The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Fred Armisen & Carrie Brownstein

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, co-creators and stars of Portlandia and hosts of Podlandia: A-O Rewatch, join Andy Richter to discuss the early days of their friendship, how it feels when young people don’t understand your Whitesnake reference, staying busy, and much more. Do you want to talk to Andy and his comedian friends live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Tell us your favorite dinner party story (about anything!) or ask a question - leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the three questions. I'm your host, Andy Richter. Today I'm talking to Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. They are the co-creators and stars of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning sketch show, Portlandia. They are both comedians, actors, and musicians. You know him from Saturday Night Live documentary now, Wednesday, and his Grammy-nominated stand-up for drummers. And you know Carrie from her work in the iconic indie rock band Slater Kinney, as well as her critically acclaimed memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. Check out Podlandia AEO rewatch with Fred and Carrie, wherever you get your podcasts. Here's my conversation with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein.

Well, that's why you guys are here. You guys are doing a rewatch podcast. Yes. Which of course begs the question, which one of you is broke? Well, between Fred and I, I think most people will be like, it's probably Carrie. But that's what it?

It's no, it's, it's Fred. No, you know what? We're just doing it for fun. I know, we're doing it for fun. What if I really was like, I'm here to ask for money. No, seriously. Seriously, I've made some bad investments. My charter fishing business went under.

Oh, literally. That's why Fred gets the big bucks coming up with us. Well, tell me how that, how the, like, what was the genesis of doing that? And first of all, it's called Podlandia AEORewatch. What does that mean? So AO. rewatch, there's a sketch with two characters, and we come up with kind of like a word to determine, like, if we're in trouble, we're two characters on a river float.

And so for some reason, I just kept, nodding. I just kept yelling A.O. River, my character, Kath, in this very stentorian, pretty annoying voice, very loud. And it was just improvised on the day. And it became something like cacao or put a bird on it and a couple of other catchphrase. that you don't plan on being catchphrases.

Right, right. That people were like A.O. River. And so we did A.O. rewatch for our whatever. Yeah, yeah. The subtitle. Yeah. Of the show. And you can see it.

They're available on Thursdays. Is that on YouTube? Is that where they are? Kind of everywhere. It's everywhere. Yeah. I guess, yeah. Well, how did it come about?

Like, did somebody approach you? Did you guys start to. I think we actually. We end your rocking chairs reminiscing. We do hang out a lot. So that's, it's a natural extension. the show itself, a natural extension of our friendship and just wanting, you know how when you get older and your lives sort of just become more separate than they are when you're on a show with someone.

We're like, this would be a really formal way to hang out, like the container of it's formal, but the content is fun. So we get to go hang out with each other. And so we just sort of pitched it. And people are like, yeah, that sounds fun. We also saw other people doing these rewatch podcasts, which at first sort of, no offense, they seemed kind of dubious. But then when you realize, like, no, this was such an enjoyable time in our lives. Yeah. It's fun to revisit that and talk about it and bring people on the show who are, you know, on Portlandia.

Yeah, I mean, because I, just for me personally, like, there was a time when, like, like, seeing, like working with Conan and doing late night with Conan and then wanting to leave there and go do other things, there was a part of me and it was a young part of me that was like, this is not, like, I don't want to just live in this. This is, I can do more. I can do. And then I get to, I get older and I'm like, no, that was great. Like, yeah, celebrate that and let people, let other people celebrate it, you know, too.

Especially now, like there is one thing that I feel about the rewatch stuff and kind of, you know, the kind of nostalgia that people have for comedy that wasn't, you know, that are like our peers and sort of our colleagues of the same age, like looking. back on this work that they did 20 years ago or whatever, the part of it is I feel like there's not enough new stuff. There's not a lot of new stuff, you know? So it is like I think that people are so like Portlandia is so meaningful to people and so influential on lots of younger people doing comedy that they want to live back in that too because there's there's just like not a lot of stuff to fill the void from it, you know. I also like hearing, you know, If I watched, like, say, the Office Ladies one,

I like stories about what they went through. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. I do too. That they don't have to be as protective of it. Yeah. Because they're not, you know, currently doing it. Right.

And I'll see, you know, give a shit. You get older and like, who cares? Yeah, yeah. Turns out nobody cares anyway. No one's that precious about it. Yeah. But for us also, it was that they started showing Portlandia on Netflix again. Yeah.

So it had like its sort of new life. Then we started doing live shows and we'd see, you know, this crowd of people who were into the show. So it's kind of that part of it. That connection. Yeah, yeah. It's really fun. I don't know. Do either of you live there still?

I do. I lived here for a long time. And then I moved back to Portland. Like once things in LA became more like you could come down here and work and then go back to wherever you wanted to live. Right. Of course, a lot of things don't shoot here anymore. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. But I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. So that's not a foreign place to me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it feels pretty homey. Do you still, like, is it, are you still, do you have to buy yourself any drinks in Portland anymore? Yeah, occasionally. It's a very friendly city.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I feel pretty integrated into it. Right. And did you live there for a time? Yeah, I still have a place there. Oh, you do. So I go up and visit once in a while. Yeah.

And it's funny, if we, you know, we do actually meet for dinner. If tourists are over there and they see us, it's like the Statue of Liberty hanging out with the Empire Our state building. Yeah, yeah. I don't mean it like, we are great. No, I know what you mean. No. I'm just saying for them, like, visually.

But it's also, too, it's Portland. It's not Beverly Hill. You know what I mean? So it is like. It's conspicuous. And people don't think they're going to actually run into us. They often don't assume I would live there. And every once in a while, people just figure I'm visiting or something.

Yeah. But yeah, it is kind of funny when we hang out there together. Yeah. And how has it been? I mean, first of all, are you guys, do you enjoy rewatching things that you've done? Yeah. This, like this, this I do. I don't generally. No, I mean, this show, watching this show, I really like it because at first, I thought, I hope this still holds up in some way. Yeah. And that's the part that I'll, it's actually a feeling of relief. Like, okay, that seems like that joke had a shelf life. Yeah, yeah. or whatever, that sketch.

So that part I like, and there's parts, there's little surprises too. Carrie will make me laugh and, you know, something. Yeah, yeah. Also, moves that the editors did that I forgot about, the music that they chose, that I didn't realize, worked so well. Yeah. They used a lot of library music. Yes, a funny way.

And you remember the broad strokes, which is kind of how I am with shows I like, too, like that as an audience of it. Or life. Yeah, life. Yeah. You remember the big tent pole moment. But the minutia has been fun to get into. And then I just like watching Fred, you know, I'm just like, right, Fred is really funny.

Or, you know, remembering all the weird people, like Greg Lugainis, Olympian Greg Luganus, you know, just like the guests, the breadth of guests that we had on the show. Yeah. Or Johnny Marr. Yeah, exactly. So neat. Duff McCagan. When I saw him, I was like, is that Johnny Ma.

That seems like Johnny Marr. And they're like, yep, that's Johnny Marr. And he's really in the sketch. Yeah. And he's not playing a guitar player. No, he's playing a valet, a bike valet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that really, I find pretty charming and kind of fun to rediscover.

So you guys hadn't really watched it up until this assignment of rewatching. Not really. No. Not really. Do you watch your old stuff? No, I hate it. Yeah. I do not.

I mean, if something comes on, I also, too, there's a tonnage. Like from doing Conan, it is very strange. And I don't know, I don't know if you guys since have this in Portlandia, but I can watch things and have no recollection of them doing, of doing them. And do you guys have that with Portlandia on anything? Like, are the sketches where you're like, I don't remember doing that, you know? Sure. Yeah, there's some scenes, I remember.

I was like, when did we shoot that? Yeah. Yeah. Once it starts, I'm like, oh, yeah, but I never could have recalled it on my own. Right. But it's interesting, like with Conan, you guys, I mean, those clips are on Instagram all the time. Yeah. You know, I will just, and like, that just gets in my feed is, you know, of who I am. And I'm just like, oh, there's, I'm watching old Conan all the time. So I see you a lot. And Conan, and I love it.

I love watching because there were the guests on that show and the interaction between the three of you was great. Some of the best ever. Yeah. So, I mean, I enjoy it as a fan to see that, you know, have second, third life somewhere. It takes me, uh, just garden variety, self-load. just keeps me from enjoying it. I have to watch, like, to have sort of an objective idea, like, if I want to see something, think, like, how did I do in this? It's like the third time around before I just get past like, oh, my God, that fucking voice. And, oh, Jesus, that soft surf pile of head.

There's so many things you've done that are like in, like, my video library and my head. Yeah. that there are so many that I can remember, like, details of it that I wonder if people ever stop you and try to walk you down memory lane. They will say things like, I mean, it'll be like, you know, that's not my rickshaw. You know, I'd just make it. And I'll be like, I don't know what. Okay, so you don't know. Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about, you know.

And they'll be like, that bit. And it's like, you mean from 1995? Like, yeah, I don't remember. You know. But that's what's sort of beautiful is like, I mean, we will forget things and there's parts of our lives that will be forgotten once we're gone. But like, it lives on. Absolutely.

And individuals, even if we're not carrying it with us every day, which we can't because we have to deal with the rest of our lives. But I find that, I mean, it's, it's kind of intense to just, and it's, I feel proud when that happens. Oh, it's, no, it's like, yeah, I can't dwell on it because it's, it's almost. like too overwhelming the fact when that like when the things that you do are meaningful to people or people will say like like there will be uh something i said you know like just a wise crack and they'll be like that's become like my dad says that to us all the time like that's like i can't eat i can't i'm

just like it it's so lovely to hear but i can't dwell on it because it's just too like wow that's crazy yeah for sure but i I do think some of the first things we texted, though, I was just like, why am I wearing bright red lipstick in the scene? Why am? Like, why is my hair like that? Like, it's definitely that kind of self-criticism. Like, oh, God, one of the whole first season, skinny jeans. Why? Like, they never look to get on me. Right, right. Yeah. And it's just like, no one else cares. But that is what I'm watching for the, you know, first 20 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I also, like, you should, your makeup person should have gotten an Emmy 4. or just the gauges. Which you stop doing, remember. The earlo gauges. And every time you do a scene of those, I'm like, that's got to be a nightmare to get that to stay on.

That pre-call. And we stopped. Yeah, yeah. It was just too, there's a lot of upkeep. Yeah. There's weight on it. Absolutely. So.

And it's just sticking there with glue. And if you move wrong or if you take a shirt off wrong, it's half an hour. It's exactly that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we, made up for it by, I think we put in like a little scar to imply that I sewed it up maybe. Yeah.

I think there's some scenes that we're like, that's how we addressed it. Yeah, yeah. But it became impossible. Too much of the focal point of the day. Yeah. Oh, and meetings about it. You know, those like pre-production meetings where we're like, hey, we need to have a call about the gauges. And you're like, let's just shoot the sketch.

Yeah, yeah. And we didn't have the budget in post production. You know, a lot of things like that just get fixed in post. Right. Like, yeah, we didn't, no one was going to do that. No, yeah, yeah. to look bad. Yeah.

But it did look good the first season because they've spent a lot of time on it. And also, too, that, like, gauges are, like, crazy to me. They're just, and, you know, and I, like, have always said, there has got, and I would say it that when people were still head gauges, I'm like, there's going to be so much money in the earlobe regret industry, like just fixing that giant gaping calamari. ring that's hanging from your head that. Definitely, column right. I remember sitting in Seattle at a venue called The Rock Candy and there was like a stage

hand and he had his like elbow up on his knee and he was just like his thumb was out. And I was like, oh, he's got like a little rubber band. I was like, nope, he had stretched his ear out. Oh my God. And I was so grossed out. It's just it's a bold move to do that. And for sure, that's been sewn up and, you know, right. Absolutely.

Cut off, braided, whatever he needed to do. Yeah. But it was pretty gross. living in Portland, do you see them anymore? Like, because there's so many things, and I wonder this about you guys, because you were sort of like so much of the kind of, because Portlandia is the cutting edge of a particular kind of culture. And there are things that happen there that you guys parody and, you know, are there things

that you watch and you're like, oh, yeah, shit, that thing. Like that. That's a good example of it. You know, I feel like I don't see that as much anymore. I don't see it either. Pretty rarely. That was very 90. right? San Francisco, Seattle, Portland.

I think Minneapolis. Like, it's weird. Like, you could just kind of chart. Like, it was just a look that certain segments have seen. Right, right. Those were the cities. It was like Minneapolis. Hawaii.

I saw a lot of them in Hawaii. Yeah. And now piercings are back, but in a very much more mainstream way. Like, I see the septum piercing on like, you know, what would otherwise look like kind of like a popular kid or something. I'm like, oh, yeah. Yeah. And never.

No one that was like a cheerleader in high school had like a gauge. Right. No, no, absolutely. Yeah, like, fixed gear bikes are the other one, too. Like, I don't see anybody riding on those anymore. I see it in Portland a little bit. But, you know, that's, it's hard. You know, Portland is relatively cheaper to live in,

but so you can get away with, like, writing a fixie, but, like, it's so impractical. Yeah, yeah. You can't have, like, a regular job and be riding a fixie. You're not going down to, like, corporate HQ on your, especially if it's, uh, if the way to work is uphill. Yes, you're never getting there. Yeah, if like going home is uphill, that's, you know, you can be sweaty when you get home.

What is it again? It's that there's only one gear. And no brakes, right? No brakes on the real serious ones. So meaning. There's not even like the, you know, like the brake, I don't, coaster break is what they call it, where you go backwards and it stops. Yeah. I don't even think they had coaster brakes because it was such a purest thing that like it's so mechanically simple and that it's just the.

you know, like the horsepower of the human, you know? And then how do you stop? Is it just kind of have to slow yourself? Like skiing or sideways or whatever, yeah. That's hard. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't do it. Yeah, no, it's crazy.

Sell those things, people. Or put, do you just say sell those things? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder how many people who are listening have a fixy bed. Yeah, yeah. Well, and it's kind of like, gear, no, gears are good. Gairs are good. cares are good.

Like we invented it for a reason. There's a reason. Like that dumb invention. Yeah, yeah. Anti-invention. Can't you tell my loves it grows? Well, okay, first of all, how did you guys meet? Let's just get that out of the way.

Do you want to tell the story? Yeah. In the 90s, I was friendly with, I was friends with the drummer of Sleeder Kinney. Okay. So we knew each other and we were in the same circles of people. So we hadn't met each other about. I had stayed at Fred's house in Chicago on tour, like, on tour.

Oh, wow. His roommate was home and he wasn't. So I knew there was this guy, Fred Armisen. And then he suddenly was, you know, I knew he was a drummer in a band Trenchmouth. And then he was like a guy on SNL. And doing your HBO show. You had like a comedy show on HBO.

Yeah. And I was always a Slater Kinney fan. Yeah. Huge Slater Kinney fan. And then we kind of still don't know exactly when it was, but it's either in San Francisco during... Sketch Fest, right? Yeah, an early sketch fest.

I believe that's when it was. And if not, then later that year at S&O, where Slater Kidney were playing, I couldn't go to the show, but I said, come to the after party. Yeah, so I went to the after party, met Fred. He's wearing like a little button with my face on it. And, you know, sometimes that's like weird, but it was just, it felt like, oh, I'm meeting this person I'm supposed to meet. It felt sort of faded. And then. That's like, I'll be wearing a red carnation.

Exactly. I'll be wearing a button with your face on it. Yes. Very romantic. And then he asked later, soon after, if I wanted to collaborate on something, I assumed it would be music, but he was actually making a video for the John Kerry campaign. Oh, wow. Yeah. They wanted comedians to make a video.

And Friends pitch for it was something that I don't know why we thought they would ever use it. And they didn't. It was Saddam Hussein. Do you remember when they caught him? Do you remember when they... I'm John Kerry and I approve of this message. I thought, and I was like, it made sense to me. But do you remember when Saddam Hussein?

Yeah, they caught him in his little spider hole or whatever. And then he sort of cleaned up a little bit for court. Yeah. He had like a little, and he looked like a rock star. He looked like he townsend. To Fred. To me. Like, you know.

Because he was angry. All the photos, he was like. Yeah, I can't picture. I only picture him coming out of there and like looking wild and woolly and like he'd been, you know, basically living in a tomb. Which is true. But then he did clean up. Yeah. That very Paul Weller Pete Downsuit.

And Fred played him with a British accent in this video. And Kerry interviewing me. Like in a kind of cable access show. And I'm getting the first post-bunker interview. And we filmed this and you sent it to the Kerry campaign and they never used it. And he didn't win. And he didn't win. But it wasn't us that took him down.

It was the swift boat scandals. Yeah, exactly. Just for you. Still so mad about that. You know, when we do the live show, we talk about this origin story. And we have to tell people who drunk. You know what I mean? Like it's just times going by.

Oh, doesn't they kill you? Yeah, no that. I mean, and it's real. It really is like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's not like. We're not pretending to have to explain. I think we really do have to explain.

No, we really do. I was somewhere, I was somewhere not too long ago. And there was a grown up human being who was like, who's Elton John? Like Elton fucking John? Jesus Christ. It's wild. The forward passage of time is so fucking cruel and crushing, you know? I messed up once, though.

This was more on me. I was shooting an episode of, what was that? It was this Simon Rich show that he did. They shot it in Toronto. Oh, yeah. Man-Saking Woman. And the story, this is more on me. This is not a great story.

But this is where I knew, this is where I jumped into an older person. I was Jesus. I was a beard, long-up. And I was acting with these, like, younger people. And I go, I look like John Entemusel. And it was like, I could feel the death in the room. Yeah, yeah. That's the bass player of the Who.

I thought like all you had to say was Janet Wistel and they would laugh. And in that moment, that was like a tombstone, a living tombstone. I was like, I was in the wrong. Yeah, I had that moment, not with as significant person as John Nentwistle, although I guess that's relative as well. But I was playing, like, going to a game night. And it was like one of those one, like kind of like taboo or something where you can say anything but the word. And it was white snake was the band.

And so I was just like David Coverdale, Tani Kattain. And they just looked at me like what. Like these are just two foreign languages. Right, right. Especially Tani Kattain. I know. And I don't even know. It sounds so fake.

Exactly. And how I was able to recall that. But that's the stuff that we just was, that was it. There weren't thousands of things to watch. I saw that video hundreds of times. I wasn't even a white snake fan, but I knew who she was. Absolutely. Yeah, that's an easy one.

I think you have stumbled on it because I was sitting here thinking like, yeah, I feel like I knew old stuff, like stuff that was older than me. Like, like TV that I had never seen, but just it was talked. You know, like, I don't know. Like, I knew who Steve Allen was, even though I didn't really know Steve Allen, but it's just it was talked about. And I think you're right that it's because. Nothing was on demand.

Everything, like you had to watch. Yeah. You know, or even like things like, I think like so much of my American cultural historical knowledge of like World War II was Looney Tunes based. Oh, yeah. It was just, you know, Emperor Herohito. That was the first time. It was probably some horrible racist depiction on a loony Tunes. Yeah.

or movie, you know, Peter Lorry, like, probably the first time that he crossed and floated through my trancey was, you know, some old Looney Tunes things. And I just don't think, I mean, my older kids still kind of, like, I'll put on, I get regular TV, uh, and I'll just put it on and flip around, like, see what's on. And they're always like, why, there's like a whole backlog. of things that you know you want to watch. Why don't you watch that? And I'm like, because I have the surprise element of it, the connection with somebody else programming something for them. It's like, the same way I like to listen to the radio. Oh, yeah, me too. It's because there's another human

being on the other end putting a, you know, push and play on something. Yeah, that curation, I still value it too. But yeah, it was so linear. I mean, even in school, everyone had watched the same four sitcoms the night before. Yes. You know, so it was, you know, now, It's very rare to have everyone. Even when we think, like in our community, like, oh, everyone's watching this show or that show, you brought it out a little bit and not very many people are watching. No, no. Or people will talk about a show that's been on for four seasons and I'm like, never heard. Exactly.

You know, like, you know, Birch Island, like, I don't know what. Season four, it's really getting hot. That sounds real. Birch Island. Well, so had you done comedy? Like, had you been doing comedy? I had not been doing comedy. I'd been literally doing music.

As a younger, like in high school and middle school, I liked doing drama. Like, I auditioned for plays. Yeah. They were mostly like serious plays. I mean, you know, serious for children. Sure, sure. But yeah.

But then I just kind of, when punk and indie music came along and I got a guitar, I mean, that was just a wrecking ball to everything else. It just felt like such a lifeline for me. And, you know, went to college and just didn't even do anything that wasn't musical or, and so yeah, I had the worst imposter syndrome just kind of came in the side door with Fred. And, you know, we talk about it a lot because, you know, Fred was on Esed all at the time.

He's working with, like, the top tier, like, female improvisers and easily, Lorne, you know, we, Lorne Michaels, who's the producer of Portlandia, and we had to pitch to him. And we thought Lauren would be like, thanks, but no thanks. But instead, he was like, yeah, I do want to produce this show. And at any time, he could have been like, What about you and Kristen? You know, what about you and Maya?

Yeah. And he just instinctually knew that, like, we had something that wouldn't be that. That would be organic. We were very close friends. And, I mean, that's part of his acumen, Lauren's acumen, to just know what works and what would have been broader or just different. It would have been great. It would have just been different. Yeah, yeah.

So. And what did you see in Carrie that where you're like, hey, this guitar player singer will be good? at interviewing Saddam Hussein. It's really hard to describe. Yeah. Just the instinct? Instinct. It was just like something about her.

And then once we started shooting, then I felt like I was right. Yeah. Even that Saddam Hussein thing right away. That's so lucky that he was right. I imagine if you were just blown. And you ditched me like after season one. And I was like, sorry.

That happens. Sorry. Yeah. Hard business. I'm really sorry. I probably, after season one, would have been like, yeah, that makes sense. Like, I would be none of the wiser. Also, as a writer, you know, she came up with so many of the sketch ideas.

Yeah. That you've never done any, you'd never like, hey, here's a funny idea that I think could be good. You know? I mean, not, I wrote. And like, I would sometimes make little videos like for my, I remember one of my, my bandmate, Corrin, I made a weird video for her birthday once. And she was just like, you just made me a 10 minute. By the way, 10 minutes is way too long for anything now.

But, you know, I made her like a 10-minute weird movie or like I would, I kind of would do like prank calls. I remember calling Janet as like the manager of someone asking her to play with Cheryl Crow. And Janet called me and was like, can you believe it? Cheryl Crow asked me to. And I was like, oh, sorry. That's Cheryl Crow was not asking you to run with her. Like, no, I was fucking with you. Yeah.

Sorry to get your life. I'm about your livelihood. Yeah. You know, but like that's just there was a silliness, I guess, that like I never could really funnel into Slater Kinney. I mean, Slater Kinney has a sense of humor about ourselves, but it's not silly. It's not a joke band and there's, yeah, but so it never really worked with that. But what works with Fred is we are sincere, but we also are very, like, absurd. And that just, so it gave me an outlet for something I think that was kind of, I was ruminating on, but yeah, it wasn't going to be like,

hey, Slater Kinney, let's do like this kind of joke weird song that's like an observation about something. Yeah. But Slaher Kinney's like, album covers, there is some humor to them. It's so hard to describe, but you know when you guys are like, I don't know if you're hailing a cab or you're sort of pretending like you're on in the hot rock. Yeah, but what street is that?

That's like Broadway or something. Something about that. There's something that's like, there is a sense of humor to it that you can't describe as, it's not a joke, but you're also not quite being yourselves. Like you're sort of these characters.

Yeah. I mean, we're not people that. take ourselves over serious i mean i think we're all allergic to that a little bit yeah yeah our sensibility when you can tell with different bands but bands and i mean and it's always been like from when i was young they were like i and people are always my wife is like how can you not like you too and i'm like because they're so self-serious like they're just like i've never sensed anything fun from you too. Whereas there are bands that sort of take that, like, I feel like, and I mean, I'm not a

big fan of Chris Martin. What's the, oh, cold play. Yeah, cold play. But I feel like Chris Martin has a sense of humor about himself. Like, you can, you definitely know. Yeah, I hear it in the music that's like, okay, you know, these guys, this is not, you know, apartheid or whatever, however Bono says it, you know. Uh, sorry Bono.

Cole play asked Fred and I to do like a whole promo thing for that. We did a promo video. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. No, he does. He's a comedy fan. He's a comedy fan.

Yeah. So from that, then it's just do you, are you saying like, hey, let's do more? Or Fred are you saying, or Fred are you saying like, we need to do more sketches? Because it started as internet stuff, right? Yeah. But it was. Only for fun. Yeah.

It was like, let's just make another one. This was, that was a good idea. Then we kept coming up with more ideas. Yeah. And I'd go up to Portland, would shoot them up there. Including the second one we did was the feminist bookstore. Oh, no, bicycle rights, which is kind of like his spike character we've been talking about. And then the feminist bookstore characters.

And by the time we went to pitch a show, which was also our manager's idea, not my manager at the time, but Fred's. And yours. And Tim. Oh, Tim Sarcas. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. He was like, you guys have a whole sensibility here. You have a point of view.

Like, what if you pitch this? And then we did. But yeah, we'd made eight to ten videos. He's done one good thing. That was the one good. Incredible. Thanks to him. Yeah.

Also, we don't have to pay him for this, correct? I don't know. Because we should figure that out. Yeah, because that's on him. Yes. Right, exactly. He can't get it three times. Oh, right.

He would be, yeah, triple dipping. Yeah. Uh-uh. Not on my watch. No way. That's $12 he cannot count on. Uh. Can't you tell my loves it grows?

Was that a daunting prospect to you? I mean, you said imposter syndrome before. I mean, this is when the imposter syndrome started. Making the little videos with Fred and, you know, sending them around to our friends and putting them online. That felt fine. That was like a very small audience. And also when it's something is for fun, it's, yeah, it's the, like, it's the most magical thing and it's usually when the best stuff happens. It's the best.

Yeah. And there's no external critic yet, you know, you're not really thinking about that. And then, yeah, we pitched it with Andrew Singer, who's the head of Broadway video. We made a little, like, kind of intro. So we made something new and then kind of we threaded the sketches together, like the ones we'd already made and brought it to, you know, a couple networks who mostly said we don't do sketch comedy. And including Comedy Central, who then after Portlandia aired did the Schumer show in Key & Peel, which is fine. But at the time, they were like, no, no sketch. Yeah, yeah.

But IFC were starting to do original programming. and they took us on. But we were both, I mean, Fred had never, we were, I mean, I was like out of my depths, but you also had, you never really pitched something like a show like that or. Like a sketch show and any of that stuff. Yeah, so we were both pretty green. We'd never had like a writer's room. I mean, it was all very new for us.

Yeah. And we didn't know how lucky we were. Like, things were just happening, like, you know, just kismet sort of like the way that, like that IFC just happened to be sort of doing new stuff. stuff. I don't think anyone else would have probably taken it. No. And for that long, we did it for eight seasons. Right. Right. It was a really long time. Was it over like 10 years or nine years? Nine years. Yeah. And kind of like what you were saying earlier when you were on Conan and were, you know, part of that show, like that was the show. You were like, but I want to do other stuff.

This isn't it. And I remember Lauren telling us like, this is what happens. Everyone gets the show and they're like, what's next? What can I do? How can I like? pivot from this. And he's like, this is it. He called it your power base. Yeah. He's like, the reason you're getting all this other stuff, all these opportunities is because you have this.

Yeah. And he's right. And he's right. Yeah. And we still, I mean, I think eight seasons of a sketch show is plenty. It's not like we stopped at three seasons to jump ship or something. But, you know, he's just seen it all. And it was nice to have someone with that much wisdom kind of at the helm.

And he was involved. He would fly to Portland every summer. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty great. Yeah. That is pretty great.

Yeah. And I think people don't assume that, but he was pretty hands-on with it. I wouldn't assume that. Yeah. Because. I loved him coming to Portland. He was the executive producer of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. And I never saw that guy.

Really? Never said that. No, that's not. Is that real? Absolutely. Well, all right, I'll do a little dish here. From first episode of the show in our little, I mean, you, both walked through that backstage. You know, like, like where our prop table was and it's like,

it's very narrow and then you get to the performance space. There's not a lot of room. For every night, there would be a bar table with two directors chairs, a little bucket of bottled water on ice and popcorn, freshly popped popcorn for about a year that was set up every single night. until Bobby Bowman, our prop master. And I didn't hear it. Somebody else did. But I heard about it like two seconds later, Bobby's like, fuck this.

I'm not putting this up tonight. He's never fucking coming down here. And so it just stopped because Bobby was like, fuck this, you know. But yeah, he never, you know. But it was, yeah. You have to believe. It would still be there, I think, if he had, you know.

Yeah, that's like cookies for Santa. I know, yeah. Yeah, but how many nights are you going to put out cookies for Santa before, you know. Yeah, it's all about suspending your disbelief. No, but I mean, but also, too, I mean, we were fine. You know, like, and I know Cohn, like, he was involved in the show in terms of, like, not discussions they had with me or anything, but he definitely watched the show, and he definitely, you know, was in touch with Conan.

And, yeah, and the guy, you know, you can't argue with his track record. I mean, for God's sakes, you know. It's insane. Yeah. And everybody that I know that has worked for him has the same sort of, you know, like, yeah, he's easy to parody. And yeah, there's this kind of imperiousness to him that's fun to poke holes in. But A, everybody feels comfortable enough to poke holes in it, which is a right there is a mark for him.

And B, they're all like, yeah, but the guy, think of who he's plucked from obscurity and what he's directed through to, you know, the mainstream and to like, and an important mainstream and influential mainstream. I mean, you're two of you guys right here. And you. All three of us. That's right. That's right. But not those guys. Ah, fuck you.

Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Yeah. Maybe Warren will be listening to this. I don't hear it. Do you, is the show always going to be like the riders' room going to be in Portland and everything's going to be in Portland? And was that a daunting prospect for a TV network?

You know what's weird? We didn't pitch Portland. We assumed that they would just be like, well, yeah, you're going to make it in L.A. Yeah. It's TV. And all TV was. Oh, you mean it's shooting in L.A. too? Oh, wow.

Like, it wasn't called Portlandia. We were just making a sketch show. Right. And it was actually sort of the vision of Evan Shapiro, who was the head of IFC at the time. I was like, I'd not be in Portland. Like, it has a much different look. It will be very singular. And so we did it up there for very, especially the pilot was like $100,000.

It was dirt cheap. Yeah. And running gun. And it was, we did write that in L.A. though. And then we went up to Portland to shoot the pilot. And the thing we looked down on was that Fred was still in S&L for like the first four seasons of the show. So his schedule was very compact. Yeah.

And we were like, if basically, if you don't pick up the show, which is fine, but it probably won't happen. So the turnaround between pilot and series was like three weeks. Oh, wow. And usually they're stewing on that and you're waiting and you wait forever. They had to make a decision. Yeah. And they did.

And so then we quickly shot, I think we made eight episodes the first season. That's right. And then Fred went back to Estenelle, which he did. He was like doing both. Yeah, back and forth. Yeah, it was crazy. Was that ever too much? Did you ever like think?

No, I kind of four seasons like, oh, what am I doing? I kind of liked it because I was so exhausted that it's like romantic and dramatic. I'm doing all this comedy and working. And so I got into it. Like all those flights and everything. It basically worked out though. I mean, it was just summer.

It was like the last couple weeks. The last couple weeks we get, I would get a little annoyed. I'm like, oh, you know, I've got to go do a photo shoot or something. Yeah, yeah. But there's something glamorous in complaining about it. Right, right, right. Oh, they want to take my picture. Yeah, come on.

But I really enjoyed it. And you also, I've always seemed to me to be someone who likes to do stuff all the time. Always. Like, you're always busy, you know. Yeah. Which is just such a, I admire that so much because left to my own devices, I stare at the wall, you know. Yeah, I'm somewhere more in the middle where, like Fred's, even then, I think it was more daunting for me to observe that. Yeah.

I mean, you seem to unfazed by it. But yeah, you do like it. I like keeping busy, even like the motion of getting to the airport. Yeah. I'll be watching something. And Fred, you show up in more shows than anyone else I know. And I'll be like, when did you shoot that? You're like, oh, in the day off between these two other things.

On my way to the airport to go to something else. I had to go to a premiere once and I didn't. But I got this emailed invite. And like, are you interested in video games? Do you want to go to this video game premiere? That's a minute. No. No, I don't know why they think I'm interested.

in that, but it was something that I was in. Oh. Oops. So I was surprised as well. But I was like, oh, I'm in this. Oh, yeah, right. Oh, okay. That sounds like a brag.

It wasn't a brag. It was a real story. No, I know. No, I mean, I've done, well, I've done like animation voiceover where they're like, they want you for more of, you know, like Stephanie's closet. And I'm like, what is that? Like, you did three episodes of it. Oh, right, right.

Okay. The names you come up with. I know. You pitch two really good shows on this. Stephanie's love. Stephanie's God, who's Stephanie? I mean, it just writes itself. It's a magic portal.

Yeah. It's one of those fucking things. I love it. Yeah, you know. When the show starts to really get traction, like what's it like in Portland for you guys? I mean, can you, do you start to get that feeling of like, oh, my God, I can't go to the grocery store? first season, I think there was a lot of affection for the show. Like, we were employing a lot of people. It was very, like, celebratory. Which helps. Yes. And it was celebratory. And we felt a lot of support.

Yeah. You know, we felt like we were shooting under the auspices of many, many people in Portland, including their own, their homes and businesses, because we never had a sound stage. We shot on location all eight seasons. And it was a little surreal, but, you know, there's a lag time, too. So people didn't, there was always, I felt like it was never commensurate to how many people were watching the show that were thinking about it and talking about it in Portland. Because no one had IFC or very few people, six months after it actually premiered, it would go to Netflix. And then people would watch it. So it always felt kind of staggered. It never really felt overwhelming. But then Portland, which is a self-conscious city and, you know, kind of diffident, I think, as a city, like got some people got a little uncomfortable

because of just the attention. Yeah. You know, like New York, Chicago, London, L.A., they see themselves on screen all the time. They know that a show that takes place in New York is not the quintessential show about New York. But, you know, it was called Portlandia, which is, you know, not Portland,

but there was a little bit of just a little tension after the first couple seasons. Yeah. But not to us in person, which is always how it is, right? Right. Someone gripes online or writes an op-ed piece, you know, a think piece in the local paper, but walking around town, people just were really enthusiastic. Isn't how you felt it?

Yeah, same. And then even more so when the show was done, then it's sort of that part of it. But outside Portland, we never had. People were not conflicted about it, of course, you know. And actually didn't even think it was necessarily just about Portland. They're like, oh, it's about these kind of people or it's about these kind of relationships or the way that people live now and how absurd that is. But yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I understood. It wasn't like... It's so funny that Portland saw this show about itself and becomes the guy looking in the bar window and going, this place is over. It's exactly that.

Yeah, yeah. And it's like, it's so funny, like, well, Portland, if you're afraid of being parodied, don't parody yourself by being upset with the fact that, like, well, now we're not the secret niche thing that no one knows about, you know? And then Quebec goes away anyway. Yeah, yeah.

It moves on to other cities and, you know, they become more hip in those. Right, right. And also, yeah, I mean, every hip city, you know, Austin becomes a traffic nightmare because it's so hip and everyone loves it. And then Elon Musk goes there and it's, you know, it's not what it's supposed to be anymore. It's not the weirdo capital, you know. I saw this documentary. I can't remember. It was a music one that was.

It took place in Seattle, and they were interviewing this guy. This is in the 90s? Wait, is this hype? I can't remember what it was. I might have been. Because this guy was complaining about how all the record companies were coming to Seattle, and it seemed so dated. I'm like, that was his big complaint.

They all come here and they sign all these bands. It's the worst thing ever. My friends are making money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I remember that feeling in the 90s, too. Don't come to our city, record companies. Yeah. There's so much there's so much of that is that is like

Useful you know and like the you guys did the sketch Of the band that like that you're you know that you reform Oh yeah riot spray yeah yeah riot spray yeah like and it is like I love in the sketch it like everybody like there's still one guy That's stuck in oh yeah in that's like stuck in the young like fuck all that sellout shit. And then the drummer's like, Bruno Mars is excellent. Yeah.

Because it is like I do. I totally see it from the drummer's point of view. Like no, no, Bruno Mars is pretty fucking amazing, you know, like, absolutely.

I'm not listening to them around the clock, but like, come on, you know. Or you'll see some pop band and you're like, oh, that choreography is. Yeah.

That's pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's because it's like, oh, that's one also too, I think when you get older,

you just are more magnanimous in terms of like there's something out there for everybody. Totally. Like it doesn't all have to be for me, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. But when you're young and you're defining yourself by something. Absolutely. You know, and if there was so much, especially in Gen X of just like rejection, contrarianism being yeah, just anti this, anti that. And, you know, commercialism, materialism was just anathema, especially to like punk and these like small progressive communities that I think some people had a really difficult time. untethering themselves to that ideology because it was, you know, it's like someone, you're,

you sort of have to fess up. It's a little humbling to suddenly be like, I know I've spent the last, you know, decade criticizing everyone for wearing Nikes and smoking cigarettes, but now I own a ball, though. You know, like, it's hard to sort of come off that pedestal a little bit. But most of us just acquiesce in some ways and you're like, is this the hill I want to die on or is there more important things to focus on? You know, I don't, I still want to have like a critical, you know, be a critical thinker, but I just music, you know, caring with bands people listen to, you know, that's a lot of energy. Yeah.

And also, too, especially if you're a creative person, an artist, the whole point about, like, you make art so that other people can hear it, see it, enjoy it. And then like, so then the record label comes and more people get to hear it. Like, that's how it arrived on, in our, you know, record collections. Yeah, yeah. through big companies. So what's the difference? Yeah.

Like, it's like, yeah, no, you get to, you get to do more of what you do. You know, yeah, it gets, you know, you have to meet a lot of creepy people, you know, and go to meetings with people you'd rather not meet with. And, you know, and there's always people, business people involved when it becomes business. It's like, yeah. Yeah. You know. I know some people who are still stuck, though.

Oh, for sure. Yeah. And it's really fascinating to watch. Yeah. And to witness that. Yeah. At our age? Yeah.

attention is really, it's hard. It's tricky. But yeah, you're like, before the internet, what, you don't want a kid in Kansas to hear your record? Like, you only want kids in your own town to hear it. Yeah, yeah. You know, those are the people who need it. Right. You know? Yeah. Did you guys have the, ever have people in Portland do like a, are you going to write a sketch about me kind of thing? All the time. All the time. Yeah. Yeah. Because, yeah, I would imagine because it's just, you guys were sort of, I mean, you name the show after the town, and then it's of the town so much that, yeah, I would think. There are plenty of, or like businesses that were like, you're going to write a sketch about us.

Yeah. Because there are a lot, some of the shops are very specific. Yes. And what, you know, there's this like, I don't know if it's still there, but this synthesizer store. Oh, yes. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. It was around back then.

I think it's still around. Maybe. Voltage. There was also Paxton Gate, remember that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, taxidermy. Those are in every city. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that was the thing. I mean, we call it Portlandia because it was like a stand-in for pockets that are definitely exist everywhere. Yeah, yeah. Not just in the U.S. I mean, now you go to like Europe or somewhere and you're like, oh, here I am in that coffee shop or in that store that sells candles, ceramics, linen. And taxidermy to animals. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, there's one in Pasadena that's.

Yeah. Got amazing. I've been to that one. Yeah. Goldbug. That's it. Yeah. Yeah.

It's actually a really awesome store. It's really good and it's kind of bigger. It's like a little more space. It doesn't feel claustrophobic. Yeah. No, it's a really cool store. And now I appreciate those stores even more because you can actually walk inside them. Like, I don't have to look for that.

Like, I want to buy things in person. Yeah. You know, everything just comes around to the things that first make you uncomfortable and you're like, please don't leave. Yeah. I want to go there. I don't want to buy this on Amazon. Like, I need you to stay here.

I do need a tax. me to albino peacock. I need it. Well, what made the show wind down? Like, was it just kind of, it just felt like y'all were ready to do something else? It was the strangest

agreement that it felt good to be like, I think eight years feels good, right? I think when you started saying it in interviews maybe in our sixth year. Yeah. We'd sort of say, I think we'll do another couple more years or something. And again, like now I would think, okay, maybe we should have done 10 or 12.

Because just like you were saying, you're like, that might have been the best time of my life. I don't know. Like, you know, when I'm 80 looking back, those might be some of my best years. I mean, I already know that they were some of my best years. But there's also maybe because there was only eight of them, you know, it felt it felt okay to end it. Also, you don't want diminishing returns or to start being iterative of yourself. We were like, oh, we've done that. You know, that happens in music too, where it just gets really hard to make an album where you're not like, oh, there we are doing that thing.

That's Slater Kinney thing. And like you don't want to be, you watch shows that get really self-referential, you know, or they're like sort of playing the hits, even narrative shows where you're like, oh, they're sort of doing that thing. Yeah. And I find that a little bit yuck when I'm watching it. And I'm just like, oh, they're getting really self-conscious. Like they sort of know their thing. And you can do that a little bit. But if you turn that up too much.

I think it turns people off. Yeah. So eight seasons felt good. But it wasn't, there was nothing that was like, oh, we're tired of hanging out or the network doesn't want to, like they would have just been happy to keep going. Yeah. Sure. But it's also good, I mean, to stop when you're still having fun.

Exactly. Because it would be terrible to have the show stop being fun. I think that would be the, that's the word. Yeah. Be so antithetical. Yeah, you're right. I mean, I think I don't regret stopping. And, you know, all those British shows that are like, we did one season.

Yeah. I guess that's something to be said for that. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I always think about that especially because there are, you know, there are, there are comedies that I really enjoyed that went on a little too long. You know, there's dramas that went on a little too long. And it's like they should have, you know, figure it out a way. And you even see it now, like there's some really great streaming shows that are kind of

high concept that they get to the end. And it's like, it's a success. And then it's like, oh, the point at which the world. should have ended. Now they got to be like, well, you know what, the zombies aren't going to eat us after all. Or whatever, you know. That hard pivot. It's really hard to stomach. You're like, this definitely wasn't the pitch. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Were you guys were, I mean, because I've read so much about like you guys's relationship and how, you know, it's the foundation of all of this and how kind of stable it is. And which is unique, I mean, to have such an ongoing friendship

between a man and a woman. It's like it's just, like it doesn't exist in our culture a lot. And when the show came to an end, were you worried that that would somehow you guys would drift apart? Hmm, worried. I don't know about worry. You were looking for an out? No, no, I mean, hopeful.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For some reason, my feeling and my answer is that like, I don't think I was worried about that. Yeah. I've kind of felt like, no, we'll always be okay. Yeah, I think I felt the same. Again, there's kind of this seamlessness that predates Portlandia and then happen afterwards. But I think we have to be more intentional, which is like the live show or the podcast.

And, you know, you do realize that with anything where you're like, oh, we used to work together. We used to play this, do this activity together. Now we don't. And that gets harder, you know, just that intention because my default, I'm such an introvert and a homebody. So I'm always glad wouldn't I get to hang out with Fred. But I didn't think like we'll drift apart. Yeah.

Yeah. What do you think is the secret to you guys' relationship? Is it just dovetailing personalities in a way? I don't. It's something that's a bit bigger than life. You know, it's just like it's spiritual. It's something that I knew early on. Yeah.

And yeah, it's just, it's bigger than anything that I can explain. Yeah. It sounds corny to use this term, but it is a bit of a soulmate vibe. Yeah. You know, and often people look for that or assume that they're going to find that with their romantic partner. And it's not, you know, there's just a version of this that feels like it has that depth, I guess. Without it having really to question it or luckily we don't have to explain it to our significant others, like they just get it. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's easy. Yeah. I think we don't even have to think about it. Yeah. We were driving to Madison or something. And I don't like listening to music with people, really. I just like it's like it's a solitary thing.

I get it, yeah. But with Kerry, except with Carrie, it's a different story. And that's the ease that I mean. Yeah. It's almost like, you know, that this little rule that I have goes out the window. Yeah. No, that's nice. And you as well.

Wait, do you have, do you have a friendship like that? Like, not a marriage or a partner like that, but like, do you? Not as ongoing and as well cultivated and tended as you guys do. But yeah, I definitely had, you know, had friends that I was very, my friend Tommy Blatchett, who was a writer on Conan. But, like, we, you know, well, I'll, you know, I'll text him weird. like old like I just this fucking weird like metal band of 50 year old men uh singing some song that was like called righteous warrior or something not just send that to him you know and I mean and that's sort of the maintaining of our relationship um but I mean I have like what you're what you're talking about uh it's it sounds like my marriage yeah which is great yeah I mean that that because that was my wife wife, the thing that just made me, you know, because I was, I had, I was divorced and I kind of had gotten into my head, you know, like, I think I'll be okay if I, you know, I could handle being

alone, which I don't think in my life I'd ever thought before. And I don't know whether I was just kidding myself. But it just was so easy. It was just so easy. I mean, from the get go with her, Like there was no kind of having to come up with conversation. And I just had this feeling of like, oh, I could just sit next to this person and, you know, run the clock out, basically. And that sounds like what you guys have, too. How long have you been together? We've been married three years and together almost five, you know. So, yeah.

Do you think it's the lack of the romantic aspect can be a strength in your relationship, you know? I don't know. I don't know because there is something, obviously not, not obviously, but it's not sexual, but there is something kind of romantic about it. Yeah. And that's tricky because that's hard to explain. There is something kind of ineffable about that. But I think because of where we place it, like in our importance, it has something romantic.

Also, there's like big moments in it that emulate like a romantic relationship where we get to do these, you know, have these experiences together that feel really exhilarating or feel very emotional. Yeah. Unlike a celebration of the two of you. Yeah. And so that's sort of rare in like just an average friendship. You know, we've done things with each other, gone to places, experienced things that, you know, I wouldn't with just like some of my other really close friends. Yeah.

And that, you know, that's like, it's like a honeymoon sort of. Like we've gone on like multiple honeymoons together. Yeah. I don't know how to explain it. At the end of some of this, I think end of the first or second season, that's when we sort of feel like the momentum of the show in this way that coincided with the relationship. Yeah.

And just like getting to travel with something. You know, there's like a lot of my friends I've never like sat beside on a plane or on a car ride or like dressed up and gone somewhere together. Yeah. You know, like it's just, it's fun in that way. It's really sweet. It's really, I mean, it's like it's part of, it's part of what makes Portlandia special. And it's there in every episode and in every sketch is the love between you two guys. So good job, guys.

Well, thanks for saying that. Thanks for saying it. New episodes of Podlandia AEORewatch are available on Thursdays. And you guys are just watching the show and talking about it. And you have guests on too, right? And yes. Also, we'd like to point out that you were a guest on Portlandia. Yes.

Yes, I was. And we'd love to have you on the podcast. I would love to be there. I would be great. I think it's fourth or fifth season. Yeah. Or something. Yeah.

Like I said, Steve Buscemi directed, which was just, like, that was a surprise. I don't think I knew he was going to be directing and, you know. That's such a lot. There was so much lack of communication. People would show up and be like, we had no idea what was happening. And that, you would have liked to know. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no.

I was, it was like a pleasant surprise. Yeah. The other thing I remember is that we were. shooting somewhere by a river and somebody that was like an architecture firm. That's right. Like something kind of industrial. Yeah. And somebody said that they had just seen orcas in the river.

And I was like so like, I want to, you know, I probably was completely distracted the entire time we were shooting. We do that with all the actors. Someone comes in to say something very. Right. We're in a really different place. There's a mountain lion loose action. What was the Stephanie's closet?

When are we going to pitch that show? All right. Yeah, we'll talk about it. What was the other one? Something Banks? It wasn't Outer Banks. Birch something. Yeah.

Birch Mountain. Birch Island. There you go. Birch Island. Yeah. But the fact that Stephanie's closet is animated. Also makes it look. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie's closet. Boo. All right. Well, thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thanks for having to see you.

It's great to see you guys, too. And everybody should check out the podcast. All right, I'll be back next week with more of this, so come on back. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, with assistance from Maddie Ogden.

Research by Alyssa Graal. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to the three questions. with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my loves are growing? Can't you feel it ain't it showing? Oh, you must be a knowing. This has been a Team Coco production.