The Brag

Portlandia
We Tease Because We Love
By Alisdair Duncan

Fred Armisen is a comedian whose resume includes Saturday Night Live and guest spots in movies like Anchorman; Carrie Brownstein is a rocker, and a founding member of riot grrl group Sleater-Kinney. They seem like an unlikely pairing, and yet their sketch-comedy show Portlandia is one of the finest and funniest things on American television right now. I’m curious to know how exactly they met, and how they decided to do comedy together. “Well, we kind of knew each-other a little bit, we had some mutual friends,” Armisen tells me. “We met, and I knew as soon as I met her that we’d have a friendship, and that it was going to be something really exciting.”

The pair knew straight away that they wanted to work together on something, but didn’t know what form that collaboration would take. “We thought about music, but that just seemed way too obvious, the idea of us sitting together and jamming,” he says with a laugh. “We didn’t want to be those people – it didn’t seem original. So we came up with the idea to do some videos – just weird, short videos that didn’t necessarily have any jokes in them, but they were just our own thing. As soon as we started shooting those, we put them on a website called Thunder Ant, and we were able to pitch that as a show after a couple of years. I guess it just sort of happened, and became its own life form.”

The show itself is a biting satire of the hipster enclave of Portland, where making artisanal light bulbs and putting birds on things are seemingly valid career choices. Armisen and Brownstein play various characters within this milieu, but the comedian insists that it’s all done with love and affection. “Anyone I’ve played on the show is just a version of me,” he explains. “I do the things that they do, and they have traits that are mine, too. We deliberately don’t change our voices that much for the characters. They sound like us most of the time, even if they look different. People sometimes say that we’re skewering these people, but we’re not. If we’re skewering anyone, it’s ourselves. We have a lot of affection for Portland and all these people who have this kind of lifestyle.”

In conversation, Armisen is quiet and humble – when I compliment him on the show, he seems almost embarrassed. He finds himself being approached on the streets of Portland quite a bit these days, and says that while he often doesn’t know quite what to say, he is grateful that people seem to enjoy the show. “People are always very nice,” he says. “I’m just glad that people watch it. It’s funny, because it seems like people in Portland appreciate it. I haven’t heard one negative thing from a person on the street. People say, ‘Oh, I have a cat-food bakery, do you want to do a show here?’ I get approached by people like that, people who have these very eccentric, Portland businesses, but they’re all very cool about it.”

In the two seasons that have aired so far, Portlandia has had some damn fine guest stars. TV comedy players like Aubrey Plaza, Jason Sudeikis and Nick Kroll have all showed up, but so have the likes of Edie McClurg, who played air-headed secretary Grace in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s an impressive roster, and Armisen tells me that the casting process is mostly pretty informal – essentially, it’s about inviting people they like around to play. There are a few who went through the regular channels, agents and all that stuff,” he says. “For the most part, it’s just been us hooking up with friends. It’s informal, and that’s quite a nice way to be. I mean, after you’ve spent a whole day shooting, you kind of just want to hang out with your friends, so doing the show this way is a really good way to do that.”

I ask Armisen if there is anyone he has his eye on for future episodes. “There are many,” he says. “Some of them are stupid dreams, just because I want to work with my heroes. I wish I could get everyone from this band called The Damned on, or Hugh Cornwell, or John Waters, or Woody Allen. There are all kinds of people. There are also actors. People like Griffin Dunne – just people we like or we think are cool.” He pauses to think for a second. “We had Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols come on. You know who would be the ultimate, is Ralf HЯtter from Kraftwerk. The main guy. If we could get that guy, that would be the coolest thing ever.”

The first season of Portlandia, which runs on the IFC network in the US, ran for six episodes – a cult favourite with a growing fanbase, it has just been renewed for a third season of twice this length. Armisen and Brownstein are in the process of writing the season right now, thinking about possible new characters and guest stars, but I ask if this increased scope means that they are feeling added pressure to perform. “The quickest answer is yeah, we do feel pressure,” he tells me. “I want to get it right, and do something good. We don’t want to overwork ourselves, but we want to make the best show we can, to be entertaining and funny. I have my fingers crossed that we can try to focus on making it good.”

What: Portlandia – Series 1 on DVD
When: Out Wednesday August 1 through Umbrella Entertainment