Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hi. I'm Sean. And this is Smart List. By the way, you're not just one at a time. Okay, just start again. Just do it one more time. Go. Hi. My name is Will. R. No. You can't do half of that. And also, that's my name. Syllables. Okay, so, okay. Hi. Oh, my God.
No wonder they call this show Smart Less. There you go. Smart Less. Smart Less. Smart Less.
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? Yeah.
No? No, I don't-- Will doesn't go to the doctor. His religion doesn't allow him to. -Right? It's his religion. -Here we go. Great. Now we're gonna get the letters. Here come the letters. Herbs, right? You just do it with herbs and-- 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. Insert story. Well, listen, if you must know, Yeah.
You know, I'm married to a wonderful woman. Let me just, you know. Yes, I love her. 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 phantasm.
helpful, uh, confirmer, right? Uh, potentially. Anyway, so. You don't believe that though because it's all generally speaking. Well, I was, 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,
But the woman that I was with, well, girl, that I was with for eight years before Amanda. Yeah.
I should say young lady. We were in our teens and 20s. 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. No, I'm just trying to keep up, you know? So she would see an astrologist 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 consequently went in there, you know, because 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, 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, loved every minute of it.
Sure. I'm still seeing this woman. That's what you said last Thursday. No, no, no, no, no, Will. When you called me frantically last Thursday. No, no, no, no, no, Will, 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 not true.
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. So.
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 is...
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 gonna know who he is. So it's a race to just getting it all out as much as I can. Okay, well, go slow, 'cause I wanna guess. Put it this way.
One of my favorite stories that, 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 tell 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? Yes.
It's not Jim Neighbors. Jim, reveal your camera. No, but do not reveal. He's been nominated for many Emmys for writing. 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 it is. He is our friend. He does. Wow. He's back in East Berlin. It looks like you showered. Did you shower today? I actually, I just did. 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. Yeah.
They were like, let's just make up a rule. This is just a real all-star booking here, Will. 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 joked 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. Oh. It's so late. Well, it's so great to have you. It's so late. 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 nine 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's a hilarious guy. He had a really funny show called Toast of London, but before that, he was an incredible performer. He's done amazing things for years. He's a profoundly funny guy. I've only met him once, I think, but yeah. Really funny.
So that's fun. Are you, pardon my ignorance here, but if you don't know already, I'm an idiot. 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. 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, India, right?
No, not... Nice, nice. Maybe... Nice. Yeah, thanks. Sorry, no, that would be Eagle Rock. Sorry, it would be Eagle Rocklandia. Or Highland Parkia. Highland Parkandia, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right, sorry. Sorry, excuse me for my 2004 reference. No, that's okay. But, um...
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, right? 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, Portlandia. It's one of my favorite all-time shows. It was such a... I laughed. Oh, you were great. So hard doing that. Wait, 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 how the coffee shops always have terrible art? Yeah, of course. 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 never asked to be on Portlandia. So it says a lot about what he does. No, I think Will, 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 asked. 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. 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 and 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, 2000...
Five or six, right? Yeah, Toronto. We shot it in Toronto. We were shooting in Toronto. So Sean, 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. LAUGHTER
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'd do like the read 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, um, hey, can I get your cell number really quick? LAUGHTER LAUGHTER
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 in the government. Fred, you seem to be like the most calm. You're always so calm and collected and kind and generous. Have you ever raised your voice or screamed or yelled at anybody in your life?
Yeah, sure I have. Well then, so then you've caught it too. I caught it. I caught it. It's a virus. It's an anger virus. 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. That's awful. And I freaked out. Yeah.
Yeah. Good. So see now that guy deserves, 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, 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,
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 I sometimes, the most angry I get is if I have to wait somewhere too long. So, say I go to a restaurant and for whatever reason, nothing against the restaurant, they're too busy, they're understaffed.
The way I 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. 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.
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, your short 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 confront anybody. Well, but 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,
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. Let's just...
Contractually, we have to do this. We have to get to at least 45 minutes. None of us want to. Let's just stay civil. None of us want to. Wait, Fred. So Fred tells me, so years ago we were working and Fred goes...
We're talking about East Berlin. And he's like, yeah, I was in East Berlin. I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, my brother lives there. And I go, what? 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, you know, both sides were super paranoid and...
So my dad had a son before he came to the States. He was in Germany. And my half-brother, Fabrizio, was raised in East Germany. So he couldn't leave Berlin Wall and everything. So I went to go visit him. You go through Checkpoint Charlie and they 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...
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 is, 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 they, you know, 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, you know, 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 you know what? 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. Yeah, isn't it called At My Vitz End?
Or is... Did that not clear? Yeah. At my consent. That's nice. With a shrug. Yeah. 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. Do 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, go. Wouldn't it... It 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 know, for as oblong as stuff in our country is sometimes. Yeah.
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 the 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 happens around the world. 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. They had a,
physical wallet. He just, you know... Wait, so you never met your brother? Oh, yeah, yeah. Now we're in touch. Now I've visited him and stuff. Now you wish there was a wall. Now you wish they'd put the wall back up. Am I right or am I wrong? This guy, Fabrizio. I was thinking about being political. I was thinking, Freddie, about your character. What was his name? Nicholas Fenn? Oh, Nicholas Fane. Nicholas Fane. Oh, my God. Do you remember that character Freddie used to do on SNL where he would...
He was a political comedian. Yes, so funny.
Oh my God. And he was just, he couldn't finish a sentence. And he would, he'd like pull up like the New York Times and like the Wall Street Journal. And he'd go like, here we go. Here we go. People, 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 was saying. 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 what was being said. And we will be right back.
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 – 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? Yeah.
I mean, I did it for long enough that I'm not pining to 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 not also not it 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 they're laughing and um yeah i mean that was just like right away what was that process for you fred because 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, I just got asked to do more and more stuff. And then I would do like some kind of stand up where like I would do a character and
at Largo or something and then and then I 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 and who was in that with you
Do you remember? Nick Swartzen, Jay Johnston. Wow. 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. He's the one who really got me on TV. Oh, man. Oh, man. What? 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. What is that? It's called independence, right? Where 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 not surprising you're a drummer because you do have maybe the best, one of the better timing of anybody around. So it always added up to me. I mean that in a way. Like I've always thought that like,
oh, yeah, there's something musical about. Sean, you're the same way. You're very musical. Like, you understand rhythm and, you know, all that kind of stuff. Well, they're very closely connected, music and comedy. Explain it to us, fucker. I'm so sorry that I cut you. Hold on, hold on. I'm really sure we're rolling. No, 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? 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. Okay.
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 Bonham is. 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 I... 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. Oh, yeah. 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. Will Arnett plays the air bass. You ever seen Will play the air bass? Oh, I do really well. Really well. Are you guys musicians? You guys are musicians, right? Sean is. 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. Hang on a second. 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 and then back and everything. 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. 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 you. Middle song, give him a line, and he just goes... Yeah. And then he does basically like a curtsy, double knee curtsy. So, Freddie, so you do this sketch show with Bob and those guys, and then you get enough tape together to submit to SNL. Yeah. And you audition in L.A. for SNL, or you go to New York first? New York. 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, 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 it wasn't even in my...
No pressure. Cause it really like this, this, this, this ain't going to happen. Exactly what it was like. I was like, I was thrilled enough to be in at that studio auditioning. Cause I, you know, I was still kind of like, I was only a couple of years away from having been a drummer in a band. So I was like, Oh, I'm an NBC. They paid for my plane ticket. Right. This is crazy. I got a free plane ticket. Yeah.
And then I think it really did help me relax in the audition where I felt like this is incredible. But the first one was at UCB and then it was at the studio. UCB on 26th Street under the tennis bubble? 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 it 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. Yeah.
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 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 the bands? Did they ever take your suggestions or your advice at all? Oh.
Oh, only later, just like in mentioning a band to them. But not, 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. Yeah.
But some of it is just like a weird timing thing of like, this seems right. Right now. Yeah. Like the hosts. Right. And it's not even necessarily having a hit. It's just like a weird timing thing of like, they are in the ether right now and in just the right way. Yeah. About to break or something. Yeah. And then you learn, a lot of people learn about them from that show. Yeah. I always did. I always watched SNL. I, 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 on 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? 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 I 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 a shorter amount of time and it's just the character being...
you know, crazy in his own way. Have you always wanted to be that? Have you always wanted to be kind of like part of an ensemble and stuff? Never like the leading guy out in front all the time? No, never. No. 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 the same kind of thing, you know, in the back but still making a lot of noise and hitting cymbals and stuff. But, you know, nothing without the rest of the band. I just prefer it.
So then you leave SNL after like 11 years, I want to say? Yeah. And you and Carrie Brownstein create Portlandia, which was kind of, first of all, a phenomenal show. We talked about it at the top of the show here, but it's such a phenomenal show. So funny, Fred. Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, I mean, 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, I guess just kind of beating them out a little bit more and giving them a little air and, and,
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 and Carrie sort of come together? Yeah. Because she...
Carrie Brownstein, of course, fantastic musician. She'd been in the band Sleater-Kinney for a long time, an incredible band. And then how is 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, 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,
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 feminist bookstore and all kinds of stuff. And 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? I was like, I have enough of these videos. Why don't we just.
turn this into a show and then we pitched it. 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 things, little. I mean like 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 and you guys have good chemistry, I guess. So that probably made her feel at ease right in that way. Like. Yeah. Also,
Also, there was like no pressure on it. There was no goal. It was just like, let's just make these videos that we think are funny and that'll be enough. And then you guys were like, let's make this show and let's give half of the money to Lorne.
Let's give half of the money to Lawrence. So nice of you. I still try to pay him. I still try to send him whatever. No way! Hell yes. Always help. Always help. 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 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. Okay. 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. So that's why we're doing that. 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 we 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. 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, how much respect you really have for documentaries. How dare you, Fred? Yeah.
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 will 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 got to stay here forever. Yeah.
In Germany you do, yes. In East Germany you stay here forever. You're not going anywhere. It'd be nice if you could look over if your window's high enough. Are those dirty American Levi's you have on? Oh, where'd you get them? Where'd you get the Levi's? That's what we used to have to bring as presents. Jeans. Levi's, sure. Get some cool jeans, man. Hey, look at this guy. He's got some cool jeans and he's kicking and he's got some...
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. Again, you heard me. I was playing Rock Me Amadeus. I heard, yes. Yeah. 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.
I know, but what I don't understand is that Sean says he goes 15 minutes early, but like... No, 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. Yeah.
Don't you feel like every doctor visit is like, where am I going? No, because I go so frequently. Yeah, are you guys sick? What's going on? Do you go to the doctor a lot? I do. I do. 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, so are you, Sean, are you one of those guys that gets your annual physical checkup?
Every year? I don't wait probably that long. I probably go a couple times a year. Come on now, are you being serious? Yeah, I'm totally serious. You're talking about full blood panels and you're on the fucking treadmill and you got hoses on you and stuff? Well, how about this? I went and he goes, have you been feeling tired lately? 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. That's all. He's just going to drain you. Talk about second home. This guy built a fucking... Are you kidding? You know, my next patient...
He's actually got a podcast 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. You 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. It doesn't work.
Yeah, sit down. Fred, you're not a hypochondriac, I don't think. I don't think I am, no. No, you don't strike me as that. 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. That would be a good change. You'd like to care less? Yeah. Show me one people that you've pleased. One that's 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? One that feels safe to vocalize that. I also hate it when people go, 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. 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. We'll be right back.
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 use, 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 are 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. Wait, so were you all super starstruck when Cross came on Arrested 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. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Larry Sanders was like that for me. Yeah. 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. You know, it was just so great like that. That whole no winking kind of thing. Yeah. Just like...
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... On a train. Yeah. I'm going to do it right now. Wink at me, Fred. Oh, dear.
Fred's winking at the ball. 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, 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 disappear. You know, I go through phases of it. I'll end up, I'll wink for like a week or something like that. 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're just practicing. I was practicing because, you know, I...
- 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, - Give us an example. - God, you know what? Like if we get in an argument, in the middle of the argument, I go, everything's gonna be okay. And he fucking hates it. - Oh yeah.
So you do that to enrage. Most people don't wink to enrage people. Yeah, go ahead. I've been working on for 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 the cheesier cousin of the wink, actually, if you can get cheesier. And Jason, it's usually accompanied by like a mm, mm.
Or just 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 at you. The real wink, I think... Like a real wink on a... If you're on a train and somebody gives you a real wink... Ew, what? Did you say wank? Does that happen? A real... 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 on a bus...
Always on public transport. Sure. I'm just saying. But imagine if you're in a restaurant and you looked across and you were having dinner with somebody. Jason, you're having dinner with Amanda. Yeah. And you're sitting there. And then you looked across and then there was another couple and they're having dinner. And the guy just looked over at you and winked. Oh. 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. 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 wink. That's called blinking. No, no, sorry. 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? Rock.
I can't remember. Vacation! Vacation! What just happened? What happened? Seriously, lay down, Sean. Elevate your ankles. Get them up over your heart. I literally thought somebody had hijacked our show. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? It's time to do my work. That was so weird. Sean, how long did the guys say the mushrooms were going to last? Did they...
I was trying to do my will or no impression. 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 to do zero as well. There's nothing in between. Yeah, same. So I got problems. What about traveling, Jason? You mean for vacation? Yeah.
I don't as well. The boring answer, I apologize, is that my mother was a flight attendant 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.
Um, so I'm not, I'm not the, I'm not the best person to ask about that. 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 there? I have to go back for work to L.A., so I can't stick around. Because of work, you see? Now, Freddie, so, like, 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.
Yeah, I mean... It looks like you're still at the airport. Are you still in a room at 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. Five days.
Wow. Oh, my God. So 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 thinking back to when I was there. How many times you've hosted SNL and how many times have we gone to SNL together? You're right. It does change quite a bit. Yeah, it changes and then... What do you want to do? You want to put Wally out of work? Yeah, totally. Come on. Oh, Wally's kids don't need braces? Okay, that's cool.
Well, Wally doesn't need to pay his mortgage. Where'd he go? He didn't need a house. No, Wally. Why would Wally need a house? It's only raining. It's only rain, Jason. Does rain bother him? Why would rain bother him? 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. Yeah, it really is. I just love it. I love it so much. I do text with Wally sometimes, by the way.
You do? Yeah. I thought you made that name up. That's a real person. Oh, no. He's the guy. Okay. Yeah.
He's got like a whole system that like now his, the 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? 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. 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. So, 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. 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 a lot of reality TV. So then what are you doing? Are you a reader? Do you read books or are you making music? That's such a good question. 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? Are you working on anything? I have this little travel guitar that I have. And then 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 with me.
Oh, look at that. It looks like this, but then there's like 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 probably would go like... You probably want...
You know, your audience, you want them on their feet. Yeah. 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, hey, get up. 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...
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. I've never heard them. D-E-F-R-A-N.
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, like they are the ones who like brought it to top 10. Oh God. I just want to go sailing with Simon Le Bon. Who's kidding? Yeah.
Who's kidding? It can happen. Make that happen for sure. So, Freddie, so now you're there doing this show with Matt Berry. You've done... You 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 you would, that would be like, Oh, that's something I really want to go and, and tackle. I would say doing something in a foreign language, but, uh, but really doing something in a foreign language, like really doing it, like in, in, in Farsi, something in Farsi. Wow. Where it's not like, uh,
Where it's like not, you know, it's not like the joke of it isn't that I'm speaking Farsi. 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 and 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, are you – is your sort of –
are you looking to escalate things? Like is, is your, is your, is your internal clock going, okay, what, what could be now? 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 to how strong is your ambition? It's a combo of the two in that, um,
None of my aspirations as I was going along were ever that grand anyway. Portlandia was always like, this is fine. It doesn't have to be on a huge network. 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, you know, every day seems to be something exciting. I'm in London or...
you know, Italy or something. And then, um, and then I do, I just, I honestly do like the idea of something completely, um, foreign to me. Yeah. Something like in another language, something, uh, something that like I, I haven't done before. So like a mix. Let me ask it a different way. What if a mat, 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, would that be a happy thing? Or would that make you uncomfortable? 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 Bob Odenkirk, with the fact that Better Call Saul was so huge. It had nothing to do with what his plan was. You know, he was, you know, doing sketch comedy and all this other stuff. And like it seemed I like that 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. Yes. It's like Checkpoint, and it's called Checkpoint Charlies. Oh, yeah. And we're just two border guards, and we live in East Berlin. Maybe we could do it where, like, we...
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 are you 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. Is there a camera over the fridge? Is there a camera here? A camera there? A camera there? One take on cameras, yeah?
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's. 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 been like. Give it to us. Like let us have it.
So anyway, I'd say, 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 your birthday? You got any pets? No 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. I'm 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. What's going on? I always wanted to say this, that you are truly, truly one of the funniest people, and I just think you are so incredibly talented.
Good Lord. Oh, well, it's mutual, Sean. That's really, really nice. You are the tip-top, Fred. You really are, Fred. You guys are. Fred used to do this bit down at 8-H at SNL, and he'd walk around and pretend he was like an intern, and he'd go, I'm the only one that's normal around here. LAUGHTER
He used to fucking make me laugh so hard. That is normal. Freddie, 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 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. Hope you have a good visit with each other. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, pal. Have fun, Freddie. We love you, Freddie. Bye. Love you. Love you. 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. Like, 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, but he's such a sweetheart of a guy. Yeah, he is. Oof.
Fred did this thing when we were 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 onto. I loved when he did Prince. He would always,
You know, I was whispering. Prince. I do love Nicholas Fane, 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. 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...
in that weekly lab i feel i feel like you know why though why don't we i'm mad we don't get to see that i know that's how i feel but here's 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 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
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, here 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. That 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? Yeah. Oh, now I'm floating. Oh, my God. And that, you know what? You got a text from him. You know why that is? Because that's a bye product. Product of the show. Bye. Bye. Bye.
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