Episode 131 - Doug Benson
Marc:Lock the gates!
Guest:Are we doing this?
Guest:Really?
Guest:Wait for it.
Guest:Are we doing this?
Guest:Wait for it.
Guest:Pow!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?
Guest:What's wrong with me?
Guest:It's time for WTF!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:With Marc Maron.
Marc:Okay, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck, buddies?
Marc:What the fucking ears?
Marc:What the fucking odds?
Marc:What the fuck, Knicks?
Marc:How are you?
Marc:It's Mark Maron.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:I am back in Los Angeles.
Marc:I am back in the garage at the Cat Ranch doing my show.
Marc:Just got back from New York City today, about an hour ago.
Marc:I'm emotionally exhausted.
Marc:I'm physically exhausted.
Marc:I didn't get sick by some miracle of adrenaline and panic.
Marc:The CD tapings were spectacular.
Marc:And I can't thank you enough for coming out to Union Hall in Brooklyn to be part of that.
Marc:We had great shows.
Marc:They were interesting shows.
Marc:Not one of the shows was less than an hour and a half, which means I've got to trim off like, God, I don't know, 40 minutes.
Marc:or else do a double disc.
Marc:I don't know what's gonna happen.
Marc:We're gonna try to put it together as soon as possible before I start thinking twice about it.
Marc:Obviously, there's some things that I was sitting on the plane thinking, ah, fuck, why didn't I, how come I couldn't, why didn't I, what am I, an idiot?
Marc:Why did I say that twice?
Marc:But I think it would have been that way either way.
Marc:But I certainly appreciate all you what the fuck people coming out and hanging out.
Marc:It's nice meeting you.
Marc:Thank you for the presents.
Marc:Got some nice gifts.
Marc:I got some chocolates.
Marc:I got some cookies.
Marc:I got some soap.
Marc:I got a Parmesan cheese grater.
Marc:I have got the greatest fans in the fucking world.
Marc:thoughtful gifts you know it'd be easy if i were doug benson and you could just bring me weed or weed related merchandise but you know there's more to doug benson than just weed and you will find that out because we're going to talk to doug uh in just a few minutes doug benson on the show and i know some of you know him some of you don't those you don't know him you're going to meet doug and and quite honestly it was sort of like me meeting doug i've known doug a lot of years but not unlike many of the guests i have here in the garage i
Marc:I really didn't know much about Doug.
Marc:And he was one of those guys where I'm like, what's going on in there?
Marc:What's going on in the Benson head?
Marc:I want to know what's up in the Benson head.
Marc:So I flew back today.
Marc:I was on the plane.
Marc:I got upgraded to business class.
Marc:And yeah, I had some ice cream.
Marc:I did.
Marc:Yeah, I chose not to get a personal viewer.
Marc:So I watched the guy's viewer over my shoulder.
Marc:I watched, I believe it was Salt for a while with Angelina Jolie.
Marc:The best I could figure was she played an angry, bloody Houdini-like character.
Marc:I don't know if I'm mistaken about that.
Marc:I also watched on the main screen Eat, Pray, Love with no sound.
Marc:And the best I could figure, it seemed like a very lyrical and visually stunning new age odyssey into the heart of stupid.
Marc:Maybe I'm wrong, but that was my take without sound.
Marc:The great thing about watching movies without sound is you can sort of make them funny if you'd like.
Marc:You can add your own dialogue.
Marc:You can see things as funny.
Marc:Honestly, I'd go as far to say that most things might be better without sound.
Marc:You just have to pay attention more and it leads more to the imagination.
Marc:I did have a interesting experience in New York City that I talked about a bit on stage because I was exhausted.
Marc:I don't know if you know that.
Marc:Well, of course you do.
Marc:That feeling of being mentally and emotionally exhausted.
Marc:I was on the verge of sickness.
Marc:I was running on pure cortisol and adrenaline in complete survival mode.
Marc:I was tweaked.
Marc:It felt like I was coming down from an acid trip.
Marc:That weird feeling where things are vibrating around the edges and you're not sure what's real and you're jittery and you think you're sweating chemicals or toxins.
Marc:Well, that wasn't the case, but that did happen on certain drugs.
Marc:But I got into an elevator in the building where my manager has her office.
Marc:And in the elevator was a man.
Marc:It was just me and a man who looked exactly, exactly like Spaulding Gray.
Marc:And I don't know if it was because I was exhausted or a little out of my mind.
Marc:My first thought was not that can't be Spaulding Gray.
Marc:He committed suicide a few years back.
Marc:No.
Marc:My first thought was, ah, you pulled it off.
Marc:You pulled it off, buddy.
Marc:My lips are sealed.
Marc:Your secret's good with me.
Marc:Good for you.
Marc:Good for you getting out.
Marc:I'm looking forward to the show.
Marc:All right.
Marc:You take care.
Marc:Good job.
Marc:I felt like McMurphy in Cuckoo's Nest.
Marc:You fooled him, chief.
Marc:That happened to me.
Marc:It was a very interesting trip.
Marc:It was a bit of an awkward trip.
Marc:I rented a place in Brooklyn on the west side of Brooklyn on Prospect Park.
Marc:It was recommended by a fan.
Marc:It was basically a basement apartment in a woman's building.
Marc:And it was just very interesting.
Marc:It had a unique theme to it.
Marc:It was sort of, you know, when bed and breakfasts are sort of intrusive because you have to deal with other people.
Marc:But when you rent a place in someone's house, it was its own apartment, but it had its own decor.
Marc:It had her idea of what chic or what would be.
Marc:But it was very Americana.
Marc:But I don't know if it was on purpose.
Marc:You know, she gave me the keys and she said that the idea is there's three doors and these are, you know, the each key that there is red, white and blue.
Marc:But the keys were clearly sort of pink, yellow and a bluish color.
Marc:But nonetheless, the theme was red, white and blue.
Marc:I get in there.
Marc:There's a small shrine to the fallen firefighters of 9-11.
Marc:It was just interesting to be in another person's life, even though I was renting the apartment.
Marc:And then it was odd because the heat kept going on at weird times and not enough heat.
Marc:So I felt like I was being in some sort of timer oven.
Marc:And then like when I called her...
Marc:I didn't know what the proximity to me and her life was.
Marc:And then I called to see if I could get more heat.
Marc:And I called on my cell phone and I heard her phone ringing above.
Marc:So I don't know how much surveillance I was under.
Marc:I hope I cleaned up and I hope I behaved properly.
Marc:I don't have a lot to share with you right now because I'm drained.
Marc:And I would like to just talk to Doug Benson if that's okay with you.
Marc:But again, thank you so much for coming out to the show.
Marc:I was very grateful.
Marc:It was very humbling to know that people actually like me and tolerate me and are now coming to clubs to see me.
Marc:And actually, if I can drop some names, Ira Glass.
Marc:came to the last performance with his wife, and it was a pleasure.
Marc:But I'll tell you one thing, knowing Ira Glass was in the room, there was a lot of pressure in my mind to try to be as smart and funny as possible, because at that moment, I didn't think I was smart and funny.
Marc:So I said things on stage like, is that the proper word usage?
Marc:Which is not...
Marc:You know, you don't need to be saying that on stage, really.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Let's talk to Doug Benson.
Marc:Let's let's get underneath the cloud of smoke that most people think defines Doug Benson and and see if we can get we can talk about other stuff.
Marc:I'm just curious about his life.
Marc:I really don't know about him.
Guest:As a comedian and as a human, I complain quite a bit.
Guest:Now, how does Doug Benson express infuriation?
Guest:Because I sense it would be just something like you just did.
Guest:Hey, could you not do that?
Guest:Oh, that's horrible.
Guest:But I think that I think it's when you're hanging out with other comics, that's all you do.
Guest:But you do it in a way that you're entertaining each other or at least, you know, agreeing with one another.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You know, like, oh, this club was so terrible.
Guest:But what was terrible about it doesn't match what's going on in Darfur or.
Guest:Any of the other impoverished, horrible situations in the world?
Guest:You know, you just get mad because it's your situation, and it's like your shitty condo that you have to stay in or whatever.
Marc:Depends where you're playing, I guess.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I've never been to a condo where there are like, you know, starving, bloated kids around or-
Guest:And you still complain about it.
Marc:Yeah, it's all relative, I guess.
Marc:I haven't complained about, I try not to complain much about anything lately, but I did a gig where, now let me, honestly, let me ask you honestly, when you do shows, I mean, you're on the road fucking, what, like three or four days a week?
Guest:Yeah, generally.
Guest:I'm trying to dial it back a little.
Guest:I'm trying to also stop saying dial it back.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:But yeah, I'm going to be... In 2011, I'm not going to go... I'm going to do shorter runs, you know, like just do a couple cities one night each and then come home.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But as it stands right now, I've been doing comedy clubs most weekends.
Guest:Like this weekend, I'm going to be in Dallas, Texas.
Marc:Four shows?
Guest:Yeah, two Friday, two Saturday.
Guest:I don't like two show nights.
Marc:Why?
Marc:It's just too exhausting.
Marc:I just like to do one and be done with it.
Marc:Now, are you finding that you're selling out everywhere?
Marc:I mean, is it really happening?
Guest:It's good, but between the recession and my crowd being a little flaky,
Guest:Cause they don't, you know, especially that's what I don't like about comedy clubs on Fridays and Saturdays is that the stoner crowd just goes, Oh, that seems like a hassle.
Guest:Cause it's always, it's always a comedy club in a mall and there's more than one show and there's a drink minimum, you know, and they've already been like, I'm tired.
Guest:It's already like, Oh, why bother?
Guest:You know, why, you know, I get messages on Twitter all the time.
Guest:Why don't you play my house?
Guest:This, this cool place.
Guest:Or yeah, my living room.
Guest:What's wrong with doing a show in my living room?
Guest:Just come over, dude.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, if I could do it, I think people would be a lot more satisfied with my performances if they just paid me a few bucks and I came and hung out with them in a smoking circle.
Guest:Like, if I could just travel around doing that, just being a guy who shows... I'll show up and smoke with you.
Guest:You give me a few bucks.
Guest:See you later, you guys.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it's much easier to entertain in the smoking circle, because...
Guest:everyone's high instead of just some of the people.
Guest:There's no drunks.
Guest:There's no drunks in a smoking circle.
Marc:How about in your crowds?
Marc:I mean, do you find that, like I'm finding now, but we're certainly, it seems like we're running in different circles to some degree, that the more, like the people that I'm drawing, literally, like they get surprised when there's drunk assholes in a crowd.
Marc:Like, what is that guy doing here?
Guest:Yeah, and they apologize for their town.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Like they think that's the only place where people get drunk.
Guest:Like that's the problem with the whole comedy club setup.
Guest:I like a place where drinking is more optional.
Guest:Like almost like you have to go out of your way to get a drink.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, like you have to go to the bar.
Marc:I'd rather just do small 200 seat black box theaters for the rest of my life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And let them sell some beers in the lobby.
Guest:Let them make that money.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But like the whole idea of the two drink minimum.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You just get a lot of people that...
Guest:you know they're out they're excited and they get to for their two drinks they get long island iced teas or something and then they're hammered by the time the headliner comes on on the fucking obnoxious i've had in this in the past year i've had at least on three occasions someone while they're being thrown out yelling you know the show's going on they're being thrown out and they yell i'm your biggest fan yeah
Guest:And it's just like, yeah, you're my most fucked up fan right now, and you're ruining it for everybody.
Guest:Thanks for coming, biggest fan.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Get them the fuck out of here.
Guest:And it's so terrible having to throw out somebody that really, really loves you and just overdid it.
Guest:They didn't plan their night correctly.
Marc:Right.
Marc:They didn't pace themselves.
Marc:I had a guy that came up with his brother or something or his cousin in New York at a live WTF taping.
Marc:They said they loved the show.
Marc:And they were like up in my face, excited to be there.
Marc:And the guy he brought, his brother or his cousin, the show is unusable.
Marc:He fucking pissed Louis Black off so much.
Marc:And I had Rich Voss and Bonnie McFarlane on, and the whole thing just went down the crapper.
Marc:It was a lighthouse, and this guy just started mocking Lewis.
Marc:You know how Lewis does his hands?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:The guy just started going, like mimicking him, which is probably the worst thing you can do to anybody.
Guest:This guy was an audience member?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It was a fucking nightmare.
Marc:So I want to put Doug Benson into context because I was trying to think like, you know, I knew you were coming over and I know you don't have these kind of conversations.
Marc:Like, I don't know that we've ever talked for a long period of time and I'm not going to bring up the story about the blender.
Marc:I'm not going to bring it up again.
Marc:But I do want to try to figure out when the fuck I first met you, because I remember what I do remember is you had you look the same almost exactly, except you had like Charles Nelson Riley glasses.
Marc:Didn't you have very big?
Guest:Yeah, I used to have big glasses and different colored frames like purple and red.
Guest:And it was ridiculous.
Marc:You did that thing for a while.
Marc:So stupid.
Marc:But that was like 89, 1990.
Marc:I remember the Santa Monica improv.
Marc:And you were sort of like, I don't know if anyone really puts you into a generational context, but you started in LA with Spade, right?
Marc:Or Spade started in Arizona, but you guys were buddies, weren't you?
Guest:I saw him around.
Guest:I knew him.
Guest:A good buddy of mine was pretty close with Spade at that time.
Guest:So I knew who he was and saw him around.
Guest:And to this day when I see him, he says hi.
Guest:But we've never been super close.
Marc:But weren't you guys starting out around the same time?
Marc:I mean, who was in the crew here?
Guest:Yeah, kind of.
Guest:I fell into the whole kind of San Francisco scene pretty quickly with Greg Berent and...
Marc:So when I was there, like 91, 92, I got there.
Guest:Laura Milligan and Margaret Cho.
Marc:Ebby Parker.
Guest:All that gang.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then me, Blaine, and Patton showed up.
Marc:And you were up there a lot.
Guest:The first time Blaine and Patton showed up, it was so funny to me because they were like, it was kind of like villains or something walked in.
Guest:Because they look so funny together.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:One short round one and one tall skinny one.
Guest:They look like characters out of a...
Guest:Roald Dahl book or something.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they'd come from where?
Guest:Baltimore.
Guest:Baltimore.
Guest:And they, you know, I quickly learned they were super nice guys and I've been friends with them ever since.
Guest:But at first they were just kind of like, who are these guys?
Guest:Because they were both very cocky.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, and actually really funny.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But in a way that was just kind of like, whoa, what's this about?
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And Barron, the first time I met him, he was wearing a headband.
Guest:Oh, yeah, dude, with the muscles.
Guest:He had his crazy eye, and he just really cut an intimidating figure.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And the first time I saw him, he came up to me and was like, we're doing the same joke.
Guest:I'm like, what?
Guest:And then he proceeded to be very nice about it, but it was very confrontational at first, and it was just about how we both had a joke about, you know, my girlfriend complains that I'm smothering her, or at least that's what it sounds like from underneath the pillow or something like that.
Guest:That was the joke?
Guest:That was the joke.
Guest:It was just like smothering.
Guest:Like, wow, really hard to get to that punchline once you've said you're smothering me.
Guest:So, yeah, so, you know, but he was super cool about it, and then we became friends, and we had lots of...
Guest:crazy road experiences together but i sort of i i've the the san francisco area used to have like five or six clubs in the suburbs around it that you could work for a full weekend and then san francisco itself had the improv the punchline and cobs oh that's right so between all of those i was going up to san francisco for about a week out of every month for for several years
Marc:but you did tommy t's roosters or uh and then there were did you ever do those gigs like out like the sunshine saloon yes and they had uh where was that like stockton or i can't remember where yeah there was a couple sunshine saloon things i think and then there was like rooster tea feathers that's it that's still that's still going and i like doing it yeah me too i'm going up there in uh february or whenever
Marc:It's a nice little room.
Marc:I always have fun there.
Marc:That Sunshine Saloon, I still remember it, man.
Marc:It's a small bar, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Am I thinking about the right place?
Marc:Probably, yeah.
Guest:Did you ever do that?
Guest:It's a weird ... There used to be a lot of gigs like that where they would just put a microphone in a corner somewhere and there's barely any lighting or ... The worst.
Marc:Did you ever do the UC Davis, that gig?
Marc:You remember that gig, University of California, Davis?
Marc:It was in a huge bar.
Marc:I don't think so.
Marc:Oh, I had a bad night there one night.
Marc:I decided that I needed to clean out my body in a healthy way.
Marc:So I drank this herb tea of this stuff.
Marc:I think it was called Cascara Sagrada or something.
Marc:It was a natural laxative or something, but I didn't know the dosage.
Marc:So I drank it the afternoon I did the show and literally I had to stop my show to go have explosive shit.
Marc:Really?
Marc:And then get back on again.
Guest:The MC just stalled for a while?
Marc:Yeah, I told him to come back up.
Marc:I'm in trouble.
Guest:That's fantastic.
Marc:Have you ever had that happen?
Guest:I have never.
Guest:No, I've never had to leave the stage to go to the bathroom or for any reason other than I've left the stage on several occasions to actually go into the crowd and yell at someone for being obnoxious.
Guest:Like I've actually, you know.
Guest:You yelled?
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I get really mad.
Guest:I get really mad when people won't shut up and the people running the club won't get them to or won't take them out.
Guest:So I'll take matters into my own hands sometimes.
Guest:And it gets scary because I'm way too ballsy with big drunk dudes.
Marc:Yeah, I know that feeling.
Marc:But I cannot imagine what a Doug Benson crowd must feel when Doug gets angry.
Marc:I really have to assume that given the state they're in, they must be like, oh no, it's an interesting...
Guest:It's an interesting dynamic.
Guest:It gets very quiet.
Guest:That's what I hate whenever somebody gets thrown out for some reason.
Guest:I hate that few minutes of where you have to just keep going with your act, but you know no one's thinking about anything other than what just happened.
Guest:Do you ever feel like you pussed out?
Marc:Sometimes when they throw them out, I feel like I have not done my job.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I mean, when people say, if you can't handle a heckler, you're not a good comic, to me, that's ridiculous because some of the best comics ever would never be good at handling hecklers.
Guest:No, that's true.
Guest:That's true.
Guest:Like a Maria Bamford doesn't handle hecklers, and there's hardly anybody funnier than her.
Marc:But when they come to shut a guy up that's right in the front fucking row, there's part of me that's like, oh, now I just look like a bitch.
Guest:Oh, no, I get involved.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, me too.
Guest:I try not to be a bitch about it.
Guest:I try to be like, hey, dude, you know, and I also, I always explain to the audience, this person probably had too much to drink.
Guest:They're probably a perfectly nice person normally, but now they're being a douchebag and they got to go because they're ruining it for all the, especially nowadays, people pay a lot of money to come see a show like that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And to have some guy or girl just randomly yelling shit and ruining it, it's like, people thank you after.
Guest:No, absolutely.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I meet everyone at all of my shows.
Guest:I don't ever split after my shows.
Marc:Me neither.
Guest:So sometimes it's like an hour of hanging out, but I really think that people deserve that because- Oh, yeah.
Guest:You don't get that normally.
Guest:You go see the headliner these days.
Guest:It's always somebody gets shuttled away after it's over, and it's like-
Guest:And meeting the person is a lot more fun than seeing their show.
Guest:If they're a fan, they've already probably heard a lot of the jokes.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I'll lounge around before the show.
Guest:Sometimes I'll get up on stage before the show starts.
Guest:I don't do much before the show stuff because I just have this theater thing in my mind.
Guest:The first time they see you should be when you walk out and start your act.
Marc:Yeah, that's probably good.
Marc:I think that's a classic way of approaching it.
Guest:But it is nice to go chat with people ahead of time too, though.
Marc:But I went and did a gig in Pontiac, Michigan, where it was upstairs at a rock club, and I got there, and it was like 30 miles outside of Detroit, and the place, where it was at, looked like a ghost town, because it was night, and there were people outside, the place wasn't open, they were huddled together, and I had to get there and huddle with them, and try to figure out how the fuck to get in the venue.
Marc:And then I literally was standing on line with my audience to get into the venue, and I'm like, I don't have to stand here.
Marc:And I walked up, and then there were no chairs set up, so I'm literally setting up the room with my audience, and then I got on stage.
Marc:awesome well it was a little awkward but it worked out you know they were sweet people you know they have a story oh yeah you know it was nice i mean but especially if you die young yeah they're like you wait a minute that guy was great we set up chairs with him at his own show now he's gone oh now do you but like when you do a bad show though do you ever get that would you know when when do you still suck sometimes or no i mean i
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I mean, my whole thing is not trying very hard.
Guest:So I've set the bar so low.
Marc:But I mean, that is your act.
Marc:But do you ever walk off and go, I don't know if I want to socialize this one?
Guest:Well, yeah, sometimes, especially if there's some people that were a problem that never got thrown out and it just sort of got resolved by me insulting them or something.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because I always feel I never like having that conversation afterwards, you know.
Guest:I don't want to talk.
Guest:I don't really.
Guest:That's the thing about the drunk people really gets to me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because they're so hard to, you know, you can't really wrap it up with them.
Guest:You know, like if somebody's super stoned, you could just be like, hey, man, you know, give me a second.
Guest:I'm talking to this other person.
Guest:They're usually pretty respectful, but drunks... No, the worst.
Marc:They don't know.
Marc:Now, when you... I can't... Like, I don't know many people that grew up here, so where did you grow up in this area?
Marc:I grew up in San Diego.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Guest:And then... But just, you know, as soon as I was, you know...
Guest:after a few years of junior college i realized that i don't really need school to pursue that's a two-year college business right yeah junior college but you knew you wanted to go into comedy after you got out of high school no i had no idea i was a huge fan of comedy who were your guys uh you know carlin and and when i was little i listened to bill cosby a lot and um
Guest:Steve Martin then when I was in high school in college.
Guest:I just Stayed up and watch Letterman every night.
Guest:I love that guy from the from the get-go Oh, yeah me too.
Marc:And you must have been that you're my age, right?
Marc:Yeah, roughly so we started we saw it from the beginning like I remember it front like I used to be in college You know stoned and like wait up to watch him.
Guest:I mean I remember being with girlfriends going we gotta watch Letterman, you know at 1230 Yeah, I think I watched the first Saturday Night Live because George Carlin was the guest host and
Marc:We were younger then.
Marc:I was like 12 or 13, right?
Guest:Yeah, but I stayed up every Saturday night.
Guest:Me too, yeah.
Guest:I didn't have to fall asleep before it was over, but I tried to stay up.
Marc:Now, I'll admit to being a Chevy Chase fan when I was a kid.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I thought he was hilarious.
Guest:He was the best.
Guest:I had the Saturday Night Live album that they put out.
Guest:Yeah, I had that too with the Purple Goo title.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I listened to it over and over again.
Guest:I mean, it's a fun album to listen to because there's a lot of music on it.
Guest:Every song parody they did was on there.
Guest:Did you ever listen to it recently?
No.
Guest:No, but I bet you I'd enjoy it.
Guest:I used to be one of those things, you know, teenagers, you always have things that you repeat with your friends all the time.
Guest:My friends used to say painful rectal itch all the time from that.
Guest:With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.
Guest:Yeah, I remember that shit too.
Guest:Were you a stoner in high school?
Guest:No, no, I didn't.
Guest:That's the thing is I didn't really discover pot until I started doing road comedy in San Francisco specifically.
Guest:It was the week that I was the feature act.
Guest:Brian Posehn was the opener and Greg Proops was the headliner.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:I just got high.
Guest:Punchline in Walnut Creek.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And yeah, so we would drive out there every night and do the show and get crazy baked in the green room or outside or whatever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Greg or Brian's, because for the first five, six years I smoked pot, I was just a mooch.
Guest:I only smoked when other people had it.
Guest:How old were you, man?
Guest:I guess my first time I really... I tried it once or twice in high school, but the real one time in high school, but the real getting into it and smoking all the time wasn't until I was 28 years old.
Marc:That's amazing.
Marc:It's like people start smoking cigarettes late, but I think smoking pot's better.
Marc:I mean, I can't begrudge you for that.
Marc:Right, right, right.
Marc:It was a gift.
Marc:It was literally a natural God-given gift to you and your career.
Guest:Well, yeah, but I certainly didn't.
Guest:It just sort of...
Guest:seeped into things because stand-up became more and more about just getting up and talking from your own point of view right and not necessarily trying to put on an act or just write all jokes you know I kind of remember you being like more joke like heavy oh yeah when you were younger but it's so weird to me though so when you're in high school when you smoked pot were you like fuck this shit this freaked me out were you not a drinking guy were you
Marc:Like, did you come from a conservative family?
Marc:A lot of questions.
Guest:Well, you know, my parents smoked cigarettes quite a bit.
Guest:Like, you know, let's drive to Arizona with the air conditioning on and the windows up and both my parents smoking the entire way.
Guest:On a camping trip?
Guest:Like, my mom smoked, you know, while she was pregnant with me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And look at how I turned out.
Guest:But then, so I never got into cigarette smoking, but they also were never...
Guest:I had the older brother that did pretty much everything by the book wrong.
Guest:How much older?
Guest:Three years.
Marc:Oh, so he took the hits.
Guest:So he got into all the trouble and I was just the angel because I was nerdier than him.
Guest:So I was just more into just staying at home.
Guest:I didn't move out of my parents' house until I moved to LA.
Guest:So I was like 22 when I finally moved out of the house.
Guest:Because I lived in the downstairs of my parents' two-story house.
Guest:Shag apartment?
Guest:So I had my own apartment downstairs.
Guest:I had girlfriends come stay over and stuff while my parents were sleeping upstairs.
Guest:Yeah, my own two doors.
Guest:A door to get into the area where my room was, and then a bathroom and a room all to myself.
Marc:So you were set up to party, but you didn't.
Guest:And my mom would come in and clean the room every day.
Guest:It was like living in a hotel.
Yeah.
Marc:And where was your brother's room?
Guest:Well, he had moved out by that point.
Guest:What's his name?
Guest:When I was in... Hal.
Guest:Hal.
Guest:Hal.
Guest:He lives in Seattle now.
Guest:Hal Benson?
Guest:I'm going to see him in a couple days.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Did he straighten up?
Guest:Well, yeah.
Guest:I mean, he was never that bad.
Guest:He just got into a lot of situations that were the kind of stuff that never happened to me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like he was on the football team and he was a surfer and he had a, you know, a Mustang that he was always working on in the garage.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:You know, he, he, you know, when I, my first year of high school, he was a senior and I was a freshman and I didn't get hazed or hassled that much because he was watching out for you.
Guest:He was this big guy on the football team, you know, and I didn't have to run to him or use his name or anything.
Guest:It was just, people just knew, you know, that you were, that you were Benson's brother, his brother.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You know, why would I, why would I get involved with that?
Marc:Did the jocks, were you like some sort of mascot?
Guest:Well, that was the worst thing, is that my brother's friends would come over and suffocate me underneath the beanbag chair in the living room and shit like that.
Guest:But I was definitely not athletic in high school, and so that's what kind of pushed me towards the arts.
Guest:Making people laugh was a way to get attention.
Marc:That's so funny because I was an older brother and now I see you as a younger brother, which is a whole different set of affairs.
Marc:It's a whole different fucking thing.
Guest:Yeah, younger brother, but also kind of almost like a single child because my brother, you know, he flew the coop at like 18.
Guest:Had enough?
Guest:And then I had like, you know, five, six years of being the only child.
Marc:Did he at least have good records and shit?
Marc:I mean, was there anything that you were able to glean from, you know, did he turn you on to anything that...
Guest:Well, he was cool.
Guest:You know, he put an 8-track stereo in my car for me.
Guest:You know, and we just didn't have the same interests.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You know, but now as adults, he's crazy about me.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:He comes to see, anytime I do a show anywhere near the Seattle area, he comes.
Guest:Does he have a family?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:He's got a wife and two kids.
Guest:Uncle Doug.
Guest:One of his daughters, one of my nieces, is getting married next March to the drummer in a Christian metal band.
Yeah.
Guest:So I'm definitely scheduling some road work around that wedding.
Guest:Is your brother Christian-y?
Guest:No.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:And the band's not that Christian-y either, as I've been told.
Marc:That's their angle?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:They're going after the Jesus kids?
Guest:I don't want to screw up their name, but I think they're called Zombie Hunter, I think.
Marc:Which could be, I don't know, Jesus was kind of a zombie, wasn't he?
Guest:Yeah, but, you know, they're like... I think that the Christian part of it is just that, like, that's...
Guest:They are Christians, but they don't push any kind of Christian beliefs through their music.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So they're only a Christian metal band in the sense that they all believe in God or whatever.
Marc:Now, I'm just trying to remember.
Marc:I have these fragments of my own past that mix with yours.
Marc:I remember you were around.
Marc:There was a crew that sort of hung out in L.A.
Marc:when I got tangled up with Stacey Nelson, the crazy publicist.
Guest:Yeah, she was roommates with Dana Gould for a while in a house in Hollywood.
Marc:Yeah, that house.
Guest:And we'd hang out there a lot.
Guest:That was before the Dave Rath house came along.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Where we spent even more time.
Marc:And she had that other roommate, that girl too.
Marc:It was all kind of crazy.
Marc:I remember that I got into a lot of trouble with that, but there was a big party at that house.
Marc:I remember Apatow was there and Stiller and all those guys, they all seem to be of our generation.
Marc:They seem to be around at that time.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and well, I hung out a lot with Janine and with David Cross.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:And then the Wrath House and the Ackerman and all that shit.
Guest:It was like this whole kind of crowd of comedians who live in L.A.
Guest:but weren't from L.A.
Guest:We all kind of came from other places and gravitated.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Towards each other.
Guest:Just because we all had to live in L.A.
Guest:for, you know, I would have certainly rather lived in San Francisco, but, you know, my career was already, I was already getting stuff on TV, so it was like, L.A.
Guest:is the place where you have to live.
Marc:What were the first TV ones, Evening at the Improv?
Marc:I know you guys who lived here.
Marc:I did Evening at the Improv like six times.
Marc:I know you guys treated it like it was just a gig.
Marc:Like, I remember when I came out here for my first Evening at the Improv, 89, it was the most exciting thing I'd ever done up to that point, and you guys were walking in and out like- Who was your celebrity guest host?
Marc:It was the jazz singer, Nancy Brown.
Marc:And then I think her name was.
Marc:And then the other one was the mother from the Wonder Years.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Blonde lady.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Both of them fucked up my name, and they had to reshoot it.
Marc:Like, I did it once in 89 and once in 91.
Marc:Who would you have?
Guest:Oh, I did it six times.
Guest:I know Jack Hay was the host one time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And the black bailiff from Night Court, I think, was Charlie Robinson.
Guest:I think he hosted one.
Guest:The dad from Major Dad.
Guest:Hosted one, I think.
Marc:But you guys treated it like it was just another night.
Guest:I remember you guys- Well, because we were used to doing sets.
Guest:They taped it either at the Improv in Hollywood or the one in Santa Monica, and we were used to doing sets there and stuff.
Guest:That Santa Monica one was huge.
Guest:Janine was also, I think it was her first evening of the Improv that we were both on.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I think that was with Jack Hay, because they got pretty big names to host then.
Guest:Then it got worse and worse.
Guest:Jacket used to be a big name.
Guest:But Sarah Silverman's first evening at the improv, I went with her and hung out with her backstage.
Marc:Like 92, 91?
Guest:Yeah, I guess so.
Guest:I'm terrible with years.
Guest:I don't really compartmentalize everything by years.
Marc:Well, what were your first TV jobs?
Marc:Because I remember you were always working.
Marc:I never quite understood how people in L.A.
Marc:made a living.
Marc:Because I didn't live here.
Marc:I went from New York to San Francisco.
Marc:I avoided Los Angeles until 2008.
Marc:One, two, 2002 was the first time I lived here after I left from the Comedy Store when I was a kid.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So, like, I always knew that everyone seemed to be doing things.
Marc:I knew you were doing stand-up, but weren't you involved with a lot of shows?
Guest:Yeah, I worked on, you know, some MTV things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Brian Posehn and I used to be, like, a team.
Guest:We worked for MTV for a while, and then we worked for Disney for a while.
Guest:Like, you know, just trying to create shows.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I bopped around a lot writing for a lot of different silly game shows.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I had a lot of weird writing jobs.
Marc:What kind of writing was that?
Guest:Was it joke writing?
Guest:Yeah, jokey questions for a game show.
Guest:Like I wrote on a thing called Rodeo Drive...
Guest:Where all the questions had like celebrity gossip weaved into them and then thing with with wink Martindale called debt Yeah, it was kind of like did you hang out with wink?
Guest:It was kind of like jeopardy It didn't really hang out with wait, you know got to watch him tape the show or whatever.
Guest:He was very professional
Marc:He seemed like that.
Marc:Those kind of guys are always weird when you meet them because they almost seem plastic.
Guest:Yeah, and they don't dial it down.
Guest:I said it again.
Guest:They don't turn it off when they aren't being a host.
Guest:They're still like, hi, I'm Wink.
Guest:I know.
Guest:It's still very...
Guest:Like a living Ken doll.
Marc:So you were able to make a living doing that?
Marc:Because what always surprised me- Well, I stretched.
Guest:I got by.
Guest:For the first six, seven years I lived in LA, I always had a roommate or two.
Guest:Who were they?
Guest:None of them really amounted to much of anything, but at the time... Were they comics?
Guest:No.
Guest:My first two roommates were kind of a producer-type guy who went on to... He did go on to produce Xena Warrior Princess in New Zealand or wherever it was they shot that.
Guest:What?
Guest:And the other roommate, it was funny.
Guest:I moved in to this apartment where there was two bedrooms.
Guest:In Hollywood?
Guest:Yeah, in Hollywood and a futon in the living room.
Guest:And I slept on the futon and paid like 250 bucks a month or something for the privilege of doing that.
Guest:But it was a really nice building with like racquetball courts and a pool.
Guest:So it was like, you know, when I was out of work, at least it was like also being on vacation.
Guest:But one of the roommates was this guy, Rob Stone, who just shortly after I moved in, got a pilot and then a series.
Guest:He played the oldest son on Mr. Belvedere.
Guest:So suddenly...
Guest:My roommate is like a TV star.
Guest:Certainly from my perspective, he'd really made it big.
Guest:And all the problems that he had were all so minor compared to me scraping together enough money to sleep on his futon.
Guest:And it didn't take long, but it took long enough.
Guest:If I were him, I would have kicked me out the second I got the job.
Guest:You don't need a third roommate on the couch when you have a TV show.
Guest:But he let me stick around for a few seasons, like a year and a half.
Guest:Did you go to the set and shit?
Guest:Yeah, went to tapings every week.
Guest:One time I sat next to Alyssa Milano.
Guest:It was like the greatest day of my life, even though she was four or five years younger than me, and I couldn't really make a move or anything.
Guest:I was still very excited to be hanging out next to her and making her laugh while we were watching the show.
Guest:horrible whoever the horrible warm-up comic was oh when i was when i was in high school and uh college and then the first few years i lived in la i used to go to tv show tapings a lot and so i i used to see uh saget and um
Guest:Who are some of the other guys like like lots of guys that are pretty big comics?
Guest:I used to see them do warm up.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Like Saget did the warm up for Mork and Mindy.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I thought he was hilarious because he's all he did was fuck with the crowd and do his thing.
Guest:You know, he didn't say anything really dirty, but he would be kind of risque in a way that you'd be like.
Guest:Titillated by because you're sitting at a taping of Mork and Mindy.
Guest:You went to Mork and Mindy tapings?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I saw tons of sitcoms from around that time.
Guest:I would go to the tapings.
Marc:You would just sign up?
Marc:How did that work?
Marc:You'd get online?
Guest:Well, like from San Diego, I'd just get in some sort of tour bus that was like, we're going to Three's Company.
Guest:And like high school.
Guest:Really?
Guest:That used to be a high school thing they would take us to see TV show tapings.
Marc:Like, so you saw Mork and Mindy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Now, do you have memories of how Robin behaved in between?
Marc:Was he fucking around?
Guest:I think, you know, I just bought the whole thing.
Guest:I just loved it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What other tapings did you see?
Guest:Everything that was happening, because I loved that show at that time.
Guest:And I remember Pam Dauber had, like, this tight pink sweater on.
Guest:I thought she was amazing looking.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:But, like, one time, I think, at high school, we went up to see a taping of Three's Company, and there was some sort of booking mistake
Guest:where there wasn't enough room for us in the studio.
Guest:So they put us in another studio and turned monitors on.
Guest:So we essentially just watched... It was almost practically like just watching it on TV as a group, but we drove three hours from San Diego to do it.
Guest:But then afterwards, all the cast...
Guest:came over and you know this was probably ritter was probably responsible for this yes because every time i i ran into him like three times when he was alive and every time he could not have been a nicer person uh-huh and uh and and all in really weird circumstances whenever i'd run into him but this first time he and suzanne summers and joyce dewitt they all came out and talked to us and answered questions and
Guest:It was just like a group of 20, 30 high school kids.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:So we almost got a better deal because we got a private audience with them.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:The thing none of us could get over is Suzanne Sommer had the most nasty camel toe that I had ever experienced.
Guest:Like she was just wearing these really thin silk kind of pants.
Guest:And they just could not have been pulled up further into her snatch.
Guest:It was amazing.
Marc:And everybody was wearing it.
Guest:And mostly it was the girls that all pointed it out because the girls were more shocked by it than the boys.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And were you guys all looking at each other trying not to laugh?
Guest:We couldn't believe it.
Marc:Oh, my.
Guest:That was the talk in the bus all the way home.
Marc:And it was all you could see, I'm sure.
Guest:I think she even kind of laid down on the stage in a really awkward way.
Guest:Yeah, it was weird.
Marc:So you saw Three's Company, you saw Mork & Minnie.
Guest:So was that like in your- One day at a time I went to.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:And then, of course, a lot of shows that failed.
Guest:Oh, Bosom Buddies.
Guest:I went to Bosom Buddies once.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:That was neat.
Guest:Because I was-
Marc:totally into tom hanks and peter scolari like from you know from the second that show came on i was like fans of those guys so this was like you really sort of came into show business like thinking that was it i mean you know outside of stand-up you you were almost like familiar with the way that shit worked i mean if you go to a taping you get how it works
Guest:Yeah, well, I went to tapings a lot, and then just all the different kinds of jobs that I did when I was struggling ended up being somewhat educational because I was extra in a lot of stuff.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And then I was a stand-in in a bunch of stuff.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:If you know where to look, you can see me in Blade Runner.
Guest:That was one of the first ones I did.
Guest:You can see me in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Guest:About last night, there's a scene where Jim Belushi and Rob Lowe are arguing in a bar, and then one of them, I think Rob Lowe, leaves, but he kind of brushes past people.
Guest:That was my M.O.
Guest:If it was a crowd scene and an actor was going to be super...
Guest:you know, super method about it.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:And like actually push you if you got in their way, I would do that.
Guest:Like Harrison Ford had to push me out of the way a few times in Blade Runner.
Guest:And then Rob Lowe brushed up against me in about last night.
Guest:And I turn and look at him like, what's your problem?
Guest:Like really overacting terrible.
Guest:You would get in their way on purpose?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Or, you know, I'd scope out the scene.
Guest:Like in Blade Runner,
Guest:You know, he's trying to find the robot on the street.
Guest:He's chasing her down the street.
Guest:And so he was like, you could see if anybody got in his way, he would grab them and throw them out of the way.
Guest:And so me and my buddy that were both working on the movie, we just got in his way whenever we could.
Guest:More than once?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Because that became the thing.
Guest:Like, well, we'll be in the movie probably.
Guest:And it's funny, the shot of me that you see in the movie, I'm just walking along and Harrison Ford's like near me, but he doesn't touch me or anything.
Marc:But isn't there an issue with editing where if they keep seeing you in different seats?
Guest:Oh, well, that's, you know, like Jim Belushi, speaking of Jim Belushi, he went on Letterman one time and showed a clip from The Fury.
Guest:In The Fury, there's a scene on the beach where he keeps popping up in all sorts of different places because he, you know, refused to like...
Guest:Follow the rules and was just trying to get on camera.
Guest:That's fucking hilarious.
Guest:Yeah, but people don't notice extras generally.
Guest:So what, you just signed up to be an extra?
Guest:You just show up at casting out?
Guest:Yeah, I signed up with a bunch of different agencies, non-union, extra work.
Guest:Most of the things I did, I got like $50 a day.
Guest:You can't see me because it's like a big gymnasium scene, but I worked on Teen Wolf.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And just lots of the classics.
Guest:Yeah, that's fucking hilarious.
Guest:Yeah, and then I started working as a stand-in, and my first big stand-in job was I was Patrick Dempsey's stand-in on a movie.
Guest:While we were making it, it was called The Woo Woo Kid, but then when it came out, it was called In the Mood, and it was shot all in Los Angeles over like 90 days, and there was maybe like 114 locations.
Guest:It was a really ambitious movie.
Guest:movie and so and and he was in every scene there was only one scene he wasn't in and that scene I was an extra so I was just with production from beginning to end yeah you know a lot of it was pretty boring but I still got to see a lot of how you know how things work and so it was pretty you know pretty educational
Marc:Now, when you... But it's weird.
Guest:And I haven't run into him in forever.
Guest:I'd love to see Patrick Dempsey somewhere and go, hey, I was that squirrely kid that was your stand-in in that movie.
Marc:Isn't it amazing how long he was going at it in show business before he actually popped on that TV show?
Marc:Like, I mean, he'd been around forever.
Marc:I mean, I remember...
Marc:seeing him as a kid, it always baffles me.
Marc:I guess because my career has taken a very slow, arguably, I don't know if it's an ascent, but whatever it is, I've never popped open, popped into any other level.
Marc:I'm certainly no star, but when you see these guys, I had no idea Ryan Gosling was a Disney kid.
Marc:I had no idea.
Marc:I had no idea about this.
Marc:There are people, it seems to me that you're poised for superstardom because of how long he's been involved with the movie making process.
Guest:yeah we'll see we'll see what happens but you know that's the thing about patrick dempsey he's got some even before he really popped with gray's anatomy he had some things under his belt like can't buy me love is kind of a you know teen classic or whatever i can't i'm trying to remember what i saw was he not in like a was he in bugsy malone or something no that was much much longer ago it's a long time ago yeah yeah
Marc:So now with Super Jaime, I mean, I don't want to talk about... Yeah, I know you don't like to talk about it necessarily in the sense that you've figured out what your angle is between the marijuana logs and Super Jaime.
Marc:Do you ever feel sort of chained to it or imprisoned by it or upset about it?
Marc:Or do you get tired of it?
Guest:I think I'd feel more chained by it if...
Marc:i didn't find you know find other things to do like right the like my podcast that it has very popular my my girlfriend fucking like she spent like the entire day like every time she goes she sits around listens compulsively to podcasts and reads gossip and all day for two days she's like listen to those movies i'm like all right well okay what is it you know it's
Guest:Who doesn't like movies, first of all, so that's kind of an easy thing to get people to listen to, you know, and then... No, it's a great podcast, and people love it.
Guest:But then... Yeah, but once... You know, that's... We get off subject sometimes, but it's mostly about movies, and I've loved movies my whole life in a, you know, kind of an obsessive, nerdy way, so...
Guest:I found something that I can talk about.
Guest:Like, the stoners listen to it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And non-stoners alike, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because everybody likes movies.
Guest:And I get great guests, too.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, I'm lucky that I have lots of comedian friends.
Guest:And now I'm lucky that...
Guest:Other people want to do it.
Guest:People are starting to hear about it and say, oh, I'll do that.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I'm getting a little of that, too.
Marc:It's kind of exciting.
Marc:You get more of it than I do.
Marc:You've had some amazing guests.
Marc:It's a very different show.
Guest:Yeah, but that's the thing.
Guest:If people listen to your show first, I think they're pretty comfortable.
Guest:with what's going to go down.
Guest:It's not like you just sit here throwing softballs, but you also don't, you're not here to interrogate anybody or to make fun of them.
Marc:Well, that's the weird thing.
Marc:A couple of times that I did just by virtue of the guest, then people like, I have Stiller on, right?
Marc:And then people after the Stiller interview, they're like, you went easy on him.
Marc:I'm like, it's Ben Stiller.
Marc:It's not 60 minutes.
Marc:What am I going to get out of it?
Marc:When did you kill that man?
Marc:Did you kill that?
Marc:I mean, what am I going to do?
Marc:It's fucking weird sometimes.
Guest:Yeah, it is.
Guest:But that's a great example.
Guest:Ben Stiller would never come on my podcast.
Marc:Why not?
Guest:Because there's a live audience there, and I'll say dicky things if it gives me an opportunity to get a laugh.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know?
Guest:I just go for it.
Guest:I'm not going to sit there and be polite.
Marc:Oh, so you think you'd hurt his feelings?
Guest:His feelings are easily hurt.
Guest:I know.
Guest:I started off on the wrong foot with him many years ago when Judd and Janine introduced me to him.
Guest:What happened?
Guest:We just didn't hit it off because he was, you know, more of a... You know, I've always thought he's very talented and very funny, but he's more of an actor than a comic.
Guest:Like, he was hanging out with comedians, but he had more of the sensitivity of an actor.
Guest:So one night we were at Cantor's, and I was, like, making stupid jokes about some movies that he was in.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:The kinds of things I'd say on Doug Loves' movies.
Guest:And Janine was, like, howling with laughter.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then at the end of the night...
Guest:I think Adam Sandler was there too.
Guest:Adam and Judd were both like, yeah, you might want to be more careful around somebody like that.
Guest:Because Ben, I think for a while, didn't like me because of that incident.
Marc:Well, the thing we forget because of who we are, and I'm sure we both have it, is that there's just egos involved.
Marc:Nobody gets that big without having a fairly large-sized ego.
Guest:I mean, you've talked about that with some of your guests.
Guest:Like, sometimes you just hang on to hating somebody for no good reason, you know, just because you just didn't hit it off.
Guest:Or they hurt your feelings.
Marc:It's a sensitivity.
Marc:It's a sensitivity.
Marc:Yeah, bruised ego.
Guest:Yeah, and that's what happened to me with Ben, and he's been super nice ever since, but not the kind of nice where I would expect him to be lining up to be on the podcast.
Yeah.
Guest:Because opinions come out on my podcast.
Guest:It's like Doug loves movies and people say, why do you call it that?
Guest:And then all you do is sit around and talk shit about movies.
Guest:And it's like, well, because I love them so much that every little imperfection gets on my nerves.
Guest:And especially when something's...
Marc:well received like an avatar yeah it makes me nuts because i can you know to me it's the emperor's new clothes and i don't i don't see it i don't see what is so great about avatar well but but do you ever have you ever had any situation where you know because your podcast that you know someone has as in the business because this is the tricky thing is being part of the business that we have to have a certain you know tongue-in-cheek you know uh respect for everybody who's in our industry but because our industry defines culture
Marc:I mean, there's just this fine line between making some good cultural criticism and hurting one of your pals.
Marc:I mean, have you ever had a situation where somebody who has made a movie or somebody you know said, fuck you?
Guest:Well, no, that's the thing is they often don't call you up or seek you out to say that thing hurt me.
Guest:They just get hurt by it and then harbor it and then...
Guest:Treat you weirdly when you run into it outside of venue or you're just being paranoid and you think that's why they're treating you Weirdly, you know you just start you just don't know you don't know what's like when you run into somebody who's like a massive star like that they you know It's a different experience for when I run into Adam.
Guest:It's like wow.
Guest:There's Adam.
Guest:That's exciting that Adams there Yeah, you know and with him.
Guest:It's like there's Doug Benson.
Guest:Yeah, that guy talks a lot of smack about people Yeah, I was used to be friends with him, but now I don't know if I respect him anymore, but he smiles and says hello and
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then that's it.
Guest:It's not like- You have that feeling with him too?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Guest:Well, because also he thinks I align myself with people who talk shit about him.
Guest:Well, that's the other thing.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:People think me and Andy Kindler skip to the store together making jokes about people and then going out and sharing them with the world.
Guest:And I like and admire Andy Kindler, but I don't agree with everything he says.
Marc:Sometimes with Andy, he's one of the funniest people I know.
Marc:And then you're sort of like, dude, that's going to get you in trouble for no reason.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, that's my thing.
Guest:I've said to him a couple of times when he's been on my interruption show, he'll say something like, Tina Fey is bullshit.
Guest:She's not funny.
Guest:And I'll just be like, first of all, that's not funny.
Guest:There's no joke there.
Guest:And then secondly, why?
Guest:I understand there's things that people think are great that I don't think is funny.
Guest:I've watched that show, Modern Family, and it doesn't make me laugh.
Guest:But that doesn't mean it's a shit show what you know or that I should go on stage and go modern family doesn't make me laugh Well, no, what's your you gotta have a take on it?
Guest:You gotta you know and Andy usually does but I think sometimes He just gets you know, he's he's so talented and so misunderstood Yeah, and so not as famous as he should be right that that can that all of that can eat at you and make you bitter you know it can affect your opinions and
Marc:No, I know.
Marc:And that's but that's the word thing.
Marc:I had to learn that, too, that like even if you don't appreciate something, you have to appreciate the work that's involved.
Marc:And if the person is talented, just because what they're doing doesn't resonate with you.
Marc:You don't need to be like out and out cruel because you you're not where they are.
Marc:Like, you know, there's plenty of comedy like Modern Family.
Marc:I don't watch it, but it seems like a lot of work goes into it and people seem to enjoy the show.
Marc:The cast is talented, so I don't need to go.
Marc:They're fucking assholes.
Guest:But they keep calling it the new Arrested Development, and to me, it's just not on that level.
Guest:Well, I didn't quite get that show either.
Guest:Well, see, there you go.
Guest:That's the thing.
Guest:Anything you can just not get, but you also don't necessarily have to shit on it.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:I respect all those people.
Guest:Unless it seems like it's aggressively... That's why I want to shit on Avatar, is because James Cameron is so confident that he's made a masterpiece.
Marc:Well, no.
Marc:And acts that way publicly.
Marc:Something that pollutes the culture with mediocrity and gets everybody excited.
Marc:Like, there's something to be said that if everybody likes something, there's got to be something fucking wrong with it on some level, unless it's ice cream.
Marc:You know, I'm not, but there's a lot of different kinds of ice cream.
Marc:But there's something about, you know, dumping a big, you know, shiny, you know, piece of shit on the people and then the people flock to it.
Guest:Yeah, and even ice cream is bad for you.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Even though it's perfect.
Yeah.
Marc:So you're saying that maybe you should only watch maybe small segments of Avatar.
Guest:Well, it certainly is amazing to look at.
Guest:It looks incredible, but, you know, the stories.
Marc:Do you ever feel that, like, you've been, you know, ostracized because of your fucking attitude?
Marc:Or do you...
Guest:I try not to think about that.
Guest:I try to just do my thing and be friends with the people that want to be friends with me.
Guest:And, you know, and I don't try not to get too worked up about, you know.
Marc:But you could if you let yourself.
Guest:You have in your past.
Guest:Also, like, if getting rich were more important to me, then I'd probably care more about, you know, playing the politics and being, you know, being friendlier with everybody.
Guest:But...
Guest:I'm just not interested in that.
Guest:I'm not going to have kids to pass the money to.
Marc:Yeah, I feel the same way.
Guest:There's no real point.
Guest:You've got a sweet setup here.
Marc:I'd be happy with this if I were living here.
Marc:I get panicky about holding on to it.
Marc:I'm not about being rich.
Marc:I'm about just making a living and knowing I can make a living.
Marc:I'm okay with that.
Marc:But in terms of being political or being aware of how these social networking works within the business, I'm the kind of guy that I'll lock into it and I'll do it and I'll get to level three and that's where I'll shit on the floor.
Marc:At some point, I'm going to shit on the floor.
Marc:I got into the special room.
Marc:This is a good place to pee.
Guest:Well, you know, I know you didn't want to tell the Blender story, but let me just say from my perspective, when we were hanging out at Dave Rouse, I knew you and had seen you around and we'd hung out and there was no issues between us, but I was maybe, you know, always a little bit...
Guest:You know, from the second I first met you until more recently, in my mind, you've always been not only more successful than me, but also just you have a gift at being able to just get up in front of an audience and get it going and do really well.
Guest:Yeah, sometimes.
Yeah.
Guest:but in a way that it was just unusual compared to most of my peers.
Marc:Right.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:Like the thing I used to say about you as, you know, my snarky comment about Marc Maron was, oh, Marc's about to go on and he's going to tell it like it is.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because to me, you're always kind of like more of like a hip professor that's like, dig this, man.
Guest:You know, and I'm sure you said dig this man on stage.
Guest:And to me, that was like, that wasn't my, and I've grown to appreciate that more.
Guest:And that's what's great about this podcast is people are really getting to know you.
Guest:And I imagine when you go out on the road now, it's an even better experience for you because you don't have to win them over.
Marc:It's starting to happen, but then there's a whole other issue.
Marc:The whole issue of they've heard this already.
Marc:That fear always fucking plagues me.
Guest:Well, that's why I'm trying to do a new record every year.
Guest:Well, me too.
Guest:And I've planted a flag in the sand that I'm going to record it every year on April 20th, because that's when I know I can get a captive audience.
Guest:So each year I have to just flush out all that old stuff and just get that new hour together.
Yeah.
Marc:Well, that's what I've been doing.
Marc:I, you know, I can't, I'm not like Louie.
Marc:I can't say like, you know, I'm going to scrap the whole other hour and do not get me started about Louie CK.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Because there's not a person I love more and am more jealous of than him right now.
Guest:I'm fascinated by everything he does, his stand-up and his TV show, and totally aggravated that someone at FX said to him, hey, do you want to do a show?
Guest:As long as you keep it in budget, you can do anything you want, and you'll have to get notes from standards and practices.
Guest:You'll have to bleep certain words.
Guest:But they basically just said, do what you want to do.
Guest:And now he does it.
Guest:And that's unprecedented in television.
Guest:Everybody gets network notes and has to have discussions about every little aspect of their show, if you have a show.
Guest:And the freedom that he had with that and then...
Guest:The great work he did with it instead of just being like, oh, they gave me some money, so I've got some friends together and fucked around.
Marc:It's such a great show.
Marc:Well, he's just one of those massively talented guys that they gambled on, and it paid off for him.
Marc:It is rare, but in terms of his process, I got to do a new CD.
Marc:It's my fourth one.
Marc:But what I'm saying is that I'm...
Marc:I talk freely on the podcast, so things come out, and then I start to sort of hone them a little bit and build them into routines.
Marc:So my fear is I get on stage and people are like, oh, this story.
Guest:I see that, but the story's going to be honed.
Guest:Yeah, different.
Guest:And different.
Guest:And with an audience.
Guest:And they probably, you know, let's face it,
Guest:A lot of people probably listen very intently to podcasts, but a lot of people are also doing something while they're listening to it.
Guest:Yeah, and it's a completely different experience.
Guest:It's just my own insanity.
Guest:Yeah, but no, but your insanity is stoked by the fact that people will come up to you and say, you said that on your podcast.
Guest:They'll call you on things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like when I read tweets on stage, they'll be like, we already read your tweets.
Guest:And I'm like, do you know how many people in this room sits and reads every one of my tweets and then remembers them?
Guest:Everyone.
Marc:like these are funny jokes yeah you know that that make an audience laugh you know and i think it's and i enjoy the laziness of it just looking at my phone and reading them oh yeah it's funny i mean i i've read shit off my phone yeah but also they what do they expect we're not machines anyways do i do okay when i do the interruption i always like i always i get more nervous about doing the interruption that not the tv show because i haven't been on that yet but i mean but uh but like when i do the live show do i do all right
Guest:Yeah, and you're certainly on my list to be on the TV show as well.
Marc:What's going on with that?
Marc:How many have you done?
Guest:We shot six, so there was like 18 slots, and it was between me and the production company and Comedy Central, we all kind of had our lists of comics, and we narrowed it down to the first 18.
Guest:But it worked out great for me because it was all people that I admire and that I'm friends with.
Guest:Because that's what I do, is I introduce every comic as, and now here's my friend so-and-so.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I want the home viewer to be, like, not watching it thinking, oh, this is a show where a guy's a dick to people.
Guest:Oh, of course, yeah.
Guest:It's like we're playing and having fun together.
Guest:Has it all worked out?
Guest:Yeah, well, you know, the show...
Guest:It was a little wobbly at first, and then it got better each time we did a taping.
Guest:It would come together better.
Guest:There were little lessons that needed to be learned here and there.
Guest:And I'm pretty happy with it, and people seem to enjoy watching it, but I don't know what's going to happen next.
Guest:We've got to just wait to see if they want to make more.
Guest:But if they want to make more, I would love to have you on because it's fun to have you on because your act is already pretty conversational.
Guest:We end up just talking, kind of.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's fine.
Guest:And especially for the TV tapings, we do like 20 minutes with each comic.
Marc:For six?
Guest:And then we have to whittle it down to five or six, yeah.
Guest:So that gets a little frustrating because I'm kind of having to pick and choose, you know, sit in an edit bay and decide which bits my friend is going to say on the TV show and which ones are going to end up being cut.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And so that's kind of a weird experience.
Guest:But everybody's been cool.
Guest:And one thing that I've really appreciated is no comics have come up to me and said like,
Guest:How come I haven't been on except me?
Guest:You know, but you didn't say, how come I haven't been on?
Guest:You just said, I haven't been on.
Guest:And we both know that's true, but you didn't confront me about it.
Marc:No, I mean, look, I, you know, I, I, I know that, you know, it would be fun to do, but it wouldn't change your life in any way.
Marc:No, no.
Guest:It's not a big paycheck or a big exposure.
Marc:I haven't festered about it, and I'd like to do it.
Marc:But honestly, when I do that show with you live, the great thing about you is that you're so fucking quick, and it's one of those things about doing a talk show.
Marc:Sometimes I'll drive things into the ground, not by repetition, but just sort of like I'll hope there's a joke at the end, and then it doesn't happen, but you're always pretty reliable.
Yeah.
Marc:You're going to at least say something snotty at the end and get a laugh.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:So I'm not resenting you.
Marc:I'm a little uptight.
Marc:I don't understand why Conan hasn't had me on, but that's another issue.
Guest:Well, he's been having interesting...
Guest:choices so far i think they want new guys and but also it's been there's been a variety aspect to the stand-up that's true yes acty you know john dore had rain come down on him reggie watts had the whole band behind him and brendan did what did walsh do anything i don't know he probably just had a crazy beard
Marc:Yeah, that beard prop.
Guest:I haven't seen his set yet, but I heard he was on it, and I want to see it because he's one of my favorites.
Guest:I like that guy.
Marc:He's a funny guy.
Marc:But now, your folks, are they still around?
Guest:My mom is.
Marc:And how does she feel about where you're at in your career and Super Jaime and this and that?
Guest:She likes it.
Guest:My dad was alive when I did the marijuana logs, and both my parents were like, that's when they found out I smoked pot.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They didn't know until then.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I basically wrote them a letter.
Guest:Hey, I'm moving to New York for a period of time because we were putting on an off-Broadway show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it was like, and they're like, oh, what is it?
Guest:You know, it's the marijuana logs.
Guest:And they were like, okay.
Guest:And they've never really, we never really had a conversation about whether I smoke or not.
Guest:They just know that I talk about it a lot in my act and in these plays and movies and stuff.
Guest:And so it's just sort of like, it's so bizarre because I went to see my mom for Thanksgiving and we didn't, she never says anything about it.
Guest:She's just sort of like,
Guest:Okay, that's just something he does and seems to be getting him some success because of it.
Guest:She doesn't notice in the Benson interruption animated opening that I have red eyes.
Guest:She doesn't notice stuff like that because she's...
Marc:That's so weird.
Marc:So it just sort of goes out and you don't, you don't feel like it.
Guest:We've never had one conversation about like, she's never even said like, well, so how much do you smoke?
Guest:Or, you know, or is this just an act or she's never questioned anything about it.
Marc:How much do you smoke?
Guest:All the time.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Wake up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I have a vaporizer in my kitchen and I fire that thing up whenever I'm at home.
Marc:Have you ever been too high to work?
Mm hmm.
Guest:i've been sometimes i've freaked out a little bit like how's that i've told this story before one time i was too high to do a corporate gig where i had to host a battle of the bands between vanilla ice sugar hill gang uh thomas dolby and uh two other uh actifany and uh there was one oh tone look yeah
Guest:See, I remembered all five.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I was crazy baked when I had to host it.
Guest:And there was all these... It was like this party for a company that was trying some new texting thing.
Guest:So everybody at the party, they were told on their phones to vote for those five acts.
Guest:And each of those acts came out and I hosted.
Guest:And every time I came out, the audience would just talk amongst themselves and fuck with their phones.
Guest:And I was just so high.
Guest:I just could not appreciate the experience at all.
Guest:I was just like...
Guest:I couldn't strike up a conversation with Vanilla Ice or Tone Loke, even though these people are around.
Guest:And it was really fun to hear them all play.
Guest:And they all just played two songs.
Guest:They all played their hit and their follow-up.
Guest:And Vanilla Ice won.
Guest:He won the contest.
Guest:But I was too high to deal with it.
Marc:I probably would have been difficult to deal with not high.
Guest:Well, that's the other thing, is I'm just bad at that kind of stuff.
Guest:Like, I don't...
Guest:That's what I love about my podcast is I'm a terrible host, but it's my podcast, so I can fuck up things all I want, and we just sort of send it out there, and then people listen to it.
Marc:The Marijuana Logs, now, is that published as a play?
Guest:There's a book where we had to write a lot of extra material because just the play wasn't enough to fill a book.
Marc:But, I mean, could you tour it like The Caveman?
Marc:I mean, could you get other comics?
Marc:I mean, I know other people have been in and out of the roles, not unlike the Vagina Monologues, but I guarantee you events where it makes a fucking buck every time it's played anywhere.
Guest:Yeah, they do shows of it, and then it's also community theaters and groups in other countries have done it.
Guest:Do you get money?
Guest:You can license the rights.
Guest:It doesn't end up to be much.
Marc:Ari Shaffir says, have you ever met anyone with a bigger tolerance than you?
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:I have.
Guest:No one's going to mention names?
Guest:No, there's lots of people that have a huge tolerance.
Guest:To me, we mentioned him earlier, Greg Proops is amazing how smart he is.
Marc:I have no fucking idea how he does that.
Marc:I mean, even when I smoked pot, I was fucking retarded.
Marc:I've seen you fairly retarded before.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:But I'd get completely disjointed, and Proops would get me high to make me disjointed.
Marc:I don't know how he fires on all those cylinders with that amount of pot in him.
Guest:Well, I think he generally smokes after his show, but still.
Marc:end all day but you know i mean i don't think he takes a puff right before he goes on but he can and he's still hilarious all right so what have we learned here today we've learned a lot of things i i feel like we've uh you know i i got to know you better i like all the stories about going to tapings and i like their talk about other comics and uh resentment i like that stuff
Guest:Yeah, me too.
Guest:I don't have the time to listen to lots of podcasts, but I've listened to several of yours all the way through because it's an interesting conversation because it's inside, but it's not...
Marc:you know anyone can listen to it and not feel left out or whatever but isn't weird like i mean i talked to you this is the longest time this is the longest amount of time we've ever talked about anything ever and in the 20 some odd years we've known each other and i i find that like sometimes when i talk to people here even though i've known them a long time uh i've never had a conversation with them so i have to assume that when somebody like you or another comic listens to it you're like i know that guy and then you're like holy shit i never knew that do you know
Guest:Yeah, yeah, and it's just, you know, there's a narcissistic part of it, too, where you're sitting there waiting for your name to come up, you know, because it's all people you know, and you never know when they're going to tell a story.
Guest:But, yeah, and that's what I didn't get to earlier, the blender thing.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:At that time in our relationship as friends or colleagues or acquaintances, when I was in the kitchen and I turned on the blender and I screamed my hand and then you laughed and told me how funny you thought it was, I thought you were fucking with me.
Guest:I thought it was like...
Guest:that's the funniest thing I've ever heard after I said some lame thing that didn't make any... Because no one else laughed.
Guest:You were the only one that laughed.
Guest:I think I might be the only one who registered it.
Guest:And then when you bring it up every time I see you, I'm like, is he still fucking with me?
Guest:And then eventually I grew to understand that you...
Guest:Genuinely thought that was funny and have always appreciated it.
Marc:Well, the weird thing was is that there were moments in comedy and in life that were something, the timing of it, it was just the timing of it that was just ridiculous.
Marc:I don't know why.
Marc:I'd been up all night.
Marc:I remember I showed up there with Rhodes or somebody, and you guys were all riding bikes into pools, making margaritas, and it was just like the air was sort of empty, and you just hear this blender, and you're just like...
Marc:out of my hand and it was just a beat and it just like there were moments like that in my life where i remember i just laughed my ass off i can't get it out of my head well i'm glad that i so it was a genuine that brought you so much pleasure and that we also bring it up every came to an understanding yeah finally about it and i always wonder why you like hated every time i brought it up is because you thought i was fucking with you
Guest:Well, that and, but then when I once, even once I realized you weren't fucking with me anymore, then it just became no one else thinks it's funny.
Guest:Like, Kara Kilgariff always has this thing that whenever she's around me in a comedy situation in a microphone, she'll tell, I remember this one time, Doug Benson said this, and it doesn't make anybody laugh, so it always makes me cringe that, like, she's quoting me, and then it's not, it doesn't make anybody but her laugh, because it just hit her a certain way.
Marc:Well, that was such a timing thing.
Marc:It's not the kind of joke that you could read on paper.
Marc:I couldn't write that down.
Marc:That's what I mean.
Guest:That's why I was like, why are you bringing it
Marc:up because it's not gonna make anybody laugh now all right because you had to be there all right well i think we've got closure on i won't bring it up anymore but it was a great moment it's gonna come up again all right thanks man
Marc:Well, I think that's a little more insight into Doug Benson than I had any idea about.
Marc:It was a nice chat.
Marc:And you know what?
Marc:Doug's a great guy.
Marc:He's always been a good guy.
Marc:And he's always been a funny guy.
Marc:And I'm glad he stopped by the garage to talk to me.
Marc:I don't know if you know this, but we got these new T-shirts, American Apparel T-shirts, that you can get at WTFPod.com under the merch section.
Marc:nice pretty new american apparel t-shirt in more sizes and i'm not shipping them out of the garage anymore so they don't smell like cats or coffee or my garage you can also at wtf pod you know kick in a few shekels we are a listener supported operation you can also go to the link for just coffee.coop get yourself a deal on that if you get the wtf blend i get a little bit of
Marc:A little bit of Jack for that.
Marc:So keep that in mind.
Marc:Good stuff, good coffee.
Marc:PunchwineMagazine.com.
Marc:The top 10 comedy CDs for the year are listed up there.
Marc:So check that out.
Marc:Thank you for listening.
Marc:Oh, God, I'm drained.
Marc:Thanks again for coming out.
Marc:I'll be, I don't know, I'll be peppier.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I'll talk to you Thursday.
you