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Fred Armisen Stars in Alix Lambert’s Superhero Comedy Ambiance Man
Ambiance Man is a new comedy web series from MOCAtv created and directed by filmmaker (and sometime Filmmaker contributor) Alix Lambert and starring, as the eponymous superhero, Portlandia‘s Fred Armisen. The concept, Lambert says, hails from her teens, when she imagined a superhero who would sweat the small stuff. She tells MOCA, “Ambiance Man is a series about a super hero who fixes what we really need fixed in our day-to-day lives. While most super heroes are focused on preventing the end of the world, Ambiance Man is focused on transforming the moments that feel like the end of the world.”
Creator Alix Lambert’s idea for the series has been germinating for the better part of three decades — influenced by a friend’s roommate who was dubbed “Ambiance Man.” Every time the roommate would pass through the living room, Lambert said, “Ambiance Man” would light a candle or spruce up the room. Thus, a hero was born.
“There has been this resurgence of the superhero in general,” she told Mashable. “But it’s always like this save-the-world, huge thing, and I think that people have, every day, these moments where they just wish they had an extra bit of help. I think that people have, every day, these moments where they just wish they had an extra bit of help.”
Ambiance Man premiered on Thursday as the centerpiece of a a MOCA program devoted to “Art + Comedy, referencing “the art historical tradition of comedic performance by artists including Alex Bag, Kate Berlant, Dynasty Handbag, Andy Kaufman, Martin Kersels, William Powhida, and David Robbins.” (HuffPo covered the evening here.) Future episodes of Ambiance Man, including ones featuring Jack Black as well as Atsuko Okatsuka, lead in Filmmaker‘s Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You winner Littlerock, are forthcoming on MOCAtv. For now, though, check out the debut episode above and episode two at the link.
