Back in July, the folks at IFC reached out to us asking if we'd like to be extras in an episode of Documentary Now!, the mockumentary series starring Bill Hader and Fred Armisen. We said "YES" before even hearing the details: the guys would be spoofing the Talking Heads' 1984 rock-doc Stop Making Sense. One of our favorites of all time!
On Thursday, July 7, hundreds of Doc Now fans lined up outside the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse—they'd all been invited to dress up in their best '80s gear and act as extras in the audience, just like us. The show? A 60-minute, live concert performed by the Fred Armisen-fronted Test Pattern, a fictional new-wave rock band with Bill Hader on bass and Maya Rudolph on keyboard and vocals (as well as a full backing band, two perky side vocalists and an entire Balinese gamelan ensemble... but we're getting ahead of ourselves). Every damn song in the show was written by Armisen—a pretty impressive feat.
Before the set, we had the opportunity to sneak backstage and spend some time with Bill Hader (who doesn't even know what Eggslut is!) and the evening's MC, John Mulaney. While not in any actual episodes, Mulaney is a producer on the show (along with Seth Meyers), and was in attendance to perform a short opening set and to basically keep the crowd under control until Test Pattern took the stage. Armisen, Hader and Rudolph played through their entire set twice in order to capture all the shots needed for the episode, titled "Final Transmission," which airs tonight on IFC at 10pm EST. Check out our behind-the-scenes adventure here, and tune in this evening to find us in the crowd!
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