I think when you work with people who are super exceptional, there's simplicity to it because everybody is on the same page in terms of tone.
— Jonathan Krisel
I love awesome mixed drinks.
I want to work with extremely, genuinely charismatic people.
In your twenties, you might want to be radical and change the world, but in your thirties, you might just want to be happy and ground yourself.
I look at a show like 'Roseanne.' That's super influential on me. It's very funny, very real, with real problems. That was a big influence, and I don't know if you see that all the time in the network world.
Different actors have different rhythms. My goal as a director is to let these guys get their best work out.
I love working with nonactors.
If you have, especially with siblings, something like the competition for mom's affection, it just never goes away.
On 'Baskets,' I'm not sure what the demographic is.
For me, I love and hate Costco. I think it's ruined America and made America great.
With all the outlets, if you have a strong comedic voice, there's a venue to do your thing. It's a bit of a meritocracy, where the best stuff rises to the top.
You can use cheap technology to get a great look.
Bands on tour are very good cultivators of what's the avant-garde of comedy.
'Portlandia' is 100 percent improvised, and I came into this business not knowing anything.
There's a good family of actors in 'Portlandia.' It's a small community with people who pop up again and again. The show's a little weird show, and you want to grow with the people who are in it, like Dana who plays the chicken waitress, and Ellen who was the adult babysitter.
You can tell a lot about a person by what comedians they like.
Louie Anderson thinks my thing is the absurdness of reality. That's what we do on 'Portlandia' all the time. I try to bring that absurdness of reality to everything.
I think any person who is starting out in a creative endeavor is not going to be good at it right out of the gate.
There is no 'recycle too much.' That's an oxymoron.
With comedy, I've always had a pretty good sense of what I like and how to execute it well, but drama has its own rules.
I'm not a big 'scripted comedy' person necessarily. I'm open for wherever comedy can be found.
When people feel vulnerable, they make slapstick decisions.
You see a lot of comedic content that's not funny, and you can tell that it's supposed to be funny, but it's actually not funny.
I always want to push myself.
Nobody sets out to be evil. They're insecure, and they make bad decisions.
The end goal is to make a piece that everybody has ownership over and everybody's proud of because everybody contributed to it. I think there's a communist, socialist vibe to 'Portlandia' to make it work.
In Portland, it rains all the time - but who cares? That's not funny. That's not universal.
It's exciting being in the present. You're always reading emails, talking about the future, looking at pictures on Facebook of the past. But living in the present? It's almost a dead medium. I almost want to do a sketch about being in the present.
Once the big lights come in, you can feel self-conscious. How can you capture the scene without ruining it and freezing people up? You keep it small and lean.
I'm never trying to make something esoteric; it just happens.
A lot of the 'Portlandia' characters and a lot of the moments aren't really TV-worthy, but that's what is so refreshing about seeing them.
As the director, you have it in your mind how you want the part done, how you want someone to do it, and so sometimes you just say, 'Why don't I do it myself?' So for a little role, I'll just do it.
I loved 'Welcome to the Dollhouse.' That was one of the most influential movies ever. You know that genre with the nerdy girl, and she redeems herself in the end. Like 'Napoleon Dynamite.' And in 'Welcome to the Dollhouse,' she doesn't. She sucks. It's like, that's what's real. That's what's heartbreaking.
Certain shows, when it's all comedy, it's like when you eat something that's too sweet and it just tastes gross. You need that salted caramel.
When you make a pilot, you've never seen the show before; you don't know what it is.
I saw Sleater Kinney perform back when I was in college.
My whole thing is, you listen to the actor and help them bring out their best thing.
Everything else was snarky and high concept, while 'Roseanne' was just a normal family.
I love the beige, tan, stucco world where the sun bleaches things out to the point that it can look somewhat ugly.
One second here and there will make all the difference between something being funny and not being funny. That's why I like going, 'Well, we wrote that six months ago, and it was funny one time we read it, but it's not funny anymore. So what? Just dump it.'
I definitely feel the pressure to keep things fresh and original.
I know comedy; I know how to do crazy, off-the-wall stuff that makes me laugh out loud.
There's some moments in your life where you're just like, 'I need something just funny.' That's the noble thing you can do. Make someone forget about their life for 22 minutes.
It's how you define yourself. It's not Nirvana or Pearl Jam: it's, 'Do you watch 'Portlandia' or 'Amy Schumer'?' It relates to a specific sense of humor. And, 'Do you know the hidden gems?' Like, if you knew the Pixies in the '80s.
I'm a huge 'Twin Peaks' fan.
The Internet is a good way to try some stuff with no big crew and no money being spent. Since there are no stakes to it, you can try to be a little experimental.
There's a thing in comedy where you take one step into a bad idea, but if you take 10, then it becomes a good idea again.
Portland is a place where everyone closes their eyes and crosses their fingers and hopes for a better community. They keep it small and local, and usually they think if they just make great coffee, it's the best thing for the neighborhood.
A huge part of making something work is getting along with people you work with. You want them to succeed; you want them to bring their ideas to life as much as possible.
I always look at 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail.' They talked about how they wrote this movie with horses, and then they realized that horses are super-expensive and time-consuming. 'Why don't we just change it to coconuts?' That's part of my process.
