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Fred Armisen
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Fred Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American musician, comedian, and actor, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
sen began his career in 1988 when he moved from New York to Chicago to play drums for the punk rock band Trenchmouth. In the 1990s, he played background drums with Blue Man Group in Chicago, and in 1997, he toured with Those Bastard Souls, a project of David Shouse of The Grifters which also featured The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd.
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Encyclopedia
Fred Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American musician, comedian, and actor, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
Music career
Armisen began his career in 1988 when he moved from New York to Chicago to play drums for the punk rock band Trenchmouth. In the 1990s, he played background drums with Blue Man Group in Chicago, and in 1997, he toured with Those Bastard Souls, a project of David Shouse of The Grifters which also featured The Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd. He also plays drums on three tracks on Les Savy Fav's 2007 album Let's Stay Friends.
Discography
| Year | Title | | 1996 | The Broadcasting System | | 1994 | Trenchmouth Vs. the Light of the Sun | | 1993 | Inside the Future | | 1991 | Construction of New Action: Volume 1: First There Was Movement |
Television and film career
While playing with Trenchmouth, Armisen's interests switched to performing. In a January 2006 interview with The AV Club, he explained it this way:
- I wanted to be on TV somehow. For some reason, I always thought it would be an indirect route, I didn't know that it would be comedy and Saturday Night Live. I just wanted to do something with performing that would lead me there.
Armisen's subsequent television work, such as some "memorable Andy Kaufman-esque appearances" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as well as work for Crank Yankers and Adult Swim, led in 2002 to a role as a featured player in the cast of Saturday Night Live. In the 2004 season, he was promoted to a repertory cast member. Armisen has done a handful of supporting roles in comedy films, such as the creepy Italian man in the film Eurotrip and roles in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Deck the Halls, The Ex, The Promotion, and The Rocker.
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|
| 2008 | Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job | KJ Nutt | Guest star, episode: "Pepperoni" | | 2008 | Squidbillies | Miguel | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Krystal Light | | 2008 | Aqua Teen Hunger Force | Male Robot | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Robots Everywhere" | | 2007 | 30 Rock | Raheem | Guest star, episode: "Somebody to Love" | | 2006 | Freak Show | Dane Cheff | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Elections" | | 2006 | Tom Goes to the Mayor | Phillip Priest/Serpent Expert | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Jeffy the Sea Serpent" | | 2006 | Squidbillies | Jesus | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Giant Foam Dickhat Trouble" | | 2005 | Squidbillies | Miguel | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Office Politics Trouble" | | 2005 | Squidbillies | Miguel | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Take This Job and Love It" | | 2004 | 12:21 | Jeremy | Television special | | 2004 | Aqua Teen Hunger Force | Poncho | Guest star, voice only, episode: "Hypno-Germ" | | 2003-present | Crank Yankers | Chip Douglas | Guest star, multiple episodes | | 2002-Present | Saturday Night Live | Various Characters | Series regular | | 2002 | Late World with Zach | Various Characters | Guest star, multiple episodes | | 2002 | Next! | Various Characters | Series regular, failed television pilot | | 2001 | Late Friday | Fericito | Guest star, episode: "Episode #1.12" | | 2001 | Late Friday | Father Fred | Guest star, episode: "Episode 1.8" |
SNL characters and impressions
The following is a partial list of notable roles Armisen has played in Saturday Night Live sketches.
Notable characters
- K.J. Nutt, hole expert, from "Hobby Holes," featured on Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job
- Billiam —a gay man in space who appears in the "Gays in Space" sketches.
- Billy Smith—a Native American stand-up comedian who tells Native American themed jokes that no one gets.
- Fericito—a Venezuelan nightclub comedian and host of
¡Show Biz Grande Explosion! Gabe Fisher—a Jewish man who takes many adult classes as a member of the Adult Students. Gunther Kelly—a man who performs songs on Weekend Update with his brother Patrick (played by Will Forte) Leonard—The strange European host of the foreign music show Club Traxx. Mackey—a senile drummer who often does rimshots at inappropriate moments and appears in the "Rialto Grande" sketches. Noony Schoener—a quirky, foreign art dealer who appears with his wife Nuni Schoener (played by Maya Rudolph) in the "The Schoeners" sketches) Frondi—a mentally challenged character who criticizes Ben Affleck's movie Gigli to Ben himself.Nicholas Fehn—a political comedian who improvises his jokes but never ends up actually making his point clear and often overlaps his sentences.Roger A. Trevanti—Greedy studio head and AMPTP member who rails against the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.
Notable impressions
Armisen has done impressions of political figures such as Hugo Chávez, Vicente Fox,
Barney Frank, George H. W. Bush, and Mike Gravel.
He has also impersonated film and television celebrities past and present such as Martin Scorsese, Desi Arnaz, Corbin Bleu, Joy Behar, George Carlin, Dov Charney, David Gregory, Larry King, Penny Marshall, David Lee Roth, Liberace, Gene Simmons, and Lawrence Welk.
His list of impressions has also included:
- Barack Obama—recurring in Season 33 and Season 34 episodes as the Democratic presidential candidate (Season 33), the Democratic nominee, President-Elect, and President (Season 34), beginning on February 23, 2008.
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—played the Iranian President in an SNL Digital Short called "Iran So Far" with a cameo by Jake Gyllenhaal and Adam Levine of Maroon 5. Also appeared on Weekend Update (both occurrences premiered on Saturday, September 29, 2007).
- Camilla Parker-Bowles—British duchess who appears on Weekend Update with her husband, Prince Charles (played by Seth Meyers).
- Prince—A parody of the musician as the host of a talk show called
The Prince Show, with Beyoncé Knowles (played by Maya Rudolph) as his co-host. Armisen, a fan of Prince since childhood, created the sketch as a way of improving his chances of meeting the musician.John Oates—In a Weekend Update Thursday sketch with, Daryl Hall (played by Will Forte).Steve Jobs—Apple CEO who appears on Weekend Update to show off strange new technology. Armisen has stated that Steve Jobs is the celebrity he enjoys impersonating most.Tony Danza, in the one-shot sketch "The American Trainwreck Awards" (an awards show highlighting disastrous moments in American pop culture) and in an Anderson Cooper 360 sketch where he is one of the many celebrities rebuilding the homes of Hurricane Katrina victims.Judge Larry Seidlin, on Weekend UpdateHowie Mandel, whom Armisen has done both in a Deal or No Deal parody and as a guest host waiting in the wings for Regis and KellySam Waterston, as Jack McCoy from Law & OrderDavid Paterson, lieutenant governor turned governor of New York, first appeared on Comedy Central's Night of Too Many Stars and again on two Weekend Update segments (the first on the Christmas 2008 episode hosted by Hugh Laurie and the Super Bowl episode hosted by Steve Martin).Javier Bardem as his character Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old MenBruce Springsteen in a parody of We Are the World spoofing the ailing economyRichard Wolffe, the White House senior writer for Newsweek magazine and contributor to MSNBC, most notably on Countdown with Keith Olbermann in a spoof of the show on November 1, 2008 with guest host Ben Affleck as Keith Olbermann.Paul Lynde, is among the celebrities of the 1970s being interviewed in a parody of Frost/Nixon. Armisen also played a one-time character based on Lynde.Bernard Madoff in the January 17, 2009 Weekend Update segment and in a sketch where Madoff (under house arrest) tries to invite his friends over to his apartment for a Super Bowl party.
Filmography
Other work
In 1998 he posed as a music journalist for the short film Fred Armisen’s Guide to Music and South by Southwest. It was filmed by then-girlfriend Sally Timms and featured Armisen's "pranking musicians and industry types" during the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas.
Armisen is also part of ThunderAnt, a comedy duo with former Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein. The duo specializes in creating comedic short skits often times about independent vocations such as one man shows, feminist bookstores, and bicycle rights activists.
Armisen has directed music videos for bands like The Helio Sequence. Armisen also had a role in the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, which featured footage from his stint opening for front man Jeff Tweedy's 2001 solo tour. He also appeared in video segments on Blue Man Group's How to be a Megastar Tour 2.0. Armisen occasionally writes for Pitchfork Media and interviewed Cat Power for that company. Fred appeared as Jens Hannemann on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 19, 2007, promoting a 28-minute DVD called Fred Armisen presents Jens Hannemann: "COMPLICATED DRUMMING TECHNIQUE".
On SNL, Armisen often plays musical instruments in sketches, has two recurring characters who are musicians (Mackey the drummer from the Rialto Grande and Ferecito from Showbiz Grande Explosion) or impersonates famous figures in the music world such as Liberace, Phil Spector, Lou Reed, and Prince.
Personal life
Armisen's mother is Venezuelan and his father is German and Japanese, simultaneously making Armisen SNLs second Asian-American castmember (after Rob Schneider, who is part Filipino) and Hispanic-American castmember (after Horatio Sanz, who is Chilean).
Armisen is currently engaged to Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men.
External links
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