Q&A with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of 'Portlandia'

The stars and creators of the IFC sketch comedy show “Portlandia,” Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, swung on by the De Neve Auditorium for an episode screening of their show, followed by a Q-and-A session with Los Angeles Times television critic Robert Lloyd. Armisen and Brownstein stopped to talk to the Daily Bruin’s Teresa Jue on Portland culture, parodying hometowns and the world’s obsession with birds.

Daily Bruin: “Portlandia” obviously centers around Portland and the humor behind it – how did this show get started?

Fred Armisen: We made these videos that were kind of comedy and kind of not comedy, and we reached out to what was close to us and that was Portland. We would would do videos on whatever was based around us, like thrift stores, bookstores and stuff, and it snowballed and developed into making more for the show.

DB: How did you, Carrie, get into comedy, coming from a musical background and being part of the girl-rock band Sleater-Kinney?

Carrie Brownstein: Fred dragged me in. Fred and I were friends and we wanted to collaborate on something and music was the obvious thing, but it didn’t seem like the most fun or accessible. We wanted to do something sillier. And I think making videos about Portland was an extension of the dynamic me and Fred had. We get obsessive about things, and we are interested in things that were serious. I guess I have, like, five years of Fred Armisen training before we started “Portlandia.”

FA: It wasn’t just about comedy. To me, Carrie was very compelling and entertaining, so comedy was part of that.

DB: Of all the cities to skewer, why Portland?

FA: It was where Carrie lived, and I used to go visit and I like that city. Once we started doing it, it became very clear there was plenty to comment on.

DB: And Carrie, coming from Portland, how did its residents treat you after the show came out?

CB: For the most part, whether there are people who are uncomfortable about it, ranting on blogs, people on the streets are genuinely really excited about it. Portland is a really self-reflective city. People are always thinking about what they’re doing and what this means, and they really think of this show as part of that conversation.

DB: How did producer of “Portlandia” and “Saturday Night Live” boss Lorne Michaels feel when you pitched the show to him?

FA: He was really into it, and we were already really familiar with
each other, working with each other on “SNL,” so the dialogue wasn’t
like, “Oh hi, I’m Fred,” cause we have this thing. He knows the kind of stuff I think about and we already had all this video because of the website, Thunderant, which is where we posted our stuff.

DB: “Portlandia” also is kind of like Springfield from “The Simpsons,” where it’s full of these varied, kooky characters. Are these characters people you observe in real life?

CB: They’re us. I feel like I inhabit at least a small section of any of the characters. It’s improvisation, so you always have to be
pulling from something you know, because there’s not really a script to learn beforehand, so you have to infuse every moment with something that’s tangible from some part of your personality.

FA: They’re us in a way.

CB: We both grew up in communities that are like Portland. We know
these people pretty well. It doesn’t feel like an imitation, it feels like what’s around us.

DB: Is there any kind of “Portlandia” you see in Los Angeles?

FA: Oh yeah, Echo Park and Silverlake. Those are little “Portlandias.”

CB: In some ways, California was leading the way in progressive eco-culture well before the Northwest. The Northwest took it to a weird pioneer extreme. But definitely in Los Angeles, it was the first time I ran into people that were like, “Oh I’m going to eat a Boca burger.” You guys were doing it way before Portland.

DB: From watching your “Portlandia” skit “Put a Bird on It,” it seems that everyone in Portland has something with a bird on it. Is it true?

CB: I think it’s a phenomenon that is all across the country, perhaps the world. I had this observation last year that putting a bird on something was shorthand for art. Like there’s a pillow, but if you put a bird on that pillow, it’s art. So we wrote “Put a Bird on It.” I had people tell me they’re embarrassed about the bird art they make.

FA: A lot of tattoos too. A lot of people are like, “Hey,” and they
show us a tattoo with a bird on it.

CB: The tattoo was definitely there before the skit though. They put a bird on it years ago.

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