Parks and Recollection - Fred Armisen: Sister City (S2E5)

Episode Date: November 23, 2021

Another good friend has travelled to Pawnee! Today Fred Armisen joins Rob Lowe and Alan Yang to reminisce on the fifth episode of season two. On "Sister City" Leslie hosts the P&R Department of Boraqua, Venezuela, Pawnee's sister city—while Tom becomes an errand boy and April plays hard to get.  In today's episode find out what it's like to act on a show that isn't SNL, how long Fred was allowed to improvise in each scene, and the influence "Martin" had on Fred. All of this and a next level tip on doing impressions!Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]   The Pawnee Parks Department welcome their sister city Parks Department from Boraqua, Venezuelaheaded by Raul Alejandro Bastilla Pedro de Veloso de Morana, the Vice-Director Ejecutivo del Diputado del Departamento de Parques, L.G.V.(played by Fred Armisen).Expecting the Venezuelan government officials to be poor/simple people, the Pawnee Parks Dept. is shocked to find their visitors wealthy, condescending, and offensive. The officials mistake Tom for a servant (which Tom plays along with for their large cash tips), assume Leslie’s proposed party includes sex with prostitutes, and disparage Pawnee at every turn.  The Venezuelan intern, Jhonny, falls hard for April, but she shows zero enthusiasm. While the rest of the delegates lust after Donna.  Meanwhile, the Venezuelans balk at the $35,000 Leslie is trying to raise to fill in the pit, and rub it in that Venezuela is a very wealthy oil-rich country. To try to earn back respect, Leslie takes the delegates to Pawnee’s nicest park (which Raul mistakes for the pit) and shows them democracy in action at a Townhall meeting (which devolves into all the citizens shouting at Leslie)  When Raul tells Leslie that she is weak and her city is disgusting, Leslie explodes in anger, insulting their uniforms and Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelans storm out.  Leslie apologizes and Raul offers Leslie a check for $35,000 for the pit project.  Leslie reluctantly accepts, but just before the photo op, Raul convinces Leslie to say “Viva Venezuela” and “Viva Chavez” on camera, which with the help of April, Leslie realizes is actually propaganda for Raul’s “Committee to Humiliate and Shame America”. Furious, Leslie rips up the check,prompting Raul to declare Pawnee no longer a Sister City and storm out.  Leslie vows to raise the money needed without them and inspired by Leslie, Tom secretly puts all of his Venezuelan tip money into the pit/park goal jar.  The episode ends with Leslie and Tom receiving an online video from April, telling them she and Donna are vacationing with Jhonny in his Venezuelan palace. 

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pets we fell into And we're putting it on in a podcast, then we'll send it up into the sky We're calling it Parks and Recollection Come on little podcast, spread your wings and fly Welcome to Parks and Recollection. I'm Rob Lowe with the great co-host, Mr. Alan Yang. Hello, hello, hello. I mean guys and gals. We have Fred Armisen on the show. I'm thrilled to have Fred on the show. And so we are really excited to have one of the funniest

people in the world as a guest on this episode. The guy is a genius. He's never, ever anything other than a genius. And one of the nicest guys, which you will find out. You know him from SNL, Portlandia, a million other comedy shows. My friend, Fred Armisen. I'm just taking a minute to fanboy. I love giving it up to my,

to my people I love. I adore you. You're one of my favorites. You're, you're in the hall of fame for me. Truly. Rob, that's very kind of you. Thank you very, very much. Or you're one of my favorites. You're in the hall of fame for me, truly. Rob, that's very kind of you. Thank you very, very much.

The feeling is mutual. We share many friends or people you've worked with who are old friends of mine. And boy, do people have nice things to say about you. Oh, really? That makes me so happy. I remember just when you first, when you were first on the show i just remember amy just being like he's the best just so you know well there i cannot think of anything other than uh this might be one of my favorite what is one of my favorite episodes i felt like you'd like this one rob and meanwhile Meanwhile, me and Fred are just enemies. We're just old enemies.

You hate each other, right? Well, our families hated each other. It goes back before us. Generations. There was just so much hatred. Fred and I did a show together called Forever with my Rudolph and Matt Hubbard's, our friends, and we did

it over at Amazon and we had a great time. It was really fun. That was such a blast. I loved doing it. Very proud of that project. And also, I feel like I've known you, Alan, for like a while because of, you know... Because of this episode! Because of this episode!

I was 20 years old! I was like a kid! I have. And also, you know, you guys gave me this gift of this gigantic Venezuelan fist. It's like a sort of... Yes! It's a symbol... I have a photo of you with it. Yeah, and so everyone Also, you know, you guys gave me this gift of this gigantic Venezuelan fist. It's like a sort of, it's a symbol. I have a photo of you with it.

Yeah. And so everyone signed it and Alan signed it. So I looked at the year, 2009. Oh my God. What? 12 years ago. 12 years ago. And so like I still carry this thing, you know, I sort of move it with me wherever I move. know and to me it feels like a new addition to like my house or whatever it's so old it's so it's so

funny man rob should we tell people about the episode and then we can talk to fred and and fred get ready for this this is really a special moment in every podcast okay when alan gives the synopsis information about the episode and then a summary of it. So Fred, get ready to be blown away. Because it was many, many years ago. We're going to remind you of your genius. Yeah, that's right. This episode's called Sister City.

Episode 5 of Season 2 aired October 15, 2009, written by me, Alan Yang, directed by Michael Schur, co-creator of the show. I believe this was the first episode Mike directed. So he was very green. I was very green. It was kind of fun. So good.

Quick synopsis. Here we go. The Pawnee Parks Department invites their sister city parks department from Boracua, Venezuela, headed by Raul Alejandro Bastio Pedro de Veloso de Morana,

played by Fred Armisen, who's here with us. Expecting the Venezuelan government officials to be modest, simple people, the parks department is shocked to find their visitors wealthy,

condescending, and offensive. The officials mistake Tom for a servant, which Tom plays along with for their large cash tips, assume Leslie's proposed party involves sex workers, and disparage Pawnee at every turn. The Venezuelan intern, Johnny, falls hard for April, but she sows zero enthusiasm, while the rest of the delegates admire Donna.

Meanwhile, the Venezuelans balk at the $35,000 Leslie's trying to raise to fill in the pit and rub it in that Venezuela is a very wealthy, oil-rich country. In an attempt to earn back respect, Leslie takes the delegates to Pawnee's nicest park and shows their democracy in action at a town hall meeting, which devolves into all the citizens shouting at Leslie. When Raul tells Leslie that their city is disgusting, she explodes in anger and the Venezuelans storm out. Leslie apologizes and Raul offers Leslie a check for $35,000 for the pit. Leslie reluctantly accepts, but just before the photo

op, Raul convinces Leslie to say Viva Venezuela and Viva Chavez on camera, which she realizes is actually propaganda for Raul's committee to humiliate and shame America. Furious, Leslie rips up the check. Leslie vows to raise the money needed and tom secretly puts all of his venezuelan tip money into the pit park gold jar the episode ends with

leslie and tom receiving an online video from april telling them she and donna are vacationing with johnny in his venezuelan palace easily one of the weirdest episodes we ever did very weird episode it's one of the best yeah by far bar none absolutely one of the best and you my fine-feathered friend of all of the guest stars that have come through so far that we've been watching as they say in sports parlance you got a lot of touches that they fed you the ball there's a tour de force there's a tour de force for. Yeah. I remember maybe a few months before it or like a little while before it, I was texting with Mike Shore. And it was just about, you know, I was a fan of the show from the start.

And I was just texting him about the idea of sister cities. What is it? The logic behind it, it's sort of, I don't understand how they pick each other. They don't seem to make, it doesn't seem logical. It's,

there's something, sometimes it's like three sister cities. It'll be like Munich, Toronto, and Mexico City or something. I don't know.

So we were just texting about it and that sort of that was the sort of start of you know the idea that maybe i could you know be someone from venezuela or something how did you come up with venezuela my mom is venezuelan oh yeah and it was something you also thought of your uncle and somewhat right i remember talking to you about it and it was like a little bit of your uncle a little bit of your your family yeah my my tío manuel um and and i remember that's when chavez was in power too so that was like a whole like all you know the way that my family was communicating was like this is crazy um and he was that extreme it was a lot of like uh just a lot

of new laws new rules and uh a lot of pride a lot of venezuelan pride by the way i didn't mean it like it was i wasn't saying it was my idea i'm just saying that we were just marveling about the idea of sister cities that's where it ended i i fully believe that that was an inspiration because i remember when this came into the writer's room and it was like just kind of this idea and i think it was always you by the way it was never like so i actually do think that's probably true because we were always talking about you doing it and you talking about your family talking about chavez makes me think of that talking head you do where you talk about why people go to jail right and i remember shooting that because we let you improv in that and you know there's a lot of scripted lines in there

but also a lot where we just let you talk for like 10 minutes uninterrupted. And then we chopped it up. But I just, I'll never forget you undercooked fish, believe it or not, jail. Like you go to jail. You overcooked chicken, you go to jail. Like undercooked, overcooked. Like that's, I still remember like being there for that. It was amazing.

There's a lot of extra material. So there's one clip where Raul, Fred's character, is talking about why Leslie doesn't have a giant oil painting of herself in her office. And Raul keeps talking about his oil painting. And I have a photo with Fred and this giant oil painting made of himself. So that is very funny. But it made me laugh because ultimately, the next season, we did do an episode where there is a giant oil painting of Leslie. Yeah, I remember the way also that we wrapped or the way that we ended was you guys just saying, are you done?

That's nice for an actor right that's the best have you had enough yeah that's it that seems fine to me uh but yeah it was it was it was so fun having you and you can tell like this this part of the season and this part of the era of this show was us exploring so you know when i think about this episode i think a lot about So, you know, when I think about this episode, I think a lot about nostalgia because, you know, this was the second episode of the show I ever wrote. The first episode was called Boys Club. It was originally called Ethics Violation. And this was the first episode of season two that I wrote. And, you know, again, the show was kind of still fighting its footing. that I wrote. And, you know, again, the show was kind of still finding its footing. And so Greg Daniels was in the room a lot. It was funny early on. I still remember Greg, you know, always

pitching things that were kind of really small and grounded. And that was his kind of his philosophy, right? He came from The Office and King of the Hill. And he would always say small, real, relatable, which, you know, the watchword of his taste. And I think a lot of that kind of seeped into Mike's philosophy and also definitely influenced what I like to do. But the other thing was that it was kind of contradictory sometimes because sometimes Greg would pitch the broadest ideas or the craziest ideas. So this kind of falls more into the latter category. It's kind of more that one of the more comedically pushed episodes. And, you know, if you look at the series early on, you're trying different things.

And in this case, the Sister City episode was pretty comedy forward. And so, of course, it made sense to cast Fred Armisen, who's one of the funniest people in the world and obviously knew Amy and Mike from SNL. You know. This one was like, this is kind of the one where it's like a bucking bronco of a story and a premise. You're like, okay, let's see if we can contain this and make it feel like an episode of the show. But it's a lot of hard comedy. That's why I knew Rob would like it, because as we've been talking about the show, he loves when the show goes really hard comedic. And I think that's obviously something Fred has been doing his whole life, so I knew he would like this one. Yeah, I had not seen it, and I knew it was kind of legendary, and it did not disappoint.

There's so much good stuff in it. I have to just really quickly just give a shout out to our location. The front of our Parks and rec department city hall is pasadena california yeah and it's in every episode but it's prominently featured because they're outside waiting for your arrival and um it's kind of amazing because we didn't do anything to change it like if you go to pasadena and you're a fan of parks and recreation you're gonna be like what It's literally just Pasadena City Hall. So I was going through my photos and I have a photo of Pasadena City Hall

and I remember Mike deciding how to block the actors. So blocking basically is where do the people stand? Where do they move? How does the scene develop and how does the action take place? And he was like, well, do I line them up here? And just talking with their cinematographer and talking with their assistant director. And as a young writer, was like, well, do I line them up here? And just talking with our cinematographer and talking with our assistant director. And, you know, as a young writer, you think, wow, Mike knows everything. He's the boss. And, you know, he's essentially the mastermind behind the show. But then you realize he's also learning how to direct. And I went through the same thing when I started directing on Master of None, where I got to be the showrunner with his ease. And I started directing like, wow, you might not have gone to school for this.

You know, I was like, Mike didn't might not have gone to school for this. You know, I was like, Mike didn't go to film school. I didn't go to film school. And and so you're kind of learning that stuff on the fly. So I remember him kind of figuring out the blocking and all of that stuff. And, you know, going through my photos, I also see the house at the end of the episode where we see April and Donna in, quote unquote, Venezuela. And that is a house in Sherman Oaks, you know, cause you're shooting in LA. Yeah.

It's very good. Um, I like when you talk, when, when we, the Pawnee people present you with the things from the city and one of them is the rubber baby bottle nipples. And then you said, you call it the bag of trash. He's like, thank you for this bag of sap and this bag of trash yeah this bag of garbage is like garbage oh it's so good god i forgot that we gave you that fist because there's so many weird props in this one there's that golden gun that you guys have that like like and then there's that and then it it's that ron ron swanson talking

ahead he's kind of like doing the gun thing. And that's where that becomes his opening credit. Yeah, it's in the opening credits. I love finding those, right? Yeah, the art direction was incredible. You know, I think you guys might have had banners, Venezuelan banners and flags hanging down. Yep. So it was a trip for my mom,

like just because I would send her pictures. I'm like, you won't believe how much they've done. Wow. So for her, it'm like you won't believe how much they've done wow so for her it's like you know i feel like venezuela is not depicted on tv very much at all it's just you just never see the flag you never see any of it so she was uh really impressed with it and i was too i remember also that you know like the inside patio that you have the sort of yeah you know on the stage the courtyard as your character says

the dirty alleyway yeah yeah yeah the dirty alleyway I remember I mean just showing I don't know why this didn't occur to me that it's on a sound stage to me I was like what so sometimes all that stuff still works on me you

know like back lot in um sets and everything but one observation that Mike Shore made was that like he didn't want there to be any blue bushes and what he meant was that whenever he watches sitcoms there's always some weird gigantic bush that looks dark blue it was such a it was such a strange observation but true i was like oh yeah what is that there's always a lot of shrubs it's like i don't know what they're maybe they're covering lights or something i don't know what they're doing but yeah it reminds me of like home improvement or something it's like yeah there's like a fence and then there's like but like hedges there's way more hedges in sitcom world than in real life right that's always have a edges everywhere there's always a little bit of wind just a subtle bit of wind oh yeah blowing the leaves because

it's they think that makes it look more real yeah no we we've talked about this a little bit on the show for it it's the same thing you can like combined the three of us have worked in entertainment for a long time but i feel like i'm still like oh that's a backlot like i still like that's why am i so stupid like it's like that's clearly a location but it and then and but it translated sort of like when i'm directing and stuff like no i need everything to be on location and then slowly they talk me into doing some stage work and then we do on the stage i'm like wow it looks amazing it looks real it's like oh yeah you can do it and we're surprised i know i know i because i walked to the art you know i'll say something to the art department and to them it must be like it must be like this is our job why

are you so freaked out yeah like that looks like because that's same thing on forever too they had that those uh the you know the front doors yes of those houses in riverside and i was amazing like how did you find this? Well, yeah, this is tiny sidetrack for anyone who's seen Forever. There's two houses. It's like Maya and Fred have a house, right? Oscar and June, the characters. And then next door is their neighbor's house, this case played by Catherine Keener. We didn't have the money to build two houses. So we built one house. And you will not believe this. There's one episode that's almost entirely in Catherine Keener's house. So we took my and Fred's house.

We redressed it entirely. We put different furniture in it and we shot another episode with new furniture, but we flipped the image like a mirror. So every shot in that episode, including the closeups, including like, and what we did for like Fred's shirt is we made new shirts that were reversed.

So they buttoned from the opposite side and no one ever knew. Everything was flipped. Yeah, and we were like, would this, I think our DP, Mark Schwartzbard, came up with the idea. He's like, just, he's a very calm, bearded man. He was like, just small idea for you.

Like we could, I was like, there's no way that'll work. And we did it and nobody knew. It looked like a small idea for for you like we could i was like there's no way that'll work and we did it and nobody knew it looked like a different house because we flipped everything reversed it on the axis wow yeah it's it's one of the most incredible things i've ever seen i was like yeah it worked and everyone's face is reversed and so like that show has kind of supernatural elements so it also like if there was anything uncanny valley-ish about it i think it kind of worked because she was in this new world. Anyway, side note, again, that's for a forever recap podcast. We'll save that for the other one. But yeah, I remember Mike letting us in on the process of casting, right? So obviously,

we cast Fred, but then we also had to cast the other Venezuelan delegates. So a lot of people, a lot of showrunners will kind of do that on their own. And Mike did something where sometimes he would show us the casting videos and we would all kind of weigh in. And especially this episode was one that, you know, I had written the first draft of. So we were watching all these videos. And I remember distinctly watching the videos of the people auditioning to play Antonio and Johnny and Elvis, who were the other cast members. And of course, we cast Carlos Carrasco as Antonio and Federico Dorday as Elvis and Jay-Z Gonzalez as Johnny. And I remember being in the writer's room and watching those videos and

kind of discussing pros and cons and how the guys would kind of interact together and what their look needed to be. So Johnny needed to be kind of a young, handsome guy who falls in love with April. And so we, you know, we were picking that type of guy and we thought, okay, well, it would be a good physical mix to have kind of a larger guy. And so that was Antonio played by Carlos. And so, man, it's so funny to think about, I guess, you know know that it was just so new to all of us and it was new to me it's not like i you know i also wasn't like on a ton of tv shows so that was like my first like oh this is what it's like to not be at snl yeah yeah here's amy she's not on the

show anymore and this is you know her life now this is amy's thing so that kind of thing is very you know uh it it kind it's inspiring for like you know like what does the future hold what can happen after snl and it's also like she had all these funny creative people around her so that was another thing i was like oh there are people outside of of the show look being a guest is is hard um because you know it's a well-oiled show you know park certainly was everybody has their characters down pat and everybody's killing everybody's a murderer and you know you can come in and you better kill or you will be murdered so there's a competition element to it i've been on both sides of it i've i've been a guest i've had guests come on my shows and when it works it works great but it also it

can go it can also go wrong i i do think on parks um every guest was was great because they were all sort of um interconnected with some other cast member like they'd work together they were friends together um so it was sort of a club and you were already in that club you were friends with amy for a long time right because you know for a long time yeah yeah and and close friends yeah so that that's a very like that part made it made me trust the whole thing you know not that i wouldn't trust it but just it wasn't strangers no yeah and and you can really tell i mean watching the episode you know i'm sure you notice this too rob like sometimes we're letting fred go and it's like oh like that no one else could do that you know like you know the talking head we talked

about but also in the conference room scene where he's kind of riffing about miami like i don't remember that stuff oh yeah i was wondering how much it feels like riffing to me like sometimes i go oh yeah that's just someone tapped in and they're just plugged in and they're letting them go and and i felt like i saw a lot more of that in your work in your appearance in this episode than i've seen in in in so anything so far would that be fair to say yeah definitely yeah but in a in a good zone where it wasn't just do you know it wasn't it wasn't tangents that didn't relate to the story we because we have those we just didn't put them in the episode and then you like you you figure it out but yeah that that's the nice thing about parks also is like i think it's controlled chaos in a way where ultimately we we love the comedy but i think the story and the characters are always you know

paramount of importance and and and i think you know hopefully you can do both right you can get those fun runs in and and also not have it descend into chaos so this is an example of one of the more pushed ones because it's very it's very extreme i don't think like this episode ends when you see a bunch of guys with machine guns i was like i don't think i've ever seen an episode of parks with the guys have huge machine guns oh right they're in venezuela yeah it's like okay did you did you um so portlandia was at post this appearance yeah that was so what did you what did you take from the the vibe the way it was made was it was there anything that when you were building the portlandia world both in terms of like writers or how you shot it or you know energy or any of that absolutely

first of all it gives gives you or gave me a sense of optimism like you can actually make a whole other world and i i also just seeing that with people that amy around her, like Alan and like Mike, there was a little bit of like, just make sure that, you know, the people who are writing are people that make you laugh. You know, that they're,

these are funny people and who are good at it. So also, I mean, I, I, I suppose even that set was like, wow, they just created this whole look.

So it, it's possible. It, as opposed to something that's like a million miles away as opposed to like otherwise i mean where would i have known that like you know these things are attainable i mean you guys had a much bigger budget i will say but still well yeah the thing that always blew me away was was just how we kept building more and more to the set it was like oh my god like i'm building a set for this new show right now.

And it's like, you usually don't have that much space. We have two stages, fortunately, for the new show, but like this, it's crazy. It's like the park set got bigger every year. And Portlandia, you were shooting in Portland. You were literally shooting Portland, right? Yeah, we didn't have a stage. We, it was all on locations.

Yeah. Wow. So every day was just driving, getting in our cars and driving to the next place. Yeah. I'll see you there in 20 minutes. People don't realize how difficult that is to be in a different location every day because the setup time. I mean, something as simple as like learning where the bathrooms are.

And it just, really, like where your makeup and hair is in like that learning curve. You have a learning curve every single day of logistics. And being on a stage can get, the only downside is it can get monotonous possibly, but it's like being in your own house after a while. And it's so easy peasy when you get a chance to do that. And there's a reason producers love it because it gives you that solid foundation and allows you to travel, you know, to location. But it also saves you that money and it allows you to just, yeah, have somewhere that protects you. What if it rains? What if, you know, there's something, an emergency that comes up?

You can always go back to the stage and shoot other stuff. Now this is a podcast for line producers. This is fascinating. This is a legendary, this is a morgan saget hosted pod the bit with your you and your delegation being obsessed and taking the pens oh yeah was that come out of where did that come from i forgot about that. I forgot about that. I think that was, I think I honestly remember that potentially being made up on set. It feels very made up to me. Oh my,

yeah, I have no idea. Because it went on and on, right? On and on. We'd have to ask, I'd like to ask Mike too, but yeah.

And the notion that you guys are not impressed with anything that is said, done, given, but you want the pens and the candy bars there's a whole candy bar thing i feel like i feel like uh there needs to be a director's cut on the candy

bar subplot because it feels like we're missing this crucial piece of their obsession with the the the candy because they're very very into candy bars where there are no candy bars in venezuela what's going on it's it's more it's more that there is a whole culture of candy there there's a real like there's a lot of it's just like it's a sort of obsession in a way just in general just i remember being there's a lot of sugary drinks a lot of different kinds of cookies and chocolates and it's like yeah it was it was just really part of everything wow so that's based in reality i love that yeah yeah um i did the the the moment where amy has to decide whether she's gonna say viva chavez is like such a it's such an earned like look you say it's a very pushed

episode it's very hard comedy and that's my preference usually but that moment is one of the most realistic earned like legitimate you're on the edge of your seat moments i think that i've seen in the show so far maybe one maybe the most of of of the show it's awesome it's a great moment yeah dramatic i was kind of surprised like it kind of banks into it starts off like oh this is kind of like fun and games like you know kind of hard comedy so but then it kind of surprised. It starts off like, oh, this is kind of fun and games, kind of hard comedy. But then it kind of banks into a real idea for her, which is like, do I accept help or do I want to do this myself and have control over the project? That's ultimately what the emotional story is. And it was cool to see Amy do that.

And quite honestly, it was cool to see when Fred and Mai and I worked together, it was like, oh, yeah, let's do some real moments. That was cool to see you know when we when fred and my and i worked together it was like oh like yeah let's do some real moments oh that was awesome to see and it's is it fun to for you guys to stretch those muscles and and and and do that kind of stuff fred for it for you you know i know you love doing comedy but is it fun to do that kind of stuff yeah although it's fun but then i always hope that everyone else likes it on set yeah it's like a little bit like it's just like that's that's the area where i'm like oh god i I always hope that everyone else likes it on set. It's like a little bit like, it's just like, that's the area where I'm like,

oh God, I hope everyone's happy with this. Yeah. Because you guys are all behind a monitor and everything. So yeah, that's more, it feels more, a little more,

like just a little more pressure, which is fine. Yeah. And so wait, so you're saying the sort of more dramatic, not dramatic, that's putting too fine a point no but sure yeah the more the more grounded dramatic stuff is the stuff where you yeah that's interesting for me when i when i joined it was exactly the opposite it's like if i'm doing super pushed like super pushed is is like oh boy. But if you hear the Amy cackle, you know you're okay.

It's probably what you come up doing, right? Because Rob, you started out doing probably a little more drama and Fred obviously started in comedy. It's like if you're doing the other thing, then it's like, oh, you get a little bit more pressure, right? A little bit, yeah, that's kind of interesting. Or it's almost like doing an imitation of someone doing something serious. I'm like, I think this is what it's supposed to feel like. Or maybe this is something I've seen on TV before.

I feel like I've talked to Aziz about the same thing. Aziz is like, okay, then I just look sad. I don't have to make a joke. I just look sad and the scene ends. I was like, yeah, that's what happens here. Oh, okay, you look down. You're bummed. Okay.

It's so funny. Comedy guys, right? Doing that stuff's so funny comedy guys right doing that stuff is so funny it's it's like being in the dark for sure what are your comedy touchstones like what's for you like what what's your inspiration who are your favorites um let me try to answer without without thinking too much because, you know, I start going to like, well, what can I say that sounds cool? But I think that like. That's like when I get asked about music. What's cool?

Yeah. Who do you actually like? Who do you actually like, Fred? Yeah. What are you listening to? Forget trying to impress people at UCB or whatever. I do feel like the stuff that really echoed with me is SNL. So when you mentioned Dana Carter before,

and I feel the same about Mike Myers and Phil Hartman. Sometimes when I think about like when I was watching TV, I do feel like Martin Lawrence was kind of like. I love that. Shanaynay, Martin. Shanaynay. Shanaynay. Martin. Shanaynay. Like he did characters and it wasn't presented as, hey, I do this sketch show. It wasn't presented as like, watch me do characters.

It was kind of like a weird, to me, I felt like they didn't really talk about it. All of a sudden there was Shanaynay. Yeah. And the security guard and stuff. So I always thought he was great. I love that. in security guard and stuff so i i always thought he was great i love that it's something it's so interesting because there's something we all know actors who do characters we've seen people play multiple roles all the time it's a thing some people are great at it there's something about

the way you do it when you do it that it's like you were just saying about martin lawrence it's just present it's like it just is yeah do you know i'm saying there's not like oh here's eddie murphy and he's mrs clump mr clump and the baby clump it's like and i love that don't there's nothing against eddie or or that but there's something there's a uh and it's hard to even articulate but there's an element of of it of authenticity and just like not showy and just is that that i kind of get from your work that i don't always get from others when they're playing multiple characters yeah i think that um i think kids in the hall did that a little bit too yeah yeah and and kids in the hall was a great one i used to watch that as a kid it was on comedy central and norm hiscock uh who was a head

writer of that show um you know worked on parks and rec for almost the entire time and and it was so cool to work with him and and you know those guys are just the sweetest guys those canadian guys you know it's like so funny oh i had i had a fred story that like i also had a question to ask about it um this was on the set of forever one day we were shooting at this cabin and there was this very adorable family i mean it wasn't a real family it was actors playing a family but there's these little kids there's these two little asian girls and it was late at night and we were just hanging out by the monitors and fred you know can do accents right so fred was doing an accent of

some kind and the little girls were so delighted and they just started asking to do every kind of accent so they went around the world like around like every country in europe then parts of america so like you know like minnesota and like you know texas and he was like oh south texas or north texas and he could do both and then he did this is southern but it's tennessee this it was it was unbelievable it like, this is German and this is Austrian. I'm not joking. It was every, I couldn't believe it. And I was like, how do you, Fred, I wanted to ask you that day

because it was so impressive. They were like applauding at the end. Is it practice? Are you listening to people's voices all the time? How do you develop that skill? I just don't understand it you know well some of it's like a parlor trick in that i just do the ones that i know so i sort of lead people into it you know like do you want to hear it's just to say the difference between

austria and germany is an easy one for me in that i've done it you know a lot of my life yeah and there's like subtle differences and by the way what is that give me for me in that I've done it, you know, a lot of my life. Yeah. And there's like subtle differences. By the way, what is the difference in Austria? Well, just in Austria, they pronounce the R Brot instead of Brot. So German is a little... This is like a linguistics class already. Yeah, that's what it becomes. That's basically it.

So there are a million accents that I just don't go towards at all just because i don't know them i really feel like i can't do like boston i think ireland i can't do there's a there's so many so that like so that's part of it it's just a sort of like i just and also i do a couple of sentences it's not like i go into like anything long if i just do a sentence we're good right so i just sort of jump in and out it's almost like knowing a few chords to a song as opposed to the whole song i'm like hey here's the chorus of this one song and then jump out and then do something else but there are and then some of it is made up some of it is like because no one really knows no who knows right and and to be so for

examples if i said look east tennessee or west tennessee those are nuances that i don't know but the other thing i've been noticing and this is a little more real is that the more that i travel the more that i see that i think accents are sort of fading away in general yeah i think they're all becoming just because everyone's so connected i think everyone's just sort of fading away in general yeah i think they're all becoming just because everyone's so connected i think everyone's just sort of like it's it's it's less intense everywhere you go um i worked with someone from scotland recently and she just had this really light like it was such a light accent it was not to to me, it wasn't like my perception of what Scotland is. Just light,

very light. Just a dusting. Just a tiny dusting. It wasn't, yeah. That's a good way to put it. But it is like a little, it's like a little tiny Scottish flag,

but it's really how, almost like how everyone talks. Yes. On a scale of zero to full fat bastard. It was like, it was like one millionth of that. Yeah. But I mean, look, it's a talent too, right?

It's just you have the power to do that. I love the analogies you made of both music and magic because you just revealed some of your secrets, which is like you walk them to the ledge and you do your 10, 15 that you can. And it's one sentence. I mean, and people are blown away. They think you can do everything in every language like I like every accent like I did. But that's fascinating. The way it can kind of sort of snowball is that people then over the years have been like offering me like, hey, by the way, this is how you do Buffalo,

New York. And then all of a sudden, I'm like now i've got one sentence now i've got this you know so it does kind of keep growing and and and i am by the way i am i am obsessed with accents i love it i i could i could talk about it forever i could listen you know if there if there are any podcasts about it i am obsessed it's fascinating so a question you, is it just accents or is it also how and what people choose to say? Like when I do Arnold, I do, look, everybody does an Arnold, but I've known Arnold forever. Do you know what I mean? Like there's a notion of what you're saying when you're doing it. Yes.

They're like the things, they're like the sayings that he would say. And there's, I mean, I even feel even feel like i mean i can't do him but some of these people also as they keep going in life as they age they're like even that starts to change and i don't mean like by getting older just like that he's been in the united states for so long yeah um i noticed when i hear Ringo speak now, he has lost some of his British accent. Wow. So you'll hear it in the word and. So he'll be talking and talking on the and, and his and is like totally American, but he's been here for a long time. Less Liverpudlian and more Valley Girl.

He just kind of changes when you have to when you were on snl and you had to do somebody famous um how how did you break it down like hey you know it'd be great if you took a shot at playing obama if anyone wants to do a gene simmons um very good it was it was like um that's easy in that it's all written. And those are super short. Those are just like, there was something that I remember that we did something where I had to be David Lee Roth.

Right. And so it's, how do you do him? Well, yeah, there's a kind of, you know, he,

he really likes me. He just gets into every word. He, he's sort of, um, uh, he's making a speech private speech every time he talks. There's a lot of philosophy when he speaks. There's almost a commonality in what you just have daily wrath and what like a wrestler sounds like.

It's like you're selling. It's like you're just really selling. Yeah, selling every step of the way. But he's very, you know, I just, I, anyway. With someone like him, it's just a matter of only, all I had to do was a couple of sentences. And then the rest is all wigs and makeup and stuff. But how great is it when Juan Yu finds an element in someone famous that no one has ever shown a light on before?

Like, I remember one of the episodes when I was doing SNL, someone famous that no one has ever shown a light on before like i remember um when i there was one of the episodes when i was doing snl was the famous uh presidential debate where al gore kept saying the phrase lockbox over and over and over and and i think it was daryl played him yeah that's the genius of daryl and he had this like i'd never seen gore as this sort of vaguely fey like and he's like and the lockbox like it's like that kind of like element of feyness to it was so genius and of course you go yes that's exactly what he's like that's the genius of daryl hammond he has a an amazing secret to finding how to do an impression of somebody. And that was think of the person and think of who their hero is.

So when he did Clinton, he said, he imagined that Clinton really looked up to Martin Luther King. So he thinks of the person they admire, who they're trying to sound like. Director Roland Emmerich's film Independence Day tells the story of a young, idealistic, compassionate president who's facing a crisis. That's some next level shit. That is some next level impressionist shit. That's like Daryl and you, you know, like you're just talking like shop.

It's like it's but I have a theory about some SNL impressions, which is that the famous person who gets impersonated on SNL and that impression starts becoming really famous, I feel like they, in real life, become more like the impression because they've seen it. So it's this thing where there's a snake eating its own tail

and they become more like each other. Yeah, Sarah Palin, for sure, 100%. They're leaning into it. Because the people around them must be saying, have you seen this? Have you seen this? So it becomes, it's so in their life that. It's so funny, man. Yeah.

So getting back to the episode a little bit, did you, did your family ever see this episode? Like anyone from Venezuela? Oh yeah. They loved it. Oh good. Okay. I was a little scared. Ken, Alan traveled safely to Venezuela.

Oh, absolutely. they loved it because they're they were anti-chavez yes very yeah my family is very much what would i guess would be considered leftist so they loved it this is one of the hardest sort of satirical episodes because there's sometimes you know in the beginning of the season especially know, the show was touching on political issues a little bit, but it would always do its own version. It would always do, you know, oh, this is a gay marriage, but it's penguins getting married, right? Or it's a death penalty episode, but it's a possum or something. But in this one, it is Venezuela is a real country, right? They didn't make up, it wasn't Wakanda. It was like, this is actually Venezuela. So there was some satire there.

There was also some satire in the ending where, you know, he wanted her to say Viva Chavez. There was, I think that they were trying to give away gasoline in some parts of the United States. Wow. Because I think Citgo is a Venezuelan company originally. I think you're right. And I remember there was a thing of them like we're gonna give gasoline away right kind of rub it in the united states's face and be like hey you guys are having a hard time like we have a lot of resources right they were trying to brag yeah i mean i and and and you know he was a dictator essentially right i mean i i actually

don't know the politics of why i should research it before saying and and more importantly he was a good friend of sean pence let's face it oh my god is that true oh yeah don't know the politics of it, I should research it before saying that. And more importantly, he was a good friend of Sean Penn's. Let's face it. Oh my god. Is that true? Oh yeah. Don't you remember that? Sean was down to clown with Hugo Chavez. They were like spending time together. I didn't know that. Sean's doing our next episode. We gotta bring this up with him.

Yeah, bring it up. He was never on Parks but he's coming on. Next one. And you're doing it in like right away. Like in an hour. Yes. He wasn't on parks but he was on two and a half men he had he had he had standards that's man i don't remember that at all oh yeah we gotta talk about your relationship with sean penn let's go way back rob you must you must know this is like it's separate this is a separate pot you must know everybody yes he does know everybody how did you must have just met everybody over over the years it's rare that there's somebody that i haven't because yeah i mean only it's just a math thing i mean if you do it yeah

you know i've been i've been i've been on network television since 1979 been making movies since since 1981 yeah and going back and forth ever since so it's you know 45 years yeah and and then you know i'm i enjoy people and and talking to people and meeting people so i kind of i like to cultivate friendships and and also disparate groups of people as well um and that's fun. So it's like, I got both sides of the spectrum. Fred, this is not, Rob did not pay me to say this. If you haven't read one of Rob's books, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, it really gave me a window in his life. This is years ago, he published his book, but it is phenomenal because it's him telling all these stories,

and they're fascinating stories about his life but almost every chapter ends with some crazy revelations like he's telling a story and it's always like and that curly-haired young woman was sarah jessica parker it's always it's always that it's like that phenomenal songstress was janet jackson it's oh it's always that right it always ends like you can't every chapter you it's like, but that's probably only like a third of his stories or like a quarter of his stories. Like there's more. Like if you know him in person, you'll hear even more stories. But it is, but it's true.

I mean, it's like, it's this, you know, it's kind of a zealot type situation, right? He's just been there for everything, so. I know your birthday must be like, the text you must get. It's fun. It is. I'm not gonna lie. I want to be sitting, I want to be sitting, I mean, it is, I do mean it as a compliment. It does fun. It is. I'm not going to lie. I want to be sitting.

I mean, I do mean it as a compliment. It doesn't say that you're a friendly person, that you've made friends along the way. But I want to sit with you on your birthday just to see those texts come in. It can be kind of insane. I mean, the last birthday I had on my, I think on my left was Barbara Streisand. And then on my other side was Oprah. And then you get them going and talking about stuff that they wouldn't necessarily talk about. And Barbara spent literally 45 minutes explaining to me why she still can't sleep at night because they cut two scenes out of The Way We Were that explained why her character left redford and i was like barbara

the ship has sailed it's one of the greatest movies it's one of the greatest movies of all time it's a it's a movie people try to emulate and remake and no one can ever touch it and you want to add two more scenes to it now she should do her cut she should release the stridesand cut cgi her down does she still have the i i was doing by the way on the topic of barbara was doing some barbara research she had like a mall like in her house like she had there i've been there yeah so so yeah there's there's like one floor of her house is like shops that you can go into it's well listen what she actually has is is a basement that does look a lot like a mall that

does have a big frozen yogurt thing and but it has like all her her all her amazing costumes you know from everything she's ever done in one area and then her doll collection another and all these different so it is it is but there are no actual shops as far as like but maybe i didn't get to get to that secret floor. I mean, maybe. And you know what? I love how you casually tossed off her doll collection in one room. Yeah.

It's like, yeah, her doll collection. And her portraits. Brad, have you heard about this mall? I mean, yeah, there's like a storefront. I've heard about this. Yeah. And her portraits of George Washington. Big, big, big collector of Americana.

I have one more thing about that episode. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I took something from set and I brought it to the office today oh pony mug oh shit parks and recreation mug so there's a coffee mug yeah and this is how early it was or whatever in in my career is that i mean this is from the set this is property this is a prop it's not it wasn't a gift it wasn't a gift and a gift bag so i was i just said to whoever was around me hey can i grab this this was on set this coffee mug and they said yes but not

in a way of like oh my god of course it was a little bit like let me just you know there was a moment of yes that's okay yeah they're like um and the thing that's amazing about this is I really love this, but also on the inside, it's a little what appears to be dirty. And I was always like, wow, they don't take care of their props. But I think this is how they dressed it to look like they painted the inside. Is it possible it was used at some point? Maybe they put coffee in it so people could drink out of it? Oh, that's a good, I don't know.

I mean, I don't know. What I gather from it, no, no, it's on the outside. I think it's actually dressed to look a little stained. Agreed. The attention to detail.

I believe that. Yeah, to look used. I believe that. That's the thing I always hate about bad sitcoms. Talking about, we're going back to full circle

of the blue bushes. We don't want any blue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bad sitcoms, everybody's wardrobe is brand new brand new right off the rack everybody everybody and whatever decade they're representing like if hey this takes place in the 80s everyone's in 80s gear i'm like you know people were not everyone

was in that moment yeah that year right and it's the other thing i've heard actors complain about they see someone drinking coffee out of an empty paper cup. Fake drinking is one of my favorite things to catch actors doing. I love it. That's, yeah. I'm going to try one. Here we go. Here's this mug.

I'm going to do it quickly just so, because I don't want to lean in onto it too much. It's hot. Except you did a great thing. That was bad you did the very subtle slurp noise which sold the shit out of it it's okay

it's like it's so heavy I think it's impossible because it needs to be heavy it's impossible it doesn't you can't do it you can't do it we don't have the muscle

yeah the nuanced muscle in our arm to make it seem like there's liquid in it it's impossible we can't do it. It doesn't work. It doesn't work.

Should we do, you know, I know what we want to do because there was a town hall in this episode. We should have Fred participate in, again, once again, in a town hall. Yeah, Fred, do you want to stick around for a town hall? It's where we answer a question from a listener. Yes, please. Oh, I knew it.

Let's do a town hall. This is a regular town hall, not a town howl. That's when it's audio. This is a town town hall, not a town howl. That's when it's audio. This is a town hall. Maybe we do this one in the sister city. Oh, yeah. Let's do it in Venezuela. In Boracua, Venezuela.

We've flown to the compound. We're with Donna. By the way, big Donna episode. Big Donna. She's coming. Did you get to know Red a little bit, Fred? Have you gotten to know her at all? Yeah.

I'd known her from just from stand-up and stuff yeah anyway um but yeah i did she's great wow she's so cool yeah and it's and this was just the beginning we were trying to sort of figure out the character and she became very high status and she's getting off some jokes in this episode it's a very good episode from her but let's get in the town hall straight out of boracua venezuela sister city upon e this town hall comes to us from crystal from melbourne international episode very international many times those many hemispheres was it ever daunting having guest stars comedy legends political figures how do you move past

that and for fred as a guest star is it ever daunting joining an existing ensemble for an episode is there anything intimidating about it thank Thank you for the question, Crystal. I have a lot of thoughts. Is it ever, you know, Fred, you've been on so many shows. Do you ever get nervous or is it just like, I'm Fred, I'm fucking coming in here and I'm doing it? It's easier. It's easier to be a guest on someone else's thing because everything is in motion already.

There's no, everything has been organized. Everything has been set. So because there's already a language, because there's everything, everything's sort of ready. It makes it much easier. It's like a, it's like a puzzle piece. So I love it. It's, it's great. And then that was a great example of it. So there, uh, it's just every, everyone's confident. They're all already going. Yeah. I mean, and just for those of you who have not worked with Fred, he is the easiest person in the world to work with. He's the most fun and the nicest to everyone on the set.

And Fred sometimes on Forever, and this is very highly unusual, would come in on days that he wasn't shooting just to watch and hang out and have lunch with us, which blows my mind, which is truly mind-blowing like it's so that's no kudos kudos to fred um rob how about you was it you know how did you enjoy the guest stars did you ever work with the political people i think you might have done something yeah yeah i mean um i didn't work with any of the big political people on perks. That was after Chris married in and moved away. That's when you had President Biden and Hillary Clinton and all of those folks.

machine that that's the pro side of it that fred just said on the other side of it it's kind of like trying to jump on a moving freight train and like you can you can do it but if you miss it even a little bit you get your arm taken off and so that's kind of the the fun challenge for for me if you know when i showed up on parks or when I would show up on Californication or any of those things where you just come in and have some fun and leave, the jumping in, the timing of jumping into something that's well on its way down the tracks can be a little bit of a challenge, regardless of how nice everybody is. And everybody's always been nice. I think as actors, we get a sense of this is this a party i want to go to and you you had that with amy you knew amy already so you knew you were gonna have fun on parks yeah that that i i knew and also mike and a couple other people right right um the one thing that's kind of which i i don't mind but i don't know if you ever noticed this sometimes in the makeup trailer there's so many inside jokes that you're just not and there'll

be something hanging look at the you know this is the bicycle helmet from and i'm like oh yeah i don't know what you're referring to but there's a little bit of that i always find when you go to canada the makeup and hair people are always talking about projects they worked on that you've never heard of before. It's my favorite thing. It's always like, oh, yeah, do you know Billy Baldwin? Yeah, I know Billy Baldwin. Oh, yeah, we worked on Princess of the Alps together.

What? You know Princess of the Alps? They had seven seasons. Yeah. We worked on the seventh season. What? There's seven seasons of Princess of the Alps? Yeah, it's a spin-off of The Crystal Rod.

It's The Crystal Rod. Oh, you know, did you ever know Billy Peterson? Oh, yeah, you know, we did Big Bad Ball together up in Winnipeg. I want to see those shows. I want to see one of those. They exist somewhere.

So insane. That was a good town hall Yeah town hall Down in Baracua let's take the flight back up To Pani and Say goodbye to Venezuela I think that's all we got Rob you got anything else? No this is great and Fred

It's my long time dream to figure out something to do with you Oh please anytime If you ever need a man with delicate bone structure You know who to call And Fred, it's my longtime dream to figure out something to do with you. Oh, please. Anytime. If you ever need a man with delicate bone structure, you know who to call. Just put him in enormous prosthetic makeup so he's unrecognizable. Oh, yeah. That would be another thing to do. Yeah. But, yeah, thank you so much for joining, man.

It's really appreciated. We know how busy you are, so we really appreciate it, man. No, thank you. Thanks for doing this, you guys. This was awesome. I guess we'll do the cheer parks and recreation all right thank you fred thank you shilty and greg goodbye from punny This episode of Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions,

Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are our talent bookers. The theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers, with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. That's the best sync

I think we've done on the show. I mean, Fred's a drummer, so that's why that's really... He infused us all. It was like, he's got rhythm. Yeah, a little drum trio. He's got rhythm. This has been a Team Coco production

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