Aimee Mann
Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein
Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein rewatch the Portlandia episode 'Amy' featuring musician Aimee Mann, reflecting on the sketch's creation,
Key takeaways
- The 'Amy' episode is unique as it's named after a real person, highlighting Aimee Mann's role in shaping the sketch's authenticity.
Main topics
- Portlandia's creative process
- Musical career precarity
Notable quotes
You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you.
Conclusion
The episode underscores how Portlandia's humor is rooted in real-life ex
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If Speaker 5 (0:36) your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 7 (1:06) On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 4 (1:42) I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy. Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out. Speaker 6 (1:58) You're not hired just to fill time and space. You're hired to fill the space with you. Listen Speaker 4 (2:04) to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're Speaker 2 (2:44) listening Speaker 3 (2:44) to Podlandia. Hi, I'm Fred. And I'm Keri. This is AO Speaker 6 (2:49) Rewatch. AO Speaker 3 (2:50) Rewatch. This Speaker 6 (2:52) is a Portlandia Rewatch podcast. Speaker 3 (2:55) And today we have a very special guest, Amy Mann. Speaker 2 (3:00) I'm Amy Mann. Speaker 3 (3:01) Thanks for being on the show. Speaker 2 (3:04) Thanks for having Speaker 3 (3:05) me. I had a moment, even though I know how to pronounce both your first and last name, that right before I just thought, what if I've been saying this wrong? Even though two names that are, you know, pretty straightforward. Yeah, there's not a lot of variation. There's not, but I just, I think it's just that anxiety, that presentation anxiety, where you get that feeling like, have I ever said these? things together before. Speaker 2 (3:28) I 100 % relate. I have this, I have this fear all the time when introducing people that I'm going to forget their name, like including, you know, my own husband, like that I will, that I'll just blank on somebody's name. Yeah. Speaker 3 (3:41) I feel like that's happened to me with, yeah, with people I know we're at like a social event or something. I go and then in the moment and I turn towards them and I've, I've known them for years and I've known their name and it's just gone. Wipe clean. Yeah. It's a great feeling. Speaker 2 (3:56) It's really good. Speaker 8 (3:57) And they like it too. Yes. They feel seen. I wonder Speaker 6 (4:01) if they notice. Speaker 8 (4:02) Probably. That little hesitation. Speaker 6 (4:04) Damn it. Speaker 2 (4:05) Yeah. Because Speaker 6 (4:06) I just try to like roll through it. Yeah. Okay. Thinking like no one will notice. Speaker 2 (4:10) Yeah. Yeah. I'm hoping people will just think I'm a little rude and not introducing everyone. Speaker 6 (4:17) Yes. And Speaker 2 (4:19) then hope that they jump in with their own name, which did just happen and they. rescued me by saying hi. Do you Speaker 6 (4:29) think they were aware that? Speaker 2 (4:30) I don't know. Probably. I think so. Speaker 6 (4:32) My hope is that people think I'm doing a bit as it's happening. Speaker 2 (4:35) Oh, so you have that advantage. And Speaker 6 (4:37) I Speaker 2 (4:37) could Speaker 6 (4:37) just sort of, you know, but who knows? People might see right through it. Speaker 3 (4:41) Yeah. Speaker 6 (4:42) So you were in this episode of Portlandia. Speaker 3 (4:46) Yes. The Speaker 6 (4:47) episode is called Amy. It's from our first season. Speaker 6 (4:51) I just want to say you're so funny in it. Thank Speaker 2 (4:55) you. I don't totally believe you, but I appreciate you saying that. I second what Fred's saying. So now you don't believe Speaker 3 (5:02) two people, but you truly are funny. And by the way, this might be the only episode named after someone in one of the sketches. Speaker 2 (5:13) It's a distinction. I didn't realize it was just my name. And I feel like, like, why not the cleaner or the, you know, something like that. Yeah. Although Speaker 3 (5:22) we do say your name a lot in the sketch. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 2 (5:24) Yeah. Speaker 8 (5:25) In Speaker 2 (5:25) that sort of irritating, like. Yes. Yeah. Speaker 6 (5:28) It was based on, it was written based on an experience that Carrie had. Speaker 2 (5:34) Yeah. I remember you telling me about it. Yeah. As when we were there, like that this is a thing that really happened. Yeah. Speaker 6 (5:39) I feel, I can't remember. how, like, how we got you. Did we just text each other and you just came up and did it? Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:48) because Speaker 6 (5:48) we Speaker 2 (5:48) knew each other. Yeah. Speaker 6 (5:49) I think you just texted and asked. So it was a quick sort of like, do you want Speaker 8 (5:51) to Speaker 6 (5:51) come up next week or something? Yeah. Speaker 3 (5:53) Yeah. And one thing we've discussed since, but even at the time, and we all can relate to this as people who have worked and still work as musicians, is like, it's a precarious career and industry. So in order, it was very hard to find someone who... was actually doing well enough that they wouldn't, they maybe wouldn't really be doing a job, like being a cleaner at the time. They wouldn't also be, you know, like, well, they also, you know, walk dogs or they're also doing, you know, because that is the life of being a musician. So it's like, we didn't want to sort of expose someone to their own like vulnerabilities or insecurities. It was like, well, who's doing well enough for like, they're in on the joke and it, but also in on the comment. about, you know, the state of art in our country. But we had, it was like, I remember us thinking like, who fits the bill? I Speaker 2 (6:50) really want to know what your short list was now. Like who else? You know, and also like who might not get offended at the idea of playing? Speaker 6 (7:00) Yeah. You Speaker 2 (7:01) know, somebody who's cleaning houses. Speaker 6 (7:03) We had a couple of, in later seasons, musician things that we, Speaker 6 (7:11) offered that the musicians were a little hesitant and some said no because it seemed like we were making fun of them. Speaker 3 (7:18) Which sketches? I don't even know the musicians. It's a Speaker 6 (7:20) tricky one. There was the Flaming Lips one. The joke being that sometimes bands become two bands and it's so-and-so and his backing band. They're fighting with each other. And there were some bands we reached out to. Speaker 2 (7:33) It cuts a little too close to the bone. So Speaker 6 (7:36) Flaming Lips were together in a way that they... they could pretend to be broken up. Speaker 3 (7:42) Yeah. This is, I think, the first time we felt that, where we didn't want people to think that we were making fun of house cleaners or musicians. Just sort of speak, first of all, we're making fun of the Fred and Carrie characters, but we are also just the precarity of trying to make money from music could easily put you in that situation. Many of my musician friends. have second jobs. So it's, it's pretty relatable. Speaker 6 (8:13) I can't remember if we, I mean, it's obvious that we're improvising, but was any of it scripted? The situations that we were, you're cleaning. I Speaker 2 (8:23) think it was all, I think it was almost all improv, but I, like, I remember going in, I was like, tell me exactly what to do. If I, like, I'm happy if you give me an exact line reading. I don't, you know, I just want it to be funny. That is the goal. So I don't care how I get there. And I think that, you know, it was just set up a situation, you know, like you're going to be cleaning here. And then I come in and I have like the little, I should have rewatched it, like the sweater that shrunk. And, you know, but I think we did mostly improvise, but I probably asked you guys for. Speaker 2 (9:06) should we do it again and should I say it differently or how, you know, because I totally trusted, I mean, this is also the only reason I did it, is that I totally trusted your comedic instincts and was like, they will not let me not be funny because. that's the whole point is to make it funny like it would reflect badly on you if I was just like stiff and weird and not funny yeah Speaker 6 (9:33) and also I feel like you're naturally funny anyway it's like we've you know we've hung out enough that thank Speaker 2 (9:42) you Speaker 6 (9:42) I Speaker 2 (9:43) don't necessarily I I think that if if and when I ever am funny it is because I've hung out with comedians for like two decades and just like you just pick up you pick up stuff that you and I know you know what I'm talking about like you pick up little things that especially with civilians make you look hilarious but like it's you know just like a tone of voice or a specific emphasis on a certain thing and uh It is like enough to get by, which is good. You know, like that's, I'm, I'm really happy being comedy adjacent and occasionally being thought of as funny. Cause I do really admire, you know, I mean, I've seen, you know, most more Fred, but like, I've seen you backstage. Speaker 2 (10:32) just riffing with like Paul F. Tompkins and, you know, just like watching you pick up a thing that's in the ether and grabbing onto it and noticing specific details. It's like a real... You know, and it's sort of a use of language. Like, it really does remind me a lot of songwriting, but it's like on the spot, and I can't do that, and I really admire it. So, yeah, you know, like to be near it and just try to pick it up by osmosis. Speaker 6 (11:07) Well, it really worked. There was one part that's very convincing where we accuse you of stealing. Right. And it's a way that you were defending yourself. That actually sounded like the real you. Because it was believable. It was so clear that you didn't steal, I don't know what it was, jewelry or something? And you're like, I didn't steal anything. Speaker 3 (11:31) Had you done any like sketch or acting before this? Like what was your? I think Speaker 2 (11:39) I did a little bit. I think acting is really hard. I find it really hard to not be self-conscious when there are lines. I'm like the stiffest reader of lines. I just can't do it. So the only thing I can do is like, how would I say this? Like, how would I phrase this? Speaker 2 (12:03) and improvise a little bit, but I just think it's really hard. Like I, I, I don't really like it because it's, I don't think, you know, it's, I don't think I'm good at it. Like I can't, I, I just can't be like unselfconscious enough. It's really hard to just disappear into a character or a Speaker 8 (12:24) scene. You are such a natural. And I Speaker 3 (12:27) do think that for some people, improv is really difficult. We had some actors that came on the show who didn't have an improv background, and they would see the scripts in advance. Speaker 8 (12:38) And Speaker 3 (12:38) especially in the first three or four seasons, we didn't adhere to the scripts at all. So they would take the job based on the material, and then they would show up to set. Jonathan, our director would just be like, great, let's throw it away. And they were like, wow, you just pulled the rug out from underneath me. And we were always, which is, you know, slightly unfair. We probably should have given them a little bit of a heads up and then everyone, everyone was fine. But I felt like for me also coming from, you know, not a trained actor necessarily and having, I have that same difficult sometimes, difficulty sometimes when I have lines, like I really liked. the freedom of improv that like I could sort of back my way into the character and the lines felt more natural because essentially I just had the parameters of what I needed the objective in the scene but how I got there yeah verbally was kind of up to me and you're sort of naturally playing off what someone else is saying without being confined to like a certain. That really helps. Yeah. So. Yeah. To have Speaker 2 (13:35) other people you're, you're dealing with really helps. And also just to like, I'm playing myself with who, which I more or less know what I would say in a certain situation. So, but like any kind of idea of doing any sort of character. No. It's out, it's out of, it's out of bounds. Speaker 6 (13:52) One of