan o'brien

so we're all here we're all here we're all here we are

and paula davis who's in the other room uh

was she's the one who saw me at uh a comedy festival and put me on conan's show

so much later after no no this is during the same time during the same time oh wow so that's you know did were we on Conan the same?

No, I think did, was he doing

in the year da da da da da da da da da da da.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was that.

Yeah, I did a couple of those.

Yeah.

Felt honored.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was great being, I mean, I love that show.

Yeah, Paula Davis, same thing.

All these, you know, thank you, Paula Davis.

Thank you, Paula.

Oh, but she knows it.

I've talked to her so much about it.

I think she's tired of me saying to her, like, you put me, she put me on TV.

She really, that was my first network, you know, and

the light bulb moment, like, I really, when I was doing it, I remember thinking, oh, I love this, you know, when the cameras were on and stuff.

I loved it.

I really did.

Who was there when you first arrived at Saturday Night Live?

When I first got there, I joined with Will Forte.

He was, so we were the two, like new guys,

just the two of us.

So we got to experience that together.

And then

we were like low on the totem pole, where the stars, as it were, were

Maya Rudolph, Tina Faye,

Jimmy Fallon,

Chris Gatan.

And I think

Chris and Tracy Morgan were just finishing.

I think they were finishing.

I think Jimmy was finishing too.

Yeah.

And so they made us feel very welcome, but they were like, they were sort of like on to their careers.

And then as we stayed, you you know, the cast changed.

But God, it was great.

I mean, those are all still friends of mine.

Will Forte.

Well, Forte.

One of my favorite people.

He's incredible.

Yeah.

Never thought he would get married and have children.

And he is so happily married and so happily a dad.

Yeah.

But he's organized in a way that I could see him being thorough.

Well, isn't that kind of a nice way to say totally 100% compulsive?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Like people have said to me,

you know, I think he's got to shake hands with everyone before it's something he hasn't

ritual.

And I thought, that's not real.

I noticed that he's, you know, but then sure enough, I was watching, I was like, oh, I think he does.

But it's nice, though, because sometimes it is nice.

They make you feel good rituals.

Always.

And when it's that attention comes my way, I'm like, that's great.

That Will's like,

I'll see you tomorrow.

I think he early on found out that Mary has the sense of humor of a nine-year-old boy.

So he would, one of his rituals was to come up and fart in the morning, audibly, so that she could have this wonderful, pretend shocked, horrified reaction.

And where?

On set or on set.

This is while he was doing Last Man on Earth.

God, that was such a great show altogether.

You were on it playing a cannibal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you were setting up, grooming my wife mary to be your next meal yep basically yeah and you were pretending to be an artist

pretending to be because then the art itself was terrible right

but will decided to paint yep for you the picture of mary that you were supposedly painting yeah and it's horrifying and it's in our

little mini gym that we have at home hanging on the wall because we couldn't get rid of it, but we couldn't really allow it in the house.

it was so horrifying it looked like a potato person or something with shocking yeah red short hair like just like

so so terrible no i'm so glad i got to experience that with him yeah it's great and then

also i love that like he just we just pop up in each other's lives still but and bill hayter too Yep, who I had the pleasure of talking with here.

And John Mulaney, who we recently talked to here.

You guys

are great buddies.

Oh yeah.

We see each other frequently.

It's the best.

It's a nice surprise in life, you know, that like

people, you work with people and you think, oh, well, hopefully we'll stay in touch.

And then, you know, we really, really stayed in touch.

It's the best.

That's so cool.

And it's you're you're you're not all the same either.

You're all incredibly bright and love funny and know how to do it, but it's all a little bit different slice.

It's funny that you're not.

Yeah.

Now that you're saying it, I was just picturing everyone's personality and

you're right about that.

But there's got to, I mean, but there is that shared, when someone wants to do a bit or, you know, a joke or whatever, that we're totally in line with.

Yeah.

That's

never have we been like,

now's not the time to joke or like, what?

It's always fine-tuned.

I know when one of them, you know, is joking and

that's the best.

How did Portlandia come to be?

How did that

be?

Because that was, that's full-fledged

right scripts.

Yeah, yeah, that's

its own thing.

Writer's Room.

Did you have a writer's room?

Yeah, we should do it.

The whole deal.

The whole deal.

Is that coming from your brain?

Did you do this?

Oh, no.

It was, it was me.

Well, in combination with other people, but it was me and Carrie Brownstein's.

Carrie, who's magnificent.

Genius.

Yeah.

She's like, so good.

She's so great.

And she was, or is in a band, my favorite band, Sleater Kinney.

And we were friends.

We had some mutual friends in the 90s, but like in the early 2000s, we became friends to the point where like, well, we should work on something.

And instead of doing a band, we decided.

Let's try making videos.

And that's what we did.

Started making these videos in Portland.

And that turned into the show.

But

no, she thought of so many of those sketches.

That's an opening number, musical number.

Yes.

Dream of the 90s.

Yeah.

It's alive in Portland.

Was that?

That's Jonathan Chrysal, our director,

co-creator of that.

Because

that's what it felt like in Portland.

You know, the dream of the 90s.

And coming from the 90s, in a way, I understand.

I feel like sometimes I feel like now even still like the dream of the 90s.

you know.

That's funny.

I'm trying to go Wayne.

Dream of the 90s is like,

do the right thing.

Come on, you know,

recycle.

Yeah.

You know, even though we all recycle, there's still a lot of like, come on.

And this will work.

And this will work.

There's a, there's a hope.

It's like, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Like.

I don't know, tattoos and piercings feels very, I know they're not from the 90s, but to me, that's what it, you know,

my recollection recollection of the 90s is a lot of bands had stickers i don't think bands do stickers as much anymore but you'd see it everywhere just band stickers in the bathroom and bumpers bumpers and uh

you know toll booths you'd see a band sticker i that to me is the most 90s thing is stickers in my opinion trying to think what i was doing clearly didn't stick um

cheers was over and i was making my way and discovering that not every time you do something, it turns out to be cheers.

You can have to slog your way through.

But what's funny is when I think of your career.

Please do.

I always think you're just one of those guys where it always works out.

Like you just, you just like, in my mind, you jump from one big thing to the next.

Let's just go with that.

I can't help it.

It's just like, yeah, to dance and, you know, just this and then that and then this and then that and then billboard.

billboard.

And, you know, I mean, it is a concept.

I'm not that talented, but I'm really nice.

I'm a really nice guy to have around me.

Really?

And really nice goes a long way.

And just for you, you know, budding actors, just be nice.

I remember you on talk shows.

Uh,

in the 80s and the 90s, I remember you on talk shows, and you always seem nice.

Yeah, see, always seem nice.

You were, you were a really good talk show guest.

I'm nice.

Yeah, you're nice.

Don't be afraid of bland.

Never.

Bland and nice just gets you

everywhere.

We should all wish for that.

Well, although your character on cheers, I don't think that wasn't bland.

I'm not.

By the way, this false humility thing I do.

No, I know, I know.

Because I know I'm magnificent.

Yes, yes, I'm magnificent.

Yes.

Yes.

And very different from all your characters.

This person, I think you even have a different accent.

When I'm talking to you now, I'm like, oh, he speaks differently.

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Are you good at memorizing lines?

Well, that's that's the, yes, I am.

I am good at it.

It's like a smidge more the older I get.

And for some reason, this is just mean.

Cheers was Sam Malone was the slow, dumb joke.

Now the older I get, it's the speedy, long paragraph joke, and that's not right.

No, no, no.

Do you ever get tripped up on one word over and over?

You're like, why is that word not settling into my head?

I'll never understand

the dynamics of how, why that happens.

It's a little bit self-fulfilling, too, because

I will say, oh, this is my hard scene.

And lo and behold, that's the hard scene.

It's the hard scene.

Because I said so.

Yeah.

Guaranteed.

Yeah.

Oh, this is a tough one.

Not that many lines, but this is a tough one.

And that line is going to be hard.

And boom, that's the one that's hard.

This must have happened to you all at Saturday Night Live where all week long on cheers, we would rehearse and there was something that we could barely get through.

We would be rolling on the ground.

It was so funny.

Audience comes, here comes the moment and you could hear a pin drop.

And it's like, instead of being horrified, it's the funniest thing because your body is all of a sudden plummeting to earth.

You feel it in your stomach.

You're like, oh, no one thought that this was funny.

There were times where a moment like that would happen, total death, total silence.

And then we would blame the audience a little.

Oh, well,

or the mics.

Yeah, the mics.

You know, must be the audience is off with something like that.

And then later.

during SNL, there'd be a sketch that kills.

So

they were fine.

They were present.

Yeah.

It was just that sketch that

they were not interested in.

It's pretty wild.

Do you know Jimmy Burroughs?

Ever been?

He directed all of the cheers and friends and, you know,

but he was our director.

And one time a joke died and he turned and looked at the audience and said, Can you hear it?

Are the mics on?

And they went, no, no.

And we turned it on.

The joke killed.

And it was a week later that I decided to go, wait a minute, can you hear us?

Yeah, we can.

That's the only literal time that

it was that the mics were off, that they couldn't.

It was the one when he called it.

When I called it, it was, oh, no, we hear you loud and clear.

We're fine.

Wow.

God, you guys had, that's right.

You had an audience every single time.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Mostly I.

I have to work on lines a little bit.

It takes me a couple of nights to really get it down.

Me too.

Yeah.

Me too.

But that's, I guess that's the job.

Yep, yep.

Yeah.

And do what you have to do.

Yeah.

Okay.

Now you have a baby.

Yeah.

A two-year-old, three-year-old?

Three-year-old.

Three-year-old.

What is that like, Mr.

Tour with your band anytime you feel like it?

It's pretty great.

Yeah.

It's, it really

makes you relaxed about time.

Yeah.

So like yesterday, I had a moment

where

I had a good hour of like really having to occupy his time.

And it was the best because what I had to do, the things that I had on my docket didn't matter.

And

they kind of don't.

They'll just be sitting there anyway.

So it's almost like time stands still for a moment.

And it's all about him goofing around.

And it's the best.

It's actually relaxing.

It actually, everything is just like,

just like, okay, is he having a good time right now?

He's laughing.

He's enjoying himself.

We're good.

It's the best.

Yeah.

And it's the best

seeing him figure out new jokes, new ways of doing jokes.

Because he knows you like to laugh.

Because some things will make him laugh.

So if I make this thing talk.

Yes.

I mean, to us, and oh, they're going to laugh really hard.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

You have to follow through now, please.

Damn it.

Make it talk.

But I'm saying, so if you make something talk,

whatever voice you do.

So that concept.

We paid our money.

Ah, damn it.

I got to make the lid open.

We could, I guess we could do some

CGI or AI to make the mouth open.

Yes, because unlimited budget.

Yeah, if you don't mind, just so when I did this before, just add a little.

But so that concept.

He, you know, he laughed at it, but today I saw him do, he did it for the first time.

So that, like,

him transferring, you know, that is the best.

It's great.

It's great.

And he's getting the gift of funny.

Yeah.

You're giving him funny.

Yeah, that is a gift.

It's also a good time occupier, you know, to joke around.

There will be a time.

Well, maybe not for you because you're a professional.

I watch some of my shtick.

It does not travel well past

six.

Oh, I bet you're right.

And then they start to go, they're sweet.

And you'll get a chortle and eyes darting for, you know, someone else in the room to go talk to, but it's different.

I've heard this and I've heard worse.

Meaning like

eyes rolling.

Yeah.

A friend of mine described walking into a room and his kids are teenagers.

Oh.

And he said, him walking into the room made his son make a face.

He didn't do anything.

And his son made a face.

He was like, oh my God, all I did was enter.

Yes.

We had that experience with our grand, one of our grandkids recently.

We come to visit at school with our arms open wide.

And it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her, ever.

It's shocking.

But I'm going to be now prepared.

You're going to bring food or candy?

How are you prepared?

I'm going to come in disguise.

So I'm going to show up at the school totally as like some other

creature.

And that'll be, you know, I'm saying completely disguised

like they do in Disneyland or whatever.

If you had, let's pretend you do, and you do anyway, have a mission,

a goal.

in life that's bigger than just yourself, but

if you had a North Star that kind of guides you and you go, oops, or ah, I'm on track.

Oh, you mean something that's bigger than career?

Yep.

Or something you do with you, you want to accomplish with your career

for the good of or for other people.

Or I, all, all I really do, whenever something like that comes up, I think of people I admire.

So I think, okay,

David Byrne is still making

new versions of entertainment.

And

I feel like Steve Martin, the way he's like mixed

music with his, in his life,

and performing, I'm like, that's a good way to go.

I just look to what those people, and I know this sounds very career-centric, but I also mean it as far as far as like making things.

I love making things.

So that's kind of like,

that's like a

basic North Star is becoming more and more like people

like my heroes who are still my heroes

um

because of the work they do yes and the way that they approach it right

which it seems something about it uh seems to come from a place of like i want to keep making things creative and it is it is for other people

um i want to do that i don't see you're you're you have a different

niche niche you do you are a producer writer director You can quibble over if you want, but you're a producer, writer.

You are self-starting.

You can sit in a room and go, I'm going to create this, and

out comes a film or a TV show or, you know, or something.

And

hopefully.

Yeah.

Knock on a microphone.

Yeah.

So mine is much more

what I can do with other people's work.

Oh.

Do you know what I mean?

Meaning I'm an actor, actor, actor, actor, personality.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So I depend on really good writing or somebody who, and what I'm discovering recently, do you know Mike Shur?

Of course, yeah.

Right, Saturday Night Live, right?

I find him very purposeful

in what he puts out into the world.

And he wants it to, he wants it to make it a better place.

Yes.

You know, or a thoughtful place, or let's have a conversation about

what I just did with him, a man on the inside.

Let's have a conversation about an uncomfortable topic, aging,

death, grief, memory loss.

Let's have it and

be able to laugh and be honest and real.

I love that sense of purpose.

So that's what I want to kind of hitch

my wagon to, that purposeful.

You mean his purposefulness?

Yes, because I'm not writing it.

I like to be around people.

And it can be silly.

It can be stupid, it can be whatever.

It doesn't have to be this serious woo-woo thing, but I want it to be purposeful.

I want it to make a some sort of

difference, no matter how modest.

His specifically has a real theme to it.

His book, his recent book, was it how to be perfect?

What was it called?

Let me have to look that up.

But his book is all about that.

I wrote the forward, but I didn't read it.

Okay.

It's great.

how to be perfect he's not just like hey i'm gonna write comedy and you know hope that it's all a hit he's more like he has uh a theme

and

yeah i love that would you rather work for yourself in your writing than someone else's or do you care i like both yeah both is great because when it's someone else then it really like uh it expands how you think of things that that's what i like about it uh

i i love i'm interrupting.

Hold on, uh, pardon me, no, but I'm gonna interrupt.

No, no,

I have final edit, I don't actually, they do.

Um,

I look at you, you first off, you're you're a really good actor.

I've seen you really good acting,

you're always, whether you're being funny or not, you're a really good actor.

I would love to see you, and this is sounding old and everything, but

I would love to see you do leading man

because

you're so

and we're used to you being silly or making us laugh or doing characters.

Do you ever think about, yeah, I should write something for myself or be part of something that is

well, that's very nice of you to say.

Whatever.

Or do you have no,

if it's not funny, you don't have a desire?

No, it's not that.

It's that like I,

whenever I've put myself in something, I always picture it alongside other people, or, but not,

not dead center, but you know, featured enough.

You can be dead center and still

be part of,

yeah, I guess.

I mean, I always used to think I was the tall guy in cheers

because the stories went every direction and everybody was brilliant.

Yeah.

Everybody was.

I laughed just out because I just thought of just the idea of cheers.

I remember like like watching it and laughing.

So,

you know, I've thought about it a little bit, but

there's one idea that I had that I pitched to Tina, and that's Tina Faye that she liked.

So somewhere in there, that might work.

But it's almost like, it's almost like being pretend, having pretend humility.

Yeah.

That's my bailiwick.

Can I be in it?

Yeah, yes.

Of course.

You're too busy.

But yes.

But it's almost like, oh, I don't know.

I don't know.

But then I think when I sit down and start writing stuff, like, yeah, of course, it's fun to be in stuff.

But I do like being alongside other people.

Me too.

I love ensemble.

I wanted to be a basketball player and it was all about teams.

Yeah, it's the best.

I love team.

Love it.

Portlandia with, you know, with Carrie and SNL, with all those people.

I love it.

Portlandia was hysterical.

No, thanks.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I loved it.

Yeah.

Love getting to do it.

Eight seasons.

Do you got something else coming up?

The second season of Wednesday is coming out soon.

I love that.

Yeah.

I forgot.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

No, no, it's a fair.

No, it's great.

I think over the next couple of months, we're going to start doing some more press stuff for it.

So I'm like, oh, I may as well.

You've shot it?

Oh, yeah.

Where?

Where did you shot it?

Ireland.

Oh, my God.

But how wonderful.

Yeah, it's perfect, right?

What a life.

Like to get a moody, magical place.

Ah, fantastic.

i loved it and yeah i was it was in ireland and it's all ready to go i don't know the exact date of it yeah i think they purposefully don't don't tell me on this year on what stream netflix god bless netflix god bless them

thank you man i really love the tradition of comedy that you come from and you're so good at it i I appreciate it.

And I feel the same about you.

I am a natural sycophant kiss ass, but I actually do think you are.

I don't think you mean this.

I could tell when people are.

I don't think that's what you are.

Yeah.

I think that in my experience, this version of Ted that you're getting, I think that's this is like the same experience I have when I see you out in the world.

So

FYI,

that's the real thing.

Much, much respect.

Thanks.

Fred Armison, everyone.

That's it for our show this week.

Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco.

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More for you next time where everybody knows your name.

You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes.

The show is produced by me, Nick Liao.

Our executive producers are Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself.

Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer.

Engineering Remixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez.

Research by Alyssa Grahl.

Talent Booking by Paula Davis and Jeannie Batista.

Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Gen, Mary Steve Birchen, and John Osborne.

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Honey, do not make plans Saturday, September 13th, okay?

Why, what's happening?

The Walmart Wellness Event.

Flu shots, health screenings, free samples from those brands you like.

All that at Walmart.

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Check the calendar Saturday, September 13th.

Walmart Wellness Event.

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I knew.

Check in on your health at the same place you already shop.

Visit Walmart Saturday, September 13th for our semi-annual wellness event.

Flu shots subject to availability and applicable state law.

Age restrictions apply.

Free samples while supplies last.