“Portlandia”: The Tour

By Ross Owen

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are on tour right now to promote their hit show on IFC, “Portlandia”.  The show takes place in the fictional city of “Portlandia” which is based off Brownstein’s hometown of Portland, Oregon. Shooting on location throughout the city, Armisen and Brownstein have built a huge following and love for their show.

The phenomenon has spread nationwide, endearing in its embrace of the quirkier individuals in society. Originally underestimating the success “Portlandia” could have, Armisen and Brownstein have been surprised by the amount of fans outside of Portland, an area they felt had its own individualized culture. The duo is finding, however, that the “Portlandia” culture exists in all cities. Armisen denies that the show is directed towards a “hipster” crowd. Instead, he praises people who, like Portlanders, gently embrace their weirdness, without wallowing in it.

This tour is an attempt by Armisen and Brownstein to not only increase their growing fan base, but to also to know their fan base a lot better. The two both stress the importance of a casual talk with fans, as if they were in their living room. The live show will consist of some clips and musical performances by Fred and Carrie from the show, aside from the “get to know us” part.

As a precursor to the show at Berklee on Monday the 20^th, I got a chance to ask the two a few questions about themselves, “Portlandia”, and the heavy musical influences throughout the show.

Ross Owen: What is the tour going to be like? Will it be an extension of the show with mostly sketches? 

Fred Armisen: There will be some videos from the second season, some music, we’ll be playing some songs from the show. But no real sketches, we’ll be just talking. It’ll be casual, like we’re sitting in our living room.

RO: “Portlandia” features a sketch-based design. Where did the influence for the design of the show come from? 

FA: The way that we write the sketches, they’re sort of the same length as a song would be. There’s something very musical about the show. The sketches we do are kind of ordered like an album, and music plays into everything from sketch length and order to cover designs for the DVD.

RO: What influenced you all to make musicians such a big part of the show? 

Carrie Brownstein: Well between Fred and myself and our director, we all came of age with music being in the forefront of what inspired and drove us. I think music was the lens through which we saw the world for those years. And a lot of times we are aware from just knowing musicians, that there’s another side to these people that you might not see through their music. So it’s really fun to get someone like Eddie Vedder who’s really passionate and earnest through his music.

RO: Do you think “keep Portland weird” could be the mantra for the show?

FA: It’s less about Portland being weird, and more about the fact that they would advertise it. It’s that they embrace who they are without wallowing in it. They embrace it gently.

RO: What do you see as the universal aspect to the success “Portlandia”? What connects you to cities other than Portland?

FA: I know from travelling that, that’s the part of town where I always gravitate towards. I always end up wherever there’s a decent restaurant and coffee shop or record store. And I find more and more, that more cities have it. That’s kind of like the main thing to it: “Portlandia” exists everywhere.

RO: Do you think you could’ve been able to do this show prior to your experience with SNL?

FA: There’s no way I could’ve been able to do it, I learned so much on SNL. It’s not even all with writing, you just learn so much in areas that you wouldn’t think. It’s like how do you write, how do you tell a story quickly? Because of SNL and Lorne Michaels, I know what is important in a sketch, and I avoid wasting a lot of my time.

RO: What was your reaction to the show’s success?

FA: Very surprised. We were initially going to do a pilot and a couple of episodes, we weren’t really sure what direction it was going to go. We were really blown away with people’s reactions.

Armisen and Brownstein will perform their comedy show at Berklee Performance Center on February 20.