Episode 1132 - Amber Preston / J-L Cauvin
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what the fucksters what's happening sorry i just knocked the mic i knocked it and i i'm trying to have a good tone about this because i really i don't want to get to the point where i'm bumming people out where they're like is marin still fucking sad
Marc:I am.
Marc:I am sad, but I'm finding little nuggets of okayness here and there.
Marc:Like no matter how far the shit goes down the toilet in the world, I can still sit on my porch and pretend like things are okay.
Marc:But monkey is definitely winding down.
Marc:Like today, earlier today, before I recorded this, he's kind of like stashing himself in a weird place.
Marc:Not a good sign.
Marc:But I got him out and he got on my chest and he just laid there and I literally cried and told my cat I loved him and that we have a lot of good memories.
Marc:And we do.
Marc:That's the fucked up thing, man.
Marc:By the way, Amber Preston, the comedian who I met in the Midwest, I believe in Minneapolis, used to open for me here and there, will be on the show.
Marc:Also, J.L.
Marc:Covan, who does a pretty startlingly funny, if it's even possible, Trump impression.
Marc:I'm going to talk to him for a few minutes as well.
Marc:But it's strange.
Marc:It's not that I have... I guess a lot of people have pictures of their children growing up.
Marc:I have pictures of my cat, but not really growing up.
Marc:But I've been through so many different lives.
Marc:I've been through so many lives.
Marc:And I got these cats in fucking 2004...
Marc:in the summer.
Marc:So the original crew of the five, the two, LaFonda and Monkey, ended up having this amazing life and being out here.
Marc:But what Monkey has been through with me is insane.
Marc:I can mark the time with Monkey.
Marc:I know when I finally brought him back, I got him to the house in Highland Park in Los Angeles.
Marc:And I remember I left him there and I had to go back to New York and I was married to Mishina at the time and she couldn't find Monkey.
Marc:And then apparently he just stuck his head out of the chimney vent.
Marc:He had climbed up in there.
Marc:But I can mark the times of my life.
Marc:He's been with me for 16 years.
Marc:And I have a hard time marking the times of my life with people I've been with or relationships I've had or phases and different levels of depression, breakup, insanity.
Marc:And Monkey was there.
Marc:He was there.
Marc:I don't want to do a premature obituary.
Marc:I'm just trying to steal myself again.
Marc:I'm trying to steal myself.
Marc:I connected with him.
Marc:He felt the love.
Marc:It's a fucking cat, I know, but it's Monkey.
Marc:He's my favorite one.
Marc:And just realizing that the two things that I've really let myself love in a very deep way, maybe ever, I'm going to lose fairly close to each other.
Marc:Maybe some miracle will happen and monkey will persist and keep living.
Marc:But I don't know.
Marc:He's acting weird.
Marc:He's fucking old as fuck.
Marc:He's drinking a lot of water.
Marc:He's still eating.
Marc:He's still purring.
Marc:He's still coming around.
Marc:Still taking his medicine.
Marc:Going to the bathroom.
Marc:He's not throwing up.
Marc:No diarrhea.
Marc:No fucking, I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I just know he's drinking a lot of water.
Marc:And he's looking a little loopy, looking a little skinny.
Marc:But that's the thing, man.
Marc:It's like, you know, he doesn't know it, but I know it.
Marc:I can look at my life with that cat.
Marc:He's been through all of it.
Marc:I just remember when I was so sad, I had to go back to New York to take the job, to end the divorce, to get the money, to stop the hemorrhaging.
Marc:I was devastated, man.
Marc:That was devastating.
Marc:And this is devastating, what I'm in now.
Marc:I guess somehow maybe it prepared me.
Marc:You know, me taking all these risks by not staying with people or making the compromises necessary or being a fucking asshole or just having a tragic thing happen.
Marc:I guess I'm somewhat have been through some shit, it seems, in this life.
Marc:Now, I'm that guy.
Marc:But I just remember I didn't know what to do.
Marc:I had to go back to New York.
Marc:And I was lonely.
Marc:And I actually loaded Monkey up and brought him back to New York with me.
Marc:I left La Fonda here with some other cats, Fat Moxie and Boomer.
Marc:I took Monkey back and me and Monkey did like a year in New York together and came back.
Marc:Like that was the relationship I had with this fucking cat.
Marc:And I guess he's hanging on.
Marc:I'm hanging on.
Marc:You know, it's like, it really is something, this grief business.
Marc:That sort of the fear of forgetting is powerful.
Marc:Like I've taken it upon myself.
Marc:I have Lynn's jacket and hat and boots sort of near the door.
Marc:And I don't, I finished a Joan Didion book, by the way.
Marc:People recommend books.
Marc:And again, people have been great.
Marc:Still being great.
Marc:A lot of love goes out to Tom Sharpling, Sam Lipsight, Jerry Stahl, Brandon McDonald.
Marc:People have been showing up for me.
Marc:Steve Danziger, Michaela Watkins.
Marc:I'm giving shout outs to the people that are stopping me from falling into a pit of fucking darkness.
Marc:Self-pity, maybe.
Marc:I've avoided the self-pity.
Marc:A woman in Austin.
Marc:who's a psychotherapist, Stephanie, she said that Joan Didion practiced, there's a difference between, and I don't know that I read this in the book, but there's a difference between self-pity and self-sorrow.
Marc:The book is great.
Marc:The Year of Magical Thinking.
Marc:I'm happy I read it.
Marc:I don't know if I read it too soon or not.
Marc:But I guess the point is to keep her in my heart, to keep her in my mind.
Marc:I have her jacket there and I walk in and sometimes I'll just touch it and then I'll get a flash and then I'll look at the hat and I'll get a flash of her being in those things and her face and her energy and that moment.
Marc:Oh...
Marc:Fuck this, man.
Marc:Fuck this.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:Someday I'll stop crying in front of my neighbors.
Marc:I went over to Dan's house, had a socially distanced little cookout there, Dan from Gimme Gimme Records, his wife Jen, the acupuncturist, the needle lady, just sitting around out back, listening to records, eating nice food.
Marc:But here's the fucking thing.
Marc:Look, folks, I still need...
Marc:you know, a little bit of a reality check sometimes.
Marc:I, yeah, I got there and I brought some pickled onions that I made and, you know, it was still light out and everyone showed up and came and we ate and we talked for like a couple of hours.
Marc:It got dark out and I get like two and a half hours in, gotta go to the bathroom.
Marc:And, uh, you know, it was emotional conversations, some light conversations, but it's just nice to hang out with people.
Marc:They're good people.
Marc:Everyone's good folks.
Um,
Marc:And I go into the house, go to the bathroom.
Marc:And I look in the mirror.
Marc:I got my fucking sunglasses on.
Marc:I mean, I was sitting there in the dark with four people that I know pretty well outdoors wearing my fucking sunglasses.
Marc:Now, I get it.
Marc:I guess, you know, they were thinking, like, I guess he's really sad or this is his thing now.
Marc:And this is how he grieves.
Marc:But wouldn't it like like if I were sitting with me, I'd be like, what's this affected fuck doing?
Marc:I get he's sad.
Marc:But I mean, you're among friends.
Marc:Take your glasses off.
Marc:No one said nothing.
Marc:And I walked out.
Marc:I'm like, what do you think?
Marc:I am some sort of asshole.
Marc:No one's going to tell me I'm wearing sunglasses for the last three hours.
Marc:I didn't know.
Marc:But, I mean, it's not really on them, but it's interesting how polite people are.
Marc:I guess that's politeness.
Marc:I mean, what were they afraid of?
Marc:I guess, like, would I have said something?
Marc:Hey, Maren, is it too sunny out here for you?
Marc:It's fucking nighttime.
Marc:I mean, what?
Marc:Go fuck yourself, man.
Marc:I'm sad.
Marc:I'm fucking sad.
Marc:I guess that's what they were afraid of.
Marc:Do you know, do you really need to wear sunglasses?
Marc:It's dark now.
Marc:Look, man, my eyes have been crying.
Marc:For a month, man.
Marc:I want to show him.
Marc:No, I'm just an idiot.
Marc:I'm a dumb old man.
Marc:Didn't know I had sunglasses on.
Marc:Grief is twisting me up.
Marc:Twisting me up, making me look like a pompous celebrity.
Marc:How back at night wearing sunglasses.
Marc:So, look, it'll be five years, actually, tomorrow, June 19th, that I spoke to then-President Barack Obama.
Marc:Incredible conversation, which is always available at WTFPod.com.
Marc:We're on Stitcher Premium, wherever you listen.
Marc:And now it's five years later, and no, okay, we're definitely...
Marc:Not having Donald Trump on the show, that hasn't happened.
Marc:Though there is a secret agreement, not so secret, I'm telling you, between Brendan and I, that because we don't really do politicians, but we do presidents, we would have to indulge him if he were to play by the same rules that Barack Obama did, President Barack Obama, but he will not.
Marc:So...
Marc:I saw this guy, maybe you've seen him on Twitter, JL Covan, and he doesn't look like Trump in any way.
Marc:He doesn't really put on any makeup other than a hat occasionally, but he does a fucking great Trump, and sometimes he'll riff out as Trump, and it just kind of kills me.
Marc:Like, for instance, here's a little bit of him doing Trump.
Guest:Happy Earth Day.
Guest:It's a beautiful day.
Guest:We love Earth.
Guest:It's a great planet, and we're taking unbelievable care of it because, as you know, I want the cleanest air and the strongest, cleanest water.
Guest:So it's a very important day, and we're doing great things for the environment, a lot more than anybody else has done.
Guest:So believe me, we're doing a lot more than you ever did.
Guest:I can tell you that.
Guest:I can tell you that much.
Guest:But...
Guest:Am I a fan of Mother Nature?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:Mother Nature, as you know, is a very nasty woman.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Mother Business, we like.
Guest:We like Mother Business.
Guest:She's strong.
Guest:She wears the stiletto heels.
Guest:We love the stilettos.
Guest:Very powerful, very sleek, very sexy Mother Business.
Guest:But Mother Nature is like kind of dumpy.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:And she's very nasty.
Guest:She's always saying very, very lib anti-Trump things.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So no, we don't like Mother Nature.
Marc:That was J.L.
Marc:Covan doing our current fucking nightmare of a president.
Marc:And so I wanted to talk to him a bit because he's been doing comedy a while.
Marc:You can listen to his podcast, which is called Making Podcasts Great Again.
Marc:He's got a new album out with his Trump material.
Marc:It's called Fireside Craps, The Deuce.
Marc:And it's available now on iTunes and Amazon.
Marc:And I just wanted to get a sense of who he is.
Marc:So this is me and talking to J.L.
Marc:Kovan.
Guest:Covan.
Marc:What kind of name is that?
Guest:French.
Guest:My father was Haitian.
Guest:So my mother was Irish.
Guest:That's why I look the way I do.
Guest:Interesting.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So have you been doing this a lot of places?
Guest:The impression I've been doing, like in 2016, I had a couple sort of private gigs.
Guest:And I was closing my sets with it, like at stand-up clubs.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But then just basically was relegated to sort of YouTube.
Guest:It never took off the way I kind of thought it should have.
Guest:Everybody else seemed to have a Trump that was taking off.
Guest:And then, you know, I work also as an attorney and I was home working from home bored.
Guest:And I've been doing a couple of these just Trump videos on my phone because I know the voice is good.
Guest:I know I have it down.
Guest:And I figured, eh, let's see how these go.
Guest:And a couple got, you know, 10,000 views on Twitter, which is nice, but it's not like...
Guest:It doesn't make a mark or anything.
Guest:And then I had one a month and a half ago get seven million views.
Guest:And that sort of totally shifted sort of my online presence.
Guest:And, you know, thinking my career was basically over.
Guest:I'm now like, hey, I think I might have just gotten a career again.
Marc:Yeah, you think?
Marc:So you're an attorney?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I started doing stand-up in law school in 2003 and then worked for the DA's office, worked for a firm, got laid off in 2009 during the financial crisis and sort of
Guest:featured full-time for like four years and then all my money disappeared and then I had to go back to doing part-time legal work because I hadn't given up on the idea of like I've got a breakthrough at some point I don't know if you remember I'd done like the last internet viral thing I had I did an impression of Louis CK back in was that you all dressed as Louis
Guest:yeah oh yeah yeah i remember that yeah that was funny right yeah so that that was me and like i've had these up and down years and i was like a guest on corolla frequently and then i had my stuff played on espn radio but it was never enough to be like okay now i can get back into trying full-time and last year i basically took a full-time job at a law firm moved out of the city i'm from new york city but i now live in jersey moved out of the city for the first time you know at 40. yeah it was kind of like i'll keep doing comedy
Guest:But I don't know if it can be my priority anymore.
Marc:So, okay, so wait, so you were closing with the Trump in 2016, and then you did a bunch of it on YouTube, and then, like, what, the third one you did recently got 7 million?
Guest:Yeah, it's at, like, 6.8 million on Twitter and, like, 2.5 million on YouTube.
Marc:And now what does that mean?
Marc:Then who reaches out to you?
Marc:What happens?
Guest:Well, there's been, I mean, a lot of people reach out with writing suggestions.
Guest:They send me emails saying, why don't you try this in a skit?
Guest:But, you know, some people, celebrities have reached out to me.
Guest:The only people, let me put it this way, the only people who haven't reached out to me are agents and managers.
Guest:So once again, my career still seems like locked in place, but it's been a lot.
Guest:I mean, everybody but people who can maybe give me a career have reached out and told me how great I am.
Guest:Like I did Howard Stern.
Guest:You did.
Guest:I think I'm doing it again next week.
Guest:It's been like having seven years of my career jammed into one month.
Marc:But it's still even that, though, you know, doing radio bits doesn't give you money.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And it's also weird because it's like now everybody wants to hear the Trump.
Guest:And I'm like, I have been doing stand up comedy for over 16 years and I'm very good in my opinion.
Guest:So it's like I'm in this place now where I want to capitalize and make money and get my name out there, but also not have it become.
Guest:you're that guy and that's all and then say anything else and they're like well nobody wants to hear that that's tricky man so uh but but so your act is not impression based no it when i started out um it was i mean like oh four oh five oh six that's really what a lot of what i did and then you know you as you know you just you live a little and you want to talk about other things and your voice develops as a stand-up comic so then
Guest:For six or seven years, I would close with an Obama bit, but that was the only impression in my set.
Guest:I had a lot of impressions on YouTube, but I kind of wanted to keep them separate.
Guest:And then I've been closing with a Trump for the last three years, but that's the only impression in the set.
Marc:What other impressions did you used to do?
Guest:I mean, I used to.
Guest:I mean, of course, the hacky ones early on, Arnold Schwarzenegger, De Niro.
Guest:I had a good Owen Wilson.
Guest:I then started developing.
Guest:I had the Louis C.K., George Lopez.
Guest:Some friends really like my Greg Giraldo impression, which as a lawyer comedian is especially meaningful.
Guest:And now I have a Joel Osteen impression video.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:um and i don't know if you know who this john bernthal the guy who played like the punisher yeah i've interviewed him oh great i have uh i have a really good one of him that i'm probably gonna mix with trump in the next week or two so there's like a whole range but the thing is the trump has sort of dominated for for monetary and cultural reasons so that's it's become almost like a role instead of being one of many impressions i do it's almost become like my main role over the last couple of years
Marc:Well, that's I think it's an important role.
Marc:The weird thing is that my Brendan mentioned to me was that it's so close and so possible that, you know, it's barely a farce.
Marc:Right.
Guest:No, I end up trying to just go because I have the way I think I've gotten it good.
Guest:Also, the voice was good, but I do a weekly show as Trump.
Guest:And that's sort of like loose improv every week as Trump.
Guest:And that sort of has made me really good at just sort of I'm more anticipating where he's going to be six months from now versus like this could never happen.
Guest:It's more like I did a thing on my show where he was making fun of Shinzo Abe like and doing a bad Asian stereotype accent.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Your friends of mine were like, dude, that was like pushing it.
Guest:And I go, well, that's what he would do.
Marc:Right.
Guest:And then like six months later, it comes out that in private he's been making fun of like Asian leaders accents.
Guest:And I go, I can't be held accountable for being offensive if I'm merely predicting the behavior of this offensive person.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So it's more about keeping ahead of him than like trying to outdo him.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So what's the podcast you're doing or just a YouTube show?
Guest:Oh, no, it's it's making podcasts great again is the weekly podcast.
Guest:So that's like just, you know, it's it's really it's it's very fun and we've developed kind of a nice following for it.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And it's it's, you know, like people will hear things and contact me like six months later, like, can you believe what Trump said?
Guest:Didn't you say that last year on the show?
Guest:That's hilarious.
Guest:It's fun and scary.
Marc:So what does it take to get into Trump?
Marc:Do you just drop into it?
Guest:Yeah, it's I mean, at this point, it's the mindset is very easy.
Guest:And then it's just you kind of lower the voice and you got, you know, then and there's different Trumps.
Guest:There's like, I'm meeting with Marc Maron right now.
Guest:And it's like, we're having like a good discussion.
Guest:And we're doing my like, my 60 minutes voice.
Guest:Yeah, we're doing good things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, but if you're a reporter, especially like a black woman reporter, it's like, excuse me, you're nasty.
Guest:Okay, you write that you're very
Guest:No, you're a nasty woman.
Guest:That's why you got fired.
Guest:No, not you.
Guest:You.
Guest:And then the rally Trump is like the biggest, which is just the, what do we think about Joe Biden?
Guest:Isn't sleepy Joe?
Guest:Isn't he like the word?
Guest:Right there, my African American, you know what I'm talking about.
Guest:He's like the sleepiest guy.
Guest:He's so sleepy.
Guest:He's like falling asleep.
Guest:You see him?
Guest:He's like not able to stay awake.
Guest:That's what they say when you're sleepy.
Guest:They say you can't stay awake.
Guest:It's like, I know all the words for sleeping.
Guest:It's like a beautiful thing.
Guest:yeah so it's nice to see you laugh but it's uh yeah it's a whole range and at this point i credit sort of cnn i think it was bad for democracy but i credit them with never like going to commercial for three years while he's on tv because it was just this
Marc:almost by osmosis at that point that the impression just kept getting better and more nuanced and now because you know like he's actually improvising much more now uh yeah you know great jazz artist yeah something i mean with these two hour long briefings you know they i have not watched one in its entirety and i i know that they usually cut away from them but they've got to be just have you listened to any of the the two hour briefings in their entirety
Guest:I have, and I feel a little guilty about it because part of me says, hey, it's kind of like research.
Guest:I want to know if there's something he said.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Something kooky.
Guest:But at the same time, I don't even care what he says because I just have to one-up it anyway.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they're really bad.
Guest:I've turned some of them off because I'm just like, these are ego strokes for him.
Guest:He can't do his rallies, so he gets to go out there and yell at women and liberals.
Guest:Right.
Marc:But you do see how his brain works.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Oh, no, it's because what I've said to people, whenever somebody says to me, like, Trump is very smart.
Guest:He's a very smart guy.
Guest:Or he has good instincts.
Guest:I go, my dog has good instincts, too.
Guest:If there's a steak on the table, she'll probably figure out how to nudge a chair over the table, jump on the chair and get the steak.
Guest:It doesn't mean she can go to college and read books.
Guest:It's just she is very focused on using her particular skills.
Guest:And his instinct is,
Guest:combination of ego stroke and self-preservation so all you have to do I've said the impression because I do a lot of meandering as him and that's something that people really like the going off topic and finding your way back it's it's a choose your own adventure book when you're doing a Trump impression but the choice is always what makes Trump feel happy so if he says a word if he goes
Guest:You know, we're having a it's called tele teleconference.
Guest:OK, a lot of people are doing this.
Guest:Tell it.
Guest:Don't you like that word teleconference?
Guest:Like he's impressed with the fact that he said the word.
Guest:So now let's go off on a little side adventure on how great that word is because I said it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then we'll come back and go.
Guest:But it's a great thing.
Guest:And we're doing great, great work for the people.
Guest:You you you you next.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He that thing, the Nabisco riff was that's the one that killed me.
Guest:Oh, thank you.
Guest:Yeah, the Nabisco.
Guest:Nabisco, they're making our ventilators now.
Guest:So we're getting a very strong Nabisco.
Guest:They're one of our great companies.
Marc:Is that the one that got all the hits?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:I mean, that did well, too.
Guest:But the big one was actually the one I thought was not as good.
Guest:You never know what's going to hit.
Guest:It was about him.
Guest:wanting to reopen the country on Easter.
Guest:And that was way too soon.
Guest:So the joke that it became, the tangent was, oh, Easter, like God only brought back his son on Easter Sunday.
Guest:And that, to be honest, is kind of biased because he's only bringing back his own son.
Guest:Who wouldn't want to bring back their own son?
Guest:I'm going to bring back the whole economy.
Guest:We're going to have a pay-per-view event where it's God versus Trump and who brings back more people on Easter Sunday.
Guest:It's going to be a beautiful thing.
Marc:So now, what kind of law practice are you involved with?
Marc:Do they know that you do the Trump?
Guest:They do.
Guest:I'm a staff attorney.
Guest:I'd rather not say where, but it's basically you're paid pretty well to do sort of
Guest:The stuff that the legal profession requires lawyers to do, but not much beyond that.
Guest:Like I often say, I sometimes say, you're like the fluffers of a law firm.
Guest:You like get stuff ready at the lowest level, but you're not one of the stars and you're not doing the real meat and potatoes work.
Guest:And they do know, they know I was up front because I didn't want to have a thing where it's like they discover six months later and go, oh, you need to leave.
Guest:So I figured rather tell them up front.
Guest:and then when the trump video blew up we were all working remotely and like i had a secretary email me i had a co-worker you know they're like my aunt just sent me your video and i'm like oh that's how i knew it's gotten big when people who didn't even know me are getting me from their distant relatives
Marc:Well, as a lawyer, it's kind of interesting.
Marc:The methodology of this particular president is that if you sue somebody, that means it'll get, you know, you've got time to outpace it.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:No, his exactly.
Guest:Trump uses lawsuits, not even in pursuit of money or certainly not in pursuit of justice, but as like a delay tactic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Until he can like get flown to a non-extradition country.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I have no idea what's going to happen after.
Marc:But like, what is the well, that's the other odd thing is it seems like, sadly, given that your career is starting to take a turn and you got this record out and you've got the podcast that, you know, there you have something invested in Trump.
Marc:It's sort of like, you know, Vaughn Meter, you know, after JFK was killed, it was kind of over in a sad story for that guy.
Marc:But but, you know, you it seems that even if he doesn't win, God willing, you'll still be able to find a way to parody him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I think I joked with somebody before about Vaughn meter.
Guest:I said, yeah, I think I had all my Vaughn meter tragedy and sad sack career before this, instead of at least that's the right direction to do it in.
Guest:So for me, it's, I've been doing standup almost 17 years.
Guest:So I know at least my chops are there.
Guest:I get the opportunity to showcase more.
Guest:I know that I will thrive.
Guest:And with Trump, I'm still conflicted if I'm going to continue doing it.
Guest:And people will think I'm full of shit, but I am conflicted about continuing it if he wins.
Guest:I'm much more comfortable continuing it even to a smaller audience if he loses.
Guest:To mock him, I can do like a, here's what Trump's political commentary is on Biden now that he's out of office.
Guest:But if he gets reelected, it really does, no hyperbole, it says something fundamental about
Guest:about this country's essence, how it picks its leaders.
Guest:And I don't think it's funny anymore.
Guest:I think a mistake can be corrected, but doubling down on it says, structurally and spiritually, this country has hit a tipping point.
Marc:I think, sadly, I feel the same way, and I'm not even doing an impression.
Marc:The bigger concerns are like, how do we live here if that is the world we're going to be living in?
Guest:And the benefits when you've had a career that's been 15, 16 years of up and down and disappointments and little successes.
Guest:I'm at least emotionally very well equipped to have my career fall off another cliff and be like, oh, nobody wants to book me anymore.
Guest:Oh, so it's just like 2015 and 2017.
Marc:But you're also you're employed, which is good.
Guest:Yeah, no, no.
Guest:And of course.
Guest:But that's and that's something also that that fell into my lap.
Guest:less than a year ago like i was doing part-time work for for like six and a half years so it's i didn't always have right but i developed the i guess coping mechanisms or strategies to be like all right yeah you get used to the disappointment and you got you have kids no kids uh-huh married a long-time girlfriend yeah and a dog and you're out there and you got a place in jersey
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So it's okay.
Guest:It's not the way.
Guest:I certainly didn't think taking three steps back from my comedy career was exactly what was needed for me to become a success.
Marc:Hey, you and me both, buddy.
Marc:I mean, but it's really funny and you do a great job.
Marc:Thanks for talking to us.
Guest:Oh, thank you.
Guest:Thank you very much.
Hi.
Marc:So again, that was JL Covan, his podcast, Making Podcasts Great Again, and his album Fireside Craps, The Deuce is available.
Marc:And now let's talk to Amber Preston.
Marc:Amber's a nice Midwestern lady.
Marc:I always thought she was very funny.
Marc:She opened for me.
Marc:I met her in Minneapolis years ago.
Marc:I'm sure we'll discuss that.
Marc:Her new stand-up album is called Sparkly Pants.
Marc:You can get it wherever you get music and comedy albums.
Marc:And...
Marc:I like her, and we did this in person, in real life.
Marc:She got a test to come over to my house.
Marc:Should I get tested, even though I don't feel any symptoms?
Marc:Is that something we need to do once a week if we're going to talk to anybody?
Marc:Maybe it is.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:All right, so I'm now going to introduce you to my friend Amber Preston, and we're going to chat right now.
Amber Preston
Marc:What is this album called?
Marc:Sparkly Parts.
Marc:Sparkly Parts.
Marc:First album?
Marc:First album.
Marc:What are we, 10 years in now?
Guest:12, 15?
Guest:12-ish.
Marc:12 years in?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, I recorded it years ago and then just sat on it.
Marc:I don't know if that's a great selling point.
Guest:Yeah, no, no, don't say that.
Guest:Imagine how good I am now.
Guest:But I wasn't doing that material anymore.
Guest:And poor Dan, I was the one that sat.
Guest:Dan Schwitzel?
Guest:Yeah, I sat on it.
Guest:And he was like, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Marc:Let's do it.
Guest:Let's do it.
Marc:I like this book you sent me.
Guest:Yeah, I think they're just fun, and some of them you're like, oh, that's... Where'd you get it?
Guest:We had a copy of that.
Guest:My dad's a big reader.
Guest:He's a weirdo.
Guest:And we had a copy when I was little, and I felt very grown up reading it.
Marc:He's a weirdo because he's a reader?
Guest:Well, no, he's just like, to me, that he, as stoic and Scandinavian and closed off as he is, this seems like... This was the guy, huh?
Marc:Pete Hine.
Guest:Hine.
Marc:um what do you know about him oh crooks a crook is a short aphoristic poem this is crooks one accompanied by an appropriate drawing revealing in a minimum of words and with a minimum of lines some basic truth about the human condition crooks were created originally during the nazi occupation of denmark
Marc:They began life as a sort of underground language just out of reach of the understanding of the Germans.
Marc:They have since become one of the most widely read forms of composition in the Scandinavian and English languages.
Guest:Yeah, and they're just somewhere longer, but, you know, they're just little ditties that you're like, ooh, that's something.
Guest:That's deep.
Guest:So I had a copy, and then now I've since collected.
Guest:There, I think, are six of them.
Marc:And did he invent it?
Marc:Brooks?
Guest:I think so.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:It was sort of a trend at the time.
Marc:Now I'm speaking to you as if you're an academic.
Guest:Wait, wait, wait.
Guest:Are you in your studies?
Guest:I'm a historian of Piet Hein.
Guest:No, it is a little bit.
Guest:You can get down the rabbit hole, because he was also, he would kind of go head-to-head with this other Danish, like, physicist.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:And...
Marc:Well, I'm very excited about it because it seems to be appropriate for the time we're living in.
Marc:I mean... A secret language of truth is all we really need at this point.
Guest:Short quips that you can take in and moments of panic.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'll just start tweeting Grooks.
Guest:I've been Instagramming them.
Guest:Content.
Guest:That's the content I've been creating.
Marc:Wait, so is your dad, like, is he really Scandinavian?
Guest:No.
Guest:Well, Norwegian and German, but North Dakota, I feel like... We're very German, but it is that Scandinavian, I feel like, closed off.
Marc:But do you have relatives with accents, or are you talking generations?
Guest:Generations here.
Guest:My mom's side of the family has some German-Russian... They have accents.
Guest:They're in the middle of North Dakota, related to Lawrence Welk.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's what my grandma says, but...
Marc:That's the one?
Marc:Welk is the one?
Marc:Jews, it's always like Barbra Streisand.
Marc:Or they lived across the street from it.
Marc:There's some connection.
Guest:Well, small town North Dakota, chances are.
Marc:Welk was there?
Marc:Some Welks?
Marc:Is that his real last name?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, it is?
Guest:Yeah, my dad, I've been to the farm.
Guest:Oh, God.
Guest:It's really great.
Guest:There's a Lawrence Welk farm.
Marc:There's a Lawrence Welk farm?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But wait, you were brought up in South Dakota?
Marc:North Dakota, how dare you?
Marc:Sorry, South Dakota's problematic right now.
Marc:North Dakota, what are the big differences?
Guest:We're quiet about our problematic issues.
Guest:We'll be judging and don't want- More Scandinavian?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And more- And Germans.
Marc:Lutherans?
Guest:I'm Catholic, super Catholic.
Guest:My family is very, very Catholic.
Guest:But there's a lot of Lutherans.
Marc:So North Dakota is your people.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:And they came down in the 1800s when they made land available to be farmed by people who knew how to farm horrible land.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Wasn't that the deal?
Guest:I think so, and I think they were like, we can't do any better.
Marc:Right, we don't know what to do with this, but you people who live in Scandinavia seems to have figured it out.
Guest:You seem to not want anything better.
Marc:Well, no, they knew how to farm that land, I think was the idea, and the deal was they would be given
Marc:a property if they could make it useful.
Guest:Do something with it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, my mom said they were Germans that were fled to Russia and then came from Russia.
Guest:Right.
Marc:I mean, I read there's a book called The Great Plains.
Guest:The Great Plains.
Guest:I'll have to read it.
Marc:By Ian Frazier, which is a sort of like condensed history of the region.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it goes into all that why the Scandinavians came and the Russians came and the Germans because it was like a free for all.
Marc:Right.
Marc:It's like we can't have any luck with this.
Marc:We tried.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I think they brought winter wheat with them.
Marc:And they figured it out.
Marc:But North Dakota, I have no sense of it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they want it that way.
Guest:They don't want you to know.
Marc:But was it bleak?
Marc:What town?
Guest:I grew up in Fargo, which is right on the border of Minnesota.
Guest:And it's a thriving, I dare say, metropolis.
Marc:I've never been to Fargo.
Guest:You haven't?
Marc:No.
Guest:I swear that... Didn't you with...
Marc:Oh, with Eugene.
Guest:Yeah, I swear that you guys did.
Guest:Maybe you're right.
Marc:Maybe you're right.
Guest:You don't remember.
Marc:They were like... Eugene and Andy, it was an upstairs joint.
Marc:It was a small joint.
Guest:That was the first time I'd seen you when you did it in Minneapolis at the Turf Club.
Marc:Didn't I have you on?
Guest:No, then.
Guest:I didn't know you then.
Marc:Did I go back to the Turf Club and you opened for me?
Marc:Where did you open for me first?
Guest:At the Triple Rock.
Marc:Oh, that's another rock bar, though, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:You had seen me in Aspen and then asked me in Aspen.
Guest:at aspen at the non-hbo comedy right right right right the rooftop the rooftop yeah or the red what is it was it rooftop rooftop yeah as the listen there's a lot of pressure from here as the least successful guest you've ever had i really that is not true i can i can name well don't don't but thank you but i felt like i i can't even have that i thought i was gonna that was gonna be
Marc:No, I don't think it's true.
Marc:I think that you're just at a level where you're working, you're solid, you've got the shit.
Marc:Put out a record years ago that you sat on.
Marc:That's foresight.
Marc:I'm going to hold off on this.
Guest:I'm going to wait until people have nothing to do.
Marc:We need to do some basic stuff here.
Marc:Because I don't know that...
Marc:Where's Mary Mack from?
Guest:She's northern Wisconsin, but we met in Minneapolis.
Marc:Right, but you should not Dakota.
Marc:I don't know if I've talked to anyone from Dakota.
Guest:No.
Marc:Either Dakota, either Dakota.
Guest:Yeah, I can't.
Guest:There's not like a dearth of interesting, famous, a lot of interesting people.
Marc:But you grew up in Fargo?
Marc:Grew up in Fargo.
Marc:But that's like how many, how big a city is that?
Guest:A million people?
Guest:No, 100,000.
Guest:Well, maybe a little more.
Guest:Maybe 100,000.
Marc:And you have brothers and sisters?
Guest:I have a brother who lives in Montana with adorable children and lives off the land and would live off the grid if he could.
Guest:Like ranch kind of thing?
Guest:Yeah, he does mason work but has acres of land.
Guest:Oh, it's so nice up there.
Marc:What are we doing here?
Marc:But I don't know, what's the white supremacist contingent?
Guest:Well, that's a thing to consider.
Guest:And then my sister is younger than me.
Guest:She lives in Chicago, but she just moved there.
Marc:Like a real city.
Marc:She just moved there and now she can't leave.
Guest:And she's not working.
Guest:She just moved there.
Guest:She's just bartending.
Guest:I don't even know if she's getting unemployment because she just got there.
Guest:Got a big dog and living life.
Guest:An apartment.
Guest:But she's got great roommates and they're doing all right.
Guest:But it's like, yes, I'm leaving Fargo.
Guest:I'm doing it.
Marc:Now you can't leave your house.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But like, so what do you do in Fargo?
Guest:Your dad did what?
Guest:You leave.
Guest:My dad, he's a retired electrician.
Guest:And then my mom had a few odd jobs when I was little and then worked in the school system as like a paraprofessional and then worked at the high school.
Guest:Just regular folks.
Guest:Regular, hardworking.
Guest:My dad's a Vietnam vet.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Does he talk about it?
Guest:No, he doesn't talk about it sometimes.
Guest:I remember asking him about it when I was little.
Guest:As you're learning about it, no grasp of anything.
Guest:And we also had like a silk-like kimono that he'd brought back.
Guest:that was that was the artifact that was the thing um and then we found us a box of slides that like i got a family gathering yeah my aunt like pulled up and showed yeah my dad was like i don't know what's gonna be in here like there was there were pictures of like lady tour guides taking him and some guys on a tour in australia and like so he got to see some interesting things but no like uh in the shit me and the grunts guys no
Marc:These are the squad I was with.
Guest:Some of that kind of jazz.
Guest:But then maybe like eight years ago, I wrote him a letter.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because heaven forbid I ask him face to face.
Guest:He's going to hate this.
Guest:He hates sharing.
Guest:Anything?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He doesn't come to my shows because he comes.
Marc:I feel like he came to one.
Guest:He does come.
Guest:He doesn't like it.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And he's been to all the shows and he will proudly say, well, I've been to all of them.
Guest:I've been to the worst ones even.
Guest:I'm like, well, okay.
Yeah.
Marc:Don't you do a joke about it?
Guest:I'm sure I do.
Guest:So I wrote him a letter asking him about Vietnam.
Marc:Recently?
Guest:About six years ago.
Guest:And then one day when I was home, on our way out the door, driving back to Minneapolis, he handed me a notebook and I opened it and he slammed it shut and was like, don't read this now, it's an answer to your letter.
Guest:And it was like 12 handwritten pages of his experience.
Guest:Getting there, he was supposed to be a shit burner.
Guest:Was his job.
Marc:Which means what?
Guest:Burning the shit.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Like getting rid of.
Marc:That's a job?
Guest:That's a job.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then the guy who did that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I forget.
Guest:I have to go back and reread it.
Guest:It was something like that was going to be his job.
Guest:But then the guy who did that wanted to keep that job because he was going to be out in a few months.
Guest:So my dad was working in helicopters.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I don't think he really saw too much action because he was like a tiny man of glasses.
Guest:But he was stationed in Vietnam?
Guest:Yeah, he was in Vietnam for a year.
Guest:He left the day before Thanksgiving and came back the day after.
Marc:And that was it?
Guest:That was it, which my grandmother tells us every Thanksgiving.
Guest:And then he came back and he... The only thing I remember him saying when we were little is that it was hard to come back because nobody wanted him there and then nobody cared when he got back.
Guest:So I think...
Guest:I would love to know.
Guest:I think there are some years after that that are party time.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I think I talked to somebody else about this once about the parent who is in Vietnam.
Marc:And then there was some shit that went down in the years after.
Marc:But eventually they level off.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, what, you go when you're 18.
Marc:So he's back when he's 20, 19, 20?
Guest:You see this crazy stuff where you're going to go get a, go to school, you're going to get a part-time job, you're going to go back and live with your parents?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, what do you, ugh.
Marc:Got to blow off some steam, figure out what you've been through.
Marc:But it sounds like he didn't get too fucked up.
Guest:No.
Guest:Well, if he did, he came back from it.
Marc:And he came back and met your mom and that was that?
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I guess so.
Guest:They were together like eight years before they got... Wow.
Guest:They were like dirty hippies living in sin, as my grandma says, and followed the Grateful Dead.
Guest:They did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, he's super deadhead.
Guest:My first concert was Bob Dylan.
Marc:When you were a little kid?
Guest:Yeah, sixth grade.
Marc:What tour was that?
Marc:I wonder what year was that.
Guest:Oh, I have the t-shirt.
Guest:1990.
Guest:G.E.
Guest:Smith was touring with him because I opened the hotel door for G.E.
Guest:Smith.
Guest:We were pre-partying.
Guest:They were in the bar and I was in the arcade.
Guest:I saw him come down the stairs and I was like, oh my God, that's the guy from Saturday Night Live.
Marc:Yeah, he's been around.
Marc:So that was G.E.
Marc:Smith that was in the band.
Marc:Do you remember the concert being good?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, because I thought it was cool because I knew some like, I was like, no, play like the pillbox hat song.
Guest:You know, like I knew like some, I thought it was, I knew some B-sides.
Guest:Like I thought it was.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So they were, but were they like, like real hippies?
Marc:Like they were smoking the weed?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't think they, my mom, I think stopped a long, long time ago.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know if I could say the same about my dad.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, they definitely, like I've seen pictures from there.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:Did they travel and tour with it?
Guest:Follow the dead around?
Guest:Not as much as that, but they definitely, like any of their former houses, there was always many, many people, it seemed like.
Guest:Living there?
Guest:In any gathering picture, it was like, not a lot of clothing, a lot of just people.
Guest:Really?
Guest:One of those funky cigarettes, mom.
Marc:You come from dirty hippies?
Marc:A little bit?
Guest:A little bit.
Marc:But now everybody's leveled off?
Guest:Everybody, they're good.
Guest:They're grandparents now.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:My mom just retired.
Marc:And you go back to Fargo?
Guest:Sometimes.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But I didn't meet you there.
Guest:No.
Guest:Aspen and then Minneapolis.
Guest:And then you asked me to open for you in Minneapolis.
Guest:I met you in Aspen.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I remember that was really bad altitude sickness for me that time.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah, they had oxygen.
Marc:But it's just like I usually don't get it that bad.
Marc:It was just really fucked me up that time for some reason.
Marc:Did you get it?
Marc:Did we go up on a gondola or something?
Guest:We did go up on a gondola.
Marc:Who else was in that gondola?
Marc:Do you remember?
Guest:I do.
Guest:Was it Ryan Singer?
Yeah.
Guest:No.
Guest:He was there.
Guest:He was there.
Guest:Aparna.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Tim Harmston.
Guest:Who was else at that festival?
Guest:Oh, the God's Pottery guys.
Guest:Wilson and I can't remember the other guys.
Guest:I don't remember those guys.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't remember them.
Marc:Where are they from?
Marc:Are they here?
Guest:No, they don't do it anymore.
Guest:They, like, were a funny, like, Christian camp counselor songs.
Guest:It was a bit.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they, I think, advanced fairly far on Last Comic Standing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like that.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:They had, like, a crazy two-year run, and I don't think that they planned.
Guest:That was the... You know what I mean?
Guest:Like, that was, like, this is the bit that we are committed to forever, but... Yeah.
Guest:I can't speak for them.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So I met you in Aspen.
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:Talked.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And then...
Guest:I hosted because I hosted the show, I think, before yours at the big theater.
Guest:And then you're like, hey, what are you doing next month?
Guest:And I'm like, I don't know.
Guest:Actually, I was going to a festival in Asheville.
Guest:And I came back.
Guest:North Carolina.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was like, again, I felt so cool because I was like, I got to leave this festival early.
Guest:I got to go back and open for Marin at a rock club.
Guest:Big deal.
Marc:I remember that Rock Club gig.
Marc:We were standing on the floor.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Slightly raised above.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm starting to get these weird... It's sort of like PTSD from certain gigs.
Marc:Just sort of like, I did that.
Guest:You don't have a font?
Guest:Or you just...
Marc:But I did Fargo and it's out of my brain because it was difficult.
Marc:I really thought that that tour with Eugene and Andy, Eugene was going to pull all these people in and it was going to be great.
Marc:It was this big idea me and Andy had.
Marc:And it was just okay.
Marc:It was weird.
Marc:And it just, I don't know, man.
Guest:What was it called?
Guest:The anxiety or the... Oh, Stand Uppity.
Guest:Stand Uppity, okay.
Marc:That was Andy's thing.
Marc:Then me and Andy ended up getting in a fight over bullshit and...
Guest:Did you guys drive to Atlanta?
Marc:Yeah, we drove the whole thing.
Marc:Hours and hours.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I used to say, I used to do a joke about it.
Marc:Like driving with Andy Kilndoyer.
Marc:It's like driving with the history of the Jewish people.
Marc:So where did you start, in Fargo?
Guest:No, Minneapolis.
Marc:You moved to Minneapolis?
Guest:I moved to Minneapolis for college.
Guest:Oh, you did?
Guest:Left Fargo when I was 18.
Guest:What college?
Guest:University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Guest:And got a degree in theater and then did absolutely nothing with it.
Guest:is that true you're a stand-up comic like what'd you do like what kind of theater do you got it like undergraduate degree for four years did the acting i did direct i mean uh no acting uh just a little bachelor of arts in theater and then like bartended and all acting though yeah i mean you had to like take other you know you had to learn some lights and yeah you know set and stuff respect to all the elements yeah but i mean but did you did you like the acting
Guest:I did, and I still do.
Guest:And then I just didn't do anything.
Guest:You start bartending and you're like, oh, I'm making fat cash and partying and smooching boys.
Guest:And then I got a real job in finance.
Guest:You did?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I worked in corporate America.
Guest:I worked for Piper Jaffrey.
Guest:And then the little group I worked with spun out.
Guest:So I worked for this little venture capital company.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:For how long?
Guest:Gosh, maybe eight years.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Because I started doing stand-up when I worked that job.
Guest:I was almost 30.
Marc:So you're like stuck in this fucking hell job.
Marc:You kind of fell into it, huh?
Marc:You kind of just took theater and then you got a bartender job and then you're like, I guess this isn't what life is.
Guest:I was like, oh, no, is this is what life I think I was more like this.
Guest:This is what life is.
Marc:What?
Marc:Bartending?
Guest:No, like the corporate job.
Marc:I know, but you did it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, you did.
Marc:You know, you like it doesn't sound like even there was a break in between.
Marc:You didn't even try the other thing.
Guest:No, I didn't.
Guest:And it was I think.
Marc:Did it eat you up or you just sort of like or you're just too fucking out of it?
Guest:I think a little of both.
Guest:Like some days you're like, what the fuck am I doing?
Guest:And then other days you're like, well, you're working hard and you're paying your bills.
Guest:And that's all that matters.
Marc:Right.
Marc:That's that kind of Scandinavian.
Guest:Don't be so showy.
Guest:You're making decent money.
Guest:You're starting to save.
Guest:You got that 401k.
Guest:What more could you possibly want?
Marc:But what were you doing in finance?
Guest:I was an administrative assistant, then executive assistant, making travel plans and putting together presentations.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Yeah, sitting in a cubicle.
Marc:What did you learn?
Guest:PowerPoint, I guess.
Guest:Yeah, you did?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You know how to deal with people who...
Guest:I liked them all.
Guest:They were great people, but politically, we'll say, I didn't agree with a lot of that.
Marc:That shouldn't be in the workplace anyways.
Guest:Well.
Marc:Trickled over.
Guest:How to, you know, yeah.
Guest:How to, I don't know.
Guest:Be diplomatic.
Guest:How to treat an assistant maybe someday.
Guest:Because they did treat me well, but sometimes like...
Marc:Come on.
Marc:I can't believe you did that.
Marc:I mean, I can believe it, but it's a nightmare.
Guest:Yeah, and it is like, I, as an adult, have since realized, do you know about the guess and the ask culture?
Guest:No, what is that?
Guest:You're either a guesser or you're an asker.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Tell me about it.
Guest:I wish people could see your face right there.
Guest:They're like, no, really?
Guest:Tell me about it.
Guest:Hey, I got to bring something interesting to the table.
Guest:No, I'm serious.
Marc:I'm serious.
Marc:I don't know.
Guest:I'm curious.
Guest:You're either a guesser or an asker.
Guest:I am very much a guesser, and I am trying not to be so much.
Guest:Ask culture, you brought up that you should always ask the question, but know that the answer could be no.
Guest:That's a possibility.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:Guess culture, you...
Guest:passive aggressive you are learning the like the fine you're like feeling out clues and you don't ask unless you're pretty sure the answer is yes so like my husband's an asker I'm a guesser uh-huh and I'm I'm working towards not being so much that way so a guesser is that the same as is this like a codependent thing I am like a passive aggressive kind of door like a doormatty kind of
Guest:no i like i might like i wanted to swear but i was like that's not nice come on uh no you're not a doormat you're it's like you're navigating and you're figuring things out you're picking up subtle clues i know but you're you're sort of you're speculating and you're not taking a lot of chances right right until you know like you'll take the chance eventually
Marc:Uh-huh.
Guest:Maybe.
Guest:Maybe.
Marc:But as a guesser, don't you always assume that the answer is no and that you're not going to be good enough or that you probably shouldn't even bother with it?
Guest:Well, I mean, there's some of that.
Guest:I mean, I'm thinking that right now.
Guest:Jesus.
Guest:But yeah, you're like, and you're trying to figure it out in that passive-aggressive way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So if you're passive aggressive, you're pretty good at that?
Guest:Yes, I've gotten better.
Guest:Better at it or better at not doing it?
Guest:Better at not doing it.
Guest:And I can tap into it when I need to.
Guest:Especially you throw in that Fargo.
Guest:I mean, you can just like, oh, that's neat how you have the walls.
Guest:They can just not, oh, you can just move them.
Guest:Okay, so you could put them away and clean it up if you wanted to.
Guest:Oh, well, isn't that nice?
Marc:I remember working with you just because nothing's great, is it?
Guest:Well, you don't want to... If I get off stage, I'd be like, huh?
Guest:And you'd be like, it's okay.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Come on.
Guest:Well, here's the real truth.
Guest:Especially that last run of the theaters, I was probably stuffing my face backstage with treats that people bring for you.
Guest:So I was probably like, uh-huh, yeah, it's great.
Guest:And I meant the cake or something.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah, you don't want to get too excited about anything.
Guest:You don't want to enjoy anything too much.
Marc:And you're aware of this, but by the time you were aware of it, though, it was already who you were?
Guest:I think it is.
Guest:It's deep.
Guest:I catch myself, and I'm such a rule follower.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I want to break out of it, but I can't.
Guest:Got to wait for that walk sign.
Guest:Cannot.
Guest:Cannot.
Guest:Cannot.
Guest:Cannot cross.
Guest:This is problematic.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:But you grow up with hippies.
Guest:Well, yeah.
Guest:Were they like that?
Guest:I think so.
Guest:My mom, I think, is definitely guess culture.
Guest:And maybe my dad is a little of both.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I think I can communicate.
Guest:I think I can dabble in both languages.
Marc:But it's just like, you know, in the house, it was like, see, like, I can't...
Marc:If I even fucking think that someone's being passive aggressive with me.
Guest:But how are we friends?
Marc:No, I mean, because like I, you know, I know you and you're funny and you're a comic and, you know, I can break through that shit.
Marc:But I mean, like, no, but like people who, like, I always assume they're fucking with me anyways.
Marc:I'm already sensitive.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So when I get diminished at all, like, because I think my mom was a little like that.
Marc:Everything was, you know, it was always sort of like, why, why, why did you get a B?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Marc:That kind of shit.
Marc:Like, is there, it's like you're never quite good enough.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And I fucking just.
Guest:I grew a little bit like that too, but I didn't feel quite as judgy, but like looking, you were like, nothing's ever great.
Guest:I feel like that was a little bit of my upbringing too.
Guest:Like I, grades came easily to me and I did well in school.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:And things, but it was never, and they're very proud of me.
Guest:I don't want to throw my parents by the bus.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I love them and they're great.
Guest:But yeah, it's like, I just had a, you know, the album coming out, my mom's like, oh, you were in the newspaper.
Guest:How come?
Marc:Right.
Marc:Read it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Read the article.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:She's like, oh, for the, oh, that's great.
Guest:Oh, that's, well, good.
Guest:We're proud of you.
Guest:I'm like, well.
Marc:How come?
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Like that kind of.
Guest:It's the worst.
Guest:It's always, I mean, I don't know what, but if they did say like, that was such a good show or man, we're so proud of you for like even doing the littlest thing, I'd be like, that doesn't fucking matter.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:You know, I think, I think like no one could win.
Marc:I guess that's true.
Marc:But like, you know, when it's like growing up and your parents are like, how does somebody get on that other show that you weren't, you know, like, how do you, maybe you should talk to Bill Maher or somebody or you want my dad to say, he seems like they are in the world.
Guest:They want you to achieve something in this industry.
Guest:My parents are a little bit like, so do you think you'll, you get, you think you'll stay in Los Angeles or you guys, what about you don't think you could do that in Minneapolis?
Guest:I'm like, how many commercials?
Marc:Why do they want you to come back?
Guest:just to be closer yeah they love me i'm a treasure oh yeah like the idea of living near my parents or having them i don't know usually it has to do with kids then see like then they'll start bullying you bullying you into kids well i'm old we're at the age now where people just are like oh did you like are you guys gonna adapt like they you know like we've missed that we have you i think so how old are you i'm 40
Marc:You can probably get one out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, it's Hollywood, so sure.
Guest:Rich, rich white women have babies in their mid-40s, but I've got two of those.
Marc:You don't think?
Guest:I mean, I love kids, but I don't.
Guest:It hasn't happened.
Marc:Have you just been waiting for it?
Marc:Are you guessing?
Guest:I'm just feeling everything out.
Marc:You know how it's supposed to happen, not necessarily stopping it.
Guest:As a comic Tim Harmson says, we're not not trying.
Guest:I mean, I'm home alone with my husband trapped in quarantine, so things are happening.
Marc:Right.
Marc:It just never happened?
Guest:It hasn't happened, and I'm not like- Not freaking out?
Guest:Not freaking out.
Marc:Is he?
Marc:No.
Guest:If he is, he isn't.
Guest:But he would tell me.
Marc:Well, yeah, I mean, it seems to be one of those things that people discuss when you do the marriage thing.
Guest:Right.
Marc:You want children.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Did you do that?
Guest:We did.
Guest:We did.
Guest:We were like, they're great and we love them.
Guest:But if it doesn't happen, I think what we have is also great.
Marc:You know, I'm that way as well.
Marc:I mean, no, I didn't want them.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you did not want them?
Marc:No, I not wanted them.
Marc:And, you know, just, but not because I have any, I don't have anything against them.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But I just was, it just caused me anxiety to just think about having them.
Marc:You know, like I'm too anxious and too selfish and too emotionally volatile.
Guest:Those are all, that's very good reasoning.
Marc:To be a good parent.
Guest:But I bet you're a fun uncle sometimes.
Marc:Yeah, no, I mean, like, yeah, I mean, I think I would, I can fundamentally take care of people, but I just don't trust myself personally.
Marc:emotionally and also with like, I'm childish emotionally.
Marc:And I don't want to be that parent that's like, you know, why is the fucking kid not talking to me?
Marc:Because he's four.
Guest:I don't give a fuck.
Marc:It's bullshit.
Guest:And that's just four teenagers.
Marc:But now I find myself like on Instagram stories, a couple of my friends have kids and like I look, I watch the kids and I'm like, that seems like they're engaged in an exciting life.
Guest:Well, and the further it slips away, the more I'm like, oh, shoot.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:I think my body, I'm supposed, and just like this whole, you know, everything on the planet says that I, this physical being I am in, is supposed to be able to create life.
Marc:Yeah, doesn't Ryan do a bit about that?
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:About the moment that guy's about to, you know, come, and you know you shouldn't, but the entire history of the species is behind you.
Marc:Right?
Guest:And it's like, wait, I haven't?
Guest:Like, what's wrong with my body?
Guest:Not that I was like, I mean, I wish I'd been more active as a youth, but.
Guest:You weren't?
Guest:No.
Guest:Again, follow the rules.
Guest:You can't, no.
Marc:Oh, because of the Catholic thing.
Guest:Catholic guilt, man.
Guest:you grew up thinking there's a hell oh yeah you know that was wrong how's hell holding up i mean you know it's like a different place to go i guess it's some some place it's leaving the house not as scary not as scary do you still believe in it um i don't think so i don't i'll wait till my grandparents all of them are dead before i can start oh really yeah i got three out i got three out of my four grandparents
Marc:That's amazing.
Guest:What are they, like 90?
Guest:Yeah, 93, 95.
Guest:I'm very lucky.
Guest:I actually, right before lockdown, was in, did a big show at the Fargo Theater and then was in Chicago.
Guest:And then I was supposed to do Grand Rapids Laugh Fest.
Guest:It was another place.
Guest:It was the first time I did a live WTF.
Guest:I didn't know what I was doing.
Guest:It was not funny at all.
Guest:But, you know, I was there.
Guest:Who else was on that one?
Guest:That one was great.
Guest:Tommy Johnigan, Kevin Nealon.
Guest:And then Moshe Kasher came up from the audience and told the story.
Guest:And I was like, I wanted.
Guest:i didn't know so then i did the live at podfest right when i first moved here and i was like newly single and i was crazy and i was the last guest this is the third one this is the third one i'm pretty big time my biggest credits prior to this are being a guest on this show oh that was the one the all women yeah it was me and whitney and that was good yeah it was great and um i got like killed it yeah that wasn't i was crazy i it was a crazy person
Guest:i remember now yeah it was real i was like oh she's so much better now she's finally cut loose i was i was out of control there was there was a brother of one of the new kids in the block in the audience and he talked to me after the show i mean you've made things happen for me mark there was yes which one joey mcintyre's brother tommy or timmy i don't remember what the fuck was he doing there he was there because joey mcintyre's friends with graham elwood i know way too much and it is a graham elwood from canada
Guest:gift that I have to bring New Kids on the Block into every conversation.
Guest:You haven't had any of them on the show, have you?
Marc:I haven't had any of them.
Guest:I mean, I don't know that.
Marc:I work with Marky Mark, though.
Guest:Well, there you go.
Marc:Isn't he one of them?
Guest:Yeah, he's a brother.
Guest:He's not.
Marc:His brother's in the New Kids.
Guest:Donnie Wahlberg.
Guest:His brother's married to Jenny McCarthy.
Guest:Have you had Jenny on the show?
Marc:No.
Marc:i don't know what i'd do with jenny talk about vaccines and donnie all right so here you are corporate culture administrative assistant right and then and then i prefer executive assistant sounds fancier were you losing your fucking mind a little bit yeah how'd you do what'd you do comedy on a dare what happened
Guest:I think I just, yeah, I think I told someone and then I set the date and then people were going to show up.
Guest:And I didn't know how it worked at Acme was where I signed up.
Guest:I didn't realize that like you didn't just get up.
Guest:You know, I didn't realize a bajillion people sign up.
Marc:Is that how it works there?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think, you know, it's like the store or anywhere else, like a bunch of people go and sign up on a list and then an hour later they put the list out.
Guest:And so I said I was going to do it on whatever, December 6th.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then the week before I was like, oh shit, I've invited people.
Guest:Again, not realizing, like don't invite people.
Guest:Your first time?
Guest:To your first fucking time.
Marc:To your first five years?
Guest:Although the first time it probably was because you're so high and they're just so impressed that you did it.
Marc:Did you practice on people?
Guest:No, but I mean, with the acting, I knew, like, I knew, and I'd gone, I would go see comedy and would go.
Guest:You did?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So that was something that was in your repertoire, live comedy?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:A little bit when I was an adult.
Guest:I wasn't, I didn't listen as a kid.
Guest:Like, there's some comics where, like, when I was five, I was listening to albums.
Guest:Right.
Marc:No, but when you were working at the executive assistant, you guys would sometimes be like, let's go see a comedy show.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And, you know, we knew of Swartzen because his half hour had just come out and he's from Minnesota.
Guest:We knew Bamford way back then, too, because she was just like the coolest already.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Was she from up there, too?
Guest:Yeah, she's from Duluth.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Guest:But I don't know where she started, stand-up, if she started.
Guest:And we all knew Hedberg.
Guest:Sure.
Marc:Because he was from there.
Marc:He came from two places.
Guest:Yeah, I think Seattle also.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:But his family was from there, right?
Marc:Minneapolis?
Guest:I think Minneapolis are like a suburb.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you knew him briefly when his headshots just said Mitch?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he's like touring with Chad Daniels and Darlene Westmore and like doing small towns.
Guest:Chad Daniels, another one.
Guest:Great comic.
Guest:Yeah, but he is like, I just worked with him this summer in Sacramento.
Guest:And then here in LA, he had me open for him at the Improv.
Guest:And his fans are everywhere.
Guest:And it sold out months before the show at the Improv.
Guest:Where, at the Improv here?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was going to tell you, when we did the tour, the last special, not the most recent special of yours on Netflix.
Guest:Too real.
Guest:You filmed in Minneapolis.
Guest:I was so sick that whole tour.
Guest:When we drove from Madison to Minneapolis, I was trying not to cough.
Guest:I think I had a sinus infection.
Guest:I was something off.
Guest:I'd be like, no, I'm great.
Guest:I'm not sick at all, sir.
Marc:I remember feeling bad.
Guest:So bad.
Guest:But it's all turned out because I didn't want you to get sick.
Marc:That's very nice of you.
Marc:And you went and got a coronavirus test before this show.
Guest:Yeah, because my husband was like, you cannot go.
Guest:You can't go to Marc Maron's house.
Guest:You can't infect an icon, a comedy icon.
Guest:I haven't left the house in a month.
Guest:What is wrong?
Marc:Does it feel weird?
Marc:Am I like the first person you talk to in person?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, that's not my, well, we have a real Jesus neighbor.
Guest:We live in a duplex, real Jesus neighbor on one side.
Guest:And construction, I cannot stress to you how close and how much construction is happening next to my head in the morning.
Guest:Like our bedroom window, like I could open the window and shake the hands.
Marc:That's the fucking worst, man.
Guest:So it's like, I can't even like, let me just go sit outside and read a book.
Guest:It's because it's either Jesus telling lady, telling me how this is a end times.
Guest:And like, we all got to turn it.
Guest:Like this is, this is in the book, Mark.
Guest:You just ask my neighbor, ask my neighbor.
Guest:I know it's in the book.
Guest:So wait, so all right.
Guest:Well, how does that, like, how often do you see her?
Guest:Well, anytime we open the door, she'll open the door.
Guest:Like, our doors are, like, it's like an L, so our door, like, you know what I mean?
Guest:Like, oh, gosh, so.
Guest:And she's fine, but.
Marc:But, like, she's really into.
Guest:She's a Jew for Jesus.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:So that's extreme.
Guest:And.
Marc:They double down.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:On the Jesus.
Guest:Everything comes back.
Guest:And she's, like, she'll ask you a question, but doesn't really want you to answer because she wants to.
Guest:Tell you about Jesus.
Guest:The good news.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And this is all prophesied, and pretty soon they're going to be putting chips on us.
Marc:Oh, it's the 666 chips.
Guest:Yep, yep, yep.
Guest:Oh, yeah, of course.
Marc:Mark of the Beast.
Guest:Yeah, and I'm like, I just want to get my newspaper, maybe read this book, because otherwise it's construction on the other side.
Marc:Construction, I had to deal with that for a year.
Marc:They built a bank.
Marc:They put a foundation.
Guest:With the other house?
Marc:Not here, no.
Marc:In Boston when I was younger.
Marc:When I was just starting out in comedy.
Marc:Like staying up late.
Marc:And they were putting a foundation.
Guest:Oh, just jackhammer.
Marc:No, bigger jet dropping a giant thing from a crane onto steel girders like they were nails.
Marc:They were putting nails into the earth.
Marc:Giant nails into the earth.
Guest:Nails into the earth.
Marc:With a dropping fucking rock.
Guest:What time did they start?
Marc:Like seven?
Guest:Yeah, because now in L.A., you can start at 7 a.m.
Guest:weekdays, 8 a.m., and sometimes at 6.45, trucks rolling up.
Marc:The type of futile anger you experience.
Ugh.
Marc:where you know there's nothing you can do.
Marc:It's a good life lesson.
Guest:And I hate confrontation so much.
Guest:Yeah, well, what are you going to do?
Guest:Yeah, but we are paying rent, and they're leaning a lot of the wood and stuff by our bedroom window.
Guest:And my husband, he's talked to him several times.
Guest:About leaning?
Guest:Yeah, and talked to the landlord, and he's pretty fired up.
Guest:But I'm like, these workers, they don't give a shit.
Guest:They're just...
Guest:What are they building?
Guest:There's three houses, a duplex, a little bungalow, and then a big house, and they're remodeling the little bungalow that I think they've planned to just like, oh, we'll just replace a couple of things.
Guest:And then it was like they pulled the thread and were like, oh, we need to totally redo this.
Marc:So now it's going to be forever.
Guest:Yeah, and they're redoing our driveway together.
Guest:I don't know, today.
Marc:Oh, driveway?
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I guess.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:So it's the same units.
Marc:It's the same owners as your point.
Marc:I get it.
Guest:But it's like the one time in history where for a month we can sleep in.
Guest:I could do nothing.
Guest:I'm really good at doing nothing.
Guest:I could sleep in.
Guest:Me too.
Guest:I love to stay up late and sleep in, but we can't.
Marc:I'm fucked.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You're going to comedy shows.
Marc:Executive assistant.
Marc:You've seen Bamford.
Marc:You've seen Schwartzen.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You've seen Chad Daniels.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was like, oh, this is cool.
Guest:And I, so I thought I'd try it.
Guest:And I said, I'm going to try it at least three times, no matter what happens.
Marc:At Acme.
Guest:I didn't know.
Guest:Again, I didn't realize like I got up two weeks in a row.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then Lewis.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:I don't know who is actually running the Monday.
Guest:I don't I mean, he doesn't pick the Monday night list.
Guest:I think maybe he'll he'll say like, oh, once you get to a certain point, he'll be like, like, I remember the first time I got five minutes instead of three.
Marc:Do you remember seeing Hedberg?
Guest:no oh you never saw him no um he by the time i started he was already like i remember like i just started and he's on letterman again all right got it yeah um but yeah so i started i got up two weeks in a row and people were like holy shit and i was like oh you don't just get up every week uh okay and then i went to some other the third time was at some little rinky dink bar show did you write jokes
Guest:I did yeah I did I had three I was like I knew because I got enough to see like people who looked like they were just winging it yeah and I knew from my stage training that they weren't that they that I or they just couldn't do it they were like oh shoot what else oh you mean at open mic right yeah yeah yeah yeah um
Marc:But you knew that everybody you saw professionally was writing.
Guest:Writing, or at least they were winging it.
Guest:It was like they were winging it with an idea.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So I did prepare and then just started, and then I liked it, and it was like, oh, this whole new world, and oh, it's fun, and you're out at bars, and it's like a million guys, and you're the pretty, pretty princess for a week, and you're like, oh, fuck this.
Marc:But you didn't, but still you...
Guest:I kept my day that was one thing I remember Tracy Ashley saying keep your day job as long as you can right which was also good and it's an interesting starting in Minneapolis you can make a few bucks yeah like if you have 15 minutes that's cleanish yeah there's a there were at least when I started a handful of one-nighters
Guest:One-nighters bookers who were like, oh, I'm doing this deer hunting widower's weekend.
Guest:Ooh, a lady comic who's kind of clean.
Guest:Heck yeah, come and do this VFW show where there's a 90-year-old and a 19-year-old in the audience.
Marc:Right.
Guest:So you learned like, okay, well.
Marc:So you do special event gigs in the area.
Guest:Yeah, like VFW.
Guest:You can drive an hour around Minneapolis.
Marc:Was there a community there?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Of guys and women that never left?
Guest:I would work a lot for Bill Bauer, who has passed away.
Guest:He was a stand-up?
Guest:A stand-up.
Guest:I think he maybe was like of the Louis Anderson.
Guest:Oh, that generation.
Marc:That generation.
Marc:But never left the region.
Guest:I think he was out in L.A.
Guest:and then started a family, maybe wrote for some things out here and then went back.
Guest:But like...
Guest:Sold out everything.
Guest:You know, we did all the talent, did the circuit in the Midwest and would sell out all the shows.
Guest:And those are always great, super fun gigs.
Guest:You always got a primer at dinner, you know.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And there's another lady, Rox Tarrant, a woman that I would always put on these shows.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And I always love hearing about those people, the unsung heroes.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Regional acts.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That just keep going.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or there's like C. Willie Miles, another comic that would perform at Acme sometimes.
Guest:But this does like I think he does a ton of cruises and like corporates.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Once I started doing it, friends, parents would be like, oh, we saw the funniest at our Coldwell Banker.
Guest:annual meeting do you know this guy and i was like i've never heard of this guy and then he like rolls up in this fancy car and you're like oh shit that's a whole nother circuit of comedy i know nothing about have you done that i've done a few corporates but yeah i didn't quit my day job that office job until i've lived in la almost six years um so maybe like uh seven eight years ago
Guest:I kept it a long time.
Guest:And then I kind of went down to part time.
Guest:I would leave early, drive four hours, tell jokes, and then come back.
Marc:So you stayed practical.
Guest:I stayed.
Marc:You could not just let it all go.
Guest:I'm not going to take that leap.
Guest:I'm not going to cross on the note.
Guest:Don't cross.
Guest:I'm not.
Guest:It was scary to take a leap.
Marc:Well, you got to take a leap.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:When is that going to happen?
Guest:Well, I'm here.
Guest:I'm in L.A.
Guest:Here we are.
Guest:Here we are in quarantine.
Guest:Had some really, really great auditions right before lockdown.
Guest:Actually, one of the last auditions I went on, the guy was like, that was great.
Guest:I'd shake your hand, but you know.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Great.
Marc:But wait, okay, so you get here.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And, like, I think I had part of that.
Marc:I think I talked you up in Rolling Stone magazine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I use it in, like, a little one sheet about myself.
Guest:I'm like, here's what Mark Mearns said about me 20 years ago.
Guest:Oh, you want to find the article online?
Guest:You can't.
Guest:It's no longer on the thing.
Guest:But he did say it.
Marc:Yeah, because I guess it didn't – maybe it's – I'm playing the long game.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:For you.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:Just waiting for my time.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I do wish – I think also starting in the Midwest, you have this – the carrot you're chasing is, okay, I'm going to host.
Guest:You do these guest spots.
Guest:Okay, and then now I'm going to host.
Guest:Okay, now I want a feature.
Guest:Okay, now I want a headline.
Guest:this tiny room in Sioux Falls, okay, which is great, and it's a good skill to have to not be afraid of an audience of 12 people, two of whom are 90, one of whom is 21, or whatever, and there's a hockey game on, the TV behind you, you know.
Guest:So you're chasing that, and you're headlining, and then all of a sudden I feel like, oh, shoot, is this the...
Guest:The life.
Guest:Oops.
Guest:Oops.
Guest:I damn it.
Guest:Because then you get to L.A.
Guest:and you're like, dang, all these people who've lived here five years before me, the connection, the friends that they have.
Guest:I know, but does it matter?
Marc:I have no sense of it, man.
Marc:I mean, does it matter?
Marc:Like I got here and I was like, yeah, I got here from New York and I had some reputation, but I couldn't.
Marc:I feel like you always had a reputation well not a good one well yeah I didn't say that but like when I got here in 2000 and whatever I mean I could do comedy but it was like where can I do it how do I do it and nobody gives a shit if you have like you can move here as a headliner nobody gives a shit about nothing yeah they don't care doesn't matter
Guest:They don't care.
Guest:You have 45 minutes out.
Guest:Nobody cares.
Marc:No, you've got to get into the rooms.
Guest:Or on the cool show.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then that locked out.
Guest:The one thing about Minneapolis, so once you realize, oh, man, my goal is not to headline whatever small town every other weekend.
Guest:Or I need to get somewhere where I can get a TV credit so then at least I can draw some people, whatever.
Guest:In Minneapolis, sometimes people like you come through or like...
Guest:I did Doug Love's movies a couple times, and then that's where I met Jonah.
Guest:So then he'd be like, oh, I'm gonna be in LA.
Guest:And he's like, oh, well, why don't you come and do my show?
Guest:Oh, what's your show?
Guest:Oh, Meltdown.
Guest:Yeah, I think I can squeeze that in on my trip.
Guest:And you did it, right?
Guest:Yeah, I did that a few times.
Marc:Did you do the TV version?
Guest:I didn't do the TV version.
Guest:I have no TV outside of maybe seeing me in a commercial for insurance or something.
Marc:How many commercials did you do?
Guest:I've done three or four here in LA.
Guest:Does that sound about right?
Marc:That's good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Did they make some money?
Guest:I'm non-union, so... I mean, for the day that I show up, yes, but for the, you know, 10 auditions before that.
Marc:But you come out here, and you've got a few friends, and you're, you know, doing the little rooms here and there, but it's hard.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And then, you know, then you get the job over at the restaurant.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And there you are.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But you don't have a problem with that.
Guest:No, I mean, it's a... I'm, like, super part-time at a restaurant.
Marc:It's a groovy place.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's good, because then I saw you, because I think, like, I wouldn't have...
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it was just that moment where I'm there for a meeting, and he's the waiter.
Marc:I'm like... And now he's the biggest act in the fucking world.
Guest:Yeah, you never know.
Guest:And it feels weird to be like, I got this album, but I also work in a restaurant.
Guest:I'm a failure.
Guest:But they're good people, and it's great, and I've met good people.
Marc:I don't know if it's a failure thing.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:It's like...
Guest:what's the other option just sucking it up and not doing nothing and just smoking weed all day nope because I would be breaking rules I don't do that but yeah I drink plenty of coffee but yeah it's keeps you sane makes you leave the house and I'd like to live a comfortable like I like being able to pay rent you don't want to worry about shit yeah it's
Marc:But here's my question, though.
Marc:Because I remember I wasn't concerned.
Marc:But after a certain point, I don't know how to help anybody.
Marc:But you met this dude out of nowhere.
Guest:I talk about my husband?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I met him online.
Guest:I swiped right.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was looking for adult physical fun in Los Angeles.
Guest:And Los Angeles is huge.
Guest:And I didn't want to date customers of the restaurant.
Guest:And I didn't want to date a comic.
Marc:But it was specific physical fun?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was looking to have sex.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I will say that.
Guest:So embarrassing.
Guest:I'm an adult.
Guest:I'm allowed to say that.
Guest:So I swiped around.
Guest:I was like, okay, you can mail order.
Guest:You can swipe.
Guest:This guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:First action, and I was like, oh, he's fun.
Guest:He's got cool gray hair, and he lives on my side of town.
Marc:So everything's going your way.
Guest:And then I was like, well, I guess I'll keep him around forever.
Marc:So you met him, and so you had the sex, and that was fine, but you liked the guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And he's like a train guy?
Guest:Yeah, he works for Amtrak.
Guest:He works on the trains.
Marc:What does he do on the train?
Marc:Is he the guy that walks up and down and punches the thing?
Guest:No, that's the conductor does that, I think.
Guest:He's like a train attendant.
Guest:He's like a flight attendant, but on the trains.
Marc:Oh, so he works in the first class Amtrak?
Guest:Yeah, some of that.
Guest:And then sometimes he works in the yard doing stuff to the trains.
Guest:I don't really know.
Marc:Do you like trains?
Guest:He does, and I think he likes... He'll work like three days and then have six days off.
Guest:So it's like that kind of hours.
Marc:You getting health insurance through Amtrak?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:Yeah, I had it at the restaurant, but now I have better.
Guest:Oh, the restaurant?
Guest:That's nice.
Guest:Yeah, and 401k.
Guest:They take care of their people.
Guest:At the fucking restaurant?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That's pretty good, man.
Guest:Isn't that great?
Guest:So yeah, he works for Amtrak, and so that's another thing.
Guest:He's gone, I think he's usually gone three days.
Guest:Where did you go?
Guest:So now his route, before the lockdown, his route was up and down the coast, like up San Luis Obispo, San Diego, just back and forth.
Guest:He'd spend the night like in Goleta or wherever and then home for like four days.
Guest:So I'd have a few days just alone, do what I want, relax.
Guest:Or like when he's gone, okay, then those are the nights you definitely got to go out and hit a mic or go see a show or do whatever.
Guest:But now we're just both home.
Yeah.
Marc:I thought you said he was working a little.
Guest:Well, he is, but there are way fewer trains right now.
Guest:So last trip he went up to Seattle and back, which he doesn't normally do, the long hauls.
Guest:Along the coast or in the middle?
Guest:Yeah, along the coast.
Guest:And then sometimes he goes up to Chicago.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That's a long haul.
Guest:Yeah, is that six days?
Guest:Chicago or New Orleans, one of them is six days from L.A.
Marc:So here we are.
Marc:What are the big goals now?
Marc:You've done four commercials.
Guest:One of which, I'm in a bathing suit, so that means I'm a hero as a real woman.
Marc:And you've got this record out that's solid.
Guest:Yeah, people are digging it.
Guest:I guess it's playing on Sirius on a few different channels.
Guest:Oh, thank God.
Marc:That'd make you some money.
Guest:Yeah, hopefully.
Guest:I keep opening the Sirius app and waiting to hear myself.
Guest:The Pandora, which is such a strange to pull up and see where people are listening.
Marc:Oh, you do?
Marc:You can?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, no shit.
Guest:I don't quite know how to read at all.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:But...
Marc:Where are they listening?
Guest:Like a lot in the Midwest and then up and down the coast and then like a handful of places in Florida.
Marc:But you're like, you're a Midwest person.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, it's part of your point of view.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Part of the appeal.
Marc:Part of the appeal.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I'm here.
Guest:I love stand up.
Guest:Boy, do I miss it, which I didn't realize.
Marc:It's weird because I'm having the opposite experience.
Guest:You're not missing it.
Marc:I'm like, I think I'm done.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, yeah.
Guest:I mean, what?
Guest:You're a fancy pants actor.
Guest:Are you missing that?
Guest:Are you missing being on set?
Marc:No, I'm not missing anything.
Marc:I've been waiting my whole life to do nothing with confidence.
Marc:I mean, I've done nothing with nothing.
Marc:I like doing nothing with something.
Guest:I think it's safe to say you've earned it.
Guest:You can enjoy this.
Marc:There's always part of my brain outside of the plague and worrying about the end of the world.
Marc:But no, it's teaching me that there was part of me that, I don't know if I'm old school or what, but there's part of me that always thought, when do you retire?
Marc:Isn't the idea of work to stop?
Guest:Do you think you, Marc Maron, will actually retire?
Marc:I don't think so.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Everyone always asks me that, but I don't...
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:This is a real lesson in that.
Marc:This forced pause is really one of those things where it's like, if you really think, assess yourself, like how am I really feeling about doing nothing?
Marc:Well, it's great because I know no one else is doing anything, so that helps.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Because I'm like, the competition's over.
Guest:Well, maybe at your level.
Guest:So the level I'm at, I'm having a little bit of the opposite.
Guest:I feel like I'm supposed to be doing everything.
Guest:The agent is like, fill out, make sure this is up to date.
Guest:And these casting directors are taking these submissions.
Guest:And if you're not reaching out for a new manager, now is the time.
Guest:And I'm like, I'm behind.
Guest:Yeah, because they have nothing to do but sift through submissions.
Guest:I'm like, yeah, but if thousands of people are submitting...
Marc:That's still another version of nothing to do.
Guest:Yeah, so... Doesn't mean anything.
Marc:But I think... Just trying to justify their jobs.
Guest:It's... Are you feeling any creative impulse?
Guest:Sure, I mean... Are you writing?
Guest:I see you cooking.
Guest:You're podcasting stuff.
Marc:Oh, yeah, no, I cook.
Marc:I play guitar.
Marc:You know, I talk on the mic.
Marc:Sometimes I'll go on IG live.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, and I'm writing a few things down here and there.
Marc:But mostly just letting my head clear out.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And working on the house a bit.
Marc:But...
Guest:Do you miss acting?
Guest:Are you loving the acting?
Guest:It's okay.
Marc:I mean, look, man, it's nice to be part of a thing.
Marc:Part of a thing.
Guest:You're part of some huge cultural things.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, it is fun and it's exciting, but it's work in a way.
Marc:Yeah, everything's okay, but I don't think I would have ever taken a break.
Marc:Certainly not like this.
Marc:And I am surprised at how well I'm acclimating because as a comic, and I've said this before,
Marc:Like, we did nothing for a long time.
Marc:Not you, but many of us.
Guest:I've done nothing.
Guest:I'm good at doing nothing, but yeah.
Guest:You know.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:All right, so the record's out.
Marc:Yep.
Marc:And hopefully we'll get back to work eventually.
Marc:Do you cook?
Guest:No, I hate it so much.
Guest:So what are you guys doing?
Guest:I mean, we're cooking.
Guest:We have to.
Guest:Like, luckily we signed up for a CSA right before this all went down.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:The community sustained, supported agriculture.
Guest:You get the box?
Guest:We get a box of produce every week.
Marc:It's still coming?
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then now you can also like add on like eggs and milk and stuff.
Guest:So we haven't really, I have to go out and get coffee after this, but we haven't really like.
Guest:I have coffee.
Guest:Sweet.
Guest:What kind of, you mean beans?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I gave you some beans.
Guest:That's the only reason I'm here.
Marc:Deal.
Marc:Let's go take care of it.
Guest:Thank you so much for having me.
Guest:This is great to talk.
Guest:to another human being leave my house i i got to pet a cat this has been i took a shower i put on makeup this is you look great this has been like prom this has been the highlight of my quarantine well wait till i give you your corsage all right talk to you later thanks for having me
Marc:That was me and Amber Preston.
Marc:Her new stand-up album is called Sparkly Parts.
Marc:Get it wherever you get music and comedy records.
Marc:It will bring you back to the Midwest.
Marc:All right, let's play some guitar.
Yeah.
Guest:Boomer lives.