Fred Armisen Joins The YH 4-Timers Club

Fred Armisen Joins The YH 4-Timers Club
About this video
Actor/rocker Michael Des Barres joins us in a hammock at SXSW for a record-tying chat with SNL alum and "Portlandia" star Fred Armisen, who becomes only the third celeb that we've interviewed 4 times! But before we get to the big ceremony, Fred tells us about his other project, IFC's animated show "Out There", plus he names his famous Beatle and exchanges animal impressions with our host! Hosted by Nikki Novak (@nikkinovak).
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Hi, I'm Nikki Novak and I'm here with Fred Armisen and our special guest co-host.
Michael DeBar. How are you? Nice to see you.
It's great to be here with these two.
Two legends, two legends together. I don't know what the heck I'm doing here.
You're a legend. Come on.
Listen. I'm dressed, I'm dressed the the part. Very nice.
Thank you, tell us how much you love Steve Jones, it is exceptional.
I love Steve Jones. He was an idol of mine and then I became friends with him. I consider him a friend and I love him. He's the best guy, so talented and so cool and so funny and very British. Even though he's a Californian, he's actually very British to me.
It's so great that you cast him in your show because for you to do that exquisite show you do Portlandia. You you hire a sex pistol that is really great. And tell us your relation. We have a check in the past and I love him as much as you do.
Yeah, I love him. He's great.
What's the new thing you're doing now? You have your animated show on IFC called out there. Yeah. Okay.
Right. I'm just a voice on there.
You're the voice on there, but you play Terry. Typically Young Hollywood we would never ask you if you're like your character, but in this case, I'm going to ask you several traits. Well, he's kind of Latino. Yes. And a hippie. Yes. And um, kind of a hippie.
Kind of a hippie.
Kind of a hippie. But I'm going to give you some qualities about Terry, and you tell me if you'd ever either sport this or have this quality, okay? All right. Deadbeat.
No.
Wearing sports headbands?
No.
Do you have chest hair?
A little. Not a lot. A little.
It's mattering?
He's lying.
When you're at home, do you sport cowboy boots and underwear and nothing else?
No.
What about when you're on a hammock? What's the most exciting thing that you're doing right now that you're most thrilled about?
I am very, very happy about Portlandia. I'm still, you know, trying to come up with new sketches. I love it. It's it's it's a dream come true.
Is it exhausting coming up with that amount of material, that kind of content?
We have help. We have other writers, and so this way, it's a at least it's a group, so.
But you won a Peabody Award for this. We wanted to point out that I just interviewed Larry King, who you do a fabulous impression of.
Thank you.
And he also won a Peabody Award. We were both going to show you our Larry King.
Well, I I do not. I do Larry Queen.
Okay, let's see your Larry Queen.
Well, that would request suspenders and sequins, which I don't have. So I'm going to have.
And our imagination it's happening.
Yeah. I'm going to have to leave it up to you, darling, because you do a great.
Oh my god. Are you ready?
Yeah.
Texas, hello. That was it.
Oh wow. That for real was really good. Yeah. But I wanted to set the bar really low because I'm going to impress you with this one, okay? I can do a fantastic monkey. Are you ready? You look, you look like you don't believe me.
Like the monkey is fantastic or you doing a fantastic A fantastic monkey impression. All right, are you ready?
Yeah, do it. Woo. Woo. Woo. Woo. Woo. Woo. Woo. Yeah.
Sound like my second wife. That's uh, that's it. Beautiful.
Yeah. And it had an element of some bird in it, too. See? See how I do that? I can do a cat a little bit. Okay. Meow. No. That's no good. No, no, no, no, no. Meow. Let's do languages. Let's do a language, but don't speak the words of the language. I'll I'll start. I'm Japanese.
Thank you. That's excellent.
Thank you very much. That was German. That's a language. My name is Fred. And I'm from Italy.
Very good. All right. You are all beautiful girls. Oh my god, that is fabulous.
Throw me a language and I'll do something.
Irish.
Oh my god. Okay.
Scandinavian.
German. Yeah. Oh man.
Can you do your Prince impression?
I just want your extra time and your. Kiss.
Perfect. What's the hardest impression to do? Like, who's difficult?
Oh, that's a good question.
It is. Has there been anybody that you sort of started and been like?
Tiger Woods it'd probably be quite difficult. That's a hard one cuz he talks he's such a such a nothing kind of a character. Simple, plain way of talking. I can't do an impression of Tiger Woods. So I'll go Tiger Woods.
Okay. Who's easy? Who's an easy target?
Ah. Prince. Why is he that? Steve Jobs. I think Steve Jobs, I think is easy.
Wow. That's that's interesting. Do you do a screen test and Ashton Kutcher, you know, all? Steve Jobs?
No. No one asked me to do a screen test.
Oh, my goodness. But he he deserves it. Yeah. When are when are all these movies happen?
Well, there's a Keith Moon movie that absolutely should be made.
You two could collaborate and sort of get it going. We should go into a Moon story. A Keith Moon story. You know, we should do that no one's ever done. We should direct a documentary about the Beatles because it's been done so much that people be like, why are they doing this? If I pitched that, they'd be like, why are you guys doing this? It's a waste of time. Like, yes, we're going to do a documentary showing the cavern days, and Sergeant Pepper and they're going to be like, why are you the 50th person? No, that is so great. Who's your favorite? I just go, you got to have a favorite.
I like Paul.
Wow.
I love Paul. Have you seen him play and he's unbelievable what he sounds like.
I mean, I agree with you on that. Great. We have an award for you. Okay. That's right. We do. This is now your fourth time interviewing with Young Hollywood. Uh-huh. Which ties you for the record for the all-time number of interviews with Jason Segel and Jackson Rathbone. Woo! So we have a very special gift for you. We are at the Four Seasons in Austin, and you know, we don't have a tremendous budget, but they do give out little shampoos in the hotel. Okay. So here we go. This is for you. May I present for the No. I want to present them. For fourth time. John. John. It's okay. John. There's your. Don't use it all in one day. Congratulations, Fred. You just dropped Ringo on my ass. It's okay. Fred, ladies and gentlemen, right here. How do you feel about? Would you like to make a speech?
Yes. Thank you very, very much. Never in all my years of doing this did I ever think that I would make it all the way to four. Let there be four more and four more after that, and then another four, and then another four. Four years to come. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for hanging out with me. Now let's take a nap.
Timestamps are approximate — click one to jump the player.
PEOPLE MENTIONED
- Fred Armisen
Featured guest, tying the YH interview record
- Michael Des Barres
Special guest co-host, actor/rocker
- Nikki Novak
Host of the interview
- Steve Jones
Musician, friend and cast in 'Portlandia'
- Larry King
Subject of Fred Armisen's impression
- Prince
Subject of Fred Armisen's impression
- Tiger Woods
Discussed as a difficult impression subject
- Steve Jobs
Discussed as an easy impression subject
- Ashton Kutcher
Mentioned in relation to Steve Jobs role
- Keith Moon
Discussed for a potential movie
- Paul McCartney
Fred Armisen's favorite Beatle
- Jason Segel
Mentioned for tying the 4-interview record with Fred Armisen
FAQ
What record did Fred Armisen tie at Young Hollywood?+
What animated show is Fred Armisen involved with?+
Who is the special guest co-host in the interview?+
Who is Fred Armisen's favorite Beatle?+
What award did Fred Armisen win for Portlandia?+
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