Fred Armisen: A Literal Pyramid Scheme
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It's me, Robbie Lowe. Wow. Fred Armisen is here today. And we are starring together in a new show on Netflix. It is currently out. You can log on and see it. It is a comedy, super funny, called Unstable. It's co-created by my son and I based on our relationship.

I play an insane tech founder and Fred plays my psychiatrist. And he's just amazing on the show as he is in everything. So here's Fred Armisen from our new show, Unstable, currently on Netflix.

Fred, you look like you're dressed like you're climbing Mount Everest. Is it just cold in your studio? It's just cold in the studio. So I'm at this kind of studio office space and it's just a little chilly. So I sort of, you know, it was raining outside and I just...

It felt like not taking off my jacket. I hope that's okay. No, it's okay with me. Okay. But I was concerned that maybe the heating bill didn't get paid. I don't know. You're in Lhasa or some exotic location. I just didn't know. Or it could be Vancouver on a shitty project. I mean, I just don't know. Isn't it funny that we associate Vancouver with a shitty project? Oh, please. I mean, look, it's a wonderful place, but –

Yes. A wonderful place, but the project's like there's just a lot of production there and you just sort of end up... We've all ended up there. And it's fine, but... What's the worst location vis-a-vis the project? So here's the scenario for you guys out there. We get a script. It's like...

Takes place in, I don't know, ancient Rome. And like, yeah, so you're going to fret. Here's the offer. Here's the money. It's four weeks and we're shooting it. It takes us to ancient Rome and we're shooting it in Winnipeg. Do you ever have? You're excited for a moment. You're like, whoa. And then you're like, oh, man.

Okay. And then you look on a map. Do you ever look on a map and you go, oh, whoa. That's really far from everything. I mean, Winnipeg, great place. I've been there a bunch. But, you know, if you're working, you see a side of a city that becomes not as fun because it's not like, you know.

fancy dinner time or like, you know, shopping time. It's like this sort of, you're stuck in one part of town. But also you go, here's my issue with it is I go, what about shooting in, obviously we've made up the scenario. We've established we love Winnipeg. But what about Winnipeg makes you want to shoot an ancient Roman movie there? That's the part that drives me crazy. I know. That's so...

Especially – and this is maybe – I don't want to be partial to California. But it's just that we have so many studios here. And when I moved here, I was like, what happened to the whole idea that this is where all the studios were, that you can make anything here? I'd go to the Universal Studios ride and like, whoa, you could do Europe. It could look like Germany. It could look like –

Italy and all of a sudden we're just somewhere else. Here's my favorite. I'm shooting a miniseries that takes place in Nevada. I'm on the plane flying over Nevada. No. To go to South Africa. What? Oh, yeah. How about that? What? It's driving distance.

I would give you a ride to Nevada. That's how close it is. It's like, well, we could drive to the location or we could take the longest airline flight humanly possible. Yes. Let's take the longest airline flight humanly. But on the other side of it, though, I got to go to South Africa, which is one of the most amazing places I've ever been. I heard it's absolutely beautiful. Yeah, I heard it's great. So, like, I guess for every location we go on,

We also get to go to places we would never go and have amazing memories. That's a really great part of it. I will just – I will never understand economics because no matter how many times someone will say to me, hey, it's just the budget and this is how we save money. I'm like, you're getting first-class tickets for so many people or any kind of flight. That is not going to be cheap to get Americans over to. How are you saving money? How about this?

I just don't know. Robert Downey was telling me this, that on Sherlock Holmes, the first one, they shot anything that took place inside in Budapest because it was cheaper to build the sets. It's inside. It's inside. It can be in a warehouse in Van Nuys.

If they had acting classes or just whatever, whatever classes those are, I do wish that – maybe they do have this. They had classes about the economics of it all. Oh, I'll go even further. I wish they had acting classes that even halfway taught you what you were really going to expect really working on a set.

I bet you it's not. I feel like it's probably not taught. And we love our jobs, but there are things that you would never imagine are part of that, that we experience every day. And it's not a complaint. It's just that, you know, it's really early. It's a lot of waiting and it's some early, early mornings. My favorite is always, you have one big, you have a monologue. That's you're there to do this huge, one big scene, huge monologue. You prepared, you prepared, you prepared. You get there five in the morning and,

Going to make up, going to hair, you're like trying to, you're like buzzing, you're ready, you're up even though it's really early because you're pumped and they go, all right, so we're going to do some setting up and we'll let you know. And you go to the, then they ice you like a field goal kicker. Like an hour goes by, you haven't heard from anybody and finally somebody knocks on the door and like, we're having some technical stuff, but you know, once you relax, just to have some, we'll let you know when it's time to rehearse.

You go, another hour goes by, and then they knock you, and they go, about 10 minutes. We need you in about 10 minutes. You go, 10 minutes is actually 20 minutes, and then they take you for the rehearsal. You rehearse. It goes great. Now we're going to light it, and now they're breaking for lunch. So now you break for lunch, and then you come back, and everybody's slow after lunch, and they're like,

All right. 20 minutes. And then they knock on the door. But is it not 20 minutes? It's actually 30 seconds after they've told you. Yeah. And then you go and then you get there and then there's a guy with a with a buzzsaw in the next block. And they want to try to shut that down because it's ruining the sound. Yeah. So you go back to your trailer and you wait and they try it. The guy won't take 500 bucks. So you got to wait for him to finish doing the buzzsaw.

Then they come back to you and now you go back and you do it again. And now the sun's going down and you have about 15 minutes to do it. That should be no heat. The elephant, you only need a couple of takes. You do the first take. You feel good about it. They go, we have a focus issue. Do it again.

Again, the buzzsaw guy starts again. Anyway, at the end of the day, you end up with 30 seconds to do this scene that you've been preparing forever. That happens. I mean, I'm kind of doing a bit, but it's not really. Oh, this is not an exaggeration. Everything you just described, I've experienced it. That is for real. There's also this sort of, you think it's up to you what your best take was. You're like, oh my God, I killed it. It does not matter. They're like, well, there was this technical thing. Like you said, the focus.

There's a sound issue. It doesn't matter what you think. You do one that you think is great and there's no issues and the director goes, that's fantastic. Amazing. Let's do it again. Yes. Do it again for what? Why? Did you ever get into the hole of that second time that you do it, you're like, why are we doing it again? And then there's a new problem.

Yes. And then you're like, oh, we had it three ago. Now there's a brand new thing that like we've invented a new problem. The one for safety hole, I call it. Yes. And by the way, there's no safety anymore. It used to be there would be something with the film that you wouldn't know until the lab got it. Right. Now we don't shoot on film. There's no reason for safety. Nothing. You could watch it right away. You watch it right away. We don't have these problems on Unstable. I mean –

you know, on unstable. We, we, by the way, you're so fun in the show. You're hilarious. Have you seen, have you seen any of it yet? I've not seen any of it. I saw the trailer and, and some of the promotional stuff, but I have not seen it yet. What, how did it all come out? It's amazing. It is amazing. And you are so funny in it. I mean, I mean, one of my favorite things we put in the, I was like, we have to put this in the trailer where we're,

We talk about traveling and we say we want to go to Ibiza, the birthplace of civilization, where they invented the DJ. Right. It's funny. Our ice cream scene's really fun. The ice cream scene. It's all really, really fun. You're just spectacular. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so glad it all came out. So everybody, be sure to go onto Netflix and see Fred just absolutely destroying everything.

on unstable. Did you have a good time doing it? You guys were all, I had a great time. That was easy. I know things that's not the, you know, always the, you know, the reason to do anything, but it was easy in that I got to do like, you know, fun takes of things. And I really liked watching you guys work. This is what I learned about you, which is kind of, I don't know if I've ever told you this, but like,

you know, you've been doing this a while. Like you've been doing this for so long and on set,

you're not uh jaded or like i just want to go away you like hang out and you're not doing it as a favor like i guess i'll hang out you you're like really present you kind of want to goof around a little bit you want to talk to everybody you and uh i know it was great to see you it makes it makes the whole set very uh it just relaxes everything and then all of a sudden it's like a

like a light, fun experience. I love that. I love hearing that. It's, well, I always find that comedy, it's such a different vibe than my other show, 911 Lone Star, because that's, that's a drama. It's big. There's spectacle and unstable is just like how, how, what's the funniest we can possibly be like, and that I think lends itself to just hanging out and spitballing and being a goof with people. Like,

My favorite thing ever was where I'm hugging you as you're leaving the basement and I'm telling you what movies you should watch. And the fact that there is...

a joke about August Osage County makes me laugh so hard. There's no show in the world that's going to make a joke about August Osage County with this one. Like how much, how much do we say those words? How much do we ever put those words together? No. Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. Oh, I'm so glad. I also like to see, there's a scene where you try to take John Owens, his, is it, is there something, is it, what is he eating? And, and,

Oh, you won't. Yeah, it's so amazing. And how little John Owen, my boy, I thought he was he's so good in it. I didn't you know, you don't know as a father when you're working with somebody and you have so much invested in it, you're like kind of blinded. And but once you see it cut together, it's.

irrefutable. It's going to be what you're, there's going to be no denying what it is. You're going to be, oh, that's awful. Or, oh, that's great. And he's so good in it. Yeah, I remember working with him too. The look on his face is very sweet and earnest. He's got this kind of, which I really like. It really propels things along. Also, he was great. What a great guy. And I'm glad it worked out that way. When I've talked to you about your family life,

You're also not like everyone's getting there. Everyone's got to get into showbiz. That's not your deal. Like I would say the opposite. So this, this way it felt like the work was stood for itself. It spoke for itself. It was just like there, you know, he was there for the work and I really liked that too. It's such a fun set. Um, and, and it felt like camp to me. Yeah. I mean, it really felt like camp. Um,

Fred in the show plays the psychiatrist who tries to blackmail me and we put him and then I lock him in the basement of my mansion and then he doesn't want to leave because it's too fun to live in the mansion. No, I'm just I stay. I want to stay. And we're friends who can't quit each other. Yeah, that's pretty great.

When we can't quit each other, it's very Brokeback Mountain. Yeah. It's very. Yeah. I can't quit you. No. Oh, how about the, I'm realizing all my funny references about you have to do with food. Oh. Kettle corn is a great moment. Yes. I found kettle corn. Yeah. Variety pack. Yeah. I don't know what takes they use, but I think, yeah, we use variety pack and there were a couple other, whatever, flavors. Variety pack is in. Yeah. Okay, great.

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Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. You know, it's fun also about this show, and I think we really deliver it on, you know, comedies are very much of their time. And every once in a while, there'll be a quote-unquote timeless comedy, but they're really rare. Like, look, I love the screwball comedies as much as anybody, but when you watch those screwball comedies, Howard Hawks and everything get crushed, it's like, you don't really, they're of their time.

You know, comedy is like a, it's a sort of a young person's vibe and it has to be commenting or relevant to the times. And we're living in a time for whatever reason where comedy is,

isn't really laugh out loud. It isn't. We went through the irony period of David Letterman. Yeah. Right. Remember irony comedy? Yeah. Everything was ironic and eye rolly and Janine Garofalo and, you know, all that like the stuff. And now we're in a thing where it's like, is White Lotus a comedy? Really? Is it? Is Nurse Jackie

I mean, it's been off the air for a while, but Edie Falco won for best comic actor, won every award. Yeah, it just- Is Succession really a comedy? Succession? Yeah, there's- I love Succession. It's my favorite show on TV. But like, it's not 30 Rock. It's not The Office. Yeah. It's not Parks and Rec. And Unstable is. It's comedy in that vein. And there's not a lot of it out there. Yeah. It definitely had like the rhythm of it all was like,

Pure jokes. Pure jokes. Yeah. Yeah. But also there's also a school of comedy where it's set up joke punchline, set up joke punchline. That's very sitcom-y. Yeah. And that's not my, really my jam. I know it can be very popular. Yeah. But it's not that either. It literally is like Veep. Veep's a laugh out loud comedy. Yeah. In that zone. And I would say Arrested Development is another one. Sure. Yeah.

Like those are, those are the shows that influenced unstable. If you like those shows, you're going to love. Yeah. Stable 30 rock was a real that, uh, when that ended, I feel like nothing really replaced that. How? No, just like, it was like a machine gun of jokes. Did you ever do a 30 rock? Yes. What did you play? I played a neighbor who, uh, Liz or Tina's character, uh,

thought was a terrorist. - Amazing. - And so this character's like-- - Of course, oh of course, yes, it's famous. Yeah, it's amazing. - Like training in the park and just doing a lot of stuff sort of on the ground. And she's like, "That's a terrorist." And what he was training for was the Amazing Race.

No, it's amazing. I remember now, I can remember a knock on the door and you kind of barely open the door and stick your head out. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. She comes up with great stuff. 30 Rock is, it's my favorite comedy of all time, probably. Really? I think. Yeah, I'm with you. By the way, and I'm not saying this just to be whatever, but Portlandia is one of them too. Oh, thanks. Thank you. For sure. I mean, there's just so many comedies.

Because, I mean, if you want to go back, I mean, I'd go back to like SCTV and all that stuff. Well, those are sketch. Those are sketch. Okay. They're sketch shows, right? Yeah. And I guess Portlandia is kind of a sketch show. Yeah, it was a weird sketch. What was your favorite character to play on Portlandia?

I did this character with Carrie where we were sort of these goths and we called them the weirdos. They had sort of long black hair and like white face paint and like dark circles around their eyes. Just kind of really exaggerated goths. But we were kind of normal. We would just go to, you know, Target and stuff and or go to the beach. And that felt very, I just really love those characters. And I felt like I was in a cartoon or something.

It's fun to be in a living cartoon. Yeah. There's a little bit of that in Unstable. My character's a little bit like a cartoon. I like when you're the women that run the feminist bookstore. Yeah. That was based on a real place there. And yeah, those are pretty improvised. It was just us in those costumes. Yeah.

making stuff up because it's easy because we were sort of behind a sort of counter or register so we could just go off and talk about whatever was around us you know that's so amazing um oh tell me about so we talked last time you were on the podcast a little about documentary now and what's what's the status of that season uh that's out that's out on

AMC Plus and IFC is part of that. You know how all those companies kind of turn into one thing. And I loved it. It's one of my favorite things to do. We shot it all in England and it came out just the way we wanted it. One of them took place in Wales. We shot it in Wales. That's a place. That was one where we shot at the locations we...

We're sort of pretending to be at. It wasn't like, hey, this whole thing takes place in Wales, but we're shooting it in Salt Lake City. No, no. This was, yeah, this was Wales for Wales. Wales for Wales. And that was like a sports documentary where there was a sport where people just throw rocks at each other. Yeah.

And then we did another one in Blackpool about a hairdresser and Cate Blanchett was in that one. Oh, my God. Yeah. So I'm name dropping. I just dropped that name. No, you're not name dropping. Listen, I'm a big believer in the Ty Cobb quote, which is, it ain't bragging if you've done it. Great. How was she? What was it like to work with Cate Blanchett? She brings her own life.

like prosthetic teeth and like you know wigs and stuff so she really gets into it and she did the accent there's like a blackpool accent this blackpool is this city in england it's a little bit like our atlantic city or reno and man she really gets into it have you seen her have you seen tar yeah she's incredible todd field who wrote and directed it is a is a great old friend and

He only makes like one movie every 18 years since his last movie. I mean, so it's always... Can you imagine? He hasn't made a movie since 18 years. And then he made Tar. Because he has great taste and he doesn't want to just do anything. And he writes and directs his own stuff. How does he sustain himself? I mean, that's kind of... He has a commercial business. He directs. So, you know, it's like Ridley Scott. There's so many great directors who...

go out there and direct commercials and you never know. And, and that's what they do. And usually they're great commercials. That's great. What a great, you know, I guess I call it side job, but it's like, it's like a main thing that kind of fuels the rest of your interests. You know, what's like the old, I mean, it's been attributed to so many different actors, the, the, the equation of,

I do one for me and two for them. Oh, nice. Right? Which is meaning you do a passion project and then you do maybe one to, you know, big broad comedy to pay the bills or whatever. And then that finances and lets you go do the things that you think are really special. Do you think you have that in your life or in your work? I... You don't have to give anything away. No, no, no. Is there an element of that in your life? I definitely...

know that it's important. And I was just on this big trip. I was able to go to Egypt, Jordan, Israel. I just got back yesterday. I mean, just in terms of what you're asking me, what's interesting is you don't get people coming up to you in Jordan who they don't speak English. They're like literally people living like Bedouins, but they've somehow seen

Something I've done recognized in the weirdest places. And that that's from the ones that, you know, that are more audience centric. You know, that's why you do 911 Lone Star travels all over the world. You know, it's exciting.

And then, you know, they're not recognizing me from like, you know, behind the candelabra, you know, which is one you do for a totally different reason. And I do think you have to do both. I really, I really do. And I don't put one above the other because they're just, they're accomplishing different things. Yeah. But it's funny though, something like behind the candelabra, it does feel like that's at the forefront of your mind. You're like, no, this is my main thing.

thing. There's something about it that, uh, you just, there's like an assumption. You're like, Oh my God, this is going to be it. They're definitely, I mean, you know what it's like. I mean, cause you, you, you, uh, specialize in this is like where you have a part where you just know you're going to destroy and it may not even be the lead part. I mean, Michael Douglas and

And, Jesus, I'm getting so old. I just had a birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. So I can't think of Matt Damon's name. I've done it so much. I've done it with bands that I love where I'm like, what? I forgot their name? And I always see them. Why is it that you still see them in your mind's eye perfectly clearly? Yes. You think you wouldn't also...

You also wouldn't know any, you can't remember the name. You shouldn't remember anything about them. Absolutely. But yet you see their face right, like right there. You're like, I see Matt Damon. He's in his rugby outfit from that, you know, Morgan Freeman movie. He plays a rugby player. He's, he's dressed in his Martian suit. I mean, he's Matt Damon, but I can't think of his name. Wait, I have one right this very minute because my mind went to this. You mentioned Ty Cobb. Yes. Who's the actor who did the Ty Cobb? Is it Wiley Oda? Nope. Is it?

Who played Ty Cobb? From... I'm just exposing myself as... Now you can't even remember his credits. I'm trying to remember his credits. So I'm going to go to... Ty Cobb. Was that in Eight Men Out?

Tommy Lee Jones. Oh, look, they wrote Tommy Lee Jones. They wrote it. See, I try to be so smart. That was Elliot. Elliot, how the hell do you know Tommy Lee Jones in Eight Men Out? I don't understand. I fully, like, you're like Matt Damon, and all of a sudden I thought, I was like, oh, do I know? And now I know it's Tommy Lee Jones. But, yeah, my brain fully does that. Tommy Lee Jones is perfect for Ty Cobb, actually. Yeah, really. Like, just kind of...

You must know him. You know everybody. Yeah. San Ysidro Ranch is a big sort of fancy place here in Santa Barbara and like really like fancy, fancy, fancy. And I was there about, I don't know, six, seven years ago. And I'm and I look over and there's Tommy Lee Jones and I'm looking at him and he's just looking at me like Tommy Lee Jones. Right. Just giving me, you know, the Tommy Lee Jones stare.

And, you know, we're talking, talking. I keep looking at him. He keeps looking. We keep catching each other's eye. We catch each other's eye. And like about the seventh time I capture his eye, he literally goes, fuck you across the restaurant. Meaning what? And I look at him and he goes, fuck you.

He was just messing with me. He was just being just, he was unbelievable. He's just, he is a badass, a real badass. Where's he from? Is he from? You know, the thing about Tommy Jones, he went to, he went to Yale and it was, this is a famous story. Everybody knows that went to Yale and he's Al Gore's roommate. Right. Yeah. He's a Rhodes scholar.

But I say to timely June to fuck you. One time I was in Santa Monica and I went to breakfast at like a little, at a diner. I like going to breakfast at diners, right? Me too. Scrambled eggs, toast. And it's also. I scrambled eggs this morning. Scrambled eggs, bacon. I'm sorry. I could eat it every morning. So nice. Like it's salty and nice. And also like there's something nondescript about diners and, um,

God, I hope this is an okay story. And then... Couldn't be worse than fuck you. No, or better than. I mean, that's pretty good. It'd be funny if it was exactly the same story. And you're like, no, I just told you that. But I saw Dick Van Dyke. Dick Van Dyke just walked in and he sat at the counter. And I was amazed. Like, whoa, that's totally him. And he was being friendly with everybody. And...

Really sort of chatting with everyone, politely eating. And he was happy to be there. Very cheerful. Then I tried to make eye contact with him. Sort of like, you know, I had already been on Saturday Night Live. And it was a little bit of like, I hope he notices that I'm this comedian. And sure enough, he did. We started sort of making eye contact and nodding at each other. And he came up to me.

And, you know, sort of acknowledged, hi, how are you? And I mean, his first line of business was, do you know who Brody Stevens is? Brody Stevens, you know that comedian? He's a comedian like in this sort of, I want to say an alternative. No, he was a touring comedian. He passed away recently, but that's who he wanted to talk about was this other comedian and-

I really loved that he took this moment to talk about somebody else because he really loved Brody Stevens. It's obscure enough that it's amazing that he would be hip to Brody Stevens. Yes. And to want to talk to me about it. Yeah. But God, he was great. It was great to see him. That's my story. I got a good Lorne story. Okay, let's hear it. Anybody who's a longtime listener knows that I love me a good Lorne Michaels story.

You know, the thing about comedy is it's a young man's game. At a certain point when Dick Van Dyke would enter and fall over the ottoman, you worried for his health. It's really true. I need to talk to you about the Californians, my all-time favorite. What are you eating here? Rob took the 405. I guess, wait, you went up to, if you went up to Santa Barbara, I guess you took the one.

You took the one and then you lost process. Or maybe if you're smart, you waited to rice. And then to the 101. It's just the best. It's my favorite. It's one of my all-time favorites.

favorite sketches ever. But it's true. People in California are obsessed with giving directions on how to get places. Well, it's just, it's always been my experience here. And I, I'm always giving directions and sort of bragging about like what route I took somewhere. So, um, it just came from that. It was like a bit that we would do at the read through table because we would all just have been in LA. So I'd say to Bill Hader, Oh, I was just in LA. And then we'd sort of start joking. I remember Keenan would chime in too, um,

We just joke about – I remember always saying – or Bill would always say the word barum. I took barum over to Sepulveda. Sepulveda. So it just came from that and a little bit also from Dana Carvey, who I was not on the cast with. I was speaking to him separately. He did an impression of his son.

And his son, he's like, I can't get mad at my son. His son got pulled over or something. And he's like, so where Dana was supposed to be like mad at him, he was just, he's like, no, but dad, no, but dad. So he did this face. So the impression is a little bit of Dana Carvey's son too. I'm sorry, Dana Carvey doing an impression of his son. I also like the sort of smash cuts where you guys are like shocked when somebody-

says something yeah it's a little zoom in that's like the sort of soap opera element to it and you have to find your camera right like yeah yeah what you know what camera is going to be your close-up that's what most of the rehearsals were like okay that one's mine maybe like three out there

And that one I wrote with this writer, James Anderson. And this is just like typical like writer stuff where like I only had the idea of doing directions. And he was the one who was like, no, it should be a soap opera. And then see, that's, that's how the sausage is made at SNL is. And that's what people don't really realize. Anytime I've done something, I, I, I go, Oh,

Back in the day, I'd go, I do a really good Arsenio Hall. Talk about how long ago that was. And they're like, okay. And then they make it something else. Or I do a Stone Phillips and you should be doing bumpers for the show, not the actual show. You have the directions and they're so good at fleshing out what might be just otherwise sort of a one note idea. Yeah, that would go nowhere. But it takes someone else to sort of give it the right framing. Yeah.

So it's really, yeah, it's really true. All set for your flight. Yup. I've got everything I need. I'm a snake pillow, T-Mobile headphones. Wait, T-Mobile. You bet. Free in-flight wifi, 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes from a water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

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Meet the next generation of podcast stars with Sirius XM's Listen Next program, presented by State Farm. As part of their mission to help voices be heard, State Farm teamed up with Sirius XM to uplift diverse and emerging creators. Tune in to Stars and Stars with Issa as host Issa Nakazawa dives into birth charts of her celeb guests. This is just the start of a new wave of podcasting. Visit statefarm.com to find out how we can help prepare for your future.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. What are you working on now? Where am I finding you? What's the latest in your universe? In the Fred Armisen universe. Everybody has to have a universe today. Yeah. I feel like I'm working on three different things all in the writing stage. And it's...

All of that is like the perfect place to be. Like I like that things are sort of coming together and we're going out to pitch some stuff like soon. I don't know, next month or something. So it's like I feel like I'm working on many different things at the same time. Do you write with people or by yourself or both? No, with people. Always? I'll start by myself. I'll come up with some idea and then I can only get –

one episode done it's the weirdest thing where i only like thinking of a pilot episode or what the first episode and i never want to do the rest like i'm like this is how it starts i don't have the ability to like then what happens and then the character goes through this i'm like i always want someone else to come up with that i just like the initial concept of

And then for someone else to like take it somewhere else. And it's turned out for the best that way. Because then people think of things that never would have occurred to me. That makes – I think also comedy is just – it would be hard to do alone. I mean, making each other laugh in the room or wherever you're writing is half the battle, don't you think? Totally. Otherwise, yeah, you're just like making yourself laugh kind of and –

So yeah, I just like doing one, like one episode and then bringing someone else in and that's great. And then a lot of music stuff, you know, I go and play drums on late night with Seth Meyers. I've been doing this other weird thing lately where I've been going to record stores with a guitar. I mean, I book it and then I do covers. I just go and play covers and,

That's amazing. What kind of covers? Well, I did not set up my camera this way for this podcast, but those are the covers right there. I just made a list. A little, can you go get the board and bring it to me? They're just like punk rock classics. Let's see. So punk rock's the genre.

He's taking his headphones off. He can't hear me. But here comes the board. I don't have my headphones in, so I hope they're still there. But the thing is like... Oh, Police on My Back. Amazing. Yeah, that's the clash. I love that song. Originally written by Eddie Grant. Never Talk to You Again, Husker Du. Can't Make It on Time, The Ramones. Gangsters by The Specials. I Could Be Happy by Altered Images. It's just like songs that I like and it just...

makes me feel good to like come home after that. It's like the act of playing a guitar. There's, these aren't songs that I wrote like, Oh, look how talented I am. And you know, none of that. It's all like, it's like the people who show up, it's almost like reminiscing together.

So is it a surprise thing or is it... No, no, no. I book it. They announce it. Are you going to be in LA anytime? I usually do it at this place called the Permanent Records, which is right near this office. So it's like a way to keep music in my life. And also like...

I love going on tour, but it's nice to be home to go out and do shows around here. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I got to come see that. That would be amazing. What kind of guitar? Do you play acoustic or you plug in? Electric. And then I'll have a loop pedal where I could do a little drum part. So I'll just play a little drum part and it'll go underneath it.

And then just, you know, just keep it simple. Have you ever seen any of the celebrity bands like Kevin Costner band or the, or the. No. And Kevin Bacon. I think he's got. Well, the Bacon brothers. Yeah. You know who else has a band? I think is again, I can see it. Here it is. I'm looking at his face in my mind and I'm not thinking Dennis Quaid. Oh, Dennis Quaid. Okay. I think Dennis Quaid has modern West is Kevin Costner's band.

Good name, Modern West. And then there's one more we're missing. Do you remember? Well, I don't know. I grew up in Ohio and there was the Ohio State Fair. That was always a big thing. State fairs are still a really huge thing. And you would always see like that would be the bullseye. It's like Kevin Costner. Yeah, yeah. It's just must be fun for them to get to go play. And it's like almost like also there's no expectations, really. Like that's the fun of it.

Right. Is it just for entertainment? It's not like we have to have a hit record. It's like just to play for fun. Not that they're doing it for money, but that's, as you know, the touring is, that's where it's all at. Everybody's touring now. The musicians I've spoken to have said it's really hard out there as far as like trying to make a profit. Oh my God, I'm talking about money so much. I turned this into a money podcast.

Money and food, because it started out food. Now it's into money. All the things that are important. Money and food. Financial advice. We should just give financial advice. You go to your bank and put it up. Fuck you. With the middle finger up. Come on. In the middle of- Fuck you. That's powerful. In the middle of a blue blood restaurant. Yeah.

That's good. That's impressive. I mean, you got to give it up to him. Yeah. Tell me about History of the World Part II. That is this show that Nick Kroll worked on, or he's one of the producers on. And that's just like every comedian in that scene. Right. Whatever. The LA comedy scene is in it. And it's just a goofy thing where I play an alien in Egyptian times who –

is like selling pyramids but it's a real pyramid scheme like a literal pyramid scheme

So it's like you can make a pyramid, but what you do is you sell those materials for other people to make pyramids, and then you sell them the materials. So you make the money from the pyramid. It's a great concept. That is a great concept. I was literally at the pyramids this week. This week, at the pyramids. How close did you get to be to them? I was lucky enough to go with...

My friend Peter Guber, who owns the Golden State Warriors and very accomplished man, world traveler. And he puts these incredible trips together and he was able to have them shut down the entire complex. It was just us.

At the pyramids and the Sphinx with the leading Egyptologist in the planet. What? Yeah. I mean, if you... But what do you mean was able to? What does that take? Planning? Planning. And I think it takes a substantial donation to the Egyptologist...

And they do it for people. I mean, you'll see a photo of Will Smith there or President Clinton. So they definitely do it. But it's very, very, very rare to be next to the Sphinx and walk around it and touch it and

Usually, you know, if you just go there, you can't get anywhere really near it. And it's the Egyptologist, by the way, was not having any of the ancient alien stuff because I tried. I was like, I brought it up and he was not happy. He was there. Can I say they are not down to clown with ancient alien stuff? No. At all. He's like, you think I studied this much for you to make it turn into a joke?

I'm like, it's not a joke. I mean, what if it's actually an energy source and that the obelisks are part of the energy source? And he was no, he shut it down fast. No, he's like, I discovered the village last year with the papyrus that talks about.

I had this many people working for me. I had this many calves we slaughtered. So people built it. I'm like, well, but did they though? Or did they just refurbish it from when? And he's like, I'll answer your question. No, they did it. They made it. Now, what was your like, what, from looking at photos, what, seeing it live or seeing it in person, what didn't you realize? Yeah.

It is one of those places, if you ever are blessed enough to go there, nothing can prepare you for it. Nothing. Now, granted, I like history, so I'm predisposed to loving something like that. But you go there and it blows your mind. The scale, how old it is. And what you realize is that...

What they were doing, the ancient Egyptians, and on such a scale, level of sophistication and scope everywhere, everywhere. And it's basically lost to the sands of time that that could happen to us in two seconds. Like we we kind of think that we're the top dog and we're on top of everything and we're there. Yeah.

It could happen to us just as easily. If it happened to them, then that's what you get when you go there. Wow. You know what I mean? That's what I come away with. I wonder what people learned about history, Egyptian history, in, say, 1600. So this was buried. What did people know about Egypt before they've discovered anything like this? That's exactly the issue. Here's the thing that blows my mind. Cleopatra.

lived closer to the invention of the iPhone than she did to the building of the pyramids. How is that possible? That's the math. That's how old the pyramids are. So if we met Cleopatra, we'd be like, hey, you know, you're so great. What's it like being from the time of the pyramids? She would be like, I'm not from then. She's like, the pyramids? That's from way before me. That's way before. That's ancient history.

Don't pin me. Don't connect me to that. I got to see, I got to take a selfie with Tutankhamen, his body, his head. What? They just unwrapped him. They just unwrapped his mummy last year. But if you go on my Instagram, you can see a selfie I took with Tutankhamen.

Oh, I got to see it. I was going to ask you what he looks like. His head is very small. It was unbelievable. But I want to see you playing in Egypt. Did you have like a head – were you dressed like – Oh, no. They really like – because it's this kind of – I'll even call it a sketch show. They made it really like goofy looking. Meaning I look like someone dressed up as an alien dressed up as an Egyptian.

That sounds delicious. So it's like an alien face, but like with Egyptian stuff on. That sounds delicious to me. It was like, it was dumb and fun. Dumb and fun. And that brings me back to Unstable. It's both smart and dumb at the same time. That's the sweet spot. That's the place to be. I got to say, like, you...

Because of Parks and Rec, actually, I mean, maybe even going back to Hotel New Hampshire, but I feel like basically you're in that comedy world anyway. So getting to do those scenes with you, I just felt like a link to all the comedy stuff you've done. I love that. That's a huge compliment coming from you. I mean, my comedy idols, you're definitely one of them. And I thought we had so much fun. And if we get to do a season two,

We've thought of some really fun stuff. I hope you'll come back. Absolutely. We got, I mean, I'm half tempted to tell you what the opening of season two is. And it is amazing for you and I. Great. Amazing. Great. I'm in in a second.

Well, hopefully everybody out there is watching on Netflix. It's out now, Unstable. And the more you watch it, the more likely Fred and I get to work together again. That's right. You got to download it. You got to watch the whole. Here's the other thing, one thing, and I'll finish with this. I really wanted the show to be fast. I wanted it to fly.

And it does. You can watch the entire season of Unstable in less time than it took you on Netflix to watch The Irishman. That's a good use of your time. That's good use of time. That might be the ad. Did you – were you – I mean, technically, you couldn't edit, but were you – did you chime in? Oh, I more than chimed in. I was in their –

All the way through the editing. I mean, it was a you know, it's it's my son, myself and Victor Fresco. So there's a negotiation that goes on. I don't I didn't win every battle, but I won a lot of them. And and I definitely exerted a lot of will on the editing because I'm a big believer that it's that that it should fly. Comedy should fly. I didn't you know, there was a lot of discussion about like letting a joke.

land and all that stuff and I don't believe in that I'm with you everyone's busy everyone's just like we you know lingering on something no just no lingering

No loitering. No lingering. No lingering. No loitering. That should be – boy, that should be a sign in editors' rooms. No loitering. Meaning you don't have to like sit with the joke and think about it. That was a big – we had a big discussion about that. And happily at the end of the day, I won that discussion because I think it might be a generational thing. I don't know. But all of my favorite comedies are like –

You almost can't laugh because it's coming at you so fast. Yeah. And you don't miss it. The stuff you cut out, you don't miss. No. No, for sure. Well, this has been great. Hopefully, we'll be seeing each other again this summer to have some more fun. I hope so, too. On Unstable. It's always great to see you. This is a good excuse for us to get to talk and hang out. I know, for sure. You can't fret. He's undeniable. What are you going to do? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Super fun always to see Fred. Don't forget, you can catch him at Permanent Records Roadhouse playing his tunes, doing his thing. Police on my back. That's the one I want to hear. Again, if you had any fun, listen to us. Don't forget Netflix. Unstable. Currently streaming. He's super funny. I guarantee it. Ring. Ring. What's that? Oh, it's the lowdown line. Hello. You've reached literally in our lowdown line.

where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep.

Hi, Rob. This is Anne from South Bend, Indiana. I've heard people in show business say you should never work with children or animals, but between Dog Gone and Holiday in the Wild, it seems like you're running towards projects where you get to work with animals in gorgeous locations. So I'm wondering, what were those experiences like, and how was it working with those animals, and how does it

make you feel about working with animals again in the future. Love the podcast. Thanks for taking my question. Oh, thank you so much. It is true that working with kids and animals is technically difficult. Forget the fact that you're likely to be upstaged because let's face it, if a little cute kid brings their A game or a cute dog brings their A game, there's no actor that's good enough to stand up to that. I don't care if you're Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm sorry.

People love a good dog and they love a cute kid. You're just screwed. You're going to be second fiddle. My ego can take it. I'm capable of being second fiddle. The real reason also, though, is technically kids can only work a certain amount of time. So it's a very complicated scheduling, makes the days longer. And animals, you know, they're animals. They're not actors. So in Dog Gone, the dog had to jump through a screen door. He'd been training for months to do it and he wouldn't do it.

Just wouldn't do it. Didn't want to do it. And so then you have to re-figure out the sequence. So there's always going to be something when you're working with an animal. But that said, I do like movies that have kids and animals in them because they're touchstones. Animals and kids are things that we love. And if you're doing a movie with that, then you're likely dealing with a theme that's going to be

important to people and that people are going to relate to. And I know I relate to a really good dog movie. So very, very happy. So thank you all who made Doggone number one movie on Netflix. And thank you for the question. Anyway, I'll see you next week. I'll be happy to be back with more fun and games here on Literally. Thanks for listening.

You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Rob Schulte, with help from associate producer Sarah Bagar. Our research is done by Alyssa Grahl. The podcast is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. All of the music on this podcast was composed by Devin Bryant. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe.

This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel.

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply.

Meet the next generation of podcast stars with Sirius XM's Listen Next program, presented by State Farm. As part of their mission to help voices be heard, State Farm teamed up with Sirius XM to uplift diverse and emerging creators. Tune in to Stars and Stars with Issa as host Issa Nakazawa dives into birth charts of her celeb guests. This is just the start of a new wave of podcasting. Visit statefarm.com to find out how we can help prepare for your future.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.