If you’re a fan of sketch comedy, Fred Armisen needs little introduction – which means I’m about to give you a somewhat lengthy one.
A former punk rock drummer turned one of the great parodists of the 21st century, Armisen was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and raised in New York, the son of a Venezuelan mother and father of German-Korean descent. After art school, he played drums in the late-1980s for Chicago punk band, Trenchmouth, with a stint drumming for performance artists, the Blue Man Group, in the ‘90s.
But he would become famous—incredibly quickly—once he pivoted to comedy.
After a few appearances on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” Armisen was snapped up by “Saturday Night Live,” where he was one of the show’s most popular cast members from 2002 to 2011, playing memorable characters such as punker Ian Rubbish, Venezuelan nightclub comedian Fericito, rich doofus Stuart on “The Californians,” and the rambling political comedian Nicholas Fehn on “Weekend Update,” who says little but with great conviction (and who Armisen naturally reminds me of at times in this interview).
After leaving “SNL,” Armisen starred for eight seasons on the hit IFC sketch comedy show, “Portlandia,” with friend Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, where he created even more memorable—and more realistic—characters, particularly if you’re a member of Generation X (“The dream of the ‘90s is alive in Portland,” indeed). And he continued to rack up appearances and minor roles on too many television shows to mention (“30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) as well as in comedy movies and the hilarious “Documentary Now!” IFC series with partners Bill Hader and Seth Meyers.
Now 57, Armisen lives in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. He’s on his third marriage – to comedian and actress Riki Lindhome (“Garfunkel and Oates,” “Under the Silver Lake”) – which secretly took place two years ago and was only announced to the public recently. Previously, he was married to musician Sally Timms of the Mekons and actress Elisabeth Moss (“The Handmaid’s Tale”), before dating actress Natasha Lyonne for eight years. Considering Style had a little less than 20 minutes of Armisen’s time last week between multiple interviews he had scheduled (which is all we asked for, but still …) the following Q&A had to move quickly.
We spoke to the ever-upbeat comedian by phone because he’s bringing his “Comedy for Musicians but Everyone is Welcome” tour back to the National this Saturday, Aug. 10, where he’ll perform his wide array of impressions on guitar and drums while telling music-related jokes. During his career, Armisen has earned Grammy and Emmy award nominations while winning Peabody Awards for “SNL” and “Portlandia.” More recently, he co-created the Spanish language HBO series, “Los Espookys” in 2019, which won a Peabody. After his Richmond show this weekend, he’ll be appearing in a live variety show hosted by the Talking Heads’ David Byrne on Oct. 8 at Town Hall in New York City, a benefit for the fifth anniversary of Byrne’s not-for-profit, “solutions-based,” online magazine, “Reasons to be Cheerful.”
Style: Hey Fred, good to talk to you. I feel like, before I start, I should thank you for so many funny characters over the years.
Fred Armisen: Aww, I appreciate that, I’m glad you enjoyed them.
I’ve told this story before, but back in 2008, I went up to “Saturday Night Live” to visit a friend from Richmond who’s a longtime writer there, Bryan Tucker?
Oh yeah! He’s still there, he’s fantastic.
Yeah, it was a surreal experience backstage. I had hoped to meet you and Bill Hader, you guys were my favorite cast members. And I met Bill during the daytime rehearsals, he just kind of appeared out of a dark closet it felt like … But I didn’t ever see you until you did the Nicholas Fehn bit that night during the taping of “Weekend Update.” I was watching from right above your head, in the writers’ room window. Is it true that character was inspired by some of your comedian friends?
Whoa! Yeah, yeah, it was inspired by a mix of David Cross and Marc Maron. Kind of the style of comedians I was in a scene with, it was based on them … So wait, we didn’t get to meet? I’m sorry about that. Hopefully, this is something at least.
Oh, you guys were busy working. It was controlled chaos but very interesting to watch … Funny, I just talked to Sarah Sherman, who did a show at the National this summer with her very graphic videos. It’s like I’m on the “SNL” beat lately.
Oh yeah, God, she’s so funny [laughs]. She’s making this new version of comedy, you know? She’s part of this wave that I just love. It’s so cool to see, and I’m glad she’s on “SNL.”
You’ve performed at the National in Richmond before, not too long ago, I think. Has your set changed much, or are you adding songs or other material?
Oh yeah, was it a year or two years ago? I can’t remember, but I do remember the show, that was great. I’m always adding versions of things in parts of the show. I haven’t started this tour yet, so I’m working on changing a few more things. But the format is the same. It’s like, me talking about music, and I’ll have guitar and drums onstage and stuff. It’s like an extension [of the last tour] …
I wish you and Todd Barry would tour together some day. Two drummers with brilliant comedic timing who are very funny, especially about musical topics.
Yeah, we’ve talked about how we’re both drummers a lot. I would go on tour with him in a second. He’s so funny.
I’m not sure he tolerates unruly crowd behavior as well as you do, though. First strike and you’re out at his shows. He’ll be like, “Get that guy out.”
[Laughs] Well, the difference is it’s just him and a mic up there, I have drums. Drums are louder than anything. I gotta say, though, the people who come to my shows are just lovely. I’ve had really, really amazing experiences. As corny as it sounds, I just love seeing everybody’s faces. It’s such a nice feeling to be in a city that I’m not from, and be like, ‘Oh wow, these are people who came out to the show.’ It’s always been amazing.
Speaking of cities, are there any Richmond bands you’re into, like past or present?
Wow. I might not know who is from Richmond. But, well … let’s go through them.
The most recent one you probably know is Lucy Dacus, she’s from here, though I think she lives in either Philly or LA or someplace now. I’m not sure.
Oh, I love Lucy Dacus. I met her a couple times and I think we’ve been at some of the same events together.
Some of the more “classic” Richmond bands are Gwar, Avail, Lamb of God, Honor Role, Cracker, I think we claim Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, though I think he’s from somewhere else in Virginia. Oh, and Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich and Steve West are from here … Bob told me that he knows you and Carrie.
Oh wow, Sparklehorse is from there? They were so great … Yeah, I’ve known Bob for a looong time.
Ian MacKaye once said that, whenever he thought of Richmond’s music scene, he thought of the angular, math-rock stuff in the early to mid-‘90s. And a lot of older touring musicians I’ve interviewed, over the years, have given props to the guitarist Pen Rollings.
It’s funny about math rock … I feel like there’s certain cities that created that. But it’s interesting that Ian mentioned that, I guess Richmond is closer to him [in D.C.]. I was in Chicago and I always think of Chicago, Minneapolis, and I guess Pittsburgh a little bit, with Don Caballero, I think they were from there.
I read that you were attracted to political punk from a young age, bands like the Clash – as well as more visual artists such as Devo [who Armisen played with in 2018 at a John Waters-hosted music fest in Oakland, Ca.]. Do you think political music exists in much of a meaningful way today?
Whoa, what a great question! Yes, I do think it exists, I love that people make political statements in their own way. And yeah, I do see it out there. But there’s also a lot of music that I don’t know; even though I follow punk as best as I can. But there might be political content in hip-hop that I’m not as familiar enough with … and I’m making assumptions, but I’m glad it’s still existing and going on, absolutely! And we’re just talking about the USA, I’m sure it’s going on all over the world. Whenever I travel, someone will tell me about an artist in Chile or wherever, in Europe. And that also makes me happy.
One reason I bring it up is because we have this guy here in Virginia, Oliver Anthony, who came out of nowhere with a political country song, “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The lyrics were divisive, and there’s far-right conspiracy stuff in there, but this working-class song exploded online. He clearly touched a nerve and it went straight to the top of Billboard 100 without any prior charting history or presence of any kind, which has never happened before in music history.
Oh, did I read about this? I feel like, when you tell me about the charting history part. I think I remember reading about this!
Some 155 million video streams later (in under a year), and it made me wonder if political music has moved somehow from punk and hip-hop and more into country now? And if so, is it because rural, smalltown America is angry, or feels like its disappearing?
The answer is yes, I bet. Absolutely. The fact that you point that out … I’m really glad, because you know the way that country music was so mainstream in the ‘80s and a little of the ’90s? It’s kind of nice to see that it can still go that direction, you know? … But you’re probably better connected to that, so the answer is there …
Actually, the night before your show, I’m going to see Kid Congo Powers here. Have you read his book? It’s pretty good. For some reason, I feel like you could play him in a movie adaptation. The right thin mustache, wig, pink duds.
Oh man! I love Kid Congo. No, no, no, I haven’t read it. But [comedian and writer] John Mulaney has read his book, and he loves it and has recommended it to me. I’ve been meaning to read it, and I will.
Speaking of Kid, last night I watched the interview you did with him and famous older punks on Mulaney’s show: Lee Ving (Fear) is there, Exene (X), the Germs’ Don Bolles was looking a lot like Leon Russell. It made me want to see aging punks take over a Florida retirement community, like in that doc, “Some Kind of Heaven.”
Yeah, yeah. I was also just honored to be around them, to hang out with them and stuff. That was a total joy, that was amazing. I loved it. Those were two Minutemen up there! They were all classic. Everyone up there were true legends.
So I learned that you had a grandfather who was a professional dancer and taught at Cal State Fullerton. Did you know him well, or feel any affinity with him as a performer?
I met him only a couple times. And I remember him. It’s funny, because he was pretty artsy. And only now, or I guess back then too, it’s funny thinking of someone in the arts as a grandparent. It’s really like, a reassuring feeling. Like, oh man, I’m glad that its somewhere in the genetics. But more recently, you know, he died at like, 99 or something. But I went to Japan to go visit his dance studio, there’s a little museum there. Oh man, he’s fascinating. He did all these characters and stuff, his dance pieces were really avant garde stuff. So I’m very into it and really glad about that. He was Korean at birth but lived as a Japanese person.
Sorry I’m rushing through this stuff, but I’m on the clock. I’ve gotta ask at least one question about “Portlandia.” I’ve seen a woman on there that I knew years ago out West, Tanya, I think she maybe did costuming, too? I’ve seen her acting in stuff like “Portlandia” and that movie “Old Joy.” I think we worked at the same Tower Records in California for awhile. Anyway, I wondered if “Portlandia” inspired a whole tourism scene around the show’s locales in Portland [last time I was there, there were bumper stickers that said “Keep Portland Shitty”]. Also, what characters do you most get recognized for?
Oh yeah, Tanya! … Um, let me think about it. OK, tourism. I don’t know the real numbers, you know what I mean? As much as I like to think we were this gigantic show, we were just this cable show, you know? Like, who knows as far as real numbers how much that really increased [tourism]. I don’t even know how to do that kind of research, so my answer is that I don’t know … In terms of characters, I feel like the thing people bring up the most is the chicken farm one, so that would be Peter and Nance. So I’ll say Peter and Nance are ones people will say something about. But it’s been really nice, like, everywhere I travel, someone will bring up “Portlandia,” and it’s nice. Then when I’m in Portland visiting Carrie, if anyone sees me and Carrie together, especially if it’s a tourist, it blows their mind. To them, it’s like, I’m in Portland and there they are. Because you know, me and Carrie have a regular life, and a regular friendship, and we do really have to meet at a restaurant. And so then: There we are.
Yeah, that would be weird to walk off a TV show and never really leave it … I also really love the “Documentary Now” stuff you did for IFC, great stuff. I wondered if there were any docs you guys never got to parody that you really wanted to do. Like Robert Frank’s “Cocksucker Blues,” or “Crumb,” or “Devil and Daniel Johnston.” Are any more coming out?
Thank you, yeah, we still do it, but we’re very casual about it. Every couple years, we’ll start circling and going, “OK, let’s do another season of it.” We actually tried to do some documentaries like “The Staircase,” and we came up against this problem where, because the documentary exists, in a really weird way it can’t be done, or there’s no funny spin on it. There’s a couple of sports ones we wanted to do, and we just couldn’t get our heads around it.
We do this thing where, we’re like, if we’re working too much on something, we can’t top it. We’re trying to go for styles that you don’t see a lot. Bill brought up some Italian ones that were really weird and almost boring, where they’re just like, slice-of-life stuff in Italy kind-of-thing. And we’re like, what is that!? So we never know. Whenever we start texting each other about it, someone comes up with some idea that’s amazing and didn’t occur to us.
Well, I hope you both keep doing them, they’re fantastic. You and Bill are a great comedy team. The “Grey Gardens” one, man …
Oh, we will, we will. Thank you.
Below is the “Documentary Now” parody of the classic 1975 doc, “Grey Gardens,” by Albert and David Maysles, called “Sandy Passage.”
OK, I can see my last minute of time draining … Last question! You were most recently in the news for getting secretly married two years ago. Congrats late on that, by the way. [Note to readers: Armisen married comedian/actress Riki Lindhome while she was pregnant with her first child via surrogacy, and the new family now lives in a historic Los Angeles Lodge that Armisen bought in 2022 for $4.3 million].
I wondered if you had any advice for someone who might be in the same situation? Or adjusting to a new family situation?
Oh! Well, you know, adjusting … First of all, congratulations. It’s like, everything in life that you think is going to be this dramatic change, right? There’s like, a naturalness to it. The way that you’ve already been in your relationship, I’m assuming that’s what it is. Like, you’re already there. So the way you’re enjoying the way that things are already going … it’s a technical thing that you would be moving in with someone. But the fun part is what you don’t know and learning all this stuff! You’re already doing great.
Fred Armisen performs at The National on Saturday, Aug. 10. Doors are at 7 p.m. and the show is at 8 p.m. All ages show. You can buy tickets here.
